Feeling stupid after an email conversation, I go out to exercise the dog. The oval lies over-sheened with western sun. Light billows like a sheet, particulate and all-pervasive until I shade my eyes. The dog scoots, mostly ignoring the ball which I throw for my own exercise, walking on and to pick it up and … Continue reading Warp & Weft
Unsheathed from its special box - Japanese steel, sworled and beautiful... and there! The pumpkin cubes easily, orange blocks forming a chopping-board city. Shush shush shush, the mushrooms fall into slivers which are scraped into the baking tray atop the pumpkin, and zucchini pieces topple in too, green-backed moons. Top and tail beetroots, the whiskered … Continue reading Dinner
Write about the weather in Present Tense These last few days, everyone is saying “Thank goodness for the sun!” People are stretching like cats, long skin and whiskers pleased. It’s true the summer has been a wet one. Canberra wringing in a wet towel, warmth like dogs breath fogging up the sky. Mosquitoes are having … Continue reading #Go Dog Go Haibun Wednesday
As my eyes open to the grey stocktake of another morning, I wonder “Is it all still true?”. It’s not really hope but it still hurts when it goes away. I tell myself that I understand the facts. I drum the story like fingers on a desk. But even in the face of loss, only … Continue reading Mind Tricks
When we reached the trig station, I took a wrong turn. We headed down a ridge, winding out of the trees and into land that must’ve once been pine forest but was cleared at least a few years ago. It was now full of purple-green blackberry mounds, stringy little saplings, the splayed denuded heads of … Continue reading My Morning
Evening Drive Driving on hill tops, the landscape is generous – unfiltered mapwork filling up the thirsty eye. This evening the horizon is thickly sponged – dark cloud bruises, gleaming chrome sky, the felt silhouette of mountains and, in the foreground, rolling khaki with wave-crest fences. At a fork, I’m sent on a detour. Here … Continue reading #dVerse Haibun “Cold Mountain”
I wasn’t born this way. I’ve had to grow a lot of skin. But even still, I’ll pull the house apart for band aids. Sometimes at night, if the breeze blows just the right way across my nose, I can smell 1985. It’s jasmine sweet and ticked over with corrugated iron creep and the piney … Continue reading Grief
plovers’ yells reprimand the night long legged shadows swoop low in silver strides, the moon gives chase
frayed clouds like two white roosters sky's blue umbrage
I am pulling weeds. Rip, rip, rip. Weeding where pavers butt and crack, where the beaten strength of human engineering gives way to wiggle; to root snake and trunk push… to Earth’s breath. My feet are surrounded by endless rectangles, like I’m sewn in with patchwork trousers, imitating the cellulose structure of plants. Do the … Continue reading January Haibun
bright copper carriages unfettered by passengers fast moving millipede
nine exquisite arches blue as bottled poison architecture of a jellyfish
We walked into Christmas in the slow way that days do when you’re waiting. By five pm on Christmas Eve I could see the drag on my son’s face. I thought this time thing, it needs a new bus driver. Two weeks of crawl and the long long night-light shadows creeping into the hall from … Continue reading Haibun Monday – Celebration
(In four haiku) the sky scraped thin, whiteness showing through. these margarine days noontime, an upright world, shadows trimmed to footfall light’s mighty shears. outstretched fingers so far, the eastern horizon sun’s begonia yawn I wind open the window; between curtains a fridge-blue glow this leak of moon Written for Miz Quickly's Dec 13 prompt … Continue reading 24 hours
Blue sky dangles between trees Summer plumbago
little white dog sipping at tree tops green waves of spring
the storm plays timpani rain's uproarious applause damp certainty of a rose's beauty Header photo courtesy of our son (age 8) The rose photo is mine.
birthed from Earth’s cosy heart poor cold obsidian friend let us dance cheek to cheek Written for Miz Quickly October 25 Prompt "Cosy"
From where I stand, washing dishes in a rectangular plastic tub, I can see the roiling approach of buff-shouldered clouds – a bellicose sky. A shard of lightning rips a fierce line down the purple horizon and I flinch, searingly aware of my metal watch. I take off all my jewellery and put it in … Continue reading Camp in Finke River National Park
two lavender flowers in glowing stance this morning’s solar plexus This evening my brother rang. In jest I said "I hope you're ringing to give me an idea for a poem." He responded smilingly (you can tell over the phone) with "Yes, the idea is... the sun orbiting a flower. That's all I can give … Continue reading The Sun Orbiting A Flower
on burgeoning red, this creamy lace antimacassars at grandma’s house photinia flowers
Old leaves; creased, dried and clustered in beige tassels hang. Dangle of clean underwear.
i feel fast. rage, hurt, unfairness. but knowing how to react or even the reasons for the feelings is slow like digesting a heavy meal, and then when the evolution from snap feeling to reasoned argument occurs, i am lost as to what to do with my reasoning. people don't like it when you track … Continue reading Hare & Tortoise
the quiet flatulence of tyres on gravel embarrassing manoeuvres
is that how a star feels? spraying out glitter to disguise a dark, gaseous core
The orchestra's voices join - flute and tuba speak. A world where all are valued.
The sun's eye burns white, shadow's foot bows tall grass heads. Impetuous clouds
Out of the Cave 