Guest Post: Selected Poems, by Tim Gardiner

Note from Amelia: An early part of the apparitions project involved collecting the poetry and photography of other talented writers and artists to share as part of a greater anthology. This component of the project didn't quite come together for many reasons, but I wanted to share the finest work Jonathan and I received as part of our celebration of the book's publication and this incredible year of poetry. I'm sharing this spring and summer series alphabetically by last name. Today's beautiful poems, "a tsunami" (tanka), "Hangman's Hill" (haibun), and "wind chimes" (haiku), come to us from longtime friend and fellow poet Tim Gardiner:

a tsunami
warning sign
on the shore...
            what happens to those
            who cannot run away

--

Hangman’s Hill

I drop the handbrake and wait. Slowly my car begins to roll uphill towards the hanging tree. So the legend is true; the hangman’s ghost is dragging me to eternity. I glance at the rope on the rear seat, moonlight glinting off its grain, throwing out a surfeit of shadows. Reaching the hanging tree, bent double and alone on the hillside, I pull on the brake. On closer inspection, the distant lights of city skyscrapers don’t seem to touch the bark of this isolated hawthorn. My last thought is of a small boy, cocooned in childhood, playing cricket on the beach until the evening comes.

just an illusion
the hill’s dark secret

--

wind chimes...

someone else’s tragedy

hangs from a yew

Dr. Tim Gardiner is an ecologist, editor, essayist, poet, and children’s author from Manningtree in Essex, UK. He has been widely published in journals and anthologies. He is a former co-editor of the tanka prose section of  Haibun Today and now edits a poetry column for the punk fanzine  Suspect Device.

"a tsunami," "Hangman's Hill," and "wind chimes," copyright 2022 Tim Gardiner