Haiku - the unseen

One Deep Breath this week asks us to write haiku on 'the unseen'. Rather than taking any supernatural approach to this theme, Crafty Green Poet features haiku on invisible aspects of the natural environment:

a mix of gases
invisible but vital -
our atmosphere


darkness –
the scent of honeysuckle
fills the garden.

For a different interpretation of the theme, see my Alter Ego blog.

Right in Front of You

After early morning rain,
the sun came out again
warm on the face, this late October day.

From the office, I can see
sunlight play on the white football stadium
making it strangely beautiful.

Upstairs, someone else's boss is on the phone
Moaning about how horrid the day has been
'Raining cats and dogs and dark as winter'

I am my own boss, free to hear the robin sing
or watch the geese fly far overhead
against the bright blue sky.

Haiku - mystery

One Deep Breath this week has asked us to write haiku with an air of mystery (the Japanese aesthetic Yugen). Here are two I have written on some of the mysteries of Autumn:


one golden leaf
floats slowly downriver –
harvest moon.


wide open sky
and empty mudflats –
bird calls come closer.

Pot Pourri Bags

These two bags contain purple and gold pot pourri I bought in a second hand shop (though judging on the potency of the perfume, it was very nearly new!). The purple bag originally held a mirror and I added a fancy button from my button box as the original button had fallen off. The golden bag is made from fabric from a top I altered a while back (I've used this fabric for other things posted earlier in this blog). The gold bag is fastened with a piece of gold ribbon that came from gift wrap I think and the two are slightly precariously held together with a thin gold string.

Our Garden

Some of you may remember me saying a while back that we were hoping to get involved with the Community Backgreen Initiative, to improve the shared gardens behind our building. Well things have started moving and we have had our first meetings and today we surveyed the area. A lot of it is quite nice already, for example, there is already a picnic table and barbeque.

However, some areas will need more work:

The design meetings are going to start next week, which is where everyone living in the surrounding buildings who is interested, will come together to plan what they would like to see in the common areas of the gardens. We'll start clearing, weeding and planting in the gardens next Spring!

The Community Backgreen Initiative is managed by Re:Solution.

Haiku - Simple Pleasures

One Deep Breath's prompt this week is to write haiku or related verses about simple pleasures. This first one is a very autumnal pleasure, particularly for the little ones:

Crisp autumn air –
small boots kick bright coloured leaves
on the path.


These next two relate to when I lived in Malawi:

Suppertime
on the dusky verandah –
cicadas call.

Sun sinks behind hills
as lake merges with sky -
fishing boats parade.

Haiku - countryside

The prompt this week at One Deep Breath is to write a haiku about the countryside. Most of my haiku are about the countryside, I think, but here's a new one:

Our countryside
full of beauty and colour -
disappearing.

Poet of the Week

I am totally delighted to be one of the two Poets of the Week on Poetry Superhighway. I am sharing the honour with Christine Bruness, who co-incidentally has featured in my poetry blog magazine Bolts of Silk.

See us both here: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/potw.html#fp1

Humming Bird Hawk Moths

I was so excited today to see a humming bird hawkmoth hovering on a lilac bush in the centre of Edinburgh! Gosh its October for goodness sake this must be a major sign of global warming! I didn't get a photo and the moth's wings were moving so quickly that any photo I took wouldn't have come out. But there are some photos on the UK Safari website: http://www.uksafari.com/hummingbird2.htm.

haiku - books

On One Deep Breath this week the prompt is to write a haiku or tanka about books. So I thought of an outdoor scene for an environmentalist with her books:

in a shady spot –
the wind blows through the leaves
of my favourite book.

Festival of the Trees Blog Carnival

I am delighted that my poem Corstorphine Sycamore, has been included in this month's Festival of the Trees Blog Carnival, hosted by Hoarded Ordinaries. Go along and check out the wealth of material about trees - poetry, photos and articles - posted by bloggers around the world!