adam 2

Reproduction strictly prohibited —
this weird form of light
pouring through the phone —
you're travelling through
the pit of your darkness —
don't let your shadow
fall on the United States.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th October 1996

Publication

2000 EOTU (Internet)

adam 1

Hilary felt his consciousness
ebb away unseen;
every curve of her body
exuded sharp perfumes
of human genius
and several
anxious-looking children.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th October 1996

Publication

2000 EOTU (Internet)

(f29)

using a brochure
from an animal rights groups
she swatted the wasp

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 1996

Publications

1999 Sparrow (Croatia)
2001 Haijinx (Internet)

*****
služeæi se brošurom
društva za zaštitu životinja
zgnjeèila je osu

Gerald England

translated into Croatian by Marijan Èekolj

Publication

1999 Sparrow (Croatia)

(f28)

behind the Town Hall
as the traffic lights go green
a squirrel crosses

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 10th September 1996

Publication

2011 Time Haiku (UK)

sijo 5

her colouring book was open at the picture of a ladybird;
I told her its body was red and the dots should be black
but didn't know the colour of its eyes, having never looked.

© Gerald England

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 16th August 1996

Publications

1997 Sijo West (USA)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)

On The Road

ON THE ROAD

He, bold, brassy, Geordie
She, coiffured hair,
short, white, well-creased skirt
They walk
into the small town Inn,
look at the menu
of afternoon-tea specials
Landlord - Can I help you?
She - Er, just looking!
They walk out,
come back ten minutes later.
He touches her hand
- don't want a drink - she says
He orders himself a pint of cider
They sit down at a table
He drinks
She is trying
to keep her profile low
Returning his empty glass
he asks tentatively
- actually we were looking
for somewhere to stay the night -
- Forty pounds for a double!
bellows the landlord
Regulars look up from their drink,
smile
- Er, right - say our couple
as they head for the door
We see them soon
across the market square,
he leading her by the hand
Shortly they return
He is sweating
She seems flustered
They carry designer luggage,
the same gaudy design
the hardware shop
on Finkle Street
has had in its Sale all week
They follow the landlady
lamblike
Later we find
a farmhouse B&B
for just twelve a night.

© Gerald England

Composed: Renwick, 26th July 1996

Publications

1996 Boggers All (UK)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
2001 Mir (USA)

sijo 3

Dementia patients ramble on the freeway of her face;
being unable to besmirch the memory in her eye —
she is not a moment too soon with a big Cornish cream cheese.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 17th July 1996

Publication

2002 winterSPIN (New Zealand)

sijo 1

In the busy waiting room at the Dental Hospital
the blonde-haired receptionist is cursing the computer;
patients losing their patience have too much pain to complain.

© Gerald England

Composed: Manchester, 16th July 1996

Publications

1997 Sijo West (USA)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
2000 THE ART OF HAIKU 2000 (Hyde, New Hope International)

tanka 23

workmen on scaffolds
are still boarding up windows
blown out by the blast;
in cafés across the street
smiling office-girls eat lunch

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 2nd July 1996

Publications

1997 TOPS (UK)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1998 NASA (USA)
2000 MIR (USA)

Five Days After The Bomb

FIVE DAYS AFTER THE BOMB

We drove up from Oxford Street
and turned into Deansgate.
It took us thirty minutes
- but didn't it always? -
In between boarded-up buildings
bright cafés and bars
were open for business
and were bustling
as office-girls in summer dresses
crossed the street
for their lunchtime sandwiches.
Workers whistled on scaffolding
and even the Police smiled.

Near the Cathedral,
a group of camera-laden tourists
were gathered for a guided tour,
but I was unprepared for the sight
as we turned into Withy Grove
and looked up Corporation Street.
It was like gazing through a window
at some scene from Bosnia or Beirut;
the now so silent debris hanging.

