No Title

 It is piece where I was asked to provide ten lines of something different, whilst still having a connection to Japanese short form poetry.

In this case I chose to interspersed a tanka with an opening verse from something I wrote back in 2015/16.

No title.

By Robert Kingston

 all at once 

Out into the shadows of mighty cranes trod 

      the cherry on the corner

Distant sound of pulleys, wires whining through the sky 

      releases its blossom 

Muffled sounds of toiling, on occasion a ship's fog horn 

      we reflect on memories 

A milkman laughs and whistles, 

        in the family home 

As birds traverse through Autumn's dewy ply. 

 

By Robert Kingston ~ from (Pan Haiku Review, August 2024)

 

A Junicho (renku)

 A Junicho (renku)

 

Started July 2023

Complete October  2023

 

Campsite Magpies

fragrant breeze

campsite magpies gather

around a bin bag                rk

 

a flash shower

tops the water bucket         pc

 

checking off

another thing to do

before I die                        lmp

 

an evening of blues

and table clank                  db

 

the harvest moon

pops up between lotus leaves

in a temple pond.              ak

 

clock work orange

in the midst of Autumn's first chill    db

 

a car trembles

with the weight of two

in the parking lot.              ak

 

Casanova scarfing down

a plate of oysters               lmp

 

crushed shells

form a path through

The Mar-a-Lago Club.         rk

 

cancer cells

limited within the gland.     ak

 

until sunset

we dance in fields

of daffodils                          pc

 

as far as the eye can see

hilltopping butterflies.          lmp

 

Sabaki - Robert Kingston

 

rk - Robert Kingston

pc - Pris Campbell

db- Don Baird

lmp - Linda Papanicolaou

ak - Amoolya Kamalnath

 

Campsite Magpies” —Frogpond 47:2 Spring/Summer 2024

A Haibun and a Haiku

 A Haibun and a Haiku

By Rob Kingston 

Aligning stars

How weird, you're thinking about something that has come through spiritual lines and you open today's wordle and type a relative word.

strike one
the clatter of skittles
dancing on the floor

Haiku

gong bath

a bit of me in full

chakra colours 

Both were published in last month's Blithe Spirit Volume 34, number 2

 

A Renku

a renku

 

from Rob Kingston

 

published in the British journal, Blithe Spirit yesterday.

 

CHILD’S HAND (Shisan)

 

nursery garden

a single cherry blossom

in the child’s hand                           rk

 

balloons

roll across the grass                        ak 

 

on the tin roof

light rain

rousts the sparrows                         db

 

that summer night more than

father would have approved              rk

 

her prince

left hugging his pillow 

dreams glass slippers                       pc

 

the hairpin bend

reveals resting tahrs                         ak 

 

behind the band shell

a clarinet

gathers dust and rust                        pc

 

fog slides in 

to join us for hors d'oeuvres              db 

 

the Man in the Moon

beams gently through

a hospice room                                 ak

 

SS Kidwelly 

still speaks of its ghosts                     rk

 

downstream

a bonfire

smokes canyon walls                          ak 

 

hieroglyphics

for decoding come morning                pc 

 

Sabaki - Linda Papanicolaou USA

rk - Robert Kingston UK

ak - Amoolya Kamalnath INDIA

db- Don Baird   USA

pc - Pris Campbell.  USA

 

  

Triage

Triage 

Robert Kingston

these interruptions 

that start her tears

Spring rain

We had been walking in the woods before opting for the patio at the old café beneath the arches. The sea playing a soft rendition of a Chopin nocturne between the morning traffic holds some kind of draw. Our regular waitress, after setting our tray down on the table, asks if everything is okay. Placing a hand on her arm, I mention all is fine as a seal pops its head above a wave.

        Post-treatment

        A sugar lump in her tea

        Disappears

 Haibun for Christmas Day

 HaikuKATHA

By Robert Kingston

This one was published in the haikuKATHA journal. India.

 

Have a merry Christmas and new year.

See you in 2024

 

time warp

telling the youth

I was young once

 

Copyright Rob Kingston

 

A few more haiku

 A few more haiku  (read at last meeting)

Have a lovely Christmas and a happy new year everybody.

