Parallel Poems

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

new year wind . . .

a cloudfront unwinds

its forecast

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

seeming new

a path of milestones

through tombstones

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

Cattails Premier Edition January 2014

tribute to john carley

wind dance —

a blackbird parts

from its song

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

new moon —
emptiness tugs
at me

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

autumn shadows —
my image slips behind
a thousand eyes

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

in silence
a rose darkens
the night

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

a black swan
stretches into the mist
silencing heaven

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

windswept dunes —
what lips pare mine
of words?

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

dusky sound . . .
my smile enters hers
noiselessly

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

cloudless day . . .
surface ripples terraform
a stream bed

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

. . . . . . . . . .
. . . taiga . . .
. . virtually . .
. . . . a . . . . .
. . . haiku . . .
. . . . . . . . . .

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

windswept rain —
everyone I pass
a Buddha

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

limpid stream . . .
my eyes hold on
to nothing

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

mountain mist
almost to see through
not a word to say

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

mobile call —
the spring in her voice
in the rain

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

the child I was
singsongs the silence
still to come

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

dawn chorus . . .
a tui sounds out
the rusty gate

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

shadow by shadow
an eel rises to the bread —
what breaks this body?

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

lightning storm . . .
a mantra splits open
the heaviness

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

sullen rose —
the fragrance of a god's
hidden name

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

plopping sounds
a tennis ball wilts
over the ditch

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

heat wave
countless eyes shimmer
over the court

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

darting
from side to side
a voyeur's eyes

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

tennis sounds
the increasing orbit
of interest

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

high noon
time itself sags
on the net

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

set and match
the bottom seed
fans the ball

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

in the racket
of steamy court battle —
a tennis elbow

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

a highflier
suffers two wingmen —
summer heat

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

tennis fever -
a third baseman asks
"who's on first?"

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

soft serves drip
from a thousand lips . . .
courtly love

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

gong fu cha —
a shadow passes between
then and now

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

summer breeze —
kiwi kigo hung out
to dry

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

river song twisting through time

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

southern sky —
from heaven's pointers
a wooden cross

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

within sight
candlelight crossmembers
an altar

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

under the mist
i separate land
and sky

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

cloudless moon —
a poet disinfecting
death

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

digitally remastered silence

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

heaven scent —
summer rain anoints
shaky grounds

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

death knell . . .
a river mouth
exacts its toll

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

all innocents . . .
some faces less livid
than others

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

twilight dusk —
the bruises of life
less livid

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

with the sea
the rockpool of friends
from my hands

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

southern cross —
these arms weighed down
with night

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

tui —
i hear half
its song

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

roadkill —
the fly-blown voice
of the unborn

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

breathstop . . .
a praying mantis
shifts weight

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

another moon —
still the otherness
of her body

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

freckle-face
her wrinkling nose becomes
newsworthy

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

never alone . . .
blanket man paces out
the southern cross

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

haiku moon —
a morepork recites
to its own

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

under the moon
her hands cup the gift
of her self

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

awakening
from such light caress
a peony's folds

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

gaping wound —
a poem
without the moon

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

what of it?
cherry blossoms
and the moon

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

wild honey —
how the clover glows
in her eyes!

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

keeping still
I deepen my roots
in the void

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

my footprint
as if it matters
I once am

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

rising tide
eyes awash with the moon
two by two

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

my footprint
soled, souled, sold
silting up

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

no mere
patina of grace;
well-worn aves

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

a bird cocks its head
at nothing — within this hush
a priest breaks the bread

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

farflung night
a morepork mantles
a cold egg

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

farflung stars
darkness mantles me
in its wings

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

morepork,
keep watch with me
through ancient light

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

kite flying
I strain beyond
my words

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

ancient one,
your voice too sounds
of cicadas

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

gracing
a patina of grace
a stain marks
the loss

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

night wind —
the sound of light
on the wick

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

waxing moon —
my shadow lingers
over hers

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

sequences

a haiku sequence

while doves cry i coo

a season word
cuts 'twixt my coming
and my going

human nature stages a high coup

spell casting
a hokkus pokkus
of words

the verbal hiccups of a beat movement

close reading a cross-eyed ku

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

Frogpond 37-2

park bench—
yesterday's warmth
old news

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

Under the Basho 2014

overhead
galaxies swamped
in equations

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

Cattails Premier Edition January 2014

step by step
our paths merge together
as water and wine . . .
in these unplanned moments
we sip eternity

cattails Premier Edition - January 2014
Editor's Choice - Tanka

Editor's comments:

Being a hopeless romantic and given that tanka originated as court poetry, this one by Hansha Teki of New Zealand, is one of my Editor's Choices. The rhythm being approximately s, l, s, l, l, right off qualifies it as a tanka rather than just a free verse or mainstream short poem. The content is poetic yet not overly done, nor does it lack either in substance or depth. Lines 1 and 2 set up the situation, line 3 gives us a pause plus a twist instead of simply being a run-on sentence. Lines 4 and 5 bring us back to the beginning which gives us closure. Literally “we sip eternity” of unplanned moments with its author.

— cattails Principal editor an'ya, USA

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

Cattails Premier Edition January 2014

leaf by leaf
a lilac emerges
in birdsong . . .

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

Cattails Premier Edition January 2014

trickling stream . . .
stones at rest gather
smoothness

Details: Written by: Stephen Bailey; Category: January 2014

New Year's Day
the heat of the moment
all over us