Haiku & Senryu Read online

HAIKU & SENRYU

  by Pam Crane

  Copyright 2017 Pam Crane

  Thank you for downloading this free ebook.

  CONTENTS

  Tiny Scribblings of a Virgo Soul

  Wandering, and Seeing -

  Switzerland and Italy

  North Wales

  Yorkshire

  Lancashire and the Lakes

  Extremely Small Poems

  Images of Pain

  For Those Loved and Gone

  Boxes – 19 Senryu

  Views from the Path

  Snapshots of a Crane’s life

  About Pam Crane

  TINY SCRIBBLINGS OF A VIRGO SOUL

  My Haiku to you

  Are three dry lines of private

  Washing in public

  Tales tall as bamboo,

  Media streams, music groves,

  Zip - and are Haiku

  Thinking of Haiku -

  Dandelion parachutes

  Tickle my eyelids

  Haiku

  Are catching - I sneeze

  A small drama

  My attention span

  too short for frivolity

  I make Senryu

  I read books backwards

  Of course I write

  Haiku

  America sleeps

  Dewdrops on the web, Haiga

  A site for sore eyes

  Arranging pebbles

  Trapping fire in a raindrop

  Crafting Senryu

  Inner life uncorks

  Showering tiny poems

  Over the kitchen

  Back to Top

  WANDERING & SEEING

  Photographs in Words

  SWITZERLAND AND ITALY

  Great grey lake, your hills

  yawn from long excursions, towns

  wet with souvenirs

  ( Lake Maggiore 14/7/01)

  Volcanic dusk falls

  swallows towns flies dark swift feeds

  clover's tiny lamps

  (by the pool 14/07/01)

  Cloud-copying peaks -

  Vesuvio, Verzasca,

  Veils of Everest

  (journey to Milan 19/7/01)

  Buffeted, sprayed, joy

  Braced for wind over lake - look

  How bamboos curtsey!

  (Isola de Brissago, on 'Capriola', 20/7/01)

  Back to Top

  NORTH WALES

  The land is getting

  Tall. Mountainous trees. Sheep kneel,

  Clouds greet ripe heather

  (into Snowdonia August 16th 2002)

  Betws, Christmas frost

  Moonlight over Mercedes

  What dizzy arcades!

  (18th December 2002 after magic drive!)

  Blaenau late - rain, slate,

  sleet, waste shale,train hail, Wales wheels

  blindly through blue tales

  Jigsaw cows, fierce gold

  Furze banked high on speedwell sky

  The pied house is sold

  (Anglesey,Spring 2003)

  Silent moor so high

  We bump our heads on the sky

  If we fall, we die

  (returning from Ffestiniog over Migneint, autumn 2003)

  Through my eyelids red

  Glows then amber then green - dark

  Follows. Going home.

  (18/06/04-coach from Liverpool)

  Winter filigree -

  Stack, tree, plant, pylon; by night

  Palaces of light

  (Runcorn from the M56)

  Huge gold sun cloud-crowned

  Behind twinkling Runcorn

  Crowding birds wing home

  (20/01/06-driving back from Liverpool)

  Trail-blazing at dusk

  Flights west grazing my mountains.

  Below, slow lights home.

  (20/01/06-driving back from Liverpool)

  Wales wild under cloud

  Sprinkled with sheep, splashed with cows

  Green green grass of home

  The frisky sea

  BMW sport

  White horses

  Eyes tuned to rogue stone,

  Rock ribbed, curls in cleft strata -

  Mind the dragons' teeth!

  (Great Orme)

  Boy printing the turf

  With stolen pieces of a

  Stranger's name

  (Folk Memorials on the Great Orme)

  Silhouette on a

  Path to Heaven, happy dog,

  The sun goes to bed

  Beach-ball -

  Blue muscle of sea

  Flexing

  Larch lace emeralds

  In April sun butterflies

  Long lake of sapphire

  (Llyn Geirionydd 22/4/4)

  Spring mountains muffled

  Crouch for warmth over wildfire -

  Gorse-gold is stunning

  (29/04/04-to Anglesey again, cold!)

  Bright silhouettes

  Succumbing to pier pressure

  Small ices dripping

  (28/3/04-Llandudno pier)

  North, peacock ocean;

  Turning South - mountainous Wales

  In shimmering waves

  (28/3/04-Llandudno pier)

  Huddling weather;

  Cloud-smoke low in the forest

  Breath of nereids

  (Conwy valley 15-16/10/04)

  April - the colours!

  Bluebell sky, Great Orme gorse-lit,

  In such peacock sea!

  (15/04/05)

  Back to Top

  YORKSHIRE

  Sheep back to back

  Not speaking.

  Beware of lambs!

  Through the windscreen

  A postcard of Ingleborough

  No need to stop

  Going away -

  Watching the evening news

  In another room

  (27/5/04, Askrigg)

  Foxgloves are spotted inside -

  Next to the

  Couch potatoes

  The rapture of May !

