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)