Haiku--By John McDonald--Scotland

the old man

leans on his brush -

one last leaf to fall

_______________

a little mouse -

scratching scratching

a hole in my sleep

_______________

snowman -

for crow a gift:

carrot eyes

_______________

stealing

squirrel's nuts

...homeless and hungry

_______________

surely seen

from space:

Earth's candles for the dead

_______________

John McDonald is a retired stone-mason who came to haiku in the mid-nineties. He fell in love with the genre immediately. Being a writer in the Scots language this genre fitted so well with Scots: a language steeped in rural life and having a natural succinctness to it. John has his own blog in Scots, with English versions: http://zenspeug.blogspot.com  He enjoys being involved in translations, working with the very fine Irish poet Gabriel Rosenstock on various ventures, the most recent being translations into Irish and Scots of the great haiku poet Buson: Moon over Tagoto and has appeared in many anthologies.