John McDonald
Living in Edinburgh, Scotland
http://zenspeug.blogspot.com
Zen Speug 2014
snell wund -
throuch the causeys
a joogler jooglin gullies
bitter wind -
through the streets
a juggler juggling knives
Fume O Peat Reek (Hub Editions)
sundoon -
she rugs a reid threid
throuch her flooerin
sunset -
she draws a red thread
through her embroidery
Fume O Peat Reek (Hub Editions)
aw day
the yin butterie
fouin the gairden
all day
the one butterfly
filling the garden
Fume O Peat Reek (Hub Editions)
hauf-tyme baund -
yin chiel sheds himsel
wi a cymbal
half-time band -
one musician shades himself
with a cymbal
Tuin Tin Tassie (Hub Editions)
ower tottie
tae win tae thair chapper
he daffs alane
too tiny
to reach their doorbell
he plays alone
Tuim Tin Tassie (Hub Editions)
yill bottle taps skailt -
he hunkers
refleckin on the Galaxy
beer bottle tops scattered -
he sits
musing on the Galaxy
The Throu-Gaun Chiel (cyberwit)
in a seelent vennel
a maw skirls
swallaein the jeelin wund
in a silent alley
a gull screams
swallowing the icy wind
The Throu-Gaun Chiel (cyberwit)
coortin kipple
a coffee atween thaim -
stame heavin
young lovers
a coffee between them -
steam rising
The Throu-Gaun Chiel (cyberwit)
freesty mornin -
oot frae a jaur
the rizzard lavender's blae braith
frosty morning -
out from a jar
the dried lavender's blue breath
The Throu-Gaun Chiel (cyberwit)
anither yirdin -
sin blinters on the spaiks
o a birlin trinnle
another funeral -
sun glitters on the spokes
of a turning wheel
The Throu-Gaun Chiel (cyberwit)
i the bombed kirk
a bairn
...skailt chalice
in the bombed church
a child
...spilt chalice
zenspeug
awthing
rowed in sinlicht -
naethin unforgien
everything
wrapped in sunlight -
nothing unforgiven
Sommergras Sept 2012
bairn doverin
in a sinblink:
hapt in licht years
baby asleep
in a sunbeam:
wrapped in light years
Taj Mahal Review vol12 no2
wi's razzor
he pynts tae the fou muin -
his sowpied neb
with his razor
he points to the full moon -
his lathered face
Taj Mahal Review vol 9 no. 2
immigration:
the bairn's derk fingers
kinchin's mither's herr
immigration:
the child's dark fingers
knotting his mother's hair
Kamesan's World haiku anthology
monks
cleedit in fite
pensefu caunles
Taj Mahal Review vol 10 no 2
monks
dressed in white
wistful candles
roon the wa's
faimilie photies
takkin tent o's deein
Taj Mahal Review vol 12 no 2
round the walls
family photographs
watching him die
fou muin -
on the cunyie
a hooer's paewae neb
Taj Mahal Review vol 12 no 2
full moon -
on the corner
a prostitute's pale face
sterns
cuilin aff
i the het bowie
Taj Mahal Review vol 12 no 2
stars
cooling off
in the hot tub
linn -
throuch a pearl's rouk
the bodach skews
Taj Mahal Review vol 10 no 1
waterfall -
through a cataract's mist
the old man squints
dementia -
he hunkers i the mids
o a skailt jeegsaw
Taj Mahal Review vol 8 no 2
dementia -
he sits in the midst
of a scattered jigsaw
waddin day -
a butterie fidderin
throuch thair sheddaes' herts
Taj Mahal Review vol 9 no 2
wedding day -
a butterfly fluttering
through their shadows' hearts
midnicht express
pewlin
...teuk a fere tae heiven
Taj Mahal Review vol 11 no 1
midnight express -
wailing
...took a friend to heaven
oor luvin...
mellin wi burdsang
at keek-o-day
Taj Mahal Review vol 11 no 1
our loving...
