Sunday, October 12, 2014

Tim Gardiner- Haiku Sequence


Phoenix rising
 
ashes to ashes –
a blackened shroud
lit by pink orchids
 
grey morning –
raindrops collect
in yellow-wort cups
 
tears running
down my cheek –
chicory flowers
 
dusting of fly ash –
a distinguished spider
needs good eyesight
 
the birch bulldozed –
banished bees return
to a promised land
 
mating balls writhe
by sandy burrows –
mining bees thrive
 
bush-crickets
humming in the rain –
power lines crackle
 
its daylight
cover blown –
the fox flees
 
by the jetty –
green lizards bask
in old tyre tracks
 
a sprayed siren
smothers the seawall –
‘owww she’s bad’
 
 
This haiku sequence was written about post-industrial ‘brownfield’ sites along the River Thames in south Essex, England. This brownfield land is of national importance for its populations of scarce and rare invertebrate species. At one site, West Thurrock Marshes, pulverised fuel (fly) ash (PFA) forms an important habitat for the declining brown-banded carder bee, sea aster mining bee, distinguished jumping spider and a range of wildflowers such as yellow-wort, chicory and marsh helleborine orchid. These brownfield sites are threatened by inappropriate residential and industrial development along the Thames and encroachment of trees due to a lack of active conservation management.  

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