haiga X

ten kisses
mark the spot
unknown

© 2010 gerald england

Composed: Hyde, 29th December 2010

Publication

2010 Ackworth born, gone West (Internet)

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

In A Strange Church

IN A STRANGE CHURCH

In a strange church
I sing the hymns
and mouth the prayers.

I learn the name of the preacher’s son
and of his wife
and how his father died
and where he worked
I hear of where his son
is now honeymooning
and how five years ago
he changed the way he worked.

After the service
three or four people
say “Good Morning”.

None ask me who I am.
I leave as quietly as I arrived.

© Gerald England

Composed: St Ouen, Jersey, 3rd October 2010

Unpublished

A contribution to Inspired Sundays.

(d63) september sun

september sun
chasing the clouds
before breakfast

© gerald england

Composed: Hyde, 5th September 2010

Publication

2010 Autumn Haiku (Internet)

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

(d61)

across the pond
to an unknown friend
fond kisses

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 8th August 2010

an entry for the Calico Cat Contest where authors were asked to compose a haiku to complement Origa's sumi-e "Sympathy. Orang-utan and Lizard".


Rice paper 'Double Shuen', Japanese sumi ink, Chinese watercolours, Copyright © Origa .


is the Russian translation of my haiku.

Publication

2010 Ackworth born, gone West (Internet)

(d60)

after the funeral
dodging deep puddles
in the long grass

© gerald england

Composed: Hyde, 1st August 2010

Publication

2010 Summer Haiku (Internet)

spongy path (d59b)

a spongy path
under a silent sky
going nowhere

© gerald england

Composed: Hyde, 17th April 2010

Publications

2010 Spring Haiku (Internet)
2010 Cosmopoetry (Internet)
2010 Ackworth born, gone West (Internet)

A contribution to Good Fences and Skywatch Friday.

spring equinox (d59a)

spring equinox discarded fag ends among the flowers

© gerald england

Composed: Hyde, 21st March 2010

Publication

2010 Spring Haiku (Internet)

A contribution to Floral Fridays and Monday Mellow Yellows.

frozen fingers (d58)

frozen fingers
stretch for want of warmth
a new decade

© gerald england

Composed: Hyde, 7th January 2010

Publications

2010 Winter Haiku (Internet)

A contribution to Macro Monday.

(d57)

i watch on tv
the concert from Vienna
flakes fall slowly

© gerald england

Composed: Hyde, 1st January 2010

Unpublished

The last eclipse of 2009

PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE OVER THE NORTH OF ROMANIA
photo © Constantin Psenitchi
five hours before
the end of the decade
above my window
the cold earth is eating
a piece of blue moon

© gerald england

Composed: Hyde, 31st December 2009

Publications

2010 Winter Haiku (Internet)
2010 Cosmopoetry (Internet)
2010 Ackworth born, gone West (Internet)

SUMMER METEOR POETRY 2009

a dusty filament
drifts across Earth's orbit
raining light

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 6th November 2009

Publications

2009 Cosmopoetry (Internet)
2009 Ackworth born, gone West (Internet)

(d55)

through leafless trees
the lights of the pub
on the moor

© gerald england

Composed: Hyde, 30th September 2009

Publication

2009 Autumn Haiku (Internet)

pillow ku

the sun rises late
i pull the sheets up higher
turn the pillow over

© gerald england

Composed: Hyde, 25th September 2009

Publication

2009 Autumn Haiku (Internet)

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

The Great Galileo Spin

A wordle by the late Mandy Smith.
THE GREAT GALILEO SPIN

Pisa born man
whose father carries out experiments on strings
to support his musical theories.

Off you go to the Camaldolese Monastery
on the magnificent forested hillside
at Vallombrosa.

They want you to be a medicine man
but the mathematics of Euclid and Archimedes
mesmerise you more.

In "La Balancitta" you describe Archimedes' method
of finding the specific gravities of substances
using a balance.

You correspond with Clavius and Guidobaldo del Monte
concerning the theorems you have proved
on the centres of gravity of solids.

You lecture on the dimensions and location of hell
in Dante's Inferno
at the Academy in Florence.

The idea comes that one can test
theories about falling bodies
using an inclined plane
to slow down
the rate of
descent.

At the university of Padua
you teach Euclid's geometry
and geocentric astronomy
to medical students.

In three public lectures
you argue against Aristotle,
use parallax arguments to prove
that the New Star
can not be close to the Earth
and come out as a Copernican.

You grind and polish lenses
until you have an instrument
with a magnification of around eight or nine.

