Grammar

 

[December]

 "grammar haiku december"

poetry stored in the clouds

manuscripts

accumulate to dissolve

 

searching the supermarket

syllables

for all the sugars and spice

 

snowflakes santas stables stars

objective

correlatives more galore

 

light purple jacaranda

cedillas

soft land hard concrete footpaths

 

city of many childhoods

arguments

that days observe and resolve

 

traffic lights news updates

autocues

streaming subtitling crave rest

 

even this great crass corrupt

period

will end anon period

 

behind ring-road freeway sign

directions

sits another pam the bird

 

rainclouds coastwards greyblack hold

lacuna

seascapes beachheads landfall rain

 

curling drifting wye river

adjectives

screeching warbling swirling blue

 

like roads disappear round bends

sentences

offer more than what they say

 

art makes of bark and leaves fine

rendering

trees’ unending survival

 

trees experience choicest

writer’s block

too many choices of green

 

surf could care less about the

predicate

surging submerging splurging

 

fairy wren river motions

conjunction

ever with cormorant sea

 

separating the days’ long

paragraphs

lines from the kookaburras

 

summery is a one word

summary

fairly accurate to say

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[November]

 homage to thomas hood

“no haiku november”

 

no amount of ornate word

description

gets the beauty of this world

 

no avail sandals straw hat

thirty-six

asks for air conditioning

 

no cigar for bright sparks who

net-zero

reject - future all fire

 

no experience needed

reflection

the whole being listening

 

no fun my babe hang around

spotify

feeling the same old way freaked

 

no hard feelings with flowers

freesias

roses grevilleas bloom

 

no idea what’s next but can guess

predictions

less substantive than feelings

 

no joke how so many old

skyscrapers

and new hold up together

 

no junk mail blocks the airy

letterbox

curio of email time

 

no name brand ignores human

ambition

curving leafing through landscapes

 

no qualms no frills now quaffing

burgundy

no regrets no faults no fear

 

no respite from no limits

news-cycles

decamerons in real time

 

no smoking vaping or e

cigarettes

where the public goes slow burn

 

no standing anytime down

boulevards

of ceaseless late afternoon

 

no theatre no time zones

no u turn

no vacancies no vacuum

 

no worries see you in yes

november

as they say in the classics

 

no yes no yes no yes how

synapses

pass the seconds of yes day

Fragments

 

 

Image: Iso-mandala no. 138 (October 2020)

 

[October] 

“haiku fragments october”

 

reading zanzotto poppy

frammenti

prompts temporary writings

 

daikon shoots beetroot leaves make

diagrams

where a sower scored the patch

 

unopposed roses’ timely

explosions

finely pose blow decompose

 

reading the master’s work in

manuscript

all the great words he crossed out

 

faces fashions phones focus

reflections

faze in shop glass unfocus

 

are we anything more than

molecules

asks an upright scientist

 

logs are motes in fields fallen

particles

painted signed fred williams

 

passing train windows mobile

mosaic

stable rail ballast below

 

memorial park mower

daisy-rings

spring anew across long lawns

 

sakamoto’s delirious

inventions

turn to pindrops on ‘opus’

 

newspaper yesterday old

photographs

insubstantial confetti

 

handheld all the world’s micro

vanity

done delimit close vanished

 

ichiko aoba sings

promises

moon sparkles sparkles sparkles

 

jewellery gold whatever

trivia

beside life’s visible growth

 

splintered fractured blue

ceramic

casts cold eye in rich subsoil

 

twigs branches cover the street

cherry-pips

the path through all-day wind storm

 

spokes webs catches clip-ons of

umbrella

blown away by today’s gale

 

September

 

Image: Iso-mandala no. 121 (September 2020)

 

[September] 

“september haiku senses”

 

nerves tingle that were dormant

september

birds sing faster in the veins

 

a jugful of tap water

september

washes down dawn’s windscreen ice

 

fingers run across thin glass

september

chasing favourite pictures

 

bright sun light details each room

september

rain darkens the next hour

 

look after the pennies and

september

the pounds look after themselves

 

tongue repeats the language of

september

after the songbirds have flown

 

sore sinuses under siege

september

meds a brief relief party

 

it’s all over already

september

the meeting texts the big news

 

cool mynahs pollinating

september

small pink nectarine blossoms

 

computer-free few hours

september

enjoying a meal with friends

 

red light runners tailgaters

september

lane hoppers late blinkers hoons

 

dog with a limp, dog with stick

september

park a whirligig of wind

 

noses waver savouring

september

is that blossom, lavender …?

