Cool Spoons

Leaf 391 – Looking Back

 

Looking back on life, I sometimes find a strange sort of contentment in not knowing …

 

 

COOL SPOONS

 

A few photographs and old postcards –

two cigarettes, smouldering 

memories of younger days:

 

Kettle clicks –

tinkling two mugs

in the kitchen.

 

Tight-laced lovers laugh together –

drinking tea, eating biscuits,

in bed.

 

My shabby old flat

on the High Street –

long since flattened and gone.

 

Half-a-lifetime:

the mystery

of who you were,

and,

who you went on to be?

 

 

Photograph Credit: IMDb

Mountain Rain

Leaf 390 – Looking Back

 

Tokuriki Tomikichiro - Moon and Bamboo (1970)

I think this poem was originally written around 2003-2004, while I was walking the old Tōkaidō in Hakone (see, Leaf 62).

 

 

Rattling the bamboo –

a short drift of

mountain rain.

 

 

English Riviera

Leaf 389 – Reflections

 

Michael Praed - Traditional Fishing Craft in the Creek

This poem captures a view which I’ve often seen from the window of trains when travelling down to Penzance in Cornwall.

 

 

English Riviera –

tarped dinghies

and drizzle.

 

 

 

This haiku was originally written and posted on Bluesky in response to a #dailyhaikuprompt: 'drizzle.'

Rainless Night

Leaf 388 – Reflections

 

Kawase Hasui - Moon over the Arakawa River, Akabane (1929)

A poem written around this time last year in Tokyo.

 

 

Thunder rolling

through –

rainless night.

 

 

 

Salt & Iron

Leaf 387 – Looking Back

 

Tim Chamberlain - Moorings, Newlyn (1999)

This is another of my poems about the fishing port of Newlyn in Cornwall, where I spent most of my summer’s while growing up.

 

 

Scent of salty air

and corroding iron –

fishing boats at rest.

 

 

 

Above the Rooftops

Leaf 386 – Reflections

 

Ueno Keisei Juraku Building (c.1950s)

I am a big fan of the railways in Japan, but the ‘Bullet Train’ really is in a league of its own.

 

 

Gliding above the rooftops

– the Shinkansen

leaving the city.

 

 

 

Evening Air

Leaf 385 – Looking Back

 

Margaret Preston - Sydney Heads (1925)

This poem pairs neatly with Leaf 276, which is also about the years when I was lucky enough to live right by the River Thames.

 

 

Warm evening air

on the water –

low tide.