Nature Poems

Poem of the Week for April 15th 2008

Happy Sparrow

Only a few years after my first poem, I began to study the Japanese Martial Arts. I was surprised and pleased to discover that the great Martial Artists, from the ruling Shoguns through to the extraordinary founder of Aikido, Japans all round strongest man/fighter, O Sensei Morihay Ueshiba, all considered a Martial Artist to be qualified as a high-level Dan and Sensei, only if he were an accomplished poet and artist. It was thus that I was introduced to Haiku, a super-condensed poetry from in which your thoughts have to be expressed in a formalised 17 syllables - a Poetic Martial Arts for the Mind. The pure form and variations from it became an enticing and constant stimulation for my own poetry. I was and am particularly intrigued how one beautiful thing can, in the microsecond of first impression, appear to be another.

Happy Sparrow

Happy sparrow

Doing somersaults;

Autumn leaf

Tumbling in

Springtime

Winds