Monument

Venerable shrine

where mountain boulders stand

bird soars in liquid sky

~

Image from Pixabay chosen to complement poem

Inspired by Suzanne’s On the Road, my haiku emerges from a memory of a retreat where I spent hours walking through shady woods on rough rock paths. I recall a clearing on a small hilltop where a stupa stood.

Monks at the foot of the mountain offered rooms, then we climbed the ridge to the temple, scrambling up through ancient gnarled pine and oak, gray smooth stones and moss.   The temple doors, built on rocks, were bolted.  I crawled among boulders to make my bows at shrines.  The silence was profound. I sat, feeling my heart begin to open.

From Basho’s “Narrow Road to the Deep North” quoted here.

summoned


Recently I attempted to enjoy a few quiet moments of twilight on our back deck. These haiku and this photo emerged:

~

Out on the deck

absorbing evening sounds

brief luxury

~

Twilight serenade 

punctuated by barking

midsummer moment

~

Outside for brief time—

barking pup greets my return

with ecstatic leaps

~

A vine knows its way

on the darkest of nights

porch light unneeded

~

©2017 Ontheland

Linking to Carpe Diem #1220 Twilight

Moth on the window


Each year you are reborn

and rest on my window.

I peer at your insect features

framed by wooden deck and field.

I wonder if you look 

inside—what do you see

beyond the glass? a human nest,

dappled shades of light, or

undivided infinite?

~

A response to dVerse Poetics: “Looking Out/Looking In”

©2017 Ontheland

Saturday night (2)

Arms flicker and flash

the refrigerator gleams

memories spin and sway the kitchen floor

essence of adolescence

sparks lunges and leaps

tuned to infectious beats 

she’s returned from the past

on a ribbon of guileless joy

and her future self nods 

a spritely reunion.

~

I learned that the word for this week’s quadrille for DVerse is ‘flicker’ after having posted a haiku featuring a ‘flicker-flash’. So I decided to expand the haiku into this 44-word quadrille.

©2017 Ontheland