Spring Melt

Down by the disused station starts a trail. We follow the river our warm clothes buttoned up against the cold. Long fleeced sheep huddled together by a dry stone wall. It's early March and there are still small patches of snow here and there along the way.

spring melt
a pair of dippers skim
the sound of water

Little Onion

Haiku Mike has a picture taken so many miles away from where this is written about but which brought me straight back to it when i saw it. You can see it here Falls - there are some wonderful photographs at Mike's site.

Almost Easter

almost easter
the car salesman tells me
to lighten up

Little Onion

Pink Tulip Petals

pink tulip petals
strewn across the hearth rug
his mother's black eye

Little Onion

Underground

underground journey

the closeness of strangers
on my breath

Paul Conneally

Shower After Shower

shower after shower
a crow with a large stick
crosses the rainbow

Little Onion

Forty Springs

I climb the step ladder into the loft dropping on the way up one of my Homer Simpson carpet slippers that the kids bought me last year. The struggle to find the light switch. As usual I marvel aloud at the contents making a mental note to finally sort things out catalogue my huge record collection check if the old reel-to-reel tape machine still works and to put some more floor boards down. Here's the box. I won't take a peek until we're down again in fact not until we're downstairs in the kitchen.

forty springs
my son and I watch
the tortoise blink

Little Onion

March Hares

march hares
our football gets stuck
in a gorse bush

Little Onion

Back Pain

6 AM - I hobble to the toilet then downstairs for coffee, cereal and exactly half an hour of morning TV. A discussion on the merits of synthetic phonics.

spring equinox
the sound of light hail
against the bay window
.
Little Onion

Sometimes

warm sunny days

a child's red spade

with a wooden handle

.

down the beach

comes a line of donkeys

their braying

a weather beaten man

in a sweat stained trilby

.

teenage tantrum

sometimes it's hard to tell

snowflake from blossom

.

Little Onion

The original was:

I remember a warm sunny day in Cleethorpes. A child's red spade with a wooden handle. Down the beach comes a line of donkeys led by a weather beaten man in an old trilby. Their braying startles an old woman from her dreams.

teenage tantrum
sometimes it's hard to tell
snowflake from blossom
.
Little Onion

Some Links:
Cleethorpes .. Beach Donkeys

I Like To Say "Peace"

I like to say

"peace" now and then

as how space might be

between stumbling

and rising up again

.

Cecilia

.

Cecilia, a person I've never corresponded with before, sent me this poem today. At first in a slightly different form but now in tanka form.

It is one of the joys of the 'blogging' world that new connections between people, between works and across cultures naturally arise. Cecilia and I share with you some of our short correspondance about the above poem and how it became tanka with this post.

Along with her poem Cecilia sent me a link to her space: clearcandy daily. I enjoyed the entries here very much - go take a look!

.

Little Onion

-------------------------

Dear Cecilia,

Thank you for sharing your poem with me:

I like to say "peace" now and then
as how space might be between,
stumbling and rising up again.

I looked at some of your haiku on your blog and they are more haiku like than the above poem (which i like). For me this poem is more tanka-like than haiku and i'd suggest a reaarangement of the line breaks perhaps to see what it looks like as tanka:

I like to say
"peace" now and then
as how space might be
between stumbling
and rising up again

and now i'm reading again and finding the room for a cut a kireji after line 2 perhaps let me see...

I like to say
"peace" now and then
the space
between stumbling
and rising up again

What do you think of the two tanka-like versions? Is one better than the other - or maybe you hate both :-)

A more haiku-like or senryu-like version might be:

I like to say "peace"
the space between stumbling
and rising up again

But maybe it loses something in the shortening

I hope that you don't mind my exploring your verse in this way.

I like to say "peace" now and then too,

"Peace"

Little Onion

Dear Little Onion :),

I appreciate your reply very much. Let me tell you that I have no background or any training with poetry/haiku writing. So your replycomes as a HUGE welcome to me. I would like to learnmore and objective criticism like you did would certainly veer me into the right steps towards presenting good forms of writings. I like the (first) tanka version of the update youmade on my poem. The shortened, second version, does lose part of the meaning.

Thank you once again.

Honored,

Cecilia

All Piercings Considered

Off to London just for the day. We wander through stalls set up inside old buildings, streets and passageways. I notice our fellow gazers, shoppers, walkers appear to be mainly Italian and Japanese in search of that special souvenir, some glimpse of authenticity, a mohicaned youth wearing a sandwich board, all piercings considered.

It starts to snow.

camden market
too many buddhas
to contemplate
.
Little Onion

Some Links:
Camden Lock .. Piercing in Camden .. Cyber Dog .. Stables Market

Down by the Black Brook

Down by the Black Brook we find signs of spring. New shoots on the hawthorn but not yet any blossom. A few minnows in amongst the coke cans. And here in the shelter of a willow, is it some child's den?

a damp mattress
scattered with needles
the coot's legs
.

Little Onion

Some Links:
The Chemical House .. Coot

S (p) (c) Am

on average i get one a day

a new proposition

to be a business associate

of some overthrown politician's wife

neice daugter son

.

spring rain

the sound of junk mail

in the letterbox

.

Little Onion

Click below for Heavy Industries take on it

HELLO

Under The Wave

Under The Wave is a sculptural piece piece originally proposed for making and installation in the Irish seaside town of Bundoran. The work proposed is participatory in its making, the artist working with the area's master-craftemen surfboard shapers and the community to create three surfboards featuring haiku written in workshop by members of the local community - surfers, grandmothers, holidaymakers, housewives, priests, schoolchildren...

The piece involves a documented (filmed etc.) riding of the boards by local surfers at a community event before they are finally wall mounted - their final resting place - although there would be nothing to stop the boards being taken down and ridden again at some point in the future.

Although originally proposed for Bundoran (in the end not commisioned) the piece or a similar piece could be undertaken anywhere where a local community is connected with surfing. It aims to celebrate and explore not only the surfing and the connections across the wider community but also raise attention to the craft skills, the artistry of the surfboard shapers - often missed whilst local painters and potters become clebrated as THE local craftspeople, local artists, their wares littering gallery sections of souvenir shops.

mice made
of foreign shells
Greetings from St.Ives
.
Little Onion

Lent

Pancake Day came followed by Ash Wednesday and I think to stop drinking or at least cut down but of course someone calls around and brings a bottle and Lent lasts just one day.

.

Little Onion