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paddy-roberts.bsky.social
Paddy Roberts
@paddy-roberts.bsky.social
200 followers 180 following 1.3K posts
Occasional writer
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paddy-roberts.bsky.social
another poem
finds its way to the blank page
how's this relevant?

#vss365 #relevant #haiku
A leather-bound book of recycled paper, a gift from my wife, in which I occasionally scribble things.
November 24, 2025 at 10:38 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
@deluxday.bsky.social

Short Wave:

The lodestone. It helps you find your way home, or, at least, keep hold of your bearing.

24/11

... comingthrough static ...
... wewel come lis ten ersfrom ...
... Lon don2LO ...

#17thOctober #haiku365 #haiku

(There's a bit of an essay in the ALT)
Photo: Getty Images/Roger Wood I had an increasingly-battered hand-sized 'transistor' sw/lw/am/fm (vhf) radio from my pre-teens to middle-age, when it was finally superceded by mobile phone/Internet technology. A bit like Trigger's broom, it underwent enough changes - batteries; aerials - lengths of copper wire to fish for signal; quite possibly the actual radio itself - but in essence, that radio, a Roberts, of course, was the first thing I'd find before packing for a trip. I heard the Berlin Wall fall; some of the events of September 11, 2001; various Cup Finals; the Boxing Day Tsunami. My wife had a similar model. A friend had one fixed to his ear for a while trip around Uganda. Eventually, I gave it to my son as a plaything: I guess it's disappeared into the great Toy Box in the sky, now. It's a connection, albeit one-way, to the outside world which, although lacking the interaction of the Internet, creates a much closer network of people, a greater commonality: whether it was the BBC, Deutche Welle, the Voice of America, or simply the local radio station playing local tunes and chat in an incomprehensible (to me) language, you were a part of the audience, valued, engaged. I was once told by a Canadian, I think with a little bit of leg-pulling, that I had a voice for the BBC. But when one absorbs From Our Own Correspondent and similar, day after day in foreign lands, some of it gets into the DNA. I even got to make an audio postcard myself, once, and I like to think that I was able to pay off just a little bit of my massive radio-debt. https://farmradio.org/audio-postcard-gathering-stories-for-farm-radio-weekly/
November 24, 2025 at 9:36 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
Some serenity -
Even deep in this maelstrom -
Is achievable.

#vss365 #achievable #haiku
A maelstrom. Picture: lunil.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:47 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
And, then another -
Day dawned to the East of me:
I offer this thought:

23/11

Flawed, human beings
Can yet become immortal,
Through their mortal deeds.

#17thOctober #haiku365 #haiku
A Dali sculpture, in a random gallery in Paris, found on a visit in April 2023.
November 23, 2025 at 6:31 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
Oh! Test Match cricket!
What's measurable, with these
Swings and roundabouts?

#vss365 #measurable ( #howzat?)
#haiku
November 22, 2025 at 9:42 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
Murmurating cloud
Is not starlings but raindrops
Measuring the fall.

#vss365 #measurable ( #almost ) #haiku
November 22, 2025 at 8:54 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
22/11

Helter-skelter days
Battling over willow, ash,
And leather on grass.

#17thOctober #haiku365 #haiku
Cricket. It's time for the Ashes, if you didn't know... There's nothing quite like listening to TMS. It has the ability to transport you from wherever you are to wherever they are. I've been all round the world, and TMS has taken me somewhere else. From a tractor in Kent to the Gabba. From a bright, seaside town in Brazil to a dusty field in India. From a moorish wonder in Spain to the suburbs of Birmingham. Its not just the commentary, or the game - either of which can meander aimlessly or get you on the edge of your seat from one minute to the next and back again for five days - Oh! Bliss! Hour upon hour of cricket over the airwaves, throughout my life from youth to adulthood via SW, LW, FM, and now WiFi, at any hour of the day from any corner of the world. The view from the boundary. Pass me another cake, Aggers. Random guests at lunch and tea. Zoltz with the stats. Ex-cricketers. And Blowers, back in the pavilion. Ah. A paean to cricket, almost without mentioning the slap of leather on willow. The game's almost incidental to the day. Yet ... it is part if the nucleus of the atom of life. And I'll stand by that. I'm not really any good at the game, but I'll always be part of the team because it's been stirred into the soup of my DNA. Note for Americans: there's nothing wrong, or odd, about a five-day wait for a draw.
November 22, 2025 at 4:56 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
I was overwhelmed;
Or under - sorry, I can't
Be more specific

