Think of me
please pay your respects
to the dust trodden into carpets,
ingrained in chairs
and in curtains,
all along these tired window ledges
Then will you write my name
on the dusty shelves
where my books used to lie?
For in truth
they were more surely me
image and poem © copyright dfbarker 2012
Poor Things
At some stage or another
we all become poor things
The man who once
pulled trucks and trains for fun
in a gown
and listening to a nurse
image and poem © copyright df barker 2012
Haikus— ‘Changes’
step back little life
faces change though streets remain
cross with no regrets
spring’s hushed voice in trees
snow lingers on in furrows
earth unbends to light
poems and photograph © copyright dfbarker 2012
soft indignation
flat third of a minor chord
world’s light in a cell
© copyright dfbarker 2012
*image based on a watercolour original, part of a reconstruction of a Benedictine Priory. This image is not necessarily to hint at the meaning of the haiku, although it could be one interpretation.
Until the End of the World
He walked with me
some of the way
Through the dark woods
he became a bright torch
to illuminate overgrown paths
where leaves of oak and ash
caressed my face like friends
On the high moorland
he was the warm fleece
which I wrapped around myself
to shelter from the cold and rain
And when we sat down
in the clearing by a stream
he produced this feast of food
which I shared with a host of birds
and others sitting tamely at my feet
But when he stood up to go
his skin turned a deathly white
I watched helpless
while he vanished silently
into a bank of willow and alder
swallowed by the rush
of the now turbulent stream
The animals all scampered away
to peer at me from somewhere
unseen in the shadows
I began to trudge home
shivering on the high moorland
drenched to the skin
with only hardy sheep for company
who eyed me warily
when I staggered by
Once back in the dark woods
I soon became lost
the stinging branches whipping me
and thorns piercing my flesh
while groping my way through
In my bag I found the old torch
with its flickering light
I hit it against a tree
trying to make it work –
my only recourse
in such a state of loss
*dedicated to all those who have found faith
© copyright David Francis Barker 2011
*image is a digital manipulation an original
Ciscography 