… from my rocking chair

A collection of my published short form poetry (2019-2023), set to music and birdsong.

My chief delight is in nature, and when I read a book, or look at a painting, it is to find something about nature in it. So it is with writing, where I try to express the feeling engendered by nature which is, to me, the most important thing in life (After W H Hudson – ‘Afoot in England’ – 1909).

Mostly I write and blog about, well about birds. So it seemed natural that when I first started writing haiku (early 2019), they were also about birds … taking inspiration from nature, but also from paintings of birds, their songs, and from the nature writings and essays of some of our greatest nature writers and poets—insightful reflections of birds—in art and anecdote, poetry and prose.

This is quite a long post so make a brew, settle back in your favourite chair and play some background music while reading. (Tip – Each is best read twice out loud). Or just listen to the music!

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Wales Haiku Journal 2019 -2023 Editions

red skies—
from wind-tossed trees
stormcock sing

drifting snow
shattering the silence
a wren sings

drifting gull …
beneath the mist
the river widens

distant bells
a red kite rises
into sunlight

wheeling gull
behind the plough …
distant thunder

chough tumble
down the quarry face
rain turns to sleet

coot skitter
among lily pads
summer rain

first snow fieldfare strip the haws

squally showers
sweeping the saltings
the peewit’s cry

up in the attic
crawling through
my childhood

wagtails skitter
around the yard …
evening milking

distant hills beyond the gate winter stillness

blown inland
the sound of the sea
in a gulls cry

wagtails …
playing hopscotch
after school

blue moon—
a heron and I
night fishing

a warm wind across the meadows the hum of bees

autumn light
I follow a firetail
into the ruins

frosty morning
breaking the ice …
new neighbours

rewilding our garden sparrowhawk

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Perhaps take a moment and listen to the song of the wren …

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Feathered Skies (eChapbook Spring 2020 Published by Proletaria)

February Summer

sunny days tease  the blackbird into song

Dog Days

a whitethroat bursting from the hedge the only sound

Fall

dawn breaks  woodcock probe the shadows

magpie nest  the blackthorn winter passes over

my backyard  a winter wren fills the space

sedge warbler climbing among flags sing incessantly

summer winds  a stonechat calls the
sound of his name

first light  the pink of chaffinch in the cherry

motionless a buzzard glides across the cloudless sky

busking swan dancing sunbeams  fox trots away

wagtail follow the milking herd down the lane

swallow flutter
among the cows –
rain stops play

swift scream
down cobbled streets
bikers follow

out of the mist
the gallows tree …
one for sorrow

lights twinkle
in darkening sky
a curlew calls

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And now a Chaffinch …

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Presence Issue 68

sunshine filling every room the cuckoo’s call

And Cuckoo …

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Hedgerow – a Journal of Small Poems (#132 – #141)

sunshine after rain the forest stretches

lights flicker
after the storm
a robin sings

harvest moon hidden by clouds a flock of plover

waking up
the sounds of the day
waking up

sea fret a bog owl looping the marsh

first snowdrop
nuthatch whistling
from the park

primroses in the hedgerow bank a robin’s nest

nightfall a fox barks into the silence

sparrow song
under the eaves
coming home

morning assembly
sparrows chattering
in the playground

windblown …
across the reeds
cuckoo song

between storms the song of a song thrush

the scent of roses
filling every room
blackbird song

setting sun
among the graves
a robin’s song

a conker in my pocket this time last year

the bark of a raven echoing  the silence

windswept above the tree line a mountain blackbird

wild camping
a robin joins us
for breakfast

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And finally a Robin …

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Blo͞o Outlier Journal

frosty morning scrumping apples redwing in the garden

found again
… a secret garden
my childhood

after the storm
gathering windfalls …
pinkfeet calling 

above the river beat the sound of drumming snipe

distant bells
deep in the holly
robinsong

shadows on the wall chasing sleep

A memory from childhood when I never wanted to go to bed because of the scary shadows thrown by the bedside oil lamp. Even the patterns on the wallpaper seemed to move. There is a subtle (?) double meaning to ‘chasing’.

Blo͞o Outlier Journal senryu special

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Tsuridoro #2

balloon fest
a windhover
glides away

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‘failed haiku’ – A Journal of English Senryu Volume 6, Issue 67

waking up
… next to you
waking up

flower moon
her scent of jasmine
in every room

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Scarlet Dragonfly Journal (Kathleen Trocmet) 2022

daytime moon
the ebb and flow
of sanderlings

dodging traffic jackdaws finish my breakfast croissant

dusting the bookshelves my mind wanders

sultry winds …
sweeping the hill
a kestrel’s cry

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First Frost Poetry Journal

winter solitude
the fading shadow
of my footprints

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The Paper Birds Art Exhibition (Spring 2023) consisting of 1000 origami paper cranes and 333 Japanese haiku poems that will grow and flock month by month. Traditionally it was believed that if one folded 1000 origami cranes, one’s wish would come true. It has also become a symbol of hope and healing. It is common for groups to come together to fold them for health and wellbeing.

easy listening
a woodpigeon croons
an old favourite

awkward silence a winter wren fills the space

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Copyrights

The birdsong recordings are used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs4.0 license. These and many more can be found at – Xeno-Canto a website dedicated to sharing bird sounds from all over the world.

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