at the point
where the river
turns tidal
the undercurrents
slowly surface
- Eucalypt
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Saturday, 4 July 2009
English Frogs
Crouched at the pond’s edge,
my younger son finds shade from the eighty-eight
degrees sun-trap and points out each
of the frog-heads poking up through the duckweed
and asks, Why do frogs stay still for so long?
On an English day like this,
It can only be because they’re philosophical,
wise or just plain can’t be bothered.
my younger son finds shade from the eighty-eight
degrees sun-trap and points out each
of the frog-heads poking up through the duckweed
and asks, Why do frogs stay still for so long?
On an English day like this,
It can only be because they’re philosophical,
wise or just plain can’t be bothered.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Friday, 19 June 2009
Friday, 12 June 2009
The Painted Ladies' Invasion
It commences with a mass emergence
from the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.
Two months later they cross the sierras
en route to Gascogne and Pas de Calais,
where, like William the Bastard, they launch
their invasion on favourable winds
over La Manche towards Ditchling Beacon
and on, via chalk escarpments, fluttering
their glints of orange to passers-by,
streaming in many thousands to settle
on heathland rich in thistle and nettle,
viper’s bugloss, burdock and other treats,
or railwayside allotments where they
alight on Granddad’s nascent runner beans.
Their caterpillars, or those which survive,
metamorphose in flash flood or heatwave
and congregate along the Pilgrims’ Way
for take-off homeward to the Berber lands.
from the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.
Two months later they cross the sierras
en route to Gascogne and Pas de Calais,
where, like William the Bastard, they launch
their invasion on favourable winds
over La Manche towards Ditchling Beacon
and on, via chalk escarpments, fluttering
their glints of orange to passers-by,
streaming in many thousands to settle
on heathland rich in thistle and nettle,
viper’s bugloss, burdock and other treats,
or railwayside allotments where they
alight on Granddad’s nascent runner beans.
Their caterpillars, or those which survive,
metamorphose in flash flood or heatwave
and congregate along the Pilgrims’ Way
for take-off homeward to the Berber lands.
Friday, 5 June 2009
There's a new issue of Shamrock out and it's also worth checking out the new online haiku journal, Notes From the Gean.
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