fleeting

Tags

anniversary, death, father, haiku, poem, sorrow, time, whispers

(on the twentyfifth anniversary of a death)

once so full and bright
our lives before long become
faint, fleeting whispers

Riposte

Tags

Britain, courage, death, England, haiku, life, love, Manchester, poetry, terrorism, UK

Showing their courage
What is Manchester’s riposte?
Poetry and Love

victim

Tags

birds, death, haiku, hawk, hunting, magpie, nature, ornithology

sparrow hawk visits
hunting magpie not immune
black and white feathers

Crouch low

Tags

birds, death, dove, haiku, hawk, nature, wildlife

Crouch low, little dove.
Exaltation of the hawk
brings eternal night

Visitor

Tags

blood, death, feathers, haiku, hawks, nature, raptors, red, sparrow hawk, wildlife

Sparrow hawk visits
Quick cloud of small white feathers
A red bloom opens

fallen

Tags

bugles, death, history, life, loss, memorial, memories, sadness, short story, war

On finding a neglected memorial to a forgotten war …

 

The bugle’s long faded call took with it all promise of eternal memory.
Names carved in stone often lasted not much longer than the generation
that composed them, causes became historical and worse, academic,
families adopted new priorities and the dead faded into unrecognised
faces staring from indistinct sepia cards.
Perhaps it was for the best: the solutions to conflicts were invariably the
result of pragmatism and essentially found in the present with an eye to
the future.
The fallen remained beyond all wanting; such is the nature of lives and
of deaths.

fatality

Tags

birds, death, fatality, haiku, life, seasons, sparrow, winter

overcome sparrow
laying on the frozen ground
tough time for small birds

 

 

nemesis

Tags

death, fly, goldfish, haiku, life, lilies, memesis, nature, photograph, pond

sitting on a pond
tiny fly knows not of fish
golden nemesis

shrill

Tags

blackbird, death, drama, european blackbird, haiku, mist, nature, weather

 

Through the morning mist
The shrill cry of a blackbird
Feather on the breeze

Gone

Tags

death, friend, friendship, grief, haiku, humour, loss

An old friend has gone

Passed on, is no more, snuffed it

His humour, great loss