The traffic lights change;
we climb Shude Hill
past the dark deserted Bus Station
on the day the IRA say "sorry"
and the newspaper hoardings reply
"HOW DARE THEY SAY SORRY"
to the city that survives and smiles.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 20th June 1996

Publications

1996 The Affiliate (Canada)
1997 MYSTERY OF THE CITY (Tring, Photon Press)
1997 Cyberscribers (Internet)
1997 The Plastic Tower (USA)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)

(f26)

with each pint of tea
free talk from village yokel
in wayside café

© Gerald England

Composed: Newcastle upon Tyne, 18th May 1996

Publication

2004 Sons of Camus Writers International Journal (Canada)

42 Reviews of my Childhood

42 REVIEWS OF MY CHILDHOOD

from a roman (sic) literary review

Suckling on her womanliness to pick some interesting lines,
these poems seem over-pruned.
The combination of physical beauty that links shaking bottoms
and Christianity disappears in verbal pictures,
glimpses between images and the laughter of the Cornish Riviera.
This sixth collection concerns the nude in poetry.
The author starts by the ocean as though arguing with the tide.
playing from between mischievous cobble stones.
I cannot trap the womb.
The author is in love with what the wind takes out of Scotland.
Thumbnail sketch parodies of this hysteric journey across my memories,
perhaps its silent way will reach far into their home again.
You only get glimpses between doorways —
it is perhaps a smooth surface,
a day for little guinea-pigs
even if you can display a good thick pile carpet,
feel the children's often half-hearted intentions,
deal with indecent exposure.
An entertaining short novel
but too many letters from scenes of running home
to the laughter of hills.
They are all our children consumed by double pneumonia.
His final poem deals with mundane-seeming events,
archetypes of Doctor Who and poetic paraphrases of hills.
Such sentiments all help to gain friends in Birmingham,
shared experiences of quitting the slimming programme.
The cat sulks by the fireside;
perhaps the cheery flame dispels the moonlight.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 4th April 1996

Publications

1997 International Poetry Supplement (USA)
2005 Outlaw (UK)

(f25)

smearing the window
are marks of a twitcher's nose —
our dog bird-watching

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 2nd April 1996

Publications

1996 Pulsar (UK)
2002 World Haiku Association (Internet)
2003 Version (Internet)

*****
охотился за птицами --
по стеклу траектория
от собачего носа

Gerald England

Russian translation by Polay

Publication

2003 Version (Internet)

tanka 22

the frozen river
the ice broken in places
pigeons and ducks
fight for each piece of bread thrown
by the giddy laughing boy

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 3rd February 1996

Publications

1996 American Tanka (USA)
1997 Time Haiku (UK)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
2001 ENGLISH TANKA & HAIKU ON WATER, RIVER, LAKE AND SEA (Gifu-city, Japan Society on Water Environment)
2004 TIME HAIKU ANTHOLOGY (London, Time Haiku Group)

(f24)

alone on the beach
suddenly — the sound of hooves —
race horses training

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 1st October 1995

Publication

1998 Sparrow (Croatia)

*****
sam na plaži —
iznenadan zvuk kopita
rasnih trkaèih konja

GERALD ENGLAND

(translated from English to Croation by Marijan Èekolj)

Publication

1998 Sparrow (Croatia)

(f23)

flu preventing sleep
she eats a bacon sandwich
while her husband snores

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 1st October 1995

Publication

1996 Sparrow (Croatia)

*****
gripa sprijeèava san
ona jede sendviè od slanine
dok suprug hrèe

GERALD ENGLAND

(translated from English to Croation by Marijan Èekolj)

Publication

1996 Sparrow (Croatia)

tanka 21

enticed by brochure
for the exclusive farm shop
we pay a visit
on seeing flies in the fridge
we exit without buying

© Gerald England

Composed: Disley, 30th September 1995

Publications

1996 Presence (UK)
1996 The Tanka Journal (Japan)

(f21)

tough Welsh cob drinking —
two swans slide in and out of
the marsh marigolds

© Gerald England

Composed: Briton Ferry, 3rd July 1995

Publications

1996 Weyfarers (UK)
1996 Target (UK)

[4x]