  Her buttercup thighs spread wide

  Swaledale receives us

  The Yorkshire Dales -

  Dry stone, wagtails, copper beech,

  Cow Parsley. Squashed rabbits.

  May - white bridal dream,

  Ferns, green overarching green,

  Gifts of clotted cream

  (the Dales, May 2004)

  In birthday pink

  Great flat drifts from haven to

  Heaven of sweet thrift

  (Lindisfarne causeway 31/5/04)

  Above Glossop

  The heavy swell of the moors

  Space to stretch the soul

  Into the mountains,

  Asking the way - the farmer

  Stinks of cigarettes

  Undulating dusk -

  Childhood journeys returning

  Village by village

  (18/02/05- 17h30, nearly @ Scarborough)

  Back to Top

  LANCASHIRE & THE LAKES

  Ferry in the rain

  Catbells a cauldron, Lodore

  And time in spate

  (Derwentwater 12/08/04)

  Driving through country

  In which I long to stand still

  And root with the trees

  Suddenly drive through

  A Simon Palmer painting,

  Cathedral of trees

  On Bowland summit

  Sheep grazing in cloud

  Into the unknown

  (August 9th 2004)

  Honister sunswept

  Studded scarlet with rowan

  Awe is redefined

  (September 23rd 2004)

  The poet returns,

  Hugge
d by mountains, rain-rapt, past

  Roped to the future

  (Keswick Aug.5th 2007)

  Untame everything -

  park to Wilderness, soft ride

  to battle-hard sole

  (Cumbria 6/8/2007)

  Dangerous corner,

  Ice-cream van ready to pounce,

  Cones all down the road!

  (Cumbria 7/8/2007)

  youth oblivious

  treks Lakeland, grey knees crack,

  real folk farm in wonder

  (Cumbria 7/8/2007)

  Over the high fells

  Every hill has its own cloud

  Every tree its shade

  (to Ullswater 9/8/2007)

  We leave. The fells weep.

  Keswick goes on without us.

  My heart is breaking.

  (11/8/2007)

  Back to Top

  EXTREMELY SMALL POEMS

  The oyster and I

  Needing some grit in the shell

  Her story my pearl

  Madam Many-chins

  Insists on salad, and eats

  Her husband's last chips

  (Grand Hotel 14/07/01)

  Thunder on Mountain -

  The superior woman

  Has sold her TV

  Paint in words the rich

  Smell of ripe red nectarines,

  Fill the room with rot

  Watery life hides:

  the crab shelters, fish disguise.

  The scorpion spies...

  When all minds concur

  The carp embraces his hook

  And the horse his spur

  When all words are one,

  A saint may take up the sword

  And a captive run.

  one man breaks away,

  His friends may ostracise him yet

  conspiracy fails

  The child is crying.

  Look! Money in the window!

  This is a cake shop...

  Springtime, boys bounce balls;

  Young men fancy tobacco -

  Gulls a cormorant

  (April 04)

  Lindisfarne

  Suddenly parallel

  Racing along the skyline

  Seven on horses

  Between sky and sand

  One flying line of dark script

  The sentence of death

  Far from the causeway

  Film framed in a car window

  One minute and gone

  (leaving Lindisfarne at 12h30 on the turn of the tide 2/06/04)

  ''Organic meat

  One mile ahead''. The road bends -

  A gift of flowers

  In Chester, grey, alone,

  He eats with orchids, folding

  Maps of the New Forest

  (21/07/04 - Thai restaurant)

  Flying ants -

  Behind her lightweight suitcase

  Small girl struggling

  Her vast brown cleavage,

  Wild places full of fireweed

  Grab the attention

  (leaving Crewe station 3/09/04)

  Snow on the pansies -

  the people who always sent

  birthday cards are dead

  Home from a fun-fair,

  Clutching hot dogs, huge prizes,

  Rude balloons

  stretching one small wing

  in sunlit quartz and fuschia

  a sparrow preening

  (Isle Of Man 16-18/06/04)

  Later on a bridge

  The same two white vans having

  A conversation

  (29/06/04-leaving Gillingham)

  On the seaside train,

  Racing the straight seaside road,

  A passenger waves

  (27/06/05-going to Coventry)

  June water-meadows,

  Many-coloured horses drinking,

  My life flashing past

  (27/06/05-approaching Rugby)

  Through twin trees, harebells -

  Carrying clouds shoulder-high

  The Ben broods on blue

  (7-8 Aug 2005 Loch Eil)

  Pen dipped in gold

  Riding a river of light

  Mountains and rainbows

  Cordylines and frost

  Lone mermaid remembering

  Seashells live and die

  Big as the Sun

  Slow in the evening mist

  One balloon, setting

  (Holyhead train 21/09/08)

  The echo of rock -

  Hoof on shale on stone - Fissure:

  Blinding citadels!

