HAIKU POEMS BY RASHNA WALTON

Haiku, a form of poetry from Japan, were written to describe nature and the seasons and followed a prescribed structure of 3 phrases and comprising 17 syllables. Whilst I have in part adhered to the format, it is the structural element of Haiku poetry that I enjoy with its discipline of keeping to the required length whilst endeavouring to express our relationship to nature, the cosmos and spirituality.

Rashna Walton

 

Being so in Love
I throw my arms wide open
To the Formless One.

*****

Breathe through all the pain
Rejoice in all the laughter
Ere the day is done.

*****

How do I reach You?
Hear You, walk alongside You?
All these with the Heart.

*****

When it’s time to leave
This warm cave of blood and bone
Who will point the way?

*****

Exquisite screen of
Cloud and leafy filigree
Veils the silver Queen.

*****

Along the earthwork
Lofty trees toppled, cooling
Moonbeams bathe the wounds.

*****

Oh son of Bharat
I am the taste in water
The heat in fire.

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The ocean receives
Into its swelling bosom
Her sons and daughters.

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Majestic forest!
I have slept in your great rooms
Under burning stars.

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Cradle me in moss
When the air is soft and close –
Wrap me in your roots.

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Arrows splinter on
My breast, coals are quenched beneath
My tireless feet.

*****

Sculptor of the heart
Mason of the mind, fashion
Me in Your image.

 

 

 Fragile container
Of stardust and love that I,
For now, inhabit.

*****

Not daring to knock,
A voice from within, laughing,
“But this is your home!”

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Sometimes a thought, more
Lucid than sunshine, carries
Me back to your eyes.

*****

Walking through the wood
My footsteps creaking on the
Freshly fallen snow.

*****

Hush, the snow has come
To lie beside the sleeping
flowers of the wood.

*****

Fearless warrior
Robed in mist, bright blade of frost,
Turns to face the day.

*****

Knowing there is You
What fell sorrow could pierce
The breastplate of joy?

*****

Astound me with Light
Bombard me with Miracles
Furnish me with Love.

*****

You have a place more
Spacious than any landscape
You know it as Mind.

*****

When words must finish
Use the language of the heart
Then words are finished

*****

Keeping watch in full
Moonlight, shadows slide across
The silent valley.

*****

Small orange fire in
Ring of hearth stone cannot push
Away the darkness.

*****

My hand cannot stop
The silent blade that enters
The heart and stills it.

*****

Stars whirl in night sky
Churning heaven’s inky dark
To a brightening dawn.

*****

Transcendent wisdom
Filtered by neural net to
Chalice of the heart.

*****

Ask the Beloved;
Shall I come to you naked?
Or veiled and disguised?

*****

Rain waters earth. Then
Wind to dry and sun to warm
Her as she dances.

*****

Ascending skylarks
Loose their musical torrent
From the clear blue sky.

*****

Field of golden grain
Watered, warmed, harvested. Then
Bread for my table.

*****

Robin sits atop
My garden spade as if to say
Don’t stop keep digging!

*****

Soft breeze stirs the lake
And granite mountain turns to
Rippling watered silk.

 

 

 

Anchored in blue sky
Hanging over patchwork fields
A fleet of cloud ships.

*****

Under the rock pool
Speckled trout unblinking bathes
In dappled sunlight.

*****

Crouched in a dust bowl
And warmed in afternoon sun
Small tabby she cat.

*****

Spaced between the spokes
Of my winding garden path
Yellow tulips stand.

*****

Trying to reach You
My thoughts wing upwards and graze
The edge of heaven.

*****

Birth of the cosmos
Whose life and death is written
In light upon dark.

*****

Comet pebble flung
Through space to skim the surface
Of earth’s atmosphere.

*****

If no one watches
The giant redwood falling
Should it make a sound?

*****

After the storm, torn
From the branch my wind chime smashed
Upon the wet earth.

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Rushing of snow melt
Foaming from the mountain-side
Brims the agate pool.

*****

Pale white galleon
Who sails anew each evening
Drops anchor at dawn.

*****

Mirrored in the lake
Skein of flying geese aloft
Shoal of fish beneath.

*****

Circles widening
As the watchful heron’s beak
Breaks the still water.

 

 

 Something a little different….

By the time one realizes there are
But a finite number of opportunities,
The simplest Act of Kindness becomes
Something akin to devotion

*****

 Heraldry

I am a war torn flag
Fluttering in life’s breeze.
Purple, gold, blue and red,
Crimson for the blood I’ve shed.
Loudly cracks the cloth of history
A ragged semaphore for mystery.
Lament or joyous testament
I shredding, fraying strand by strand
At last unravelling in the wind
I’ll stand
Revealed, Reconciled,
Healed.