over snowy fields
the vixen's cries -
solstice moon

Tinywords

I'm on the editorial panel again for the next edition of Tinywords.

We are currently considering submissions until December 15th, primarily on the theme of light.

For further details visit the submissions page.

midnight snowfall
the union leader's statue
wears a white shawl

midnight snowfall
my neighbour
coughing away



[published: Presence 37]

commuter platform
in amongst the suits
a Charlie Brown lunchbox



(Brondesbury, London - late 90's)

Fifty-Seven Damn Good Haiku by a Bunch of Our Friends, edited by Michael Dylan Welch and Alan Summers and published by Press Here books. Each editor selected six poets for inclusion in the book, and each of the twelve poets is represented by either four or five haiku. Not a single one is about parsnips. The poets, who live in Europe, Africa, North America, and Asia, are Susan Antolin, Timothy Collinson, Susan Constable, Karen Hoy, Keiko Izawa, Deborah P Kolodji, Dejah Léger, Tanya McDonald, Caleb Mutua, Helen Russell, David Serjeant, and Alison Williams. To order in the United States, please send $8.00 plus $2.00 postage. Make payments payable to “Michael D. Welch” and send to him at 22230 NE 28th Place, Sammamish, WA 98074-6408 USA. For orders outside the United States, please inquire for details by emailing WelchM@aol.com

two minutes silence
the shifting light
of a windy day

after
her dance class
cartwheels

first flowers
she re-arranges
her re-arrangement

rush hour...
two women embrace
then sign their goodbyes


[first published in Presence]

steel city sunset
looming on the skyline
anvils

Tinywords

I have joined the editorial team at Tinywords.

We are currently accepting submissions until 30 September for the next issue - see http://tinywords.com/submit/ for details.

DS

in the centre
of the merry-go-round
the fair-worker's scowl

in the middle of it all
- stuck -
her dodgem

Hello everybody, I thought it was about time to try my hand at a haibun. The fine details are still in my head, I just wanted to see if these pieces stand up...


cupped in her hands
a fairy -
spider's web thistledown


the mare's nostrils
seek their target
rising
from the pushchair
gentle chuckles

starlight
the silhouettes
of mountains


Hi! - just back from Croatia (again)

lost in thought -
a breeze I can't feel
glows the embers

blue skies
caught in each raindrop
an inverted cloud

flower after
         flower after
    flower
the intermittent bumble
of a bee

The other David Serj/geant

I have just found out that there is a poet by the name of David Sergeant (NB: not David Serjeant, because that's me). I have only had my name mis-printed once (amazingly) and that was in Magnapoets 5 - they spelt it with a 'g' and I thought "It'll be OK as I can't seriously be mistaken for anyone else, can I?" ...Can I?

He has a book as well.

my head a mess
my thoughts a mess
my mood a mess
my legs a mess
my fingers a mess
my balance a mess
my vision a mess
my senses a mess
my sleep a mess
my strength a mess

my life: MS



author's note: no doubt I will be expanding this one

the old badger
snarled in the nettles
hair and maggots

cracks in the brickwork
the foundation stone
as old as me

after a night ripped apart
by the quarrelling foxes
the dawn
soundless and soft
as the cockerel’s feathers

It would appear that I have been translated into Hungarian:

http://www.terebess.hu/haiku/serjeant.html

Tarkovsky polaroids

I recently rediscovered the polaroids by the film director Andrei Tarkovsky. I thought I'd share the link with you all because they're all so beautiful and appear somehow (along with his films) to belong to a parallel dimension (apologies for sounding pretentious).

Navigating the site isn't obvious, so click on the image to enter the site, click on an image to enlarge and the little rectangles at the top will take you from page to page.

