Patient Property by Kirsten Cliff Elliot

Patient Property is a collection of haiku and tanka about Kirsten Cliff Elliot’s journey through leukaemia. These poems cover all aspects of her cancer journey, from diagnosis to remission. I particularly noticed how often how she ties her experiences, thoughts and feelings with the natural world. Spiders' webs appear in more than one of these poems:

storm clouds

can hope be caught 

in a spider's web? 

 

The spider's web suggesting the confusion and uncertainties surrounding chronic illness.

 

The compression of language in these short form poems means that so much can be said in so few words, while also encouraging re-reading, which deepens the meaning. 

 

between breaths

following the white

of this butterfly  

 

These poems read in sequence offer a moving insight into Kristen's journey.  

 

The book comes with an introduction from the poet along with a Foreword by Owen Bullock and an Afterword by Patricia Prime.  

 

Patient Property by Kirsten Cliff Elliot, published (2019) by  Velvet Dusk Publishing. 

 

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Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book direct from Kirsten in exchange for the last copy of my own poetry book. 

 

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The latest post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack is all about animal migrations, you can read it here.  

 

 

 

Rainy Day Haiku

watching the raindrops -
kitten raises her paw
to the windowpane

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originally published in Blithe Spirit, the journal of the British Haiku Society.  

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Today is World Bee Day, to read my latest Crafty Green Poet Substack post about bees, click here.  

Late Spring

After a mild winter, everyone predicted
an early, warming spring

but instead, chill mists kept back
the flowers and buds

so now in May, celandines,
those flowers of March,

still gaze at us, star-like
from the undergrowth.

Their timing all wrong.

Like you.

Far too late now
to look at me
the way you do. 

 

originally published in Mslexia (a few years ago now, don't know why I've never posted it on this blog before!)  

Polar Corona by Caroline Gill

 

Polar Corona by Caroline Gill, a winner of the Hedgehong Poetry Prize, is a crown (corona) of seven interlinked sonnets about Antarctic exploration and penguins. The last line of each sonnet becomes the first line of the next sonnet and the last line of the final sonnet is also the first line of the first sonnet, connecting the whole sequence together and underlining the interconnectedness of life at the Antarctic. 

The sonnets display not only well crafted rhthm and rhymes (often half-rhyme) but also occasional effective alliteration:

a wilderness of wind upon a chart,
a sea of storms to keep the watch alert,
a yard of graves to mark the men who died.  

from Crown.  

The sonnets about the penguins are particularly appealing. Often I can imagine them being spoken by David Attenborough over documentary footage: 

The youngsters need to eat to fill out fast;
they peck and jostle for each scrap of food.
Survival instincts may resemble greed,
but soon the time will come to quit the nest.  

from Birth 

The sonnets here were inspired by a poetry course / residency at the Scott Polar Research Institute and Polar Museum in Cambridge, England. The result is a beautifully produced book containing well crafted poetry that shines a light on the southern-most part of our world. 

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Polar Corona by Caroline Gill, published (2025) by Hedgehog Poetry Press  

 To order a signed or unsigned print copy please contact Caroline.

 Further details and purchase of eBook only: Hedgehog Press. 

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Meanwhile my latest post has just gone live on my Substack! You can read it here.  

 

nightskies haiku

overcast skies -
the meteor shower
unseen

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I first posted this haiku a few years ago, but am reposting it, as last night, we had hoped to go to a meteor watching party but the skies clouded over and the party was cancelled....

Also a few years ago, Dosankodebbie made a beautiful artwork incorporating this haiku, you can see it here. 

Ellisland Farm, a home of Robert Burns

We spent much of last week in Dumfries and Galloway in the south-west of Scotland. We've visited this area many times, but there are still new places to explore. I'm not sure why it took us so long to get round to visiting Ellisland Farm, as it is very close to the hotel where we always stag, and I've already visited the other Burns museums in Dumfries. This farm was the home for Robert Burns for just a few years from 1788, but was the place where he wrote many of his most famous pieces including Tam O'Shanter. It's a very impressive museum, with plans to extend and develop it to preserve the built heritage and to further celebrate the legacy of Robert Burns. 

Entry to the museum is £6.00 (members get in for free) which includes an introductory talk and video in the lovely granary building

After that you're left to your own devices to explore the buildings and the outdoor spaces. We didn't give ourselves enough time to explore the riverside walks, as we were returning to Edinburgh that day. So we'll need to go back next time for those walks. We did spend some time in the orchard

where we noticed several Red Admiral butterflies feasting on the windfalls

 

and these impressive galls on the leaves of an Oak tree, the ones that look like miniature doughnuts are Silky Button Galls, the other ones are Spangle Galls

We were both interested to see that on the desk where Burns used to write, there are some Oak Apple galls, which, in his day, would have been used to make ink

You can see a couple more photos from Ellisland (including the desk where Burns wrote) on my Shapeshifting Green Blog.  

I'll be posting more photos from our holiday over the next few days! 
 

