31 July

Blackb'rries in the rain

glowing like promised jewels

the first of the year

Discarded feathers

glinting in my upturned palm

this same shining day

' As I walked out...' 100 word prose-poem

Already the midsummer sun shimmers along the dusty track, my shadow a slender man in faded overalls and a wide-brimmed hat.

I ponder Steinbeck, Laurie Lee and Edward Thomas, for whom all roads led inevitably to France. And Frost, who couldn't persuade him to leave for America, his own two roads in a yellow wood, long he stood...

      The choices we make

       the shape of our walking

       and the roads we take

The day is too hot - my old dog pants beside me, the young one lolloping heedlessly ahead - until relief turns us down the dapple-cool seaward road home

Taraloka haikus June 2022

Cold around my heart

blows the unsuspecting wind -

hold your loved ones close

Tenderly the rain

still my desert heart cries out

for amazement

All my senses stilled

entranced by the dragonfly

glancing on a leaf

Facing the west wind

I breathe the salty air of

my imagination

Still, again we sit

the 'mindfulness of birdsong'

scintillates the air

Disparate pilgrims

beneath the 'shivering' tree*

and the bluest sky.   

(*populus tremula)

Precipitously

my compass-needle judders

then rebalances

How shall I return

scattering tears like raindrops

from this dreaming land