Alan Summers is a Japan Times award-winning writer. He is the founder of Call of the Page, and editor of The Haiku Reader.
Website: www.callofthepage.org
Blog: https://area17.blogspot.com
THR: https://thehaikureader.blogspot.com
View all posts by Alan Summers
21 thoughts on “”
Gosh, my haiku tend to appear towards the end of the cycle.
This is also my first duostich with tinywords, thank you!
I love how my duostich appears just above the monument and rocket! Wow!
Now I wonder now how many readers will guess the allusion of my poem? ;-)
I guess at some time in our lives, at home or at work, as a child or an adult, we have either slammed a door or wanted to do that. I know as a child I would have done that a few times! And once or twice as a youing adult too.
winter’s end
a wardrobe slaps closed
—Alan Summers
I guess this is about the magical times when we first experienced something wonderful. I was a slow reader which concerned my parents. I got extra private lessons despite the fact that we didn't have a lot of "spare" money. I was able to read Shakespeare and Dickens by the age of six, and devoured stories, from those writers, as well as DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and the Narnia series of books.
A door was a doorway, just as much as a book was very much a doorway.
A wardrobe that I could walk through into a land of snow and ice was a dream come true in both disappearing into a book AND in reality!
I remember opening the front door to our house and there was another door, of snow and ice. But that's another story.
Thank you for enjoying my poem.
It's the end of winter, and I barely experienced Christmas. I actually slept through Christmas Day onwards as I was working day and night and into the small hours to bring out my new magazine "Blo?o Outlier Journal" which went live around 4am Christmas Eve!
We have entered Spring, and I have heard the door slap closed on Winter and its festival magic. But sometimes the door creaks open, in the wee small hours, and slaps shut in the stark morning daylight until another time.
It is a long winter. Sometimes February feels forever which is why I loved doing a very special last minute February Fringe Festival for Chippenham, and being involved in the design of funny cheeky haiku inspired gently subversive street signs! That was last year. This year during the ongoing covid era, we have are involved in the town choosing its favorite words to sum up their experiences during these tough times.
I must admit the magic of Narnia and other Christmas/winter folklore and mystery continue to endure in me. I no longer have a wardrobe, which has been an important imagination station, but there are other portals, believe me! :-)
This is my third attempt to post my congratulations on your fine haiku.
The verb, SLAP, says it all–the decisive moment when when you shut the door on this long, long pandemic winter
Also the "d" at the end of each line is brilliant. the end stop so that form and content are one.
When one season finally and fully lets go, it's like a door slamming shut or slapping closed! It's officially Spring and there's no going back. Maybe. ;-)
Ah, I love this, Alan, and its association with the Chronicles of Narnia. I live in ?the Mourne country? here in County Down, Northern Ireland, an area that was the inspiration for CS Lewis? magical world…
?I have seen landscapes, notably in the Mourne Mountains and southwards which under a particular light made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge.?
and …
?I yearn to see County Down in the snow, one almost expects to see a march of dwarfs dashing past. How I long to break into a world where such things were true.?
CS Lewis
The slamming of the wardrobe door in your duostich echoes the end of The Long Winter brought about by the defeat of the White Witch, introducing the hope that spring brings to the world of Narnia.
Gosh, my haiku tend to appear towards the end of the cycle.
This is also my first duostich with tinywords, thank you!
I love how my duostich appears just above the monument and rocket! Wow!
Now I wonder now how many readers will guess the allusion of my poem? ;-)
warm regards,
Alan
Great poem, I usually only slap closed a door at the end of an argument. Am I close? It's a beauty of a poem.
Hi Vera,
I guess at some time in our lives, at home or at work, as a child or an adult, we have either slammed a door or wanted to do that. I know as a child I would have done that a few times! And once or twice as a youing adult too.
winter’s end
a wardrobe slaps closed
—Alan Summers
I guess this is about the magical times when we first experienced something wonderful. I was a slow reader which concerned my parents. I got extra private lessons despite the fact that we didn't have a lot of "spare" money. I was able to read Shakespeare and Dickens by the age of six, and devoured stories, from those writers, as well as DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and the Narnia series of books.
A door was a doorway, just as much as a book was very much a doorway.
A wardrobe that I could walk through into a land of snow and ice was a dream come true in both disappearing into a book AND in reality!
I remember opening the front door to our house and there was another door, of snow and ice. But that's another story.
Thank you for enjoying my poem.
It's the end of winter, and I barely experienced Christmas. I actually slept through Christmas Day onwards as I was working day and night and into the small hours to bring out my new magazine "Blo?o Outlier Journal" which went live around 4am Christmas Eve!
We have entered Spring, and I have heard the door slap closed on Winter and its festival magic. But sometimes the door creaks open, in the wee small hours, and slaps shut in the stark morning daylight until another time.
Alan
This tiny poem has me thinking of Narnia, with the end of its long winter and the closing of the portal to Narnia at the back of the magic wardrobe.
Thanks Dylan,
It is a long winter. Sometimes February feels forever which is why I loved doing a very special last minute February Fringe Festival for Chippenham, and being involved in the design of funny cheeky haiku inspired gently subversive street signs! That was last year. This year during the ongoing covid era, we have are involved in the town choosing its favorite words to sum up their experiences during these tough times.
I must admit the magic of Narnia and other Christmas/winter folklore and mystery continue to endure in me. I no longer have a wardrobe, which has been an important imagination station, but there are other portals, believe me! :-)
Alan
This is my third attempt to post my congratulations on your fine haiku.
The verb, SLAP, says it all–the decisive moment when when you shut the door on this long, long pandemic winter
Also the "d" at the end of each line is brilliant. the end stop so that form and content are one.
Thank you! What a great comment!
winter’s end
a wardrobe slaps closed
—ALAN SUMMERS
It's made me look at the verse again!
warm regards,
Alan
I'm ready to soar like the rocket.
Cool! :-)
Well, alrighty then.
I can see why it got chosen this early. :-)
Alan
Love it.
Thank you!!!!!!!!
Definitely enjoyed this one… great action verb and use of sound.
Thank you!
End of one chapter and a ready to start new chapter with a bang ? :)
Aparna,
Technically yes!
When one season finally and fully lets go, it's like a door slamming shut or slapping closed! It's officially Spring and there's no going back. Maybe. ;-)
Alan
Incredibly evocative two-liner!
Cheers!
Really chuffed that tinywords took a duostich from me!
duostich, pronounced duo-STICK, two line verse.
thanks again!
Alan
Ah, I love this, Alan, and its association with the Chronicles of Narnia. I live in ?the Mourne country? here in County Down, Northern Ireland, an area that was the inspiration for CS Lewis? magical world…
?I have seen landscapes, notably in the Mourne Mountains and southwards which under a particular light made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge.?
and …
?I yearn to see County Down in the snow, one almost expects to see a march of dwarfs dashing past. How I long to break into a world where such things were true.?
CS Lewis
The slamming of the wardrobe door in your duostich echoes the end of The Long Winter brought about by the defeat of the White Witch, introducing the hope that spring brings to the world of Narnia.
marion
Hi Marion,
I saw the Mourne Mountains on a map during a Bloodlands episode. So close to danger.
I can understand the beauty of the land and wanting it to be safe but also wanting to escape.
There was also the Long Winter of when I was a child in England. A time of excitement, danger, and surviving.
Thanks, hopefully the TikTok diagnosis that the human race disappears in the next seven years may be inaccurate? We can only hope.
warm regards,
Alan