Looking through
the space between two hands
a chrysalis

Second hand book
spine creased to the midpoint
bus ticket bookmark

Boarding the train
from the platform shelter
stepping through rain

Spirit
in the half light
the lightening tree

The lightening tree
in the half light
flute playing

Bats
by the lightening tree
spirit

Reflecting sunlight
blue dragonflys on the banks--
the line pulls, a perch!

Return to the woods - Haibun

After two weeks of steel and pipework, the beauty of the sea can wear a little thin. How good it is to be back in the real world: to wake at leisure and drink tea from a real mug with real milk. Looking out of the open window, green predominates


Woodpigeons cry
as a light rain falls
beneath the oak tree - sheep

While I’ve been away the path through the woods has become overgrown. Ferns grow shoulder high between the well-spaced trees. Rhododendrons abound. The woods are awash with sound: birds of many varieties, mostly unidentified, singing beautiful songs of violence and lust, insects busy themselves with the task of survival and all this underpinned by the gentle base note of a distant motorway. For a moment, two crows kick up and put an end to this backdrop of sound.

Hear the river now
and rain on the leaves above
and my footsteps.

The Annan is fast and wide where it passes the grassy islands and today, like any other, a heron glides silently near the far bank..

On the windowsill
steam from my tea wafts gently
on the breeze.

In shade, incense smoke
sways by the open window --
me, seated, asleep

By harvested fields
the ancient burnt out building
is scaffolded now

Old masters
silent against silk wallpaper
distant teacups clink

The cast iron pot
who'd have thought when it was dropped
it would break

Late morning rain
awakens me in my chair
the book on my chest

One leaf falling
in the middle of the night
by sodium light.