Tanka: Yesteryear

camera photography vintage travel
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Yesteryear remains
The rose coloured memories
all done and dusted
A lost world that won’t return
but a world where I belonged

copyright Francis barker 2019

Poem: The Garth

beautiful blur close up cute
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The accolades like garlands
all around you,
each flower of the palette
in your soul

I saw suns glint in violet eyes,
such rare colour,
your rose petal smiles
on dew laden sward 

You drew me pastel people,
tore them to pieces,
casting high like confetti
in a lavender breeze

Your delicate hand would
demand I take it,
frog march me around
your patchwork garth 

We’d sit in white stillness 
at Indian summer’s end,
our toes dangling in pools
of murky green

And when the grey winds came
soughing demons around us,
you closed that rickety gate
toward Michaelmastide.

copyright Francis Barker 2019

Haiku: Circles

round analog clock
Photo by bruce mars on Pexels.com

Circles of the sun
are divided into twelve
A natural law

copyright Francis Barker 2019

Poem: Pablo

lines on whiteboard
Photo by Martin Péchy on Pexels.com

Black eyes of the deep south
simmer through cigarette smoke,
windows on the tortuous corridors
where the minotaur lurks.
There can be no control:
He is the crucible of all possibility;
the raging bull and the wild horse.
And the bearer of light.
His mesmeric stare fixes
on the stigmata of raised hands.
Goya-like, he senses life’s transitory
spell, this bridge of tragedy,
the lifeblood of creativity.
He paints in a trance, in full
knowledge that there is no
thread for Theseus to find.

copyright Francis Barker 2019

Tanka: Just War

mosaic alien on wall
Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com

They talk of just war
It is good versus evil
Never in my name
though I’m not a pacifist
Just show me the enemy

copyright Francis Barker 2019