Thanks to the editors for selecting two of my poems for this issue.
flat champagne...
on midnight he kisses
her photo
again he falls
for a woman in pain
partial eclipse
THE FOOTY ALMANAC 30th Sept 2014
CREATRIX 38, Sept 2017
hospital newsshe deadheadsthe rosebush
big night out
I try to unlock my door
with her lipstick
lazy love
the movie reaches its climax
before we do
wine bar
I tell you I know little
about love
leggings
the shape of things
to come
postcards
written to my mother
no name or address
rainbow
the bearded woman asks
how I voted
a postcard
from an ex
in a novel I'm re-reading
tall blonde … große Blondine ...
even moonlight falls sogar das Mondlicht verliebt sich
for her in sie
hospital news
she dead heads
windy bus stop
forgotten if he’s coming
or going
THE FOOTY ALMANAC Nov 2020
COVID CURFEW (sequence)
colourful masks
my neighbour brings a new
date home
midnight moon
a champagne cork comes
over the fence
vodka on the porch
I blow a smoke ring
to the moon
her drifting laugh
and the clink of flutes
perfume through the conifer
hole in the fence
they're ballroom dancing
under the clothesline
my neighbour
kissing those lipstick lips
mosquito on my neck
last smoke
I remember how my wife
used to smile at me
sirens sculling the drink the floor falling at me
brushing my teeth
a spider crawls out
of the plughole
bed
blankets
black out
lockdown the key to get out of missing you
PER DIEM THE HAIKU FOUNDATION 29th March 2021
hole in her stockings
he resists the temptation
to touch it
swimming pool
her cleavage deeper
than usual
water lilies
he writes haiku
up her inner thigh
the slow way
her lips open
birdsong in rain
his hand
on her hand
over his hand
wild roses
she catches him kissing
her sister
marriage ties
blossoms break free
in the breeze
forgive me he says
I have been a prick
cactus flower
day moon
his regrets in her slippers
under the bed
empty heart
struggling to close her
OTOROSHI Number 1, Spring 2021
incoming tide
under the driftwood
anniversary
cross at the thought
of my ex
unsafe sex
I ride the Harley
without a helmet
cold shoulder
a sparkle on a blade
of grass
unsettled thoughts
an open window at the top
of the building
sleeping with an editor
she adjusts my position
they tell me
to stay safe...do they think
I'm dangerous
her list
of things wrong with me…
I add to it
people scatter...
an unexpected explosion
THE DAILY HAIKU 19th May 2021
wild roses
she catches him kissing
his two cents worth
inflation has not hit
opinions yet
climate change
the tree with its hands
to the cemetery
leaves at the entrance (BJ)
a lock of hair
still I smell her perfume (SG)
overdose
is it really her
in the eulogy (BJ)
dark clouds
gathering loneliness
the rain pauses —
I raise my glass
breathing in my dead mother’s
pouch
Bee Jay
Bee Jay says:
“Sometimes a haiku can take years of thought and revisions. Sometimes one pops out seemingly fully formed. This haiku came out of me suddenly after I spent a few weeks reading experimental haiku and Japanese gendai on social media and in journals such as Heliosparrow, is/let, and Otoroshi.
I placed my fresh haiku into a workshop group to gauge responses and to see how I could improve it, but despite the sentence structure and the personification/anthropomorphism, the reaction to it was very positive, including a surprising request from Alan Summers to submit it to his new journal.”
one favourite haiku and why
I compiled a list of 30 of my fave contemporary haiku and then selected Susan Burch's haiku out of that.
washed jeans―
his love note
still dirty
Susan Burch
Honourable Mention 4th Annual Senryu Contest,
Sonic Boom July 2018
Bee Jay says:
“In 2014, Susan Burch was one of the first poets to write constructive comments and expert advice on my haiku and she later gave me the confidence to begin submitting my work. Her haiku and senryu often move me and this one is one of my faves.
In this poem I see a fresh, new romance where lust and passion colours everything and even the most simple sentence contains sexual innuendo. I can imagine the kinds of words written in that note. The jeans could be hers or his but I prefer to think they’re hers. The love note is ‘still’ dirty which makes me believe she’s read it before.
On the other hand, there is also the possibility that this is a dark poem about an illicit love affair and that she finds this dirty note in his jeans. This kind of ambiguity is one I admire in a haiku, I luv the idea that a haiku can be seen as positive in one reading and then so negative in another.”
favourite quote from Waiting for Godot
“There's no lack of void.”
Withnail and I
“Give me a Valium, I'm getting the fear.”
Alan note:
Also enjoy my own commentary, as the contest judge, on Susan Burch’s haikai verse:
“Being Human - the ordinary intensity”
a look at senryu
https://area17.blogspot.com/2018/06/being-human-ordinary-intensity-look-at.html
so wasted
but still writimng
good haiju
she steals my heart
as I stare at blossoms
petty thief
after the neighbours' complaints
at the end
of the blossoms
her lingerie
drifting snow
her hand caresses the back
of his neck
endless night
can I forgive myself
for hurting you
farewell sex –
thoughts of you coming
into my life
he turns up early
to weed her herb patch
red negligee
I follow
a trail of blossoms --
her open door
kissing
beside the washed dishes
boiling kettle
kissing
on the couch
snail trail
long kiss
the smell of burning
toast
overcast
a rainbow appears
on her face
red tulips --
sunshine lingers
on her skin
she stands
beneath a waterfall
moss on rocks
sparkling eyes –
jasmine flowers flow
into the room
sudden downpour
beside the swollen river
we keep kissing
your kisses
all around my neck
your fingers