Ant Invasion (Malawi, 1991)

As if from nowhere
an endless stream of large black ants
invaded our home.

. 

We had become fond of their smaller cousins

that seemed to kiss

as they passed each other on our kitchen walls

but these sharp-jawed soldiers marched

through every room –

our house a mere obstacle on their route.

.

Walking too close to walls

we risked our feet being nipped

by a member of this single-minded colony

just travelling from A to B.

.

And in this land carved out from forest

who are the invaders anyway?

 

 

originally published in the Russell Streur Nature Poetry Anthology published by North of Oxford.  

 

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I published a new post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack today, you can read it here. 

 

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I'm happy to have a haiku included in the September 2025 issue of Sense and Sensibility.  

Robin

 

autumn sunshine -
the robin's song
changes key 

 

previously published on Haiku Seeds.  

Dwell by Simon Armitage

 

Yesterday I had the great good fortune to be able to attend Simon Armitage's event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The event was actually already sold out, but a friend who had a ticket was unable to attend and had passed her ticket on to me! 

I had already bought the book in the festival bookshop before the event and had read it all while queueing to get into the Spiegeltent where Armitage (the UK's Poet Laureate) was to speak. It's a short book, full of accessible poetry and beautifully presented, with wonderful illustrations by Beth Munro. 

The book focuses on the places where animals live and was inspired by the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall. Poems range from haiku to Insect Hotel, which imagines Trip Advisor type reviews from a range of inhabitants: 

"Stopped here overnight on the way to a decaying oak a couple of miles away and ended up hibernating for the whole winter. Would deffo recommend. Dreamland."   

At the event, chaired by Nick Barley (former director of the Edinburgh International Boook Festival and now director of the National Poetry Centre in Leeds) Armitage read from Dwell and discussed his writing process and the state of nature conservation in the UK. 

Some people have commented that the book seems 'slight', which on first glance it might do (though I prefer to think of it as small and perfectly formed). However, the poems in the book have a double life and will themselves dwell in the Lost Gardens of Heligan, in a series of installations around the site, so that people will be able to find poetry as they walk around. 

It was an excellent event and the book would make a beautiful gift for any poetry lover or anyone interested in animal homes. And if you get the chance, visit the Lost Gardens of Heligan and see if you can find the poems in situ!  

Dwell by Simon Armitage, published by Faber (2025)  

fledgling haiku

newly fledged blackbirds
in the garden —
shadow of a cat

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originally published on Haiku Girl Summer. 

 

heat haze haiku

skylarksong—
blue butterflies flutter
in heat hazed fields

 

originally published in Haiku Girl Summer.  

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May is the perfect time to take a walk, so that's what I wrote about in my latest Crafty Green Poet Substack post, which you can read here.

haiku for the bees

dandelion clocks —
already too late
for the bees

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originally published on Haiku Girl Summer.  

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I published a post today on my Substack blog. It's all about birds' nests, from the beautiful magpie nest I shared photos of here a few days ago to the swifts we hope will use the nest boxes we put up a few years ago! You can read it here. 

Swifts Are Here!

Do you see the swifts are here again?
They swoop so low and soar so high
I think there may be more than ten -
do you see the swifts are here again?
We know it's summer round here when
our favourite bird comes gliding by
You see the swifts are here! Again
they sweep so low and soar so high!

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We are lucky enough to live in an area of Edinburgh where there are several active swift nests sites. Sadly, numbers of these amazing birds have been severely declining across the UK over the past several years (a decline of 65% since 1995), due largely to a lack of nest sites and reducing populations of insects (their main food source). (See this 2020 article on the Bird Guides website for some thoughts on the factors behind the decline of the swift).

The swifts arrived back in our local area at about 3pm today, when four of them appeared over the rooftops and then floated away again! 

We put up two nest boxes on our front wall a couple of years ago (we persuaded the roofing contractor to fit them when our last roofing work was carried out). I haven't seen the swifts going into the nest boxes, though they have flown close over the past couple of years. Hopefully this year may be the year that they decide to use the nest-boxes....

I enjoyed watching this video from the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) about how we can help swifts. I played it at quite a high volume with the windows open, hoping that the calls of the swifts on the soundtrack would attract the local swifts to our nest boxes. Another great video from the RSPB is this one, which shows the route of one swift as it flies from its breeding grounds in the UK across Europe and around Africa and back here for the next breeding season, a journey during which it will not land at all! I particularly like this video as it looks as though this swift passed directly over the village where I lived in Malawi for two years! 

If you're in the UK, please consider signing this petition from 38 Degrees asking to make it a legal rule that all new houses built in the UK must include Swift bricks.

birdsong haiku

song thrushes sing
after the downpour —
petrichor

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originally published on Haiku Girl Summer.  

Haiku Girl Summer will re-open for submissions of haiku on 15 May. 

