James Roderick Burns

Born 1972 in Great Britain
Living in Edinburgh, Scotland

James Roderick Burns' short-form collections 'The Salesman's Shoes' (tanka) and 'Greetings from Luna Park' (sedoka) are published by Modern English Tanka Press. He is managing editor of the UK journal Other Poetry, and lives and works in Edinburgh.

Overhead, grey skies
threatening snow – under foot
offerings of salt

The Zen Space, Winter Showcase, 2014

In the half-filled urn
my face, the whole
luminous day

Hummingbird 25.1, 2015

Night reflections –
paper lightshade stands in
for the missing moon

Bottle Rockets 30, February 2014

By the arse
of the chameleon
everyone is green

Asahi Shimbun, April 29, 2016

Autumn meeting –
waft of flung manure
but no crop rising

Haiku Canada Review 8.2, October 2014

Wild wind
plunges its hands
in the saplings' hair

Mainichi Shimbun, September 22, 2015

Early afternoon –
supermarket receipt blows
into a tree, sticks

The Zen Space, Winter Showcase, 2014

Limber crow
flexes a road sign
as I stump by

Asahi Shimbun, April 15, 2016

Oystercatcher –
red steeple probes
the shifting cloud

Hummingbird 25.1, 2015

Winter rosehips –
cleaner, more delicate
in their decay

Mainichi Shimbun, December 5, 2015

New year bells –

still the moss-choked gutter

opens to rain

Chrysanthemum 16, October 2014

Against a stack

of frozen tyres

the rat’s quick mark

Kernels 1, Spring 2013 - Haiku Editor’s Choice

Shed matters –

where paint spatters end,

the snail trail begins

Haiku Canada Review 8.2, October 2014

Shed matters –

where paint spatters end,

the snail trail begins

Haiku Canada Review 8.2, October 2014

After the hacking,

bees and intricate

investigations

Cattails Premier Edition, January 2014

Only through rain

and beaten grey skies

can the sun burn gold

Hedgerow 12, December 2014

In this summer light

even the toilet block

glows with happiness

Asahi Haikuist Network, May 17, 2013

From vine to gutter,

then back as we pass –

jittery sparrows

Creatrix 28, February 2015

Pigeon alighting

for the dignitary’s head

stops, offers his place

Haiku Journal 29, July 2014

Old man

finds his shoe

on the corner

Seven by Twenty, July 23, 2014

Dusk – wind whistles

through the neck

of my coffee cup

Mainichi Shimbun, May 9, 2014 - Isamu Hashimoto’s Annual Selection, 2014

Among the bluebells
an aluminium can
explodes in the heat

Asahi Shimbun-International Herald Tribune, October 1-2, 2005

Artist – gorilla
staring at the setting sun,
supper fruit unpicked

Haiku Quarterly 25, Spring 2001

Flamingo enclosure –
facing the gale
with a bent umbrella

Taj Mahal Review 13.1, June 2014

Funnel of sparrows
in the pale dawn –
all my mistakes

Bottle Rockets 30, February 2014

Ghost fruit, memory –
train stirring last year’s brambles
as it rumbles past

Four and Twenty, November 29, 2011

High voices, then on
to unimaginable
paradise – a moth

Haiku Scotland 3, Autumn 2005

Junction – quick vista
opens to twin roads and trees
before walls close in

Blithe Spirit 11.2, June 2001

One hard frost –
all we have left
of winter

World Haiku Review Spring Issue, April 2014

Salamander Street –
ruptured bicycle tyre twists
to infinity

Anon 1, Summer 2003

Threading a needle
on the foreshore –
passing cormorant

Mainichi Shimbun, July 19, 2014