SEPTEMBER VOICES
by Ann Riviere ©2015
“I hate the Autumn.”
“Oh, don’t say that.”
“I do say that.”
“The senses are so sharpened.
the sights, the smells, the sounds.”
“Where I live, the senses are blunted
by the dread of Winter.”
“The colours are more vibrant, more brilliant
thank in Spring, the sky, a richer blue.”
“I don’t seem to notice much change here.”
“The sun, pale yellow in midsummer,
now casts a beam of gold across the land.”
“The sun here hides its face in shame
behind the highrise towers.”
“The scent of final roses, or burning wood
in new-laid hearths.”
“No roses here and wood fires are forbidden.”
“The whirring wings of geese, arriving from the North,
the falling note of the dove as he prepares for Winter.”
“Pigeons sometimes peck at crumbs,
And sometimes coo.”
“A walk along the hedgerow, ripe with berries,
jewels of black and red and blue.”
“A pavement dash to catch a bus.”
“And the trees, oh, the trees, so many words
already written in praise of their beauty.”
“Once there was a little tree in our street,
but vandals came and cut it down!”
“it is a time to harvest, to rejoice to celebrate,
I love the Autumn.”
“Oh, don’t say that.”
“I do say that.”
“Try to understand, it breaks my heart to hear the joy you feel
While I am trapped in this grey place.
Yet in my head is a far off dream
that one day, somewhere I, like you, will stand and
say how much I love the Autumn too.”
May 2015 – Haiku Sequence
by Emma van Woerkom ©2015
One blackbird’s new song
Heaven in the May Flower.
Stars falling to earth.
When the mountain stirs
heaving it’s deep roots; crashing!
Lament for Nepal
Stone awakes – Stone sleeps
Beneath rubble miracles –
buried in our dreams
I’d hand you blossom –
so beautiful and fragile
Sunshine for all hearts
Stars falling to earth –
Heaven in the May Flower.
One blackbird’s new song.
Please support the Nepal Earthquake Appeal – use the Disasters Emergency Committee DEC website to make a donation – http://www.dec.org.uk/appeals/nepal-earthquake-appeal
THE HAY WRITERS 