Haiku: Christmas Presents



Here is a selection of haiku written over the holiday period, including the ground-breaking 'dogging haiku' that was deemed too risque for publication by the British Haiku Society.

Christmas Presents

Cold dawn…
a car engine starting
sends gulls screeching.

.

fox
with the same face as me
seconds before we hit it

.

How lonely
outside the furniture shop
our old sofa.

.

late home
the moon
the evening star

.

Dawn stillness…
a heron practicing yoga
by the river

.

Finishing the address,
my father tears a page
out of his notebook.

.

December cremation:
my grandmother’s ashes
settle on the windscreen.

.

My daughter
plucks a pink rose
from the wreath.

.

My wife walks
across our bedroom,
unties her nightgown.

.

Up before everyone –
catching the first haiku
of the day

.

Winter dawn…
the postman’s red fingers
squeezing envelopes.

.

Christmas Eve:
Mrs Claus on all fours
in the Asda car park.

.

Christmas presents:
stripy socks;
a different outlook.

.

Boxing Day walk –
a strip of light
along the horizon.

.

Saying goodbye
to my brother –
his straight back.

.

Visiting relations;
the Christmas tree unlit
in our front room.

.

New Year’s Day –
same face
in the mirror.

.

January –
how dark the front room
without a Christmas tree.

.

Rain at the windows…
sharing the room
with silence.

.

I drill another hole
for the smell
of burnt wood.

.

Lawnmowers
cutting out one by one –
July evening.

.

As the sun goes in
swimmers appear
in the water.

.

hire car
beach-towels on the window shelf
the heat


©2012 Dan Wyke

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Montale's 'Il Balcone'

Image
This week I'm really pleased to be able to reproduce Ben Wilkinson's version of Eugenio Montale's short lyric 'Il Balcone'. The poem is a favourite of mine and one which I've tried translating before, though never as well as this. The Balcony after Eugenio Montale Remember those nights I’d linger below as you stood in the stars and we’d talk of leaving, as if auditioning for the part of Romeo and fluffing my lines as usual? Now on the opposite side I lean smoking and think on that handful of chances. The latticework of some distant tower block a chessboard that’s cleared after stalemate. Somewhere beyond a long flight’s expanses you spark a Zippo and light one up. Here it starts raining as I hang in the moment, turn towards this window’s squaring of dark. © Ben Wilkinson, reproduced by permission of the poet Ben Wilkinson was born in Stafford, Staffordshire in 1985. He read English and Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, and was awarded an MA in Writing
Read more

Carl Rogers: A Theory of Therapy

A THEORY OF THERAPY, PERSONALITY, AND INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, AS DEVELOPED IN THE CLIENT-CENTERED FRAMEWORK CARL R. ROGERS University of Wisconsin Introduction 2 The soil of the theory 2 Some basic attitudes 4 The General Structure of Our Systematic Thinking 7 Definitions of constructs 9 A digression on the case history of a construct 14 I. A Theory of Therapy and Personality Change 22 Conditions of the therapeutic process. 22 The process of therapy 25 Outcomes in personality and behavior 27 Comments on the theory of therapy 28 Specification of functional relationships 29 Some conclusions regarding the nature of the individual 29 II. A Theory of Personality 30 Postulated characteristics of the human infant 30 The development of the self 31 The need for positive regard 31 The development of the need for self-regard 32 The development of conditions of worth 32 The development of incongruence between self and experienc
Read more

List of UK Poetry Magazines Accepting Email Submissions

Well, it's a start. I'll add others as and when I hear about them. Check back from time to time and please send me the names of any literary/poetry magazines and journals that accept email submissions that you know about. Many magazines still prefer postal submissions and will get pretty pissed off if you email them so check before. Some magazines on the list that accept email contributions also operate submission windows. Ambit Envoi Magma New Walk Magazine New Welsh Review Other Poetry Shearsman The Wolf Agenda (trial period) Weyfarers The Cadaverine (under 30) If you're submitting to U.S. journals, Blogalicious has an extensive list that accepts online submissions.
Read more