Tarkovsky polaroids

I have just been to my daughter's school sports day...

the bean bag
perfectly
perched -
the outstretched arms
of the boy in last place

I recently appeared in Tinywords with the following two poems. If you missed them, here they are:

in
an old car
an old man and
an old dog

*

remission -
in the rear-view the crow
settles back on the roadkill


I get the feeling they have both appeared on this blog before, so apologies for repetition

rolling across
and over
the speed of my car -
the flight of a swallow

at the flip of a switch
the crane fly's shadow
capers round the room

I have entered the Football Haiku World Cup with the following entry:

one-nil down -
somewhere in the noise
the away end's song


Go Serjeantina go!

the watering can
takes one last plunge -
the zig-zag of bats

last ones on the allotment
the blackbird and I
tidy up

visiting
ex-colleagues -
the same old mugs

passing information -
from the police van window
after shave

retreating storms -
two blackbirds contest
the allotment

MS Awareness week 2010

It is International Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week this week (April 26 to April 30).

It seems as good a time as any to remind you I have another blog entitled Dave's Magical Brain (which isn't all doom and gloom, I promise) where you can read the strange and fascinating tale of my MS history and marvel at my personal healthcare statistics.

After you have done all that, you may wish to gaze in wonder at MRI pictures of my brain, or read my haiku sequence 'Limboland' at Scribd.com which was inspired by my journey from relapse to diagnosis and beyond.

Keep posted for more info during the week.

a late spring
the blackbird tries
a different tune

my children
sticking and glueing -
in the drawer
the mother's day card
I never sent

sea mist...
watching the seal
watching me


[published Presence #36]

Raasay, Manchester University geology field trip, Easter 1992.

business park -
spring bulbs emerge
in corporate colours

wrapped round the tracks
my shadow stands
to let the train past


(Published - Shamrock#5)


A long time ago, I lived in London. If I had been staying over at my girlfriend's flat in Kilburn, I would make the morning commute on the North London line from Brondesbury to Highbury. I would then walk through the back streets of Islington to my workplace on the edge of Hackney.

This piece was conceived on the platform of Brondesbury station, the familiar faces of the morning train, squinting through the low sunlight in a polite, wordless, side-step and shuffle to their usual spots on the platform.

Happy birthday!

distant lightning is one year old today.

Very many thanks to everyone who has left a comment, followed or linked to this blog.

Your contributions are valued.

silence
just the wind picking up
distant lightning

('Light' - BHS anthology 2006)
not one of my best, but it gave this blog it's name.

I have just uploaded my Limboland sequence as a pdf haiga at Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/27711229

lullaby
she reaches
to feel each word



(Published: Heron's Nest X:1)

With my *ahem!* scientific background, the following quote resonates with me. I thought readers of this blog might also appreciate it:

"Although it is a grand achievement to have added but one jot or tittle to the sum of human knowledge it is grander still to have added a thought. It is best for a man to try to be both poet and naturalist—not to be too much of a naturalist and so overlook the beauty of things, or too much of a poet and so fail to understand them or even perceive those hidden beauties only revealed by close observation."

From the "Journal of a Disappointed Man" by W.N.P. Barbellion

his dates end
where hers begin -
for a moment
she rests to read
the park bench epitaph



I am just wondering if memorial benches are a peculiarly British thing.

stargazing
with my daughter -
an aircraft
joins   the   dots
of Orion's belt




published: Blithe Spirit 19:4 (current issue)

my earliest memory
cradled
her hair just out of reach -
now the look on her face
as she doesn't say goodbye



like everything else on this blog - work in progress. Been thinking about my Mum a lot lately. Could do with a cup of tea and a catch-up sometimes. Ho hum... so it goes.

flying
full volume -
the rumblestrip drumrolls


(been listening to Sonic Youth a lot on my way to/from work - tearing down long straight country roads)

one by one
the fag breaks end -
the taxis inch forward




(NB: for overseas readers, UK slang - fag = cigarette)

three years on
she still gets about -
my late mother

first day at work
a man with the same car
nods hello



[published: Blithe Spirit 17:2]

growing unrest -
on the baby monitor
lightning static



[published: "Storm" - British Haiku Society anthology - 2007]

(currently selling these monitors on eBay)

streetlights -
at the window your silhouette
watches the snow

night frost
aircraft strobe lights
amongst the stars


[published: Simply Haiku 6:4]