December 4 Haiku 2019
stripped back to the bole April’s pink staining the wood – wintering cherry
stripped back to the bole April’s pink staining the wood – wintering cherry
apple mothertree sweet fruit a summer gone dream – then comes the yielding
unpredictable how a day, a life, will end – but sometimes, like this
Llanfaelog evening – rosefire as the day sets and advent begins
Our collie Beca shook and panted for an hour last night due to local fireworks, and I can see from Facebook how many other dog owners are experiencing similar with their frightened dogs this weekend, with more to come, I suppose, on 5th November. It reminds me of a poem I wrote some years ago, … More Fireworks and dogs
ANGLESEY MÔNTAGE WRITING FESTIVAL/Gŵyl Ysgrifennu Môntage Ynys Môn It’s a real pleasure to be taking part in the second Anglesey Writing Festival. I very much look forward to being part of this creative and stimulating event again. It will be held on 9 November 2019 at Ysgol David Hughes, Menai Bridge, LL59 5SS. Time: 9:00 am for 10.00 … More ANGLESEY WRITING FESTIVAL
Snowdrops are up in our garden, already, because, I suppose, it is so mild, and they make me think of the poem by Waldo Williams, where he endows this small flower with courage because, for all its delicacy and ‘modesty’, it still pushes through hard, inhospitable conditions – winter earth – ‘like steel’ to lead … More Eirlysiau
I was struck, when reading the book, by this poem included in Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. It is a distillation of her abiding interest in Taoism, a worldview that informs her writing, where life is recognised as a mix of darkness and light, as is symbolised by the now ubiquitous taijitu, the … More Admitting Winter
Every year, 22nd November marks the day on which my dad died in 2004. It’s been fourteen years now. Mum followed five years later. It was as if something in her began to leave soon after Dad passed … The mahonia in our garden is one that Dad gave us years ago. It’s still here, … More Dad’s Mahonia
Rebecca Solnit, the American writer, hits the nail on the head over and over. She speaks in her recent book Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises of the paramount importance of right naming – using language to name our world with precision, and remake the inherited stories that are no longer fit for purpose. She … More Naming What is There