Haiku & Senryu

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Haiku & Senryu Page 2

by Pam Crane

There is too much pain

  To put into words. I weep

  For broken China.

  (17/5/08-5 days after the Szechuan earthquake)

  Broken promises -

  The pied piper of Szechuan

  Came for your children

  (18/5/08-6 days after the Szechuan earthquake)

  Sweet girl, sleep softly -

  Rock pillows, concrete coverlet

  Be my lost embrace

  (18/5/08-6 days after the Szechuan earthquake)

  Break time, the end of lessons,

  No more school.

  Screaming.

  (18/5/08-6 days after the Szechuan earthquake)

  May '08 - crunch time.

  Walls fall, roofs and men cave in,

  Little lives aborted.

  (1000s of children lost in Szechuan,

  the Commons pass the Embryology Bill. 19/05/08)

  The eye of Heaven

  Sees you, mean strawberry thief,

  And the drowned thousands

  (18/5/08-a fortnight after the Burma cyclone)

  Threatening thunder

  Red mist blood on the carpet

  The clash of antlers

  (Men at war - Oct 2nd 2008)

 

  Thursday - Betws train.

  Snow printed, child pacified.

  Haiti in ruins.

  (14/01/10 - solo excursion to get snow out of my system;

  Quake mag 7 Jan 12th wrecks Port au Prince killing

  tens of thousands)

  The 42nd

  Mother's Day without a card

  Or a daffodil

  coma - I'm inside

  my locked home, not answering,

  waiting for daylight

  (6/06/10 - after Richard Hammond & Stirling Moss

  compare race-car crashes)

  too hot and too high

  only time runs out - what’s left

  burning and crying

  (Fire at Pudding Lane 1666 - 2/07/2010)

  interviewing pain

  in 17 syllables

  safer in prison

  Back to Top

  FOR THOSE LOVED AND GONE

  Strangely configured

  My parents' old furniture -

  Continuity

  (13/12/2013 looking around my room)

  No more blue snow

  Next to people who loved him

  Our fox chose to die

  (A melancholy month - I had to cut down our old Ceanothus;

  and the fox I used to watch running at night curled up under

  our Fuschia bush by the lounge wall and left this world

  without a sound.)

  'Zach's back!' Joyous the

  Conference of Star-Fathers

  We cannot attend

  Old hands breaking the

  Last of the Ospringe bayleaves

  Pavarotti died.

  (6/9/07)

  Sidereal Mars -

  My splitting head, the bombed plane,

  Your tears on my phone

  (Lockerbie bomb)

  Stretchers passing me;

  Young blood runs with mine in a

  Theatre of war

  (Royal marines bomb)

  American friends

  Hang in the Kentish air

  Healers are coming

  (M2 coach crash

  Eleven a.m.

  Mourning yesterday, today stops

  I have just started

  (House-hunting 12 Sept 2001)

  Under the carnage

  A front page ad for the car

  Soon closing my road

  (M6 tragedy -Weekly News

  Thursday October 23rd 2008)

  The grief of children

  Heart-breaking.The naked trees.

  The wreaths. The black cars.

  (The Funeral, November 4th 2008-

  Our Lady Star of the Sea-Noon)

  The spirits who made

  These bodies beautiful are flown

  We weep over bone

  (November 6th 2008)

  Led to the last seat

  I stood by your side; your grave

  Received my red rose.

  (Fr Frank’s funeral)

  No-one remembered

  It was my fun friend who died -

  I have stopped singing

  (Janet, departed)

  We walked, and smiled...

  In Folkestone tunnel my husband

  Picked up your pieces.

