renga party!

I've just finished a nijuin renga workshop for The Poetry School, and submitted it for publication.

For a feel of the atmosphere, on a fine spring day, please visit this weblink:
Area 17:


shorter evening
an overcast sky follows me
into the pub



all my best,

Alan
32 days and counting to the deadline!
The With Words Online Haiku Competition

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morning commute
atop flowering dogwood
half moon rests

Arctic spring

always surprising -
from the African summer
the early swallows

***

aina yllättäen -
Afrikan kesästä
varhaiset pääskyset

Freedom

after car dies
renting one
to go plant shopping

Early trip to the grocery store

dancing to disco music
while 20-something employee
wonders what it is

new pin on chest
love-bugs
still joined

my only vacation this summer -
sipping beer
from Newcastle, UK

first iris unfurls
in the monrning sun

trees dance

in the sunset glow-

spring breeze

in the spring breeze
escorting the blackbird's flight
petals in a flutter

in dawn's silence,
the din of restless thought, shushed
by gardenia scent

watercolour dawn,
pansies that sway in the breeze;
like potted butterflies

memories forsaken
the golden yellow
of this one rose

dawn light
nothing else
in the spider web


***

lumière de l'aube
rien d'autre
dans la toile d'araignée
.

daffodils dead

daffodils dead
dandelions and daisies
take over

© 2008, gerald england

digging garden bed
enjoying the warm soil
through my fingers

a chorus of frogs
beyond the high gate
vastness settles in

11:30 Mass

Lunch at In-Laws

Children playing

in backyard garden

Wife holds my hand

profusion of color

morning commute
rainbow of lillies
swaying in the breeze

Flowers for Alfons (April, 1945)

Along the rivers bank,

Poppies erupt

Staccato, crimson bursts

Seeping slowly

Into the Oder

blossoms opening
and my grateful heart, too —
impossibly wide

(Cross-posted - with photo and story -
at But Wait, There's More!)

theatre bar

drinking
with dodgy characters
from Dostoyevsky

green velvet shoes
and she turns
her ankle

recouping...

after shift from hell
ordering plants online
to decompress

yet another april shower ...

the peach tree
standing
in the driving hailstone

chaffinches arrived

you children of spring
the first victim of traffic
was buried today


te kevään lapset
aikaisin täällä ja nyt jo
kuolleena maassa

cool morning

cool morning
in these spring leaves
fall colors

late morning
chatting with the new plants
to see who goes where

Who wins?

dumpster stink
jamines vine flowering
sweet smell dominates

weekend fun

when the car was fixed
doing my first plant runs
with weekly shopping

colors of sunset
land on the mountain top
brushed by the breeze

april wind -
a dead leaf
in my right shoe


***

vent d'avril -
une feuille morte
dans ma chaussure droite

.

post pluvia

post pluvia
so many sakura
reach for the sky


photo by lori bierly
words by mandy smith
© 2008

midnight

12 degree night
first culottes and
cleavages spill out
on sidewalks outside clubs
there's skin again

chatting with girlfriend
landscaping plans for her yard
with a space for me

Haiku - Vows

morning in my town –
bees and their blossoms
renewing vows

(Cross-posted at But Wait, There's More!)

Weeding

after a hard shift
warring against the wild mint
battling all ivy

his wheelchair shaded
my arthritic knees warm
in the sunlight

Following me

orange and black
going around and around
butterfly

Breaking the Law

waiting to cross street
in the middle of block
NOPD car stops
officer permits me
to jaywalk

(NOPD = New Orleans Police Department)

April shower

a concert-goer
runs through the rain
- programme over his head


(info re free international haiku contest on my blog)

breeze through the tulips:
tinkers, tinkers,
until the petals fall off

morning commutes-
first new bud on the rose bush
hangs in the moonlight

GREETING

Flowers turn
to the rising sun
in greeting


--R.K.SINGH

finally
after winter's dark fastballs
some off-speed pitches

(Crossposted at @haikutime)

cleansing

bad morning-
me versus the back yard weeds
they didn't have a chance

scents between seasons...
yesterday, onion grass
today, chimney smoke

(Crossposted at But Wait, There's More!)

early morning opera -
wind, rain, and
loud thunder

Falling

falling so fast
it's invisible--
april rain

No Sunrise

no sunrise...
dew beads
on a dead lilac

in the puddles
cherry blossoms:
kaleidoscope in the breeze

in the zoological gardens...

hungry(?)
sea-lion
opens the iron door

panda bear
asleep in tree
- still as a stuffed toy

humbolt penguins
on the rocks
- observing the people

stick-insects
unmoved by life
behind glass

dusk nearing dark —
even the forsythia
gives in to grey

(Cross-posted at But Wait, There's More!)

Swirl

swirl of the dentist's drill...
rain falling
straight down

Relaxation

end of long week
overcoming work stress
and weed free beds

Spring shopping, I meet
good old friends from Italy
Primofiori lemons

EL COLEGIO ROAD STROLL

long legged spider
struts slowly
my slower shadow

crow in the tree above
I look at him
silence

smoker's bench
taking the liberty I sit
and draft haiku

Great Find...

on the way home
sitting out on the curb -
free tiger lillies

black gold
that I can't wear -
gasoline

little palpitations

as the numbers turn -

buying gasoline

wherever I looked today....

birds
jumping
on each other's backs

bulb shopping-
planning a neighbor's garden
on her dime

Spring rain

spring rain-
maganolia and dogwood petals
wooshing past traffic

Don't panic!

at the side
of the path -
the lion's-teeth*

(*lion's-teeth are quite harmless - it's a straight translation of the german word for dandelion)

rain-bent,
the bamboo tries once more
to straighten up

(Cross-posted at But Wait, There's More!)

DREAM-BASED TANKA

the soldier wounds himself
with a plant bulb he uproots
"April is the cruelest month"
to keep fighting at the front
with babies at home

[third line line by t.s. eliot; "heard" in the dream]

reaching for a vest -
cherry blossom
laden with snow

mountain meltwater

thickening sky
mountain meltwater
surges by


photo by lori bierly
words by mandy smith
© 2008

Paignton 2008

harbourside puddle
a group of young turnstones
warble and waddle

words & photograph © 2008 gerald england

----------

Our boy stops to ask
how the grass knows
when to start

(Cross-posted at
But Wait, There's More!)

morning break-
shopping for new rose bushes
for Mother's Day

In the north

(In central Finland we still have loads of snow and all the lakes are frozen until early May. But, already, there is the warm sunshine and the first migrating birds.)


under the ice crust
unseen, unknown to us all
the fish greet the spring
---

jään alla hiljaa
kaloille tulee kevät
salaa kaikilta

a first bee bumping
through the forsythia:
sleepily

cool spring day-
wishing the fleece was enough
in the shade

Spring Sales

hot spring sales-
potted lillies and tulips

treasures
on the green lawn
African violets

cat staring at thermometer
in window box
hunting green lizard

on the way to work
not thinking of winning
I race the creek

(also twittered at "butwait")

FOOTSTEPS

Walking over
a carpet of dried leaves
hears own footsteps


--R.K.SINGH

without knowing why
I reach up to touch a new
unfurling leaf

~

spring thaw —
an old friend reaches
for the phone

(Cross-posted at But Wait, There's More!)

morning commute-
magnolia blossoms shimmer
under waning moon

.


.
Tokyo station-
my spring footsteps
over Basho's frog

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