 

if rain makes the ground sodden

september

wet football decides the score

 

their trespasses are scarlet

september

their online headlines are read

 

ear delicately tunes to

september

nature sublime chanteuse

 

eyes drew all geometries

september

that close now blank storyboards 

Japan

 

Image of Senso-ji Temple in Tokyo by B. Harvey

 

“august haiku japan”

 

postcards no more just chat app

narita

send/receive yes have landed

 

earthquake early warning all

tsunami

network early morning call

 

tokyo together beats to

shinjuku

greets meets seats eats bleats repeats

 

wabi-sabi means lonely

wasabi

means sharing something spicy

 

slow boats in bucket seats view

shinkansen

streams hills slo-mo hokusai

 

O un-beleaf-a-bubble

suzuki

x-planes ink-ready-bubble

 

it’s pretty rainy upon

tsuruga

pretty and isn’t stopping

 

it is mist wild streams castles

nagoya

gold rooms walks and mist again

 

green mountain stream flute music

odori

up firm feet down drumming ground

 

flowing air and tangled cloud

nagashi

somen flow down bamboo chutes

 

waterfalls of butterflies

kyoto

computers do not compare

 

monkey tourists frolic at

kosan-ji

locals rabbit to frog guides

 

amazing amazingness

todai-ji

big buddha is still as stone

 

teatime in selected realms

osaka

expo pavilions

 

vast unseen but knowable

fujisan

under days weeks months of cloud

 

every fashion crosses

shibuya

stop look admire no time

 

cloud-surpassing towers where

nippori

radiates all directions

 

 

 

 

July

 

“wye july haiku”

 

*of droplet thread rising stream

waterfall

off leaf stone ledge fern frond pool

 

*fire stump frills brief rainbow

rosella

and another on seed hunt

 

*renaissance earplug drops of

spotify

daybreak’s mist trickling window

 

*kindling powder redgum dust

fireplace

morning’s level playing field

 

*corrugated ripples ring

water tank

wherein deep waters run still

 

*white smoke drifts above gully

rainwater

reflects on decking glistens

 

*smoothest mud wettest leaf where

echidna

spiralled a ball of a time

 

*curvy cloudy sky tingling

eucalypts

claw boulder underground creak

 

*gravel grip vehicle climbs

boulevarde

then again birdcall silence

 

*bolstered balustraded bold

weekenders

pop corks watch screens have a doze

 

*green neck torsion straightened

king parrot

black claw precision ambles

 

*treetop crests waving miles meet

horizon

permanent marker sea line

 

*cold elongated grassy

watercourse

old unsung storm-drain the sea

 

*dropdown seaviews wildweeds up

no-through-road

chorus raucous cockatoos

 

*water everywhere high tide

erosion

bark hangings drip from branches

 

*guttering froth blowholes gasp

salt water

returns thunder against reef

 

*uncontained sky white grey blue

container

uncontained sea grey blue green

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ideogram

 

[Ideogram]

 

“haiku ideogram june”

 

precious intermittent clear

rainwater

creases increases powers

 

powerful tile-filled guttered

underscores

suction fertilise cascade

 

cascading casement condo

horizon

glints reflects gleams surroundings

 

surround façade-ish symbolled

double-you

mirrors one amidst crowds thick

 

thickening thinning twinning

cumulus

darkens dins evaporates

 

elongated chubby sport

bicycles

wander wheelie wheel onward

 

earthward multitudinous

foliage

migrates colouring misting

 

misted chilled stilled embrowned bound

home river

burdens banks broods believes bushed

 

bushed remade driven relaid

thoroughfare

pushes lines propels destines

 

designed commedia joke

emojis

grin laugh scowl weep impromptu

 

impromptu handheld red neat

a love heart

touched screened messaged proliferates

 

prolific well-oiled fast-track 

turning lane

idles shifts peaks witchhatted

 

hardhatted scaffolded fresh

construction

redesigns signs off landscapes

 

landscaped walking-sticked wheelchaired

disabled

ramps closets spaces unstopped

 

uncapped untapped unsapped black

wine bottle

browns reddens greens empties grape

 

grapevine satnav roundabout  

circular

night for day info graphic

 

photographic negative

not full moon

whitening outlines precious

 

