Ivory Haiku

The Records of a Travel-Worn Dig-Bag III

2011-09-13T09:30:00.002+01:00

In the absolute silence of mid-afternoon heat, back in the deep trench, alone; bent over a drawing board, carefully planning the remains of long-abandoned buildings.

How conveniently
this sweat drops on to mudbricks
straight as a plumb-bob!

[A brief explanation of the Records is here.]

The Records of a Travel-Worn Dig-Bag II

2011-09-06T09:30:00.003+01:00

Arriving at the site, we establish our camp. On the mounds made by the ruins of buildings some four thousand years old, we erect canvass shelters. Such are the fleeting homes we return to again and again in our scholarly migrations.

Owls below the moon --
fluttering white in the dark
our tents on old tells.

[A brief explanation for the Records of a Travel Worn Dig-Bag is here.]

The Records of a Travel-Worn Dig-Bag I

2011-08-30T09:30:00.002+01:00

There is something in us which longs for the past. Whatever this is tugs us away from home every spring, out to the field. First we linger in the oasis of Damascus for a time; then, bags filled, we travel northwards, across the desert.

Tourist buses pass
unmarked mounds covered in grass --
caravanserai.

[Basho wrote "The Records of a Travel-Worn Satchel" (Oi no Kobumi), an account of his journey from Edo to Suma in 1687-8. ‘The readers will find in my diary a random collection of what I have seen on the road,’ Basho said (in Yobuyuki Yuasa's translation). These Records of a Travel-Worn Dig-Bag are a poor imitation, haphazardly drawing on travels to the Near East for the purpose of archaeological fieldwork: the survey, recording, excavation and processing of faint material traces of past lives. Basho added that his Records were ‘little more than the babble of the intoxicated and the rambling talk of the dreaming, and therefore my readers are kindly requested to take them as such.’ The Student can hardly ask more than does Basho; indeed little here has the full grandeur of either dreams or drunkeness.

This mixture of prose and haiku is known as haibun.]

On Possibility

2011-08-23T09:30:00.001+01:00

The sea glimpsed through glass --
how many words are held in
this little ink pot?

Smoking Haiku

2011-08-16T09:30:00.000+01:00

Curlicues of smoke
write characters in still air --
a craving for peace.

On the Gift of an Inkpot

2011-08-09T09:30:00.004+01:00

This sepia ink
seems to hold a hint of blood --
a trace of old wounds?

After Summer Rain

2011-08-02T09:30:00.003+01:00

Professorial -
gulls walking, arms behind backs,
heads bent for earthworms.

On the City Preparing for Festival

2011-07-26T09:30:00.002+01:00

The same loneliness
of abandoned scaffolding
starting as ending.

On the Taking Up, and Casting Off, of Spring Raiment

2010-03-09T09:00:00.001Z

Just as the trees start
donning their new leafy coats,
the students shed theirs.

On the Nurturing Sage

2010-03-04T09:00:00.002Z

The scholar waters
his plant on the windowsill;
his prose he keeps dry.

On Spring Thinking

2010-03-02T09:00:00.002Z

These gleaming snowdrops
standing about with bowed heads.
Scholars in the quad.

On Externalities

2010-02-25T09:00:00.003Z

How busy they look!
Figures in lightened windows,
seen from far away.

On Lending and Loss

2010-02-23T09:00:00.002Z

The gaps between them
make old friends lean drunkenly,
these books on my shelf.

On Afternoons in the Tower

2008-09-09T11:10:00.001+01:00

Daylight fades away.
My computer screen glowing
in the dimming light.

On the Benefits of Ivory Towers

2008-09-02T11:10:00.000+01:00

Clustered under eaves
of great temples of learning
watching the downpour.

The Narrow Road to the Far Conference VI

2008-08-26T11:10:00.002+01:00

No-one questions you?
This enormous silence shouts
louder than your talk.

The Narrow Road to the Far Conference V

2008-08-19T11:10:00.000+01:00

Coffee cups clinking
ravenous scholars descend -
biscuits and contacts.

The Narrow Road to the Far Conference IV

2008-08-12T11:10:00.001+01:00

At the podium -
this room of academics
now almost silent.

The Narrow Road to the Far Conference III

2008-08-05T11:10:00.000+01:00

On this long journey
some unexpected vistas -
a single footnote!

The Narrow Road to the Far Conference II

2008-07-29T18:00:00.002+01:00

The scholar regrets
his optimistic abstract -
typing on the train.