From Rob Kingston

 

world famine

the billionaire’s loose change

rattles the bucket

 

bee hive

each cell

its own summer

 

Blithe spirit, Museum of literature award (runner up) December 2023 

post football

rain soaked scars all over

the pitch

 

And one for Christmas. 

Christmas morning 

a trail of paper follows 

the dog

 

Haibun from Rob

 Haibun from Rob

 

Gone fishing 

 

By Robert Kingston

 

I could swear that pockets of dust exist in our minds. How else can it be explained when something that’s been missing for so long reappears. Of course, I’m aware of the term lockers and keys, and that generally it will be someone else or something that will illuminate the way in.

 

art club

I fill the missing gaps

in my still life

 

 

Four from Rob

 A monoku

mood swings the light on my dark side

A tanka

at mother’s home

first smelling the irises

then hydrangeas

I’m left searching

for her own scent

A split sequence haibun

Break point

Waking in the outback is somewhat stilling for some

            tempest weather

be it a tundra, a mountain, a desert or a deep forest

          a storm in a teacup

the first thought generally is to look to the stars and ask why me

            lips out

A haiga

• 
  

 

A Haiga from Rob

Copyright Robert Kingston

Three Tanka

 Three Tanka

By Robert Kingston

Haibun

 

Five monoku (single line haiku)

Five monoku capture the moment.

 By Robert Kingston

 

Eton mess will these clowns ever leave parliament 

 

 

foolish enough to miss sticky fingers

 

 

a back of the hand view of the licked clean spoon

 

 

even the shit shovelers see it coming

 

 

crumbling concrete a universe circles the paper trail

 

Copyight Robert Kingston

 

An Interlaced Haibun

 Home ground

 

By Robert Kingston

 

I take people's comments lightly these days.

a twister

 

of course, I listen to each word as if it were a chant let loose from the local chapel

begins and ends

 

often they'll repeat the same ole thing they’ve said so many times before

 

in the hay field

 

Copyright Rob Kingston

 Haibun ~ Long haul

By Rob Kingston

It‘s never easy shopping with one arm tied behind your back.

market day

The same can be said of competing in a three legged egg and spoon race.

between the oohs and ahhs

 

And then there’s the hop, skip, and jump to navigate through

her trapped nerve

 

Haibun ~ Round about

 Haibun

 

Round about

 

By Robert Kingston

Do you know that feeling? Sure you do! You start off from one room with an aim, only to be distracted along the way by a telephone call. Putting down the receiver you set off with a different intent and carry on your day. Later, given cause to go back to the room you set off from originally, you discover the thing you’d forgotten.

cold day

a crow in the rear view mirror

returns to the roadkill

 

Nightjar (tribute)

 Nightjar

 

I can’t say I knew her, even though she travelled through my body as if there was some kind of cosmic allegiance. Often on nights of insomnia, I would don my earphones, lay back on the sofa, and let her flow.

 

a rendition

Mandinka drifting through 

the undergrowth 

 

 

RIP Sinead

 

By Robert Kingston

 

A haiku to fill a void.

 

By Robert Kingston 

 

pillow talk 

 

a heartbeat walks

 

through my ear

 

 Kintsugi

 

By Robert Kingston

 

We enter the towpath at Papermill Lock. Passing the houseboats, we walk for about a mile in light drizzle, before a left turn takes us into a glistening field of green barley.

 

sucking water

from the crop

our blue jeans

with tide lines

at groin height

 

Reaching the edge of the field, we pause for a moment at the graveyard fence, as I point to the nest box at the top of the bell tower I’d spotted on an earlier visit.

 

looking out

a baby osprey

poised to fly 

stumbles back in

to its safe house

 

Continuing on, we rise and fall as we cross fields of wheat and corn, pass through a lane lined with varied trees, including Yew, Willows and Oaks, and properties to die for, before arriving at the midway point.

 

retiring early

the weight of his cancer

not yet ready

to give way

to the sun

 

 

Copyright Rob Kingston