ah, will our roses
ever bloom together
till we're in our grave?
old couple arm in arm
visiting
the crematorium
to see what it'll be like
Wedding Anniversary Disaster
(A Haiku Sequence)
the Apricot Suite
looks out over the water meadows
to a town that keeps its distance
beyond the haha
a pheasant struts
among the lambs
four lounges where solitary couples
defend their privacy
with tea and carrot cake
still playing with words
an old couple linked
by a lifetime of scrabble
---
opening the door
on early morning rain
closing it again
is it the same swallows
back from Africa
to our old cowshed?
new rhubarb stalks
forcing their way up
through the bottomless bucket
after the low flying jet
a deafening silence
my neighbour and I
leaning on a field gate
viwing different worlds
Summer Vacations
misty lochside
the same old midges
waiting by the gate
even the stone stumps
of the deserted vilage
warm in the June sun
a single sail
ferryman crossing the sound -
the coffin lashed down
Zen in the Olp People's Home
arthritic fingers
knit one, purl one, knit three together
this eternal scarf
who are they
the people who keep coming
and think they know me?
---
Cardigan Bay
over the leaden waves
only a stump of rainbow
Valley Party
all our children grown too old
for Santa
autumns rain
the dried-up spring
by the holiday cottage
flowing again
breaking news -
new gas-powered land rover
our proud neighbour
winter power cut
I look at your face
softened by candlelight
New Year house cleaning
hoovering up
dead butterflies
Note on Stone Circles
Noragh Jones is from the North of Ireland, and worked as a librarian in
Belfast and Trinity College Dublin, before leaving Ireland.
She now lives in mid Wales, in an old farmhouse between wood and water,
with her husband Ken Jones.
Stone Circles, a book of haiku and haiku prose, explores connections
between early Celtic nature poetry and the Japanese haiku tradition.