Haibun - Heart of the Pond

Heart of the Pond

We wait between stones thrown
at the moon mirrored on the pond.
It shatters in circles of light, spreading
to the edges, returning to the centre
as if nothing had happened.

embankment -
purple liatris spikes
reach for the stars

Haibun - Haiku Moment

Haiku Moment

I sit on the jetty, a marbled paper
notebook and fountain pen with
shimmering ink in my lap.

haiku -
through the everchanging
clouds, clouds

Haibun - Calligraphy Exhibition II

Calligraphy Exhibition II

With one stroke of a sweeping curve,
the black river flows through untramelled
white.

enso --
the circles unroll into
ever straighter lines

Haibun - Nowhere

Nowhere

In a rare state of clarity, it occurs
to me that it has been over half a
century for me to find the "here"
and "now" in "nowhere".

lost in the green paths
of destinations
a maze

Haibun - Diana

DIANA

In a grove of oak, the Roman goddess of
the moon bathes in a sparkling spring.

With her final breath, she runs fleet-footed
into the forests of another dream.

Do not mourn - she has not been lost. In
sleep, waking from dream to dream, you
will find her - in a moonbeam, in the light
the stars stole shining between the branches
of trees, in the limpid eyes of a wild deer as
she waits for you to stroke her spotted pelt .

in darkness...
the moon always somewhere
in the sky

Haibun - Reaching Blue

Reaching Blue

How do they do it, I wonder as I lie
sprawled in my hammock? How do
the birds reach the blue in the sky?
How do they feel reaching blue?

I have jumped out of planes, been
lifted by colossal waves whilst surfing,
climbed dangerous cliffs, done triple flips
in gymnastics but never reached blue.

Then it happens.

As I row across the pond, a blueness seeps
into me and I keep saying "The sky is so blue,
have you ever known a sky so blue?" as a
camera keeps clicking like the trill of a bird.

The photograph in the gallery by my friend
Gabriela, considered the best of the collection,
is a black and white, extreme close-up of my face.
The sticker below says: "hortensia: reaching blue".

sky overhead -
a cloud disappears
out of the blue

Haibun - All The Way

All The Way

After we make love, I call him, say
"take me to the beach" and without
a word, he does. He drives me all
the way to Montauk Point.

You say you want to know, before
knowing you don't, why I keep coming
back to you, going all the way, but never
staying, always leaving with him.

I will tell you just this once - he never asks.
We drink. The sea bubbles into the sand.
He waits. He gives me that.

summer night -
the moon wavers
in my whiskey