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I've just added some vintage sew on patches to my Crafty Green Magpie Etsy shop, you can see them here. 

haiku

warming seas—
coral reefs weep
with algae

originally published in cattails.  

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read updates on the state of Australia's Great Barrier Reef here. 

 

Haiku for Peace

waiting for peace -
a storm of petals
in the garden

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originally published on Shadow Pond Journal here.

haiku

robins sing -
scarlet elf caps
in the moss 

February is National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo). I've been writing a haiku every day so far this month! 

Here are some excellent resources for appreciating and writing haiku:

NaHaiWriMo Website.

Aha Poetry.

British Haiku Society.

Haikai and Haiku on the Forgotten Poets Substack. 

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Meanwhile, after a wee haitus, I've posted a new post on my Substack blog. You can read it here. 

Litany of Coal by Jean Taylor

These days discussions of coal centre, rightly, on its negative effects, the pollution and its contribution to climate change. However, coal mining was once a vital part of many communities in Scotland (as it remains in many parts of the world). 

Jean Taylor is the daughter of a mining surveyor and draws on family history and a childhood spent in Nigeria and Scotland to explore the legacy of the coal mining industry. 

The beautifully written poems in this pamphlet feature blacksmiths, colliers and their families, scullery maids, the lord of the manor and coal mine canaries. All the poems relate to various aspects of the coal mining industry and mining communities. 

The constant fear of mining accidents meant that miners' families were very superstitious:

'Shoes laid on tables, propped up ladders,

spilt salt - all carried risks that needed warding.' 

 

from Married In

 

As well as the constant threat of accidents, abandoned mines were a constant danger to the unwary. Visitors from other places might not be aware, but the children living in the mining communities, such as Mossmorran.'knew the whole town was rotten. Abandoned /pit shafts lay in wait like cats for spiders.'

 

The families were, by necessity, careful with resources too:

 

...........................................................'now new quilts 

are needed. Rachel prepares her squares -

the herring-bone that made Tom look so dapper,

her own blue felt, Nan's jacket,' 

 

from Back-stitched 

 

The writer several times ponders the colonial legacy of her ancestors' involvement in managing coal mines in Nigeria. referring to a bureau that was given to her grandfather, by the colliers of Lassodie Colleries, where he was the manager: 

 

'and did my grandpa feel bad

about taking the food

out of the mouths of bairns

and should i think his bureau a safe place

for storing my poems.' 

 

from The Plaque

 

This small book offers a lot of insight into the legacies of coal mining, and ends, beautifully on the beach, looking at: 

 

a sparkled trail of anthracite

scopped from rich seams 

that lie untroubled now 

beneath the Firth.  

 

from Spring Tide.

 

Litany of Coal by Jean Taylor, published (2024) by Red Squirrel Press. 

Jean Taylor attends one of my creative writing groups. You can read my review of her earlier poetry pamphlet 'Deliberate Sunshine' here.

Deliberate Sunshine by Jean Taylor

 

Jean Taylor is an Edinburgh based poet, who comes along to one of the writing groups I facilitate. She's very modest about her talents and I hadn't realised she had written this book, until I found a copy in the free poetry library in the Diggers Pub (an Edinburgh pub that has a poet in residence and regular poetry events). So I read a few of the poems and then returned the book to the free poetry library. Once I got home, I ordered my own copy from the publisher, Black Agnes Press, a small poetry press based in Dunbar, East Lothian. 

This is a book of poetry about family, grief and growing up, written with an eye for telling detail and the beauty of nature. The title Deliberate Sunlight comes from a phrase in the short poem Solar.

Sibling relationships are explored in Sibling Rivalry Shadorma and from a genetic point of view in Genetic Variations, which looks at inheritance of characteristics within the narrator's family. Too Short a Date (subtitled Letter to a Sister) is full of a shared enthusiasm for flowers, many of which hold specific family memories: 

Germander Speedwells
like tiny blue stars - for me, their petals
hold our mother, young and slender
through her warm summer days.

Summer Blood details the narrator having her first period on a beach holiday, describing the "summer rowan redness" and ending with her "practising for the possibility of being a woman."

A visit to Newington Graveyard, 14 January, 2019 meditates on some of the gravestones, including "a fallen angel, nose in the air", while "long brushed / foxes appear and eyeing me, disappear". 

Several of the poems in the collection focus on the grief of losing a loved one, with Mayday perfectly capturing the sense of disorientation: 

Living without him is like flying
without instruments
towards an unlit airstrip
in a remote landscape. 

The collection aptly (for a book called Deliberate Sunshine) ends with the image of daffodils, bought for:

the joy
of watching them
becoming sunlight.

Hope and the beauty of nature shining through grief.

 

Deliberate Sunshine by Jean Taylor, published (2019) by Black Agnes Press. 

The Alchemy of Night

Those specks we call stars
are the fire embers
of spirits leaving bodies.

The bridges of the city shake
under quaking neon clouds.

Everything is about to collapse.

Even the stars. 

 

originally published on Shot Glass Journal.