Library senryu

public library -
a classmate grabs my leg from
under the bookcase.

**************************
school librarian -
my classmates tease her, asking
for smutty books.

**************************
school library helper -
another barrier
between me and boys

******************************
second hand books
from charity shops
my private library.


Libraries for Booking Through Thursday

Wordstorm

for Sigitas Parulskis

a Slavic sounding
avalanche of poetry

even though i recognise the word
transvestite
in the original

the translated poem
still takes me
unawares.


(Sigitas Parulskis, Gintasas Grajauskas and Eugenijus Alisanka, three Lithuanian poets read at the Edinburgh International Book Festival earlier today).

August

In August heat
.............we see
...............from every crossroad
.............a funeral procession winding
..........through narrow hillside streets
..or perhaps it is several processions
for several funerals

so many people are dying now

under a bridge
a thousand miles from here
in the place that was his living home
a dead man hangs

Reflections on Leaving

She keeps her eye on the rear view mirror
he could easily hide among so many cars
but as the road behind her empties
bright as the red glow of sunset
she feels her heart begin to lighten
as the road ahead becomes the future.


What we leave behind for Easy Street Prompts

The Eternal Optimist

Always suffering:

Playing in the garden of a sinister house
with sinister trees.
Running down a blood wet street
pursued by fear.

Always a violent death:

Knives, machetes, napalm, burning homes,
machine guns; alone
on the deck of a capsizing boat
in uncharted seas.

Always reincarnated.

Lost Stuff for Totally Optional Prompts

More Lost Stuff over at Crafty Green Poet

Croissants

Croissants for me are weekend breakfasts, fresh from the corner bakers shop, where people queue along the street for the cakes and croissants, despite the convenience of a supermarket across the road.

Croissants seem quintessentially French, but my favourite breakfast I ever had in France was at a long wooden table where we all broke off chunks of crisp baguettes, loaded them up with lots of butter and apricot jam and then dunked them in bowls of steaming hot chocolate.


Croissants for Weekend Wordsmith

Ghost

You are a ghost in my memory
a wraith in my thoughts
a breeze in my hair
as I walk down the street

you're a floater that's not
quite blurring my vision
tinnitus that blunts
the edge of my hearing

you stalk my days
and haunt my nights
I'm not scared of ghosts
so what do i fear?


a quick scribble about ghosts for Sunday Scribblings
there are ghosts in some of my poems over on Crafty Green Poet too, you can read them by following the links below:
The Lost Dances of Cranes
Amazonia
Corstorphine Sycamore

Leonard Cohen

We were lucky enough to get tickets for Leonard Cohen's concert at Edinburgh Castle last night. It's a great venue for a summer concert and Mr Cohen performed brilliantly to a very enthusiastic crowd, choosing an excellent selection of his very wide repertoire and coming back gracefully for several encores though as the rain fell during his rendition of Closing Time, I think everyone got the hint and realised that there wasn't going to be any more music!

I'm currently reading Beautiful Losers, a novel written by Cohen the year I was born! Written with the same magical ability with words as are his songs, the novel is a wild and brilliant mix of native American land rights, Catholicism and sex. Definitely an 18 certificate!

I really want also to read some of his poetry, he published several collections before he started singing.

Crowded

a crush of velvet and lace.........satin and silk.......glitter of silver jewellery
deep colours and black, lots of black......pale faces and dark eyes
long hair in ribbons........stiletto heels and mini skirts

lycra and neon glow sticks.......corsets and fishnets

Victorian costumes and embroidered fans

military boots and spiked belts
loud music and melancholia
gothclub dancefloor

hey, we meant to go dancing last night but never got there.....

crowded for Weekend Wordsmith
For a different type of crowded, visit Crafty Green Poet

Italian-American sentences

Twirling spaghetti round my fork - tomato sauce on my favourite dress



Why does the country of la bella figura make such messy food?

Food and Drink for Mad Kane's Haiku prompt