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th August 1995

Publication

1997 Raw NerVZ Haiku (Canada)

Clinging to the Valley

CLINGING TO THE VALLEY

screes of shale
remain where
slag-heaps rose

the machinery
and the railway line
are gone

banks of bleak homes
some boarded up
seem to slope nowhere

in the Station Café
they laugh and gossip
tell tales of holidays
and how nice it is
to get back

rain streams
relentlessly
on rows of pigeon lofts

over the mountain
where the last
driftmine
still works
life takes wing

© Gerald England

Composed: Swansea, 30th May 1995

Publications

1997 DOORS OF THE MORNING (Pittsburgh, UnMon America)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1999 Unlikely Stories (Internet)

(f22)

without a warning
men from the council just come
fell and take our tree

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 5th July 1995

Publication

1995 TOPS (UK)

(f19)

outside the X-ray
waiting patients laugh and joke
— passing matron scowls

© Gerald England

Composed: Huddersfield, 27th May 1995

Publications

1995 New Hope International Writing (UK)
1995 Lo Straniero (Italy)
1996 Sparrow (Croatia)

*****
Izvan X zraka
pacijenti se smiju i šale
— mrgodna nadzornica

GERALD ENGLAND

(translated from English to Croation by Marijan Èekolj)

Publication

1996 Sparrow (Croatia)

Brigflatts Revisited

BRIGFLATTS REVISITED

(A tanka sequence, for Mabel Ferrett)

over Widdale Fell
where the visibility
edges to zero
sheep are heard but are not seen
grazing just beyond the snow

on Sedbergh Main Street
shoppers walk over duck-boards
just to cross the road —
sat drinking in the café
we watch them lay new cobbles

turning the pages
before I sign myself in
the Visitors' Book
I note your name two weeks back
and feel your presence here still

in the Meeting House
pictures enliven bare boards
yet the air is cool —
outside it feels much warmer
though the sun is lost in mist

the burial field
a carpet of daffodils —
just like all the rest;
a round memorial stone
"Basil Bunting" and his dates

© Gerald England

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 18th April 1995

Publication

1995 BRIGGFLATTS VISITED 2nd edn (Hyde, New Hope International)

[4w]

© Gerald England

Composed: Salford, 22nd March 1995

Publications

1995 At Last (UK)
1997 Raw NerVZ Haiku (Canada)

Changing

CHANGING

He jumps and listens
 then he doesn't
  though he jumps
 down
  falling slowly
until the insides of his ears
 burn

hot tea
 without milk
  tastes good
 no need
for sweeteners after sex

in the cold night outside
 a cat is heard to scream
   as grief-riders
  race
 trying vainly
to escape
  from the flying pigs

   in the morning
all will be accounted for

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 14th March 1995

Publication

1997 Gallery Zandraat (Internet)

(f18)

walking the shoreline -
suddenly the splash of hooves
riders at sea's edge

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 1st February 1995

Publication

1997 Lateral Moves (UK)

Love After Midnight

LOVE AFTER MIDNIGHT

She had been searching
the origins of quicksilver,
wanted to know
the source of vermilion.

It was only a small itch
on the back of her neck;
she needed deft fingers
to scratch it away.

The digits that probed
didn't stop at her back
but sought out pores
along the whole of her skin.

In the midst of her climax
she forgot about Mercury,
relaxed before sleeping
having drunk a full cup.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 19th January 1995

Publications

1997 TUA Coffee Shop (Internet)
2002 Eastern Rainbow (UK)

tanka 15

a lonely farmstead
at end of a narrow track,
the vet shivering,
wind buffeting the byre door:
first moo of the new-born calf

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 11th December 1994

Publications

1996 Presence (UK)
1997 Time Haiku (UK)
2004 TIME HAIKU ANTHOLOGY (London, Time Haiku Group)

[5v]

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 4th December 1994

Publication

1997 Raw NerVZ Haiku (Canada)

(f17)

sleet at the window
armchair drawn close to leaping flames
she refills her glass

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 26th November 1994

Publication

1996 Presence (UK)

(f16)

high tops streaked with snow
driving for hours with frozen feet
hands never quite dry

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 26th November 1994

Publication

2006 Curlew

(f15)

watching "Lion King"
in the cinema which stands
where Belle Vue Zoo stood

© Gerald England

Composed: Denton, 30th October 1994

Publications

1995 TOPS (UK)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1998 NASA(USA)
2000 MIR (USA)