Haiku: ‘Arctic Visitors’

Photo by Wendy Wei on Pexels.com

Skeins from far away
Where tundra has turned to snow
Welcome visitors

Copyright Francis Barker 2020

Poem: ‘Heed’

Photo by stein egil liland on Pexels.com

Florescent green banners snaking
in the blue;
Polaris over my head,
such beacons of the kingdom
drawing like a magnet,
beckoning closer to ice smothered peaks
of estranged lands;
the incessant drum of the shaman,
ancestors screaming from my heart,
imploring me: “Remember this.”

Copyright Francis Barker 2020

*dVerse Quadrille 114 — poetical magnetism

Poem ‘Girl with a Cello’

Girl with a Cello

In a diamond city night we’re
taxied through floodlit streets

angled snow alabasters old facades
medieval histories beyond all guessing

Flanders is frozen outside this misted glass
the two of us sitting nose to nose

our tongues loosening aperitif smiles
white burgundy cutting through brie

making heads light and cheeks flush
and toe touch toe

Our eyes meet when bare soul strokes calf
kissing slim fingers one by one

plied each day to taut cello strings
sneak previews to plots and suites of night

© copyright francis barker 2012

Above the Arctic circle in Tromso, Norway — Passport Overused (Reblog)

So, I decided to push the envelope even more. Flew to Tromso from Oslo. It was about a two-hour flight. It costs about 90 dollars round trip at the time. Might be more expensive in the coming years. Luckily, there wasn’t any major snowstorm that day. Luck was on my side to visit this part…

via Above the Arctic circle in Tromso, Norway — Passport Overused

Poem ‘Snow Again’

Snow Again

I grab a cup of tea, set out
to make something of the day.
Snow again, it brings daylight on.
They describe it as ten centimetres
which I still find hard to see.
It’s enough to cover my shoes,
that’s how I look at it
while clearing your little car.
Later, the laptop warms my knee
with Schubert declaring his genius,
when I feel the phone shudder.
A cursory text says the roads
were not too bad.
I look outside at the gathering host,
busy blots of grey and black
on white. An emerging blue.
They know the human is about
and that he has food.

photo and poem © copyright dfbarker 2012