You demonstrate to the Venetian Senate
the commercial and military applications
of the telescope you call a perspicillum
for ships at sea
and sell the sole rights
for manufacture to the Senate.

In the book "Starry Messenger"
you claim to have seen
mountains on the Moon,
four small bodies orbiting Jupiter
and proved the Milky Way
is made up of tiny stars.

In a letter to the Grand Duchess
you vigorously attack the followers of Aristotle,
arguing strongly
for a non-literal interpretation
of Holy Scripture
when that would contradict
facts about the physical world
proved by mathematical science.

You quite clearly state
that the Copernican theory
is not just a mathematical calculating tool,
but a physical reality.

You hold that the Sun is located
at the centre of the revolutions
of the heavenly orbs
and does not change place,
and that the Earth rotates on itself
and moves around it.

You confirm this view
not only by refuting Ptolemy's and Aristotle's arguments,
but also by producing many for the other side,
especially some pertaining to physical effects
whose causes perhaps cannot be determined
in any other way,
and other astronomical discoveries
that clearly confute the Ptolemaic system
but agree admirably with this other position.

Found guilty of heresy
and condemned to lifelong imprisonment,
the sentence amounts to house arrest,
living first with the Archbishop of Siena,
then later returning home to Arcetri
though spending the rest of your life watched over
by officers from the Inquisition.

Your "Discourses"
are smuggled out of Italy,
and taken to Leyden in Holland
and published.

There you develop
ideas of the inclined plane
assuming that the speed acquired
by the same movable object
over different inclinations of the plane are equal
whenever the heights of those planes are equal.

You describe an experiment using a pendulum
to verify this property of inclined planes
and give a theorem on acceleration of bodies in free fall
and finally conclude
that the distance that a body moves from rest
under uniform acceleration
is proportional to the square of the time taken.

You die in early 1642,
your body concealed
and only placed in a fine tomb
in the church in 1737
by the civil authorities against
the wishes of many in the Church.

On 31st October 1992,
350 years after your death,
Pope John Paul II gives an address
on behalf of the Catholic Church
in which he admits
that errors had been made
by the theological advisors in your case.

He declares the Galileo case closed,
but he does not admit
they were wrong to convict
on a charge of heresy
because of the belief
that the Earth rotates round the sun.

O Galileo
how do you spin in your grave?

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 17th September 2009

Publications

2009 Cosmopoetry (Internet)
2009 Ackworth born, gone West (Internet)

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

Salford Station

salford station
watching the trees
depart for wigan

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 8th September 2009

Publication

2009 Autumn Haiku (Internet)

A contribution to Weekend Reflections and Blue Monday.

strolling

along city streets the joys of strolling through summer

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 28th August 2009

Publication

2009 Summer Haiku (Internet)

A contribution to Good Fences.

feet first

feet first
along little underbank
august fashion

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 20th August 2009

Publication

2009 Ink Sweat & Tears (Internet)

republished now as a contribution to Blue Monday.

For Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy 2009 2nd quarter.

MOON AND VENUS IN THE MORNING AURORA, 23rd April 2009
photo © Valentin Grigore.
something stirs
on one of the moons
of Saturn

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 25th June 2009

Publication

2009 Cosmopoetry (Internet)
2009 Ackworth born, gone West (Internet)

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

(c100)

mid-summer night
where-ever will the wind blow
tomorrow?

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 22nd June 2009

Publication

2009 Summer Haiku (Internet)

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

fallen tree (d51)

fallen tree
on all of its sides
new growth

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 14th May 2009

Publication

2009 Spring Haiku.

A contribution to Orange You Glad It's Friday.

Manchester rain

green lights in a puddle left white arrow

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 26th March 2009

Publication

2009 Spring Haiku (Internet)
2009 Ackworth Born, gone West (Internet)

A contribution to Weekend Reflections.

coal tit (d49)

a coal tit sings
as February ends
on a high note

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 25th February 2009

Publication

2009 Spring Haiku.

A contribution to Camera Critters.

(d46)

snow has thawed
over the recreation ground
boots trample through mud

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 11th February 2009

Publication

2009 Winter Haiku (Internet)

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

arrivals

snow arrives
under the willow tree
daffodil shoots

© gerald england

Composed: Gee Cross, 19th January 2009

Publication

2009 Winter Haiku (Internet)

Kessmas day

Kessmas day
thru t’ cemet'ry raihlins
ollie berries poak

words and photo © gerald england

Composed: Gee Cross, 4th January 2009

Publication

2009 Winter Haiku (Internet)

A contribution to Macro Monday.