  (My dead poet)

  Rewind time - the friend

  Distraught, steps, the broken head -

  God, give back Nancy

  No telegram -

  Among the ashes

  Only her plastic smile

  (Ann Crane died at 99)

  Immaculately

  Turned out now in watered silk

  At God's beck & call

  (Stella's ashes scattered in Duddon Valley

  Sept.04 - 30/09/04)

  Back to Top

  BOXES - 19 SENRYU

  Boxes everywhere

  Closed, open, inside, outside

  Empty, full of air

  Inbox outbox mail

  Pillar to post redacting

  Filing shredding us

  Think out of the box

  Where you can cut to the chase

  And other clichés

  Beware of the box

  Lest sprung free grimacing Jack

  Give you a heart attack

  A box on the ear

  Damaging but in the groin

  Saving your lunch box

  Junction boxes or

  Box junctions - you enter them

  both on pain of death

  Serve your penalty -

  Finally out of the box

  Hope springs eternal

  Into the black box

  Secret thousands of Xes

  Kisses or crosses

  Orange in the rocks

  Not human debris this time

  Witness the Black Box

  Box ... box ... box this lap

  Don’t kill the lollipop man

  Win from the pit lane

  One green Ferrari

  Parked F1 Hybrid never

  Leaves its box

  At the theatre

  Poor folk sit up in the Gods

  The Queen in a box

  Raising the Tempest

  Needs a taller Prospero

  Fetch an orange box

  Get on the ladder

  Choccy-box cottages tick

  Box after perfect box

  In your Jewel Box

  Nothing to match the cluster

  Of heaven’s diamonds

  Shoe-box cigar-box

  Gift box squirreling treasures

  Nothing is wasted

  Next to the toy box

  A dressing-up box - watch out

  For teddies in drag

  Without the one man

  In the box trains crash queens die

  And no Dr. Who

  In front of the box

  Watching your world go by - soon

  You will leave in one

  Back to Top

  VIEWS FROM THE PATH

  O Lady - sapphire

  Amid birds and bells - hold high

  Your golden thunder

  (Madonna del Sasso 15/7/01)

  In thrilling palms, live

  Lightning carries the holy

  Word down God's mountain

  Thunder over Lake -

  Men, fireworks, no sleep. No sleep!

  Dawn storm! God's are best!

  (Locarno 15/7/01 .... dawn)

  Gold Sun God, O laugh

  out loud as you net the heart's

  highway with free light

  (Atenolol for G! ... 8/9/01 21h40)

 

  Mountain Seraphim

  Hymn in opalescent fire

  A Holy sunset

  (Menai Strait, spring 2003)

  Th
e storm of Heaven

  So flooded my spring with Love

  Even the Sun drowns!

  (week of prayer for Christian unity)

  Man whose skin fell off

  Under the scourge of karma

  God whose skin fell off

  ('the boy whose skin fell off' CH4 25/3/04 9h00 pm)

  The Passion

  Beaten back across

  Time raw passion bred of life

  Dyes history red

  Beyond the gate his

  Blood spatters a rising moon

  The world shatters

  Sunset bloody moon

  Crosses out Love, all square now

  Until the next time

  Skinned alive, the Lamb

  Imploring me beyond sobs...

  I cannot save you

  Gospel

  A few red letters

  Weigh down millennia with

  Clarifications

  A few red letters

  Millennia

  Of footnotes

  Christmas is over -

  Supermarket hot cross buns

  Scent the New Year

  A tear falls.

  A pearl forms.

  A prayer rises.

  Five lines in the blue

  At C sharp the Sunday sun

  Feast with an octave

  (jet-trails over Holy Trinity

  Ascension Sunday 23/5/04)

  Whether to join in -

  Murder in the Cathedral

  Salve vagina

  (29/05/04-10 yrs of women priests @ Durham)

  Even a whisper

  Rings too loud. Hushed by Cuthbert

  Our old lives steal back

  (28-29/5/04 Durham Cathedral)

  Only God is perfect.

  Now I know why

  I never finish the wall-papering

  Rosslyn in the rain

  Lightning indoors, magic lace,

  Beauty & breath caught

  In my old habit

  Sitting on warm stone to hear

  The Word I gilded

  (Lindisfarne Abbey 2/6/04)

  So near my old cell

  Tears well for another wake

  Disturbing the lake

  How will Mind create

  Heaven in our image without

  Murdering the world?

