Zen, Haiku and Senryu
Haiku: Seasons
winter
impatience of new beginnings:
January cherry blossom
through an open window
come our winter visitors
sparrows and snowflakes
green, balloon dog
scuttles from December winds
Christmas spider:
threads of icicles
adorn park bench
full moon
illuminates
winter night
white, lichen covered boulders
beckon winter snow
blue tits dance
tree to tree
travelling companions
with bowing branches
the oak surveys
her river grave
on an up-turned pine root
snowdrops stretch to the sky
entwined in ivy
ash tree
frozen in time
evening play
catching breath
frosty night
faint shadows
on stone
inhabit graveyard
faint tap tap tap
on gravestone
song thrush and snail
walking the same path
not the same path
spring
“we are all in agreement”
daffodils nodding
in spring breeze
flirting with spring winds
autumn beech leaves
delicate rainbow
a-top ploughed soil
spring butterfly
jackdaw’s laughing
a welcomed announcement:
spring is here!
on spring winds
acrobatic buzzard
performs in his circus
cold and wet
passing of life
in the blackbird’s nest
fallen from the nest
owlet seeks shelter
in my wellies
with a sweeping hand
daisy buds break
their snow blanket
lazy bumble bee
drunk on sycamore pollen
angry faces
etched on water
spring torrent
wearing his best suit
but no date this year
spring chaffinch
carpenters toiling
on high-rise homes:
spring crows
summer
incense smoke dances
around summer raindrops
day-dreaming collie
a-top tractor
counting sheep
in morning sun
yellow wagtail
dances a jig
along water’s edge
heron stands- fishing
“all aboard Lovely Nellie”
Kirkcudbright day-trippers, tripping
summer showers
little lochans
adorn Alchemilla
leaf to leaf
water cascades
down Peony
clicking mala beads
attract a grasshopper
OM MANI PADME HUM
summer bonfire
fireflies melt
into twilight
now I’m here, now I’m not
hesitant lizard
embraces morning sun
along an assault course
of Mango leaves
ants shopping
hitchin’ a ride
on saffron robes
house fly
visits the Temple
on the Temple roof
pied wagtail dances
with his golden shadow
as summer ends
even the sail-boats
are heading south
autumn
through cracks in the gutter
raindrops compose
their own mantra
race against time
poppy buds dance
in autumn winds
dew-drops caught
in the spider’s web:
a string of diamonds
dew-drops caught
in the spider’s web:
a string of tears
with every fallen leaf
its nakedness appears
cherry tree
with every fallen leaf
cherry tree drifts
into her hibernation
separated by wire
mothers lament
their spring lambs
white horses ride
St. Mary’s Loch
autumn winds
orange bracken
brightens
once-green hills
seconds pass
by leaf fall
nature’s timepiece
newly shed
oak leaves
newly gained
memories
sleeping under
gowns of moss
stone bears
rock-pools of oak leaves
autumn beach-combing
floating leaf
carries away
my dreams
thud!… autumn wind-fall
sudden downpour… of oak leaves
single fallen leaf
comes to rest on my hand
an absent friend
“Pakistan Summer” a five sequence Haiku
of plastic and feathers
Pindi’s kites
cruise the evening sky
along my floor tiles
ants navigate
their criss-cross highway
in early darkness
of the Punjabi summer
fireflies play tag
in irrigation ditches
bull-frogs
serenade mosquitoes
on snow-covered treetops
cranes sleep
Rae Film & Media 