More morning poetry

As I have mentioned previously on this blog, some mornings I leave ridiculously early to go work on the train, and for some reason this seems to result in little haikus popping into my head. Maybe it’s having an empty stomach, or just seeing the sun come up over the city, but I think I’m coming to quite enjoy these relatively quiet moments in a busy day.

Here’s a few more for you to take or leave as you will.

Faces downturned

A seething speeding capsule

Passions on their laps

 

Balloons in the dawn

Pinned improbably still

Hanging like dark stars

 

Cold sky fire

Charcoals graceful branches

Before speeding train

 

Possum on the wire

Racing electricity

Towards morning star

 

Blur of morning fog

Jealously hoards the light

A soft eraser

 

New colour and form

Scribbles bloom on railway walls

Illegible fame

Early morning haiku

I’ve been getting up ridiculously early to get to work lately. Here are some of the words which have spilled out of my addled brain in those dark hours.

 

Black dawn silhouettes

The hoot of a waiting train

Square of lilac sky

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Glimpsed from a rocking train

Balloons hang improbably

Fire shines within

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Indigo morning

Cold light pools at the station

Runner shuffles past

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Hard white stars greet me

the air cools my sandalled feet

Hurrying to work

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Musselshell sky

Fleeting shadow puppets

Birds in bare branches

 

Rural poetry

Well, it’s going to be a disgusting 41 degrees C here today. Normally we’d head off snorkelling to beat the heat, but that’s rather tricky with a nine week old, (although various options with towing floating rubber rings were discussed ;)), so we’ll be hiding under a cool rock until it all blows over. The rock of choice today is called the IKEA centre.

However, on days like this, I think many Australian’s thoughts turn to our more rural areas, and the threat they face on days like this from the fierce bushfires which ravish our landscape every year. A few years ago, when it reached 47 degrees C, we lost huge areas of forest and bushland, houses, businesses, pets and 173 lives. Although the forest is growing back, and many of the houses have been rebuilt, the scars are long lasting.

In honour of our more rural areas, and also because I have been trying to write a short story with a rural theme, here are a few haiku inspired by a long train trip through the rural landscape of Victoria, Australia. Hope you enjoy them, and keep cool!

In flat khaki fields

Unnatural neon stripe

Sun fires canola

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Breeze brings warm hay scent

Young horses prance like schoolgirls

Flicking pony tails

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Rust and graffiti

Coat lonely discarded freight cars

Grass furs the bogeys

Scifaiku

Scifaiku is apparently now a recognised genre of poetry – Science Fiction haiku. I’ve heard that haiku is supposed to capture the essence of a particular moment in time, and so in some ways scifaiku breaks that tenet, as it is based purely on our imagination, not physical experience. I don’t know about you, but sometimes my imagination can seem more tangible than the ‘real’ world! Here are a few of my latest offerings.

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Image courtesy of Space.com

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Spin, metal bubble

Through infinity’s darkness

Fragile as scratched glass

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Spin of laundrette wash

Reminds me of distant planets

Turning on new suns

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When each star winks out

And before all is darkness

Touching, or too far?

Three winter poems

 

Just to make sure I maintain the somewhat eclectic nature of this blog, please find below three winter poems for you.

We are just starting to see signs of spring here – the first daffodils are out, and the magnolia, as you will find below. Enjoy!

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Scarlet parrot shines

Still in winter bare branches

Seasonal bauble

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I empathise

With those who lower their umbrellas

walking under sheltering awnings

Like shields

Defenders of superstition

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Many pink claws bared

Scratching the cold ink stained sky

To burst in white stars

Haiku of the Living Dead

Following on from yesterday’s post, I can hardly believe that I’ve also been included in the anthology Haiku of the Living Dead.

It’s a collection of zombie-inspired poetry, in case this was not obvious from the title, and is available on Smashwords, with any profits going to Medecin Sans Frontiers. To cite the blurb:

“Brains, love, death and the apocalypse. The world will turn to the undead and the living have only two options: run or become a meal. But there is so much more to the zombie apocalypse. Like humor, poetry, existentialism and advice on how to live when it’s become an Afterworld of sorts! This is a compilation of zombie haiku written by authors all over the world to leave you craving more.”

Again, I am very proud to have been included in this work, particularly as I am really no kind of expert on zombies or their kind.  Sometimes these things seem to come along like buses, don’t they? Nothing for ages, and then two at once. 🙂

Space and Time Magazine

I’m very proud to announce that during my time away, I had a poem accepted for publication by Space and Time Magazine!

If you’re not familiar with it already, Space and Time magazine have been going for four decades, and publish work quarterly, both by established authors, and newbies like myself. I see that they are currently accepting fiction submissions, so I may also have a shot at that.

I’m rather humbled, but also pretty excited about this, especially as I’ve only started writing poetry this year. So if you have a chance, please pick up a copy!

Office haiku

OK, so I admit it. I’m a bit drained, and so work is really not inspiring me at the moment. There are projects afoot which are taking a lot of energy, and so I’m really looking forward to those being completed, and smooth sailing on the other side.

To entertain myself at work today, I wrote a few haiku I thought I’d inflict on you. Hope to be able to write some brighter ones soon.

Drunk on tiredness

Office bound, tedium drowned

Revived with fresh rain

Tamed in my office

Fluoro flicker and air-con

Dreaming of wild green

Artificial light

Sterilises fresh new thought

Kills ideas like germs

 

Sci fi haiku

As some of you lovely people who have been following my journey into the blogosphere may know, the world of poetry is quite new to me. However, I have found that the haiku format does help me to condense impressions and boil them down to their essence, which must surely help my writing.

So please find following a few attempts at some sci-fi haiku. I realise that they are perhaps a little outside the spirit of the medium in terms of being created from the imagination, rather than my personal experience, but I think space travel may remain in the realm of the imagination for most of us for a while yet. 😦

Einstein’s burden

If faint stars’ signals

Held life curious and new

Would time chill yearning?

Mars

Golden skies, red dust

Barren, a warrior world

Once water caressed

Space voyager

Safe, contained, constrained

A message in a bottle

Longs for untamed green

Horror Haiku to be published!

I’m very proud to announce that one of my Horror Haiku poems was one of the winners of last months Flash Fiction competition over at Necon Books!

It is currently up on their website with the other winning entries, and will also be published as part of their end of year anthology.

The poem which they liked was this one:

 

Walk quickly, light fades
Past houses shut against chill
Footsteps close behind

 

I understand that their competition this month is on Novel Pitches, so if you have a great pitch, please think about entering!