Per Diem Archive Details

Per Diem Archive: R. Scott September 2018, Sport

Per Diem Archive: Rob Scott September 2018, Sport

Sport and haiku, surprising perhaps to many, are not the strangest of bedfellows. While haiku is traditionally concerned with the connection between nature and human nature, most sports are played in nature’s elements. A sporting season is often marked by the changing of the seasons, and a team or individual’s fortunes can turn on a blustery winter gale or the sapping heat of a summer’s day.

Nature is present in many of the haiku that follow. But it is not the only setting. Sport is embedded in our social, professional and domestic lives. As players and spectators, it lives within our hopes and dreams and the limits of our imagination. As occasional observers, it forms the backdrop of our everyday lives. All of these aspects of sport, and more, are captured by the authors in the following collection. It’s been a privilege assembling it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did in putting it together.


Rob Scott

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Author: Randy Brooks
opening day…
green of the field
through the ticket gates
Author: S. M. Abeles
billiard balls
on worn felt –
the rain
Author: Barbara Sayre
tennis match
my husband says
love is nothing
Author: Christopher Patchel
spring breeze
my jump shot swishes
to an imaginary ovation
Author: Stella Pierides
match countdown 
the loud clicking
of prayer beads
Author: Barry George
dogwoods in blossom –
the death of a racehorse
ends the evening news
Author: David Elliott
shielding his eyes
with his baseball glove . . .
       first geese
Author: Nika
summer rain -
rodeo cowboy
rising from the mud
Author: Chad Lee Robinson
cherry blossoms 
the weightlifter attempts
a personal best
Author: Ron C. Moss
sun shower
a red smudge widens
on the bowler's whites
Author: Nathalie Buckland
floodlit field	
  a cane toad 
crouched in goal
Author: Barbara Strang
Sunday morning
a dog sniffs the base
of the goal-post
Author: Lee Gurga
hangovers in suits
climb onto the team bus
summer morning
Author: Stephen A. Peters
wide of
the goal posts
autumn wind
Author: Brenda Gannam
in the stands
his arm around his wife
he winks at me
Author: Tom Painting
all day rain
on the playing field
a stray dog
Author: Martin Lucas
sun on the canal
a floating football
slowly turning
Author: Dan McCullough
darkening clouds
the umpire's voice 
quickens
Author: Deb Baker
yesterday
I stood at your grave
today, a soccer game
Author: Frank Williams
football game
before starting the boy decides
who he’s going to be
Author: Simon Hanson
game point –
a fine cut
dr ps over the net
   o
Author: Michael Rehling
high hard one
drinking scotch
after the game
Author: Dave Read
outdoor hoops
a sparrow cuts
through the key
Author: Myron Lysenko
Australian Open
another refugee boat
is turned back
Author: Paul David Mena
hot summer night  –
the lazy flutter
of a knuckleball
Author: Ian Storr
Night of stars
rising up the valley
distant chants of United
Author: Phillip Murrell
opening batsman
a bump not there
he flattens anyway
Author: Lorin Ford
beach cricket –
a border collie
at silly mid-on
Author: Johnny Baranski
a walk-off home run
up and over 
the prison wall
Author: Marisa Fazio
Seafood footy match
a team of ibises gathers
at the goal posts
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