Haibun: Time and Tide

I’ve been waiting for the blossom to
fall in winter,
leaves to blow around the streets
in spring.
I tried to set sail when the tide was out
like forcing the fruit of an apple tree;
I should have waited
to enjoy the sun.
Time is of the essence
and the essence is time:
Each now passes and is gone;
a simple stillness remains

What will be will be
spring’s breath silent like the fall –
the sun comes around


copyright Francis 2023

Haiku: ‘Flow’

The tide is turning
Do we push against the stream?
Enjoy the journey

Copyright Francis 2020

Haiku: ‘Plain Truth’

Promenade walking
Wide horizons broadening
Truths in plainer sight

Copyright Francis Barker 2020

Poem ‘Sea Wall’

The Wash, as seen looking west from Heacham, i...
The Wash, as seen looking west from Heacham, in Norfolk, just south of Hunstanton (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sea Wall

Stand and look from here,
you can see the earth’s curve,
a sea-levelled land
bereft of its mother.

Shells we have found
while the silt blew away,
powdered by droughts
and the pitiless wind.

Stand here with me
at the high spring tide—
you know the stark sea
will swell all over this again

poem © copyright df barker 2012