Poetry People: Robert Drake's Haibun-Haiku Journey

Richmond Castle: 'Richmond's defences held'

 Review of by In Fading Light Robert Drake

torrential waters
wash the night of stars
a kestrel hovers

Robert Drake
In Fading Light


I have bought my first eBook for Kindle, and I don't even have a Kindle! Did you know that you can use Kindlereader via Amazon?

I discovered this some days ago when Swansea friend, Robert Drake (Bob to his friends), invited me to take a look at his new publication of Haibun and Haiku, In Fading Light. The eBook is available on Amazon for the princely sum of 77p (great value and considerably less than two First Class stamps!). It is published by Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing Facility.

Haibun and Haiku originate from Japan, and have become increasingly popular in the West. Robert handles his material with skill, and rarely refuses to settle for less than the exact word or phrase. In Fading Light includes the story of a 200 mile walk - the Wainwright Coast to Coast - from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, across some of the most challenging stretches of Britain. The whole book is, in a sense, a journey in its own right. Vibrant moments leap from the page in a few short syllables:

daybreak
melting sea-mist
in the heron's eye

We encounter the poet's travelling companions in the form of dancing pipistrelles, a prowling cat, the old bookseller and the old man on a bench. It is no surprise to find a metaphorical rainbow of references to the season and the weather, a rainbow of 'warm air' and 'icy winds', of 'doleful rain' and 'receding cloud'. There is a sprinkling of words long associated with Haiku, such as 'snow', 'jasmine' and 'sparrows', so those of a more traditional persuasion will feel quite at home in this collection, as the old blends seamlessly with the new.

I have attempted to write numerous Haiku over the years, occasionally meeting with success in small competitions. Some of my Haiku have been published, but I am less familiar with – though no less interested in – the art and craft of Haibun. That said, I particularly enjoyed reading the Haibun account of the Wainwright Walk, with its 'realistic' changes in pace brought about by the alternation of prose and Haiku. Robert's prose style is full of detail and occasionally, it seems to me, somewhat reminiscent of Gerard Manley Hopkins ...

'There was a barrenness and oppressive solitude. At Angle Tarn the fluting of skylarks served only to emphasise this empty grandeur.'   

Robert's actual journey led him through torrential rain at one point to the towering fortress of Richmond Castle, which I remember vividly from my own visit on account of its raucous Parliament of Rooks. Does Robert make his final destination? You could buy the eBook and find out! 


About the author of In Fading Light 
Robert Drake was formerly an associate dean in the Faculty of Arts and Social Studies and senior lecturer in social policy at Swansea University. He now teaches for the Open University (UK). 

Seasonal Splash (7): Spring Fever (and amphibians)

The magnificent Priory remains, Mount Grace, Yorkshire ...

... with resident amphibian!

You may have seen my wasp bole in the previous post. These images above are also from Mount Grace.

I thought this was a Common Frog, but having lightened my photo a little, I think it is actually a Common Toad. I heard today that my poem, 'Observations from the Hide' (about toads back in Wales) had taken Second Place in the Writelink Spring Fever Competition.

Magazine Moment (22): The Dawntreader

Mount Grace, Yorkshire, daffodil season

We always enjoy a visit to Mount Grace when we are in the area. The Priory is fascinating in itself, but I am particularly drawn to the wildlife in this beautiful setting. We have just returned from another wonderful visit. I was even tempted to pull out my pocket watercolours ...

We found a frog in a Medieval water course at the back of one of the reconstructed cells. I kept a sharp eye out for wasps' nests, as I had seen one on a previous occasion. My waspish Sonnet, 'Matriarch at Mount Grace', has just been published in The Dawntreader (p.9, issue 14, Spring 2011, ed. Dawn Bauling, IDP).
 

Wasp nest, Mount Grace, April 2011

Guest Blogger (2): Hannah Atkinson

Images of Spurn Point, Yorkshire, UK
Copyright: Hannah Atkinson

I am very grateful to Hannah for sending me these fine photographs of Spurn Point in Yorkshire to display on my blog. If anyone would like to contact Hannah with a view to using these images as postcards, please would you leave a note to this effect in the Comments box below, or send me an email.

