Lowell Observatory

Myself and son James at Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona, June or July 1966. This image is mentioned in my memoir 'Astronomy as Poetry' which appears in Griffith Review No. 73 published by Griffith Unversity in Brisbane.

More haiku

Woke up feeling grim. 

When Port Talbot came to mind

 I felt better. Why?

 

Wishing there were more

trees, I should be satisfied

with the one I see.

 

The measuring tape

on the box with the green lid

sits exactly right.

 

Doing the washing-up

scraping plates and wondering:

food is sticky. Why? 

 

The garden she made!

Only the fine rain is not

part of her design.

I thought I'd try lipograms, i.e. texts where one letter is omitted. Here's God Save The Queen without the letter 'o': Deity save the kindly Queen we have/ May the refined Queen we have live many years/ Deity save the Queen./ Send her triumphant/ Happy and resplendent/ Under her reign may we spend much time,/ Deity save the Queen. And 'Home on the Range' without the letter 'e': I would gladly stay/among roaming buffalo/and frisking hinds and harts/hardly taking in a discouraging word/noting sky upon sky without day-long cloud.af