The Narrow Road to the Far Conference I

2008-07-22T18:31:00.005+01:00

Full of spring urges
animals migrate homewards:
scholars gathering.

On Unexpected Urban Wildlife

2008-01-23T18:39:00.000Z

Spilling orange light
across the black quadrangle -
a fox at midnight.

On Wintery Debates

2008-01-21T15:58:00.000Z

Fogging the windows:
scholarly exhalations
hide the outside world.

On Working Well

2008-01-18T01:45:00.000Z

Writing, re-writing.
Hammered out from a blank sheet -
a bright copper bowl.

On the Shortness of Days

2008-01-16T17:12:00.000Z

Slanting winter sun.
Weathered college stone and slate -
half shadow, half light.

On Forgetting and Surprise

2008-01-14T16:11:00.000Z

Folded paper frog.
On its belly, characters -
forgotten haiku!

On the Last Lecture of the Week

2008-01-11T14:46:00.000Z

Friday afternoon.
PowerPoint slides fade away
to a pure white screen.

On Returning Home Late

2008-01-09T15:14:00.000Z

Quiet city night.
The lamps of insomniacs
light my way to bed.

On Traces from the Past

2008-01-07T14:16:00.000Z

Sepia on white
memories of past chapters:
old coffee-mug rings.

On Teaching

2007-12-17T16:31:00.000Z

Understanding dawns
on this long winter morning -
eventually.

On Deadlines and the Passage of Time

2007-12-14T00:52:00.000Z

Midnight approaches
the remorseless moon still moves:
your abstract is due.

On IT

2007-12-12T16:27:00.000Z

Is this frozen screen
- like a parable of death -
meant to teach patience?

University Festivities

2007-12-10T14:40:00.000Z

An empty foyer.
The Department's plastic tree -
faint lights in the dark.

On Winter Writing

2007-12-07T15:12:00.000Z

Sparrow in the snow.
A punctuation of tracks -
black ink on paper.

On the Difficulties of Prompting a Reply from a Peer

2007-12-05T13:30:00.000Z

Hibernating bear.
My colleague, ferocious once,
on sabbatical.

On Offprints

2007-12-03T11:43:00.000Z

These wintery drifts,
papers heaped in my office -
how they fire my mind!

After Basho's Most Famous Lines

2007-11-30T16:20:00.000Z

A still library.
A student opens a book -
the crack of its spine.

On Drafts

2007-11-28T15:03:00.000Z

Faded grey toner.
Even the printer seems old,
exhausted by words.

Outside the Library

2007-11-26T16:29:00.000Z

Only autumn leaves
hide signs of desperation:
crushed cigarette butts.

On Bibliophilia; A Poem Written Almost Entirely by Someone Else

2007-11-23T14:57:00.000Z

Prospero knew it:
"Me, poor Man, my Library
was Dukedom enough."

On the Possibilities of Renewal in Winter

2007-11-21T14:27:00.000Z

Like the arctic hare,
with winter we don new coats:
corduroy or tweed?

On the Conflicting Demands of Art and Academia

2007-11-19T14:40:00.000Z

Autumnal musings
on fiery falling leaves:
bad for R.A.E.

On a Sense of Panic Around the University

2007-11-16T15:36:00.000Z

Swirling students skirl
like wind-blown autumnal leaves:
Examinations.

On the Passage of Time and Favourite Writing Implements

2007-11-14T16:25:00.000Z

The black ink rises.
How thirsty my fountain pen!
Dry from long neglect.

On the Evidence of Previous Users' Mishandling of Library Books

2007-11-12T15:50:00.000Z

Marginalia,
wild underlinings in pen!
Yet, they missed the point.

On a Slight Nostalgia for a Neglected Format and Musings on the Discipline's Stipulated Preference for the Harvard System of Referencing

2007-11-09T00:02:00.000Z

Proliferating
parentheses in my text:
whither the footnote?

On Lingering in the Department after 5pm

2007-11-07T00:05:00.000Z

Coffee aroma
the microwave's lonely ping:
working late again.

On the Library's Demand for a Book to be Returned

2007-11-05T17:30:00.000Z

A recall notice.
Alas. Shall I never know
what the author wrote?

On Autumn Deadlines

2007-11-05T17:14:00.000Z

In the quadrangle
shadows lengthen every night -
unlike my thesis!

On the Nature and Remit of This Blog

2007-11-05T17:07:00.000Z

Ivory Haiku:
Musings from the Tower of
Academia