  (14/03/10. the passage to Petra)

  One wet pink rose bends

  To watch me with the green hose

  At dusk moths and frogs

  Everything sparkles

  Slowly the mountains shrink as

  The town approaches

  May: clout-casting time

  North winds killing the lilacs

  My sons are strangers

  Fecund, her feet arch

  Like Manet's Olympia

  In scarlet satin

  (Aug.5th 2007-the harpsichordist-Theatre by the Lake)

  The purple woman

  Leaves rustling bustling

  Bursts of plastic rain

  (Coniston 7/8/2007)

  Goldfinches lunching

  Sharp starlings March wind twirling

  Sparrow carousels

  Enormous women

  Browsing tiny spring outfits

  Visiting pigeons

  mad March air hot cross

  mums battling british aisles

  the buggy grand prix

  (Easter 2008)

  Carnival season -

  He picks over the golf balls

  Like Mum checking spuds

  Twin pram, one baby,

  Lone Dad smiling - did the bears

  Get the other one?

  Jenny, eleven,

  Barks at dragons in the sun

  Shrieks of the children

  (Extravaganza 5/5/08)

  Weighed down by penguins

  And remorse, Mrs. BigBag

  Drowning with dolphins

  (May 2008-Wales Air Ambulance Charity shop)

  Step into the voice

  Behind her bent teeth, drab hair,

  Live the deep truth there.

  (Hull housewife meets the Duchess of York.

  ITV 19/05/08)

  Mayday! the child's plane

  Dives - our heroes flying home

  Remember Munich.

  (Manchester United win UEFA cup in Moscow-

  'this one's for Munich'. 21/22 May 2008)

  Time in reflection

  Mirrors that face each other

  Scales fall from our eyes

  (18/06/08-the maths of infinity)

  People without words

  Fake snakes behind hungry eyes

  Begin to tell lies

  ('Clever Monkeys' BBC2 25/11/08)

  Poor little Mum's boy

  Since Death cheated you of praise

  Willies and tombstones

  ('Imagine' - steel sculptor,

  BBCl 26/11/08)

  You sell your whole life

  To keep him from death. Fish with

  Blood on their faces

  (The postcode drugs lottery. 22/12/08)

  The Fall, changed world, then

  Slow blood, breath snatched, old cold bones

  The dead of Winter

  (Feb 2nd 2009 - nithering!)

  Slowly, lovingly

  Nature grew this bird, this bean -

  Handle them gently

  (Chicken-chucking, ASDA 13/03/09)

  Capital frozen

  Bare markets cold turkey pm

  Scotch on the rocks

  (26/3/09 - wintry economical & actual climate!)

  Curtains. We have hurled

  Our whole lives headlong into

  A virtual world

  (24/06/09 - Pluto in Capricor
n -

  state of the world a total mess.)

  Queuing in Barclays

  One - two - three - four blue ladies

  In hoods. No more pens!

  (September 2009)

  Ambulance on call

  Beating in perfect time wings

  Soaring and falling

  (9/9/9 - amid crowds on the Prom)

  Wind over water

  Principalities, Powers

  Danger to shipping

  (8/06/2010 -Too many wind-farms out at sea)

  Back to Top

  IMAGES OF PAIN

  Dragging me through the

  Ultimate obscenity,

  Ashes of voices

  911

  Ruin and Death are

  Grey - bright life's shocked orange choir

  Fled, all colour bled

  (after the WTC twin towers massacre of 11/9/01)

  Swastika dances -

  Little girls carefully taught

  To die as they're told

  (watching 'Louis & the Nazis' at breakfast 23/12/03,

  after the conviction of Holly & Jessica's murderer)

  Crush bar, powder room,

  Flop house, crash pad, broken home,

  The earth moved for us

  (50,000 die in earthquake as Bam collapses, 26/12/03 05h26)

  A head rolls

  In Iraq - at the Mirror

  A head rolls

  (Nick Berg, Piers Morgan, end of the line 14/05/04)

 

  Baghdad

  Fleet Street

  Heads sacked

  (15/05/04)

  Unprotected txt

  Junk males capital litter

  Vowel cancer

  (20/05/04)

  Blackcurrant time, dusk -

  Sky on fire, mountains on fire,

  Leaves scream in the wind

  (July 7th 2004-fierce & strange storm

  sweeps UK from SW to NE)

  This was your Rapture;

  I hope you were satisfied -

  Thousands in Heaven.

  (7/01/05-after the Boxing Day Tsunami)

  Noon, Saddleworth Moor -

  Vistas to die for. Somewhere,

  The bones of children

  (20/02/05)

  Gales and May blossom

  I was killed again today

  They bring cut flowers

  (19/05/06-another school stabbing.)

  Today is crying

  Even the seabirds muted

  Your face was yellow

  (13/4/08 - close friend unwell)