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View Article  New haiga by Ed Baker



* Ed Baker's bio reads...

born 1941
here 2009
everything

in between

...boring!


A version of this haiga previously appeared in Sketchbook

View Article  David Lewis is waiting for the bus to Merthyr

Merthyr Bus Stop

 

pale day,

concrete coloured clouds,

rain

 

(Wetherspoons not open yet…)

 

skin like straw, bloodshot gaze, stretched skin, wrinkled nicotine, old fat, pink fat, diabetic eyes, haggard as a Dowlais-wet horse, drawn like dust, smell of beer, sweat and pee, dog damp coats, plastic bags, alphabet hands (h a t e a n d l o v e a n d m a m a n d d a d a n d s t u f f, lost coins, bent low, fag butts, scuffed shoes, grey rubber wheels

 

(kids swear…)

 

prescription in hand, destination damned, tea under grill, march, route planned, weekly thrill, daily trudge, cemetery face, hair matted, greasy chips, pavement crack, commit to memory, fill in forms, finish quick before the number 29…

 

(tomorrows?)

 

the sun will creep past, fast like sugar, without stirring them, and the buses come and go, past allotments that grow, more cabbages, while seeds that never sow, sink below, the poverty line



* Dave Lewis lectures IT & Photography. He also designs web sites, takes photographs and writes stuff. His first poetry collection Layer Cake can be bought on Amazon and he's just finished a short story and prose collection. He adds that his second book is one publisher short of a publisher at the moment. www.david-lewis.co.uk/write.html And also check out www.welshpoetry.co.u

View Article  Ink Sweat & Tears is turning Japanese #3
Next up, another IS&T regular – Paul Levy – suggests the key is fitting a haiku on roll-up cigarette papers...



View Article  Ink Sweat & Tears is turning Japanese #2
There is currently a heated debate taking place with UK haiku circles over the future of the genre: should we stay with the tradition 5-7-5 formula and aim to ape the Japanese tradition – or should we treat the genre as a living and evolving form? Over the next couple of days, we have two haiga artists who express their views on the sometimes narrow interpretation of the haiku form, starting with one of our regular contributors Alexis Rotella...


View Article  Ink Sweat & Tears is turning Japanese #1
Over the next couple of days there's going to be a Japanese theme to Ink Sweat & Tears, starting with these two haiku by Sophie Playle...


The Contradiction

Caged heart on sleeve,
he’s an open book
of hieroglyphics.


Cloudy Weather

Clouds roll across the sky,
but above them I know that
the heavens are always blue.


Traveller

Moonlight shivers
between restless leaves
across his sleeping face.


* Sophie Playle is a recent graduate, trying to crack the publishing industry. She blogs at www.sophieplayleblog.blogspot.com

Sophie adds "These are haiku but are more focused on the philosophy and tone of original Japanese haiku rather than following the prescribed syllable count." And by coincidence, this will be the subject of our two haiga on Saturday

View Article  New haibun/tanka prose by Alexis Rotella
BROTHER LOVE

“Lou died,” my brother says when I pick up the phone. “I went to the funeral yesterday,” he sighs, “but Lou’s under the ground now, and I’ve been thinking about plans for the family reunion.  Uncle Bill doesn’t think he can make it since he’s still recuperating from his lung operation.  Butch and Dee are on vacation first two weeks of September and Jack and Bonnie are away the last two weeks of August.”

My brother is slurring his words again.  Obviously he has gone over his two vodka soda limit.

“I went to visit Aunt Mary yesterday,” I said.

“Oh, how’s she doing?”

“She looks fabulous for an 86-year old, all dolled up, good skin.  Only thing is, her perfume!”

“What about it?”

“It really got to me.”

“You mean you didn’t like her perfume?”

 “Knocked me over.  It was hard getting through lunch.”

“Then you better just not go anywhere;  Jesus Christ, if a small thing like perfume bothers you, that’s pretty goddamn bad.”  

And then the shoe drops as it always does when too much alcohol is in the picture.

“I just got back from a  fucking funeral!  My best friend died and you’re worried about Aunt Mary’s perfume.  Give me a break,”  his voice hurting my ear drums.

People die, Fred.  He suffered five years with brain cancer. He gave it his best shot.”

“All I do is bury my friends and you’re fucking bothered by perfume!  You don’t know what worries are!”

“You’re yelling at me, Fred.  Look, we’ll continue this conversation another time,” I say, and he screams, “Yeah, goodbye!  goodbye!”

It was a peaceful Sunday until I picked up that phone.


            One too many drinks
            my brother calls
            to yell at me
            because his best friend
            just died.


* Alexis Rotella is a regular contributor to IS&T – normally we publish her haiga but this time its a prose piece.
View Article  Mike Montreuil is thinking of Sunday morning
SUNDAY – a haiku sequence*
 
 
early morning –
long shadows follow
a man and a woman
 
flat bed truck –
the wooden planks
stronger than steel
 
driving alone –
rolling pastures
in the rear-view mirror
 
the church
in a meadow –
the colours of God
 
porch light on
a moth appears –
flickering shadows
 
her generous heart –
birth and death
join hands
 
night comes –
lilacs breathe
softly
 
laughter
under the stars –
the world ablaze in it


* This sequence of found senryu and haiku was compiled by Mike Montreuil and is taken from words in poems in the chapbook A complimentary Specimen of Poetry (Gaspereau Press, Canada, 2007) which was in turn a sampler of five books published by Gaspereau. Words & snippets for haiku 1, 3 & 6 are taken from sample poems in The Alma Elegies by Allan Cooper (ISBN 9781554470365). Words & snippets for haiku 2, 7 & 8 are taken from sample poems in Actualities by Monica Kidd (ISBN  9781554470419). Haiku 4 & 5 are by regular IS&T contributor Mike Montreuil.
 
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