 

Seventy

  

[Seventy]

 

“may haiku seventy”

 

nothing to say for itself

seventy

then this word torrent of years

 

leaves and hailstones then raindrops

seventy

at a time fall from the skies

 

so many books to read at

seventy

so few hours in the day

 

at the birthday party for

seventy

old talk turns to falls units

 

the world is not seven but

seventy

times seven awesome with age

 

were simeon and anna

seventy

when the child confirmed their hopes

 

while in news just to hand see

seventy

is the age when life begins

 

people also ask: how do you spell

seventy?

what’s the word for 70?

 

blood thinners beta blockers

seventy

gout inhibitors aspirin

 

the bedroom study kitchen

seventy

the bathroom laundry garage

 

what journeys to recall at

seventy

names and faces remembered

 

cities of gold in time’s light

seventy

buried in the mind to mine

 

could you take from all your words

seventy

that said all that need be said

 

seventeen in a haiku

seventy

in a psalm about to end

 

to hold to all the past at

seventy

or pass on to the future

 

unknown obscure empty

seventy

yet known true full, to oneself

 

we are meant to understand

seventy

but we don’t, altogether

 

 

 

Objects

 

[April]

 

“haiku april object”

 

emptied of undreamt refuse

wheelie bins

left yawning in dawning streets

 

pop-up theatre of old

roller-door

plays morning’s mini-drama

 

shorts or pants shoes or sandals

cardigan

or not the day cold or hot?

 

perhaps install white wooden

venetian

blinds on sun-facing windows

 

autumn comes early to the

computer

upgrades downloads old versions

 

train faces silent in thought

audio

wired to pocket podcasts

 

rushed some give a second glance

clocktower

but most don’t have a minute

 

tradies make up new storeys

scaffolding

comes to grips with construction

 

bike helmets walking frames ring

ceramic

coffee cups at street cafés

 

the present moment includes

cameras

distracting from the present

 

the pope dies elections pass

newspapers

flatten their worlds to an inch

 

prune plum-trees to improve heat

reduction

of buildings and the spring buds

 

so much depends upon the

secateurs

left in the old wheelbarrow

 

95% rain meets

overheads

runs then drops to long dry earth

 

night reads too much into the

standard lamp

window glowing in darkness

 

unfixed constellations of

satellites

leave transitory flight charts

 

dreaming so far that even

eiderdown

is faraway memory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suburb

 

Glen Huntly at Daybreak

[Suburb]

 

“march suburb haiku”

 

there’s a crack in everything

yarraville

and that’s how the light gets in

 

the compost is perfection

thomastown

the tomatoes turn bright red

 

minutes broadmeadows glenroy

pascoe vale

west brunswick on the freeway

 

pobblebonk frog from log drops

moonee ponds

into the water kerplop

 

the weekend arena of

jolimont

its roar of weekday workers

 

more green leaves than yellow leaves

collingwood

soon more yellow leaves than green

 

oh apartments apartments

south yarra

apartments more apartments!

 

the ubers go too fast through

elsternwick

and the trams go far too slow

 

cream brick fifties make way in

cheltenham

for the chocolate brick twenties

 

heatwave conditions of march

kananook

cool into daylight saving

 

glades caper and shimmer in

rosanna

eltham copper butterflies

 

patients in emergency

heidelberg

doctors talk in corridors

 

dry side toasts with rainwater

camberwell

wet side floats on gold bubbly

 

same same, same but different

glen iris

ashburton glen iris, same

 

eucalypt mural barks of

mooroolbark

and morale barks of park dogs

 

there’s vietnamese spanish

dandenong

peruvian sudanese greek

 

more carparks stores trolleys as

pakenham

grows miles in all directions