If you would like to find out a bit more about this extraordinary part of the world, you might like to read my Land&Lit post here.

Puffin Quest 3: OAPS (Old Age Puffins)

Coastcard Puffin Design
© Caroline Gill 2009

Puffins at the RSPB Reserve,

Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire, UK

Those who follow my blog will know that puffins are probably my favourite bird. They float around in 'rafts' on the sea, looking like small jewels or beads in a necklace. They are often referred to as the 'clowns of the air' because they look so comical when they fly. I took a number of photographs, trying to capture their different poses: I hesitate to say their 'expressions' because this is a word I associate with humans. I hope you like the result!

Puffins seem to have been in the news a bit these past few months. I blogged about the rare sighting of the Tufted Puffin a couple of weeks ago.

[Ed.- you will find a link to that post from this one! You might also like to see my puffin bookmarks in this post].

I have now been given an unidentified newspaper clip about 'the oldest known puffin in Europe'. The bird was ringed back in 1975. Another puffin found in the same vicinity of Rough Island, part of the Shiant Isles, off Scotland had first been ringed in 1977.

• Wildlife Extra: apparently a puffin on Iceland may be even older!
• British Trust for Ornithology OA Puffin Report

Beautiful Birds (5): A Post on Puffins

Puffins off RSPB Reserve at Bempton Cliffs near Flamborough Head, Yorkshire
Spring 2009

Puffins have to be one of my favourite birds, as those who follow my blog will have realised! We thought we might be too early for them this year, but it was a delight to find that they had come in from the sea, and were busy preparing their nests on the rocky ledges. The left-hand puffin in the second photograph has grass stalks in her beak, which you may just make out if you click to enlarge the picture.

I thought the name 'Puffin Post' rang a bell, and wondered if I was confusing it with Arthur Ransome's 'Pigeon Post'. A quick 'Google' confirmed that there is indeed a children's magazine called 'Puffin Post'. Curiously, there is even a competition mentioned on the site which has - presumably as a prize - the chance to 'go behind the scenes' at Bempton. I suddenly begin to feel 40-something going on 4!

Language & Linguistics (3): Translation

The book in Rudston Church
(please advise if this is not the right way up)

Most writers, I imagine, must wonder at one time or another about translation. My poems have occasionally appeared in international anthologies (e.g. from India and the USA); but to my knowledge, none of my poems has been translated into another language. Who knows what the future will hold. Works like Homer and Shakespeare, of course, have appeared in countless tongues. I came across a useful site concerned with translation, and I also found it interesting to read about the eighteenth century views of Samuel Johnson (click link and read 'A thought for the day').

You may wonder what sparked this train of thought. I was recently at Rudston Church near Bridlington, visiting the grave of the novelist, Winifred Holtby (and also looking at a gigantic menhir in the churchyard and reading the memorial tablets to my distant MacDonald ancestors). As we entered the church, my eyes alighted on a delightful copy of South Riding ... translated into Japanese by Suzoku Sakamoto.

Creature Feature (4): Otters under threat from eco-development

This seems a strange and contradictory scenario. You can read this story from Scarborough through the eyes of a concerned fifteen year old.

A bit closer to home, and on a more positive note, there is good news for a section of the All Wales Coastal Path.

Who's dreaming of a white [stoat] Christmas?

Right: Mount Grace Priory, Yorkshire
(in the care of English Heritage)
Top: through the arch
Lower left: even the pheasants are looking for stoat holes ... or rabbits! (click on photo to enlarge)
Lower right: are there any stoat prints in the mud?

'Slowly the moon takes her brush, and drips
midnight tips on two stoat-like tails.'

Last couplet of 'Mount Grace Priory: heads and tails'
© Caroline Gill 2008
Poem published in 'Tips' (ed. Wendy Webb)
Issue 68 (September/October 2008).

Early birds listening to the 'Today Programme' on the BBC before 7am this morning will have heard the report about the resident stoat population at Mount Grace. The stoats are predicting a cold winter: they have turned white for Christmas!

Read the full story in the Darlington and Stockton Times.

• BBC feature on the Mount Grace stoats (2003)
• Mount Grace on the English Heritage site
• Mammal Society Fact Sheet on Stoats