QUICKLY: Haiku master Duncan Gardiner
Today, I read in the Herts Advertiser about a poet who lives in St. Albans, not the one close to Charleston, W.Va, but another St. Albans, one in the United Kingdom.
Duncan Gardiner has Parkinson’s Disease. About 10 years back, he retired from the Building Research Station in Garston — that’s a place, I take it, of scientific measurements and the refinement of things like acoustic architecture. Since then, he has mastered the haiku form.
The quick, exact, compressed nature of haiku, its grounding, appeals to Gardiner. New Hope International Review says Duncan has a knack for “making his poems from special feelings that come from the heart in the middle of a normal day.” Example — his haiku on leaves, which reflects the transience of life:
Apple leaves — cupping hands
Catching and holding the last
Of the summer sun
March 1st, 2010 at 11:01 am
I was looking for links to my father’s poetry and saw the kind piece above. Sadly, Duncan passed away in September 2007 but he managed to publish his first collection of poetry that year - including a whole array of different poetry forms. All the proceeds from the book were given to Parkinsons’ research. Anyway, I was very proud to see that his poetry has travelled all the way across the water to Charleston! Kind regards, Rosalie Callway
p.s. another of his Haiku’s for you:
Haiku 5/7/5
I awaken my
sleeping beauty with a sneeze -
“bless you” she murmurs