#vss365 #specific #haiku
The first time I saw the Pacific Ocean was in the early morning, from the cliff-edge in Miraflores, Lima, Peru, after what felt like a 24-hour flight from Schiphol, in the Netherlands. There was nothing: the still sea stretched into the still horizon and up into the sky, no demarcation of where one started and the other ended. Different shades of steel-grey. Unnerving; silent; immobile. Pacific, indeed.
November 21, 2025 at 9:56 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
21/11

Christmas ads are here
Oh! Gods! it's still November
Please can it just stop

#17thOctober #haiku365 #haiku
Bah! Humbug!
November 21, 2025 at 8:55 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
In action, outcome:
A reaction to the force
Leaves all things equal

#vss365 #action #haiku
Sir Isaac Newton £1 note: can you find the lollipops, the banana chew and the Toblerone?
November 20, 2025 at 8:53 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
20/11

A tear in my heart
As I bottle this year's wine:
For storage only...

#17thOctober #haiku365 #haiku
November 20, 2025 at 8:04 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
#BigBallsyRun #7/n
November 19, 2025 at 11:45 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
19/11

This cat has nine tales
Which become increasingly
Less believable

#17thOctober #haiku365 #haiku
Picture from deviantart.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:47 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
I had the option:
I chose the less circumspect
Response (which was rude).

#vss365 #option #haiku
Still/advertising photo from Kes, a bloody good film from the past. I have to say i enjoyed the film more that the book, but I was, what, 14? and not in a happy place. Ken Loach films, though... Picture from underground-england.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:04 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
Reality is
A majority view framed
By minorities.

#vss365 #reality #haiku
November 18, 2025 at 10:47 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
18/11

"You're nicked, Sonny Jim!"
" 'ere, 'ave an 'eart, Copper, t'was
'alf of ginger beer..."

#17thOctober #haiku365 #haiku
A still from Dixon of Dock Green. Picture from: listal.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:52 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
"Betty! There's your goal!"
Al could just bugger off; no
Pal was worth this shit.

#vss365 #goal #haiku
If you'll be my bodyguard I can be your long lost pal I can call you Betty And Betty, when you call me You can call me Al "You can call me Al": Paul Simon
November 17, 2025 at 9:45 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
His morning, one and all.
November 17, 2025 at 6:59 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
Right ... @deluxday.bsky.social, time for a new thread.

17/11

The One With The Weird Three Word Haiku ...

. . . . .
- - . - - - -
. . . . -

(dit dit dit dit dit
dah dah dit dah dah dah dah
dit dit dit dit dah)

(He
Got
Set)

#17thOctober #haiku365 #haiku
Mouse code operator. Or is she slyly tuning into a BBC broadcast of Gielgud's Hamlet from the Old Vic... Picture from arachnoid.com No, not this lot... do do do do do do do bloody dah ... amateurs. Picture: fity.club
November 17, 2025 at 5:16 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
A mate of mine visited the church in Helpston, where Clare (and I) grew up, the other day: these are his photos of Clare's grave, and of the church.
November 16, 2025 at 10:22 PM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
November 16, 2025 at 9:13 PM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
Met a 'Merican gal in Entebbe
Was it Annie? or Tammie? No! Debbie!
So I bought her a drink -
Something sticky and pink -
When I asked if she'd stay, she said "Mebbe..."

#limerick
November 16, 2025 at 6:53 PM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
You, boy! Are we still having turkey for dinner?
Scrooge. Utter humbug.
November 16, 2025 at 11:39 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
I have an issue
With First Day Stamps, but any
Gibbon would know that.

#vss365 #issue #haiku

(Apologies to Michael Flanders for nicking his joke. But I'll do that At The Drop Of A(nother) Hat)
A record that's made its way down the family tree...
November 16, 2025 at 9:55 AM
paddy-roberts.bsky.social
16/11

He gazed out the door
As the box car swayed and shook:
"There's a song in this..."

#17thOctober #haiku365 #haiku
Picture: trains.com
November 16, 2025 at 9:38 AM