fifteen Mississippi -
after the storm
the cockerels waking

the resting cat's eyes
open a fraction ...
overhead swifts

up early
transatlantic contrails
lattice the sky

As editor of Blithe Spirit I have set my readers a challenge for the next issue.

I want them to include a couple of poems inspired by encounters of a cultural nature. The idea was Ian Turner's originally, but I thought it might be interesting to see where it took people.

At the moment it seems that painting is the main inspiration.

Anyway, I've just written my contribution - by no means anywhere near the best. I was just flipping through my Cor van den Heuvel haiku anthology when the inspiration hit:


Hokusai bookmark
with every page
a tsunami

last one in
a moth enters through
the closing door

in the earth below
the old washing line
the glint of a sequin

or ...

old washing line
a sequin glitters
from the dirt beneath

pink moon
the cockerel
up all night

anti social behaviour -
all night the wind
kicks a can around

upside down
she waits
for gymnastics

evening sunshine
the horse tugs
at the hay bale

faster than me
cloud shadows scud
along the highway

posh suburb
the station rat slams
straight into my shoe

(Gospel Oak, mid nineties)

day off work
the telesales calls
never ending

pickpocketing
the ten pound note
vanishes when I wake

dead of night
the sound of a plane
going who knows where

day long weeding
the last dandelion
under my bench

allotment bolt-hole
the retired policeman
shares some advice

strewn around
the fly-tip
moorland daffs

leaving for London
the dawn chorus
sees me off

bouncing above
in the tractor cab
the farmer's shoulders