mixing
with the dawn chorus
hoaspice veesitin oor -
agane
the wappin beds
Harvests of new millenium vol 3 no 1
hospice visiting hour -
again
the enormous beds
echain
throuch the cosmos:
brattles shentin us
Harvest of New Millenium vol 12 no1
echoing
through the cosmos:
gunfire shaming us
trauchlin hame -
derk muins o's crummock
i the snaw
Harvests of New Millenium vol l5 no 1
trudging home -
dark moons of his walking stick
in the snow
perishin kirk -
frae the meenister's mou
ghaists o Yules bygane
Harvest of New Millenium vol 6 no1
freezing church -
from the minister's mouth
ghosts of Christmasses past
it sterts tae snaw -
the blin musicianer
leuks upwarts
Harvests of New Millenium vol 2 no 1
it starts to snow -
the blind musician
looks upwards
the bairn
bletherin tae me -
brawer nor wurds
Harvest of New Millenium vo 6 no1
the baby
chatting to me -
better than words
dementia
tentie o the butterie
...skeerie lik
dementia
he watches the butterfly
...fearfully
*
voar ferr -
pipes seelent
weet paradeedles
spring fair -
bagpipes silent
rain paradiddles
*
anither bluid test
...traipsin the lang reid rod
o hairst
another blood test
...trudging the long red road
of autumn
*
furst burthday -
balloons,gulshichs,
an time's smirkin mou
first birthday -
balloons,cakes,
and time's grinning maw
*
Donegal mornin -
yin lum
reekless
Donegal morning -
one chimney
smokeless
(for Seamus Heaney)
the stag
gralloched -
its croun o jaggies
the stag
hung to bleed -
its crown of thorns
*
swaws rattlin -
spairge
o brucken wattergaws
waves crashing -
spray
of broken rainbows
*
maws fecht ower the bucket
...hameless
he squerrs's shouthers
gulls fight over the dustbin
...homeless
he squares his shoulders
*
wab
fingerprentin
the harr
web
fingerprinting
the mist
*
stour o's shock
ower -
a stilt yirdin'm
storm of his stroke
over -
a crutch earthing him
*
oot frae's mools
ugsome thrissels:
mools o the torterer
out from his grave
horrendous thistles:
grave of the torturer
*
autistic laddie
faw'n ower
cartoons jig on's neb
autistic boy
fallen asleep
cartoons dance on his face
*
brod set
wytein the veesitors
e'en the speens hearkenin
table set
awaiting the visitors
even the spoons listening
*
the bodach
hirples alang -
bonnie kirstals growe in's bluid
the old man
hobbles along -
beautiful crystals grow in his blood
*
auld freen -
oxterin'm
oor banes bairge
old friend -
embracing him
our bones collide
*
she wins awa...
brakkin the threids
o a wab
she leaves...
breaking the threads
of a web
*
a scrieve hame
desert stoor
slairt
a letter home
desert dust
smudging
*
wund amang the sprots
the cailleach
tellin'r beads
wind among the reeds -
the old lady
telling her beads
*
festival's en -
a lane pipie stauns
sax inch frae the muin
festival's end -
a lone piper stands
six inches from the moon
*
nicht soonds
fauldit inby
the auld saxyphone
night sounds
at rest inside
the old saxophone
*
peat lowe -
we hunker, threy glowein nebs
goavin at a fowert
peat fire -
we sit, three glowing faces
gazing at a fourth
*
potter's hauns
wrochtin the tuimness
o's blae joogs
potter's hands
shaping the emptiness
of his blue jugs
*
blowster -
'guid mornin' smirk
blawn awa
Gale -
'good morning' smile
blown away
*
the muezzin crys -
awbody taks on
the set o incaain
the muezzin calls -
everybody assumes
the shape of prayer
*
dryin nets -
maws drift athort
... a slaw gemme o chess
drying nets -
gulls drift across
... a slow game of chess
*
lang vaig -
she wyyves the miles intae
a granbairn's shawlie
long journey -
she crochets the miles into
a grandchild's shawl
*
the auld scuil steekit -
anely the bummers
murmellin a lesson
the old school closed -
only the bees
murmuring a lesson
*
tick tock...
the bombed bairn
pendles on's stilts
tick tock...
the bombed child
pendulums on his crutches
*
armistice day -
the reid maple
liggs its wreath
armistice day -
the red maple
lays its wreath
*
swans gaither
...bit the day the bodach
maits the wirms
swans gather
...but today the old man
feeds the worms
*