Poetry

I’ve been writing Haiku and Zen poetry since the 1990s and they have been published in various anthologies over the years. In 2024 I published often I stop and look back, sixty of my favourite Haiku, a narrative to the changing seasons and my changing mind.

  • Some are inspired by folktales, of the ‘faerie dog’ and of the malevolent water-horse:

walking in Torridon

my only companion –

distant barking dog

white horses ride

St. Mary’s Loch –

autumn winds

  • In this Haiku sequence, inspired by a spider’s web on an autumn day:

dew-drops caught

in the spider’s web

a string of diamonds

dew-drops caught

in the spider’s web

a string of tears

  • Since then, three Haiku inspired by the ‘Green Man’ motif, and art produced to complement:

Green Man – Summer explores the ‘foliate god’ in the non-pagan environment of a church:

enveloped in green

stone face; a place of worship

none to venerate

Green Man – Autumn, with an image created using autumnal leaves, clay, then enhanced digitally:

woodland guardian

clothed in an autumnal hue

the turning season

Green Man – Autumn

Green Man – Winter

in his winter gown

guardian of the wild wood

is frozen in time

  • There’s a folk tale from Wales, that autumn leaves whisper the secrets of the Druids:

upon autumn leaves

the Oak King and Beech Queen whisper

forbidden wisdom

  • Inspired by the Oak Man and Apple Man from folklore, and my own encounter with a Tree Spirit, my Oak, Man:

Twig, leaf, acorn;

chlorophyll flows

root, branch

Twig, leaf, acorn;

hardened skin

cracked, misshapen

Twig, leaf, acorn;

cellulose heart

Oak, Man.

  • Cernunnos, the Horned God of mythology, perhaps venerated by the ‘celtic’ tribes of northern Europe; and a painting (mixed media on canvas) to complement:

Chieftain of the forest spirits;

Guardian of wild animals;

the Tree Shepherd;

Master of the House, underneath;

He comforts souls, on their journey to The Otherworld.

Cernunnos; mixed media on canvas

  • Finally, for those who have read any of my folklore books, I start each with my Druid Blessing:

May the warm of the sun, nurture you;

The cool waters, cleanse you;

Nature’s bounty, replenish you;

The song of the trees, comfort you;

The knowledge of the bees, guide you.

The Otherworld