Tag: 1. Haiku

Goose Barnacle

 

Attached to flotsam

a curious crustacean

and filter feeder.

 

by Scooj

  • Occasionally one can be lucky enough to see these fascinating creatures washed up on driftwood. They really are most unusual.
  • I like the name, because if you switch the words you get barnacle goose, which is great wordplay. I test myself regularly to see if there are any other such animal names that can be transposed in this way. I haven’t found one yet. (Sadly there is no such thing as a monkey spider…for example.)
  • It was named because it was thought (before such things were understood) that barnacle geese were created from them as their nests and chicks were never seen in Northern Europe. The goose barnacle has a long ‘neck’ and the main part of the body resembles a head and beak.

Conventional wisdom

 

In the seventies

the country was much greener;

rose-tinted glasses.

 

by Scooj

 

  • A convenient narrative adopted by pro-Brexit campaigners urging a return to the ‘good old days’ before we were told what to do by Europe. The facts rather contradict this romantic notion, and certainly my recollection of growing up in London in the 1970s is not a pleasant one – choking car fumes, filth and litter everywhere and heavily polluted rivers, our countryside didn’t fare much better. What did European regulations ever do for us…? (Habitats Directive, Water Framework Directive, the Birds Directive, Bathing Waters Directive, Air Quality Framework Directive and others).

 

Zebra

 

Conspicuous stripes

infectious, inflected bray

grazer of the veldt.

 

by Scooj.

 

  • The challenge of choosing an animal and then writing a haiku  about it is actually much harder than I thought it would be.

Pangolin

 

Peculiar beast

sporting ‘globe artichoke’ scales

and sixteen inch tongue.

 

by Scooj

 

  • I challenged myself to write a haiku about the first animal I could think of. I think I might make this a series…any suggestions welcome.

Uplifting

.

At West Wittering

on the beach with my eyes closed

a sweet skylark sings.

.

by Scooj

Blackcap

 

Modest grey warbler

dances in the damsen tree;

a blink and it’s gone.

 

by Scooj

Serendipity

.

Indescribable

pleasure of boarding the bus

without breaking step.

.

by Scooj

Is anyone listening?

 

Clumsy with my words

they tumble in a vacuum

unheard and unloved.

 

by Scooj

  • The father of teenagers.

Slow worm

 

Neither slow nor worm

unkind lazy misnomer;

lizard without legs.

 

by Scooj

 

  • I’m having an uninspired day and so am republishing a haiku I wrote on April 28 2015 under the title Haiku 13.

New hope

 

On hold no longer

Spring’s majestic arrival

cheers tired, jaded hearts.

 

by Scooj