
Category Archives: Haiku
Winter Haiku
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The Runes of Scars
Well, hello there.
It’s been a while.
Just thought I’d share a few haiku with the class.

Languid river flows
past weeping willows and pink
cherry blossom trees.
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Vapour trails scratch the
deep, blue sky – a pair of larks
glide without a trace.
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Was it a petal
or a butterfly, caught on
a summer zephyr?
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Then, there’s this…
I tried to flesh it out into a haiku. But the more words I added, the less powerful they became. So, I’ll leave it alone.
Suffering is written in the runes of scars.
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Hopscotch in the rain
You don’t see chalk on the pavement much anymore.
My daughters used to do it outside our house and up the street with the neighbours’ children.
I was walking to school the other day to pick my daughters up when I saw some lovely pastel chalk drawings on the pavement and it took me back to when I was a kid.
So I wrote a haiku about it.
As you do.
Hopscotch in the rain.
Chalk on the pavement;
Hopscotch memories fade, in
Fine summer drizzle.
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Happy 200th birthday, Emily.
Today marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Emily Bronte.
Haworth, where the Brontes lived, holds a special place in my, (and my children’s), hearts.
We visit the place as often as we can.
Here’s a little haiku I penned after a walk on the Moors with my daughters a couple of years back.
Knee deep in heather,
Bright red sock wavers aloft,
Boot stuck in peat bog.
This is the room where, Emily, Anne and Charlotte did most of their writing. And that is the actual sofa in the background that Emily died on aged just 30. (I didn’t pass that information on to my children.)
If you haven’t read Wuthering Heights yet, I urge you to do so. I promise you, it’s like nothing you have ever read before. It’s a complex and staggeringly passionate tale of unrequited love and dastardly deeds, set amidst the bleak and rugged Yorkshire Moors.
And, if you get the chance, watch the recent film adaptation by Andrea Arnold. It’s a pretty radical take on the book and one of the best interpretations I’ve seen to date. (See trailer below.)
It’s not just the collective brilliance of the Brontë siblings that I find inspiring, but the whole beautifully barren backdrop of the moors. That, coupled with the picturesque cobbled streets of Haworth itself, makes perfect for a day out.

Haworth

“Top Withens” Emily’s inspiration for Wuthering Heights. (Now a ruin.)

“Top Withens” as it would’ve looked back in Emily’s day.
P.S. It’d be positively churlish of me not to also include this classic by Kate Bush… whose 60th birthday it also is today. Bit of a spooky coincidence, don’t you think?
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Stellar new haiku
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New haiku
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Winter Haiku
A belated Happy New Year.
This is my first post of 2015. (Not including my last post which was a reblog.)
I started following a blog by Ashi Akira and he’s inspired me to get my haiku quill out. (It’s a fascinating blog – particularly the story about the Japanese and American WWII fighter pilots – well worth a visit.)
Rabbit carcass rots,
Heather bends its purple head,
Wuthering Heights call.
Listen to the song
Of the sparrows in the hedge,
Feeding time for chicks.
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