Copyright
Haiku & Selected Poems Volume 1
Copyright Richard Kay 2014
Revised 24/2/17
Richard Kay asserts his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 to be identified as the author of this work.
Cover photograph by Richard Kay
Cover Design by my good friend Robert Baines
www.designbybertrude.co.uk
Dedication
To my daughter Eleanor
Through your eyes I see the world anew which is a precious gift, thank you.
Contents
Haiku
Tanka
Selected Poems
Haiku
the journey
travelling along a curved path
departing, returning
*****
the path,
now a stream
flows
*****
yellow stars
in a field of green,
the night sky
*****
wriggling droplet
water merging, separating
down the window
*****
black of night
a flash of white
susurration, rumble
*****
black branches sway
brown earth and russet leaves
the emerald green shoot
*****
heavy morning mist
half of Hallamshire Hospital,
gone
*****
eye pressure high
sight could be lost,
how vivid the snowdrops
*****
the spring wind
leaves twisting rapidly
lime, emerald, lime, emerald
*****
sun on its surface,
meandering through the sward
a thousand blinding stars
*****
fat wood pigeon
evergreen branch bent low
whistling wings depart
*****
the log burns away
moisture rises darkening cloud
young sapling
*****
slug trails,
across the kitchen floor
raiding the fridge once more
*****
in the darkness,
I turn on the light
the sun shines forth
*****
sun shining in an azure sky
hail falls bouncing ahead
where is the hailbow
*****
ducks grazing,
bottoms held high
waggling feet
*****
rain on the water
scattered concentric circles
sliding over the fall
*****
new growth,
on the swaying trees
celadon buds ready to unfurl
*****
asphalt path
pink carpet of blossom
the aroma
*****
the young leaves
buds on the swaying trees,
make me sneeze
*****
blue sky ahead
black clouds behind,
rain receding
*****
droning bees,
in the trees
blossoms drained
*****
a vivid pink cloud
in a blink turns grey,
wonders of early day
*****
pink petals
falling from the blue
no tree
*****
I don’t want to
powerful words
in the mouth of a toddler
*****
her father has died,
one day too
my daughter will feel this
*****
my daughter brings me
a delicious cherry pie,
a turtle mould full of sand
*****
the car slid sideways
darkness, a wall looming
in the back, we locked eyes
*****
as I pass, pounding, grating
the jackhammer scrapes the asphalt
my teeth ache
*****
a large lady in a tight dress,
strides confidently past
people smirking behind her back
*****
scurrying in the rain
heads bent low
the faster, the wetter
*****
prisons more like schools,
schools more like prisons
the home a fortress
*****
the tinted world
slides sideways, then drops
oh my lens
*****
her mini skirt floats
on the spring breeze
as does my stomach
*****
I realise I am dreaming
landscape so vivid, great joy
I decide to fly
*****
in suits and ties
so serious talking, talking
a job
*****
the kitchen in summer
bowl adorned with Christmas penguins
abandoned and forlorn
Tanka
stars light and heat
could strip me of all my meat
but without its glow
shinning on, naught could grow
beating down, naught would flow
*****
one job
two jobs, three jobs more
the more jobs I do
the more jobs it seems there are
drowning, drowning evermore
Selected Poems
Dreams
Realising it’s a dream I become lucid,
I reach up to a cloud shaped like cupid.
A rush of excitement - joy courses through me,
I scoop a handful, close to see.
So fluffy and soft, feeling calm,
I hold it gently in my arm.
Trine
Not with sword and bow,
did they defeat their foe.
But with plank and box
the enemy they did outfox.
WWII
The world’s second war.
Chosen to fight,
fighting fire.
Bombs dropping from above,
unexploded bombs below.
City of Steel hard pressed.
Collapsed buildings rumble,
fires roar.
Engines ring.
The biting heat,
then a flood of cooling balm
quenching the terrible harm
Bewildered people stagger
from smoky ruins,
tattered and torn.
A helping hand
reaches through the dark.
You are not alone.
Modern Warfare
If you can operate this computer,
you can operate this missile, it’s the future.
We’ve made firing missiles,
like a game, they travel miles.
No more will you have to slip and slide,
in the blood of your foe, as they try to hide.
Grappling face to face sword in hand,
this of you, we would never demand.
Why all the war and destruction?
Money, it acts like suction.
Click, click – pause,
boom, boom, canned applause.
A soothing voice, ' you have now reached your . . ',
&n
bsp; 'destroyed your desti . . beep . . target' oh the gore!
Banking
We’ve made it easy
when we give it to you,
it’s just numbers on a screen.
When we take it from you,
just numbers from a dream.
It’s so easy now,
you’ll barely notice as it goes,
on this and that and those.
Are you sure you ever really had it?
Who knows?
Mobile Fun
Pay as you go?
We want you to pay,
but we don’t want you to go.
So we’ve made it slow,
to pay on the go
and so expensive to talk, what a blow!
How about a contract instead,
five hundred free texts,
only thirty pounds a month on the head.
You must stay with us for a year or more
‘I thought you said free texts?’
Oh and we'll tie you into our store.
But there’s more,
you can surf the web for free!
Only thirty pounds a month, maybe more.
Then you can watch video clips online, not bad?
You’ll like the one of our CEO on his yacht,
it’s our new ad!
Boo
He went by the name of Boo,
there was nothing more he liked to do,
than to eat lots of badger poo
Then when he came upon a fox loo,
he just could not walk past that poo
how he loved to role in doo doo
When he came upon a dead bird
what he would do was quite absurd
to see it could make milk curd
His idea of bath?
Well that was quite daft
For lying in a muddy river,
he thought was rather clever
For dirt and mess,
Boo thought was the best.
###
Dear Reader,
If you enjoyed this book of poems, I would really appreciate it if you returned to the website where you downloaded it to add a review. As an independent author your positive reviews mean a lot to me.
Thank you
Richard Kay
About the author
The author admits that he did not really enjoy poetry all that much when he was at school except for e e cummings who he thought was great. He had a mental image of poets flouncing around in big frilly shirts and swooning over the beauty of buttercups and the like. This really did not draw him to this area of literature.
However having recently read R H Blyth’s books on Haiku he felt the unexpected urge to give Haiku a go. The author enjoys the brevity of Haiku which can nonetheless portray vivid images, emotions and thoughts. Haiku explores the essential in the trivial and sees significance in the seemingly insignificant. Furthermore after listening to John Lithgow’s audio book on poetry the author even felt moved to give other forms of poetry a try. The author is currently searching online for flouncy shirts and quite likes snowdrops.
The author lives in a universe, on a planet, in a country, in a city, in a house, in a body, in a universe . . . .
Should you wish to contact the author his email address is
[email protected] For more information about future projects and other publications please visit:
www.richardhaiku.wordpress.com
https://twitter.com/RichardHaiku
About this book
This book contains a selection of Haiku and other poems organised broadly by topic. Some are based on direct observation of the natural world, others are more philosophic in nature, some may be described as social commentary and some may even be described as humorous. The author was recently published in the Spring edition of the World Haiku Review.