Your roughness tempered By those tender leaves The fruit you yield Some say is sweet I find it bitter on its own If not consumed in time

Haiku Foolish tears contained In poisoned golden goblets As the spring matures

Poem Though part of you is smashed to flinders by the unrelenting storm As you smolder into cinders we will keep each other warm

Haiku You, as the elder Subsume my slim boundary This is your nature

Haiku Lie among these jewels Die in detached radiance You have had your time

Haiku Last year’s leaves are dust New pungency entices On this curving path

Rarely in balance Hope and despair, lovers still Awake to birdsong

Wind off the Bay to take one’s breath As passing women speak of death Brief lecture at the Market stall Has left two people feeling small Lone expat watches, with a shiver, Pure white swans on Middle River On Sea Road, a shambling clown Enormous, ancient, lips turned down In defiance of the chill Dwarf daffodils light Taylor’s Hill

Perhaps I cannot move To you I stand immobile Let you handle me Endure your weight upon my unseen parts Strange how my stillness Fools you Watching you decline, I grow If nature triumphs in the end Then I will overtake you, slowly And I may Outlive you