  Butchered Judas tree

  Kiss goodbye to your cold crown.

  Have I betrayed you...?

  (pruning Forest Pansy 22/11/08)

  Cybele's lion

  Wounds me Once Felicia

  Offered violets

  (28/3/09 - after dream on 24/3 showing me

  past life, followed by Web research)

  Vast lawns? Cropped heather.

  A cell, not gold. Bright foxes.

  God's dance in my heart

  (12/04/09-big dream c.07h30 )

  Trapping the Nightmare,

  Naming it, I nail its rage

  To Love's mighty Cross.

  (20/04/09-big nightmare - Pluto Asc, etc.)

  Wheel to wheel

  God's fingertip from Adam

  Inseparable

  Years of ecstasies

  Then you arrived and I stopped

  Writing poetry

  Having Aspergers

  Isn't the end of the world:

  Invert selection ...

  Every living soul

  The perfect inflorescence

  Of one bud of God

  Back to Top

  SNAPSHOTS OF A CRANE'S LIFE

  A man goes whistling,

  A woman without tea; numen shines,

  House-light is happy.

  (21/12/1971!)

  In a cheesenet trapped,

  Twelve little dark fishy things -

  Their name escaped me!

  (Anchovies at lunch)

  Nettle-fume that curled

  from webs has met its Angel

  in an opal Heaven

  (Ospringe garden 14th August 2001)

  Low-slung sun, god-gold

  I.D. disk swings in my eyes,

  Aten remembers me!

  All my life I was

  A winter child; my spring comes,

  Full moon melting snow

  Why, why, why? -

  Swale & Wales

  Pam Pam Pam!

  Red May

  Her second brood

  My two duvets

  Under my toes

  The new gravel

  Last year's begonia

  Seaside G&T

  ''Listen - a cuckoo!''

  It is two o'clock

  Looking for heaven

  I move, and dream of moving

  Mountains and thunder

  (12/08/04-after Keswick)

  Under my window

  Chattering, laughing, fighting

  People and sparrows

  The pink taste - rosehips,

  luminous quince, clear bright beads

  of pomegranate

  Under a full moon

  My frogs croon - our dreaming doves

  Mourn transfigured loves

  Wet cave, frog peeping,

  Elephant washing - my pool,

  My piece of heaven

  Song

  Of a light plane -

  Summer high

  My garden Buddha

  Crowned with a summer goldfinch

  Now I can meditate

  Our friend's funeral -

  One butterfly in the sun

  And purple flowers

  (29/06/04- Gillingham)

  In the twelfth autumn

  Preparing quinces; the breeze,

  My mother's perfume

  (October 14th 2004)

  Autumn.

  My hair is falling.

  Nearly sixty-two,

  Bemused by bone, dying stars,

  Dumbfounding I Am

  All wrapped up -

  The first winter drifts

  Whiten the hall floor.

  At sunset, grateful

  To have been part of this brief

  Human miracle

  Spring tinnitus - rain

  over lunch, plans, muzak, all

  Falling on deaf ears

  Cold May, clouts not cast;

  One experimental rose

  Amid the bird scraps

  Painting the Chapel -

  Yet another Monday gone

  Without Tai Chi

  Drowsy rituals -

  Scrabble, Astropocket -

  Unread magazines

  Am I eating soap?

  Goat's yoghurt and strawberries

  This odd June evening

  Bluebells! eleven

  Under my quince - the loved Sun

  Blessed with a halo

  (23/4/08-another sun rainbow!)

