Hold On

Loose Leaves – Looking Back

 

For about a month late last year, I had to take the little community bus (“sugimaru”) between Asagaya and Hamadayama in Tokyo.

 

 

SUGIMARU

Each day –

falling a little more

in love

with a recorded voice:

 

“The bus will now depart,

so please –

hold on tight!”

 

Free

Loose Leaves – Looking Back

 

 

When I was a teenager at Sixth Form College in the UK, the periods on our timetable when we had no lessons were called ‘Frees’, and they were always spent in the canteen – catching up with friends.

 

 

Our college days –

recalling the times

when we were free.

 

 

 

Photo Credit: SooLinen

Siesta

Loose Leaves – Looking Back

 

‘The Sheltering Sky’ (1949) by Paul Bowles is first-rate novel. Exotic and melancholy in equal measures. I read it when I was 18 years old, only a few years after I’d been to Egypt and had a taste of the North African climate, which the novel distils in its own inimitable way. I’ve read it several times since. I think I’ve felt differently about it each time I’ve read it. I probably saw Bernardo Bertolucci’s film version first. Bowles later said of the movie (in which he has a cameo – watching his characters arrive): “The less said about the film now, the better.” As with any novel adapted for the screen, it’s perhaps best to see the two as separate artworks, each true to two different artists’ intentions. However, the movie’s soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto is sublime. It’s been a long time since I last saw the film, but I often listen to the soundtrack on CD.

 

The following haiku was written during my most recent re-reading of the novel. As an ‘art inspired’ haiku, this poem is almost a piece of ‘found art.’ Although I’d very much like to think of it as co-written with Bowles, that’s certainly too much of a stretch. To be honest, I’m not really sure what I feel about this poem. I don’t really feel like I wrote it, but it very definitely isn’t a direct quote from the novel itself.* It’s an adaptation of sorts; something perhaps somewhere between paraphrase and pastiche. But as a haiku, it still feels like its own thing. Meant as a minimalist homage. I hope Bowles might have approved.

 

 

THE SHELTERING SKY

 

Siesta –

for all but

the sun.

 

 

 

*See: Paul Bowles, 'The Sheltering Sky' (Flamingo Modern Classic, 1993), p. 84.

Top Photo Credit: The Sheltering Sky (1990) IMDb | Bottom Photo Credit: Tim Chamberlain (John Malkovich postcard by Brigitte Lacombe, 1989)

Too Far From Home

Loose Leaves – Remembrance

 

Edvard Munch - White Night (1901)

 

Too far from home.

 

Thinking of my friend

who I cannot see.

 

The wind fallen from

my sails, I simply stare

from the taffrail.

 

 

 

A poem for a very dear friend, Paul Mick (1964-2026). RIP.

Sun (1973)

Loose Leaves – Remembrance

 

David Hockney - Sun (1973)

A poem in memory of artist, David Hockney (9 July 1937 – 11 June 2026), who said that: “What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing.”

 

 

An open window

painting pots

of sun.

 

 

 

Desolation Angel

Loose Leaves – Reflections

 

Carolyn Cassady - Jack Kerouac Reading

Some writers rise far above the rest when we are growing up. We read them with an insatiable fervour, feeling every word as if it speaks directly to our soul. But how many of them continue to echo through all the subsequent chapters of our lives, even if only ever so faintly? – This is a poem about Jack Kerouac:

 

 

A less simple

simple life –

Desolation Peak.

 

 

Desolation Peak Look-Out

 

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

Photograph Credits: Carolyn Cassady & Pete Hoffman

Mr Mojo Risin'

Loose Leaves – Art Inspired

 

James Douglas Morrison

(8 December 1943 – 3 July 1971)

 

 

Filled with speculation –

blank pages of a notebook

left in Paris.