Green Haiku
Sitting outside
With trees dressed in lime, jade and sage
I’m green with envy
There is a season
I can see further in the winter
I can see how far I’ve come
I always thought spring was my favourite season
The child, the teenager of the year
Full of sunny hopes and sudden squalls
My spring was changeable, moody in its growing
Still, I felt breezy, unshackled by the earth
I was so cool then
I often thought summer was my favourite season
A woman flirtatious and fertile
Light and warm, her endless days
Stretched out along the beach
This was my time to show what I could do
Yet all I wanted was the time to be
I was so hot then
Autumn was always my second best season
The earth giving up her colours
While her harvest was gathered in
Apples and honey, the sweet rewards of work
This was the time to gather in my life
The sunset’s rays illuminating my path
I was so mellow then
I never thought winter was my favourite season -
Defiantly festive through its shorter, darker days
But down beneath the ground bulbs are beginning to wonder
Is it time?
Is it now we put down new roots and start the journey up into the light?
I can see my breath now when I breathe out
And so I am alive, after all
To My Sister
They told me there was an end to every pain
They insisted on it, the grief counselors
But no-one can structure my sorrow
I have to sculpt that piece of flint myself
Years later, sudden and sharp - a chiselled arrowhead -
The longing for you takes me by surprise.
I’ve done enough, I want to tell you -
I’ve done my best with the son you left behind
Why can’t you take over, now?
Because you’re dead, I scream into the silence
and one day, your son will be as old as you, then older.
But when I see our son I remember how you were:
the way he scowls when I call him on something
the rueful look he has when I catch him out
his helpless laughter when I crack him up
the way he stands, his back curved, weight on one leg.
It’s you -
And it’s not
My sculpture is still made of sorrow’s stone
but the edges are a little smoother, softer, now