  Wind off Great Orme's Head

  History streams old eyes blue

  As the Med in May

  Just resting is good -

  Horses nibble each other,

  My costume waiting

  Quince blossom, moonlight

  I wait for his late white car

  Ghostly, a seagull

  Forty-four summers

  Remembering your birthday

  Forgotten pictures

  (Rob sends my old prints!11/5/08)

  Blown Ceanothus

  Blackie is after my worms

  Digging in blue snow

  Down by the dead pool

  Faded confetti - half-term

  Pantomime wedding

  The Sunday service -

  Norman on organ, young Daz

  On coffee machine

  (8/6/08 @ Costa Coffee)

  The dark is lighter -

  Despite the mask, my skin

  Feels silver with birdsong.

  (3/7/08-a night poorly with no sleep)

  Beside my window

  The clutter of people's lives

  Passing at sunset

  (Holyhead train 21/09/08)

>   Yesterday's breakfast

  Haunts me - Yes, it's time I fell

  In love with toothpaste!

  Out in a hailstorm

  Birds scattering seed. Indoors

  I spill peppercorns

  Two more tiny lights

  And all the stars of the Plough

  Burn in my bedroom

  (Electrics on standby 26/11/08)

  Saturn Ascendant.

  Frost, Vick - too late for garlic.

  I can't hear my clock.

  (miserable with the 'man-flu' 30/11/08)

  Even in the sun

  Prom white with frost, a new year

  Crunching underfoot

  (1/1/09-a week sub-zero by the sea!)

  Diamond bare twigs

  Full of nithering starlings

  Nearly my birthday

  (Hard winter - 15/1/2009)

  I miss fluffy snow

  Knee deep, still, muffling wheels -

  I want my world back

  (Unsatisfactory winter - 22/1/2009)

  Unmoved by mountains

  Theme-park snow, too far to touch

  Winter is hearsay

  (Unsatisfactory winter - 22/1/2009)

  Brief reunions

  Two leaves caught in an eddy

  Floating and drowning

  (Feb.15th 2009 - not heard from her)

  My glorious wife

  The golden face of my son

  Histories later

  (24/2/09 - mask of Tutankhamen

  in fancy dress window)

  Spinning a light line

  I catch you with your bright tail

  Plunge into your sea

  (8/3/09 - conversing with RevPeter)

  The light on the Orme

  In my garden sapphire snow

  Homeward donkey bells

  (30/05/09-lovely holiday week!)

  Early shift. First bird.

  Still the blue lights, men searching.

  My feet are freezing.

  (12/09/09 at my window with cameras

  from 04h45 for 2 hours:

  Two fire engines & three police cars

  at our crossroads. A firebug.)

  Peeholes in the snow

  our poor eyes puzzling head

  and the heart dancing

  (26/11/09 - migraine. Did Mum have it too?

  We are so alike.)

  So loud through my wall

  The voices of the neighbours

  Who never hear me

  (21/12/09 - after 11pm trying to sleep)

  Saturn square Pluto

  Black ice on the road black ice

  On my winter road

  (22/12/09 - Ceres/Neptune under siege –

  swine flu and a Nuisance!)

  That suspenseful joy

  Of not quite seeing the sea

  Salt on a railing

  Inside I am five

  Crying to print virgin snow

  The sea stole from me

  (12/01/10 - the whole UK is snowbound except us.)

  dancing with fiddles

  Joyously stamping chiming

  rhyming with fiddles

  (Fiddlers Bid at Theatre By the Lake

  Easter Sunday 4/4/2010. Ecstatic!)

  Ageing I run down

  More in my charging cradle

  Than this well-worn palm

  (8/06/2010 - don't do evenings any more!)

  Pruning - a loud car;

  Their red balloon bounds by me.

  Square Mars, Aries Moon.

  Back to Top

  1ABOUT PAM CRANE

  Pam has been a poet since she was seven years old; it was only when she joined her local Writers' Club that she found she could also write short stories.

  She has been a Christian astrologer for most of her life, is well known in that community, and is the author of two books plus many articles in the Astrological Association Journal (for which she compiles the regular Cryptic Crossword.)

  You can find her website at https://revpamcrane.weebly.com.

  Back to Top

 


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