Category: Poetry

chasing butterflies

Summer showers,

prisms of awareness

splash lines on this page

~

Galaxies repeat,

lights scatter my darkness,

one world my home

~

Responding to Ontheroadprompts:  “For this week’s prompt let the life and work of Hisajo inspire your creative explorations of haiku and related forms.” Hisajo is a Japanese poet of the early 20th century (1890-1946). To read about her life and writing visit Suzanne’s post at the link above. Her essay includes the following quote and haiku which I found particularly inspiring:

I would like to make a haiku out of what touches my life, what my eyes see, ears hear, what my heart speaks to myself in a strong voice… I want to sketch things that left an impression in the depth of my soul.“

—From a Letter Written In Daybreak, 1922 by Sugito Hisajo

chasing butterflies


deep into spring mountains


I have  become lost
       

                     – Hisajo 

~~~

©2017 Ontheland

The flock

~

Flock of hens 

with a hungry brood—

on their own

~

Tacit agreement:

human stays behind the glass

turkeys come closer

~

To my delight, a flock of turkeys has been regularly visiting my back field and has been so bold as to graze next to the deck.  As I mentioned in my last turkey post, I can only take photos from inside the house as even a door opening quietly will send them away.

Intrigued by these visitors, I did some internet browsing and learned that Eastern wild turkeys were extinct in Ontario for about a century, until birds from the Eastern United States were reintroduced in the 1980’s.

Turkeys form single gender flocks consisting of only males (gobblers), only hens, or hens and young birds called ‘poults’. This explains why I haven’t been seeing gobblers with the hens and poults in my yard.  

©2017 Ontheland

Pressure

Dreams billow in August mist,

steam rises from griddled ground,

a pillowed moon in darkness rests.

Lightning tongues serrate the sky,

drums roll thunder across the night,

deepest fears surge in flashes—while

fervent hearts murmur wishes for 

soft cool rushes of healing rain.

~

A quadrille, a poem of exactly 44 words, for dVerse Monday. The word of the day is ‘dream’.

©2017 Ontheland

wandering

When I first ventured into vegetable gardening I was guided by books. Each step felt tenuous, like treading in the dark. My guide was a carefully drawn plan, each square foot measured, each seed accounted for.  With time I relaxed.  I learned that seeds grow and that I only need to provide water and shelter.

A few years have passed and now what joy! Borage, calendula, dill, sorrel and chives return on their own to resculpt the landscape. This spring, rabbits devoured the first shoots of sunflowers and greens…so I raised the height of the wire fence, used a large removeable barrel to block the entrance, and planted more seeds.  I still make annual plans—plant families rotate from year to year and companions are placed side by side.  Beyond my winter dreaming the real garden emerges in a flow of call and response.

Even with a plan

the path ahead is hidden

mystery unfolds

image
Foreground left to right: flowering cilantro, yellow calendula, and winter squash vine; behind is a removeable barrel blocking the opening in the chicken wire fence

Behind the barrel gate

cilantro blooms celebrate

squash vine creeps closer

 ~

In response to Suzanne’s Ontheroad prompt “Step by Step” based on this quote from Monkey King 2: 

“You don’t find the path, you make it step by step” 

and this haiku of Basho:

 In the wintry gust

I wander, like Chikusai

the comic poet.
 – from “Matsuo Bashō: The Poetic Spirit, Sabi, and Lightness,” by Makoto Uedo

©2017 Ontheland

 

 

Fleeting

 

  white moth flutters            white moth flutters
    a fleeting visitor              ephemeral 
      to this meadow                   as am I

                
                 white moths flit
                   in a splash of sunlight---
                     who else has passed this way?

Inspired by a moment of perception and thought, I wrote the first haiku.  Then I wrote two more looking for other words to bring readers closer to where I was.  I was thinking of Chèvrefeuille’s invitation to write and then consider possible meanings a reader might take away. This process might have resulted in my choosing one favourite wording, but in this case I liked something about each haiku.  This is my second response to Carpe Diem Writing and Enjoying Haiku #4.  (Best way to read this post on a phone is to turn the phone sideways.)

 

©2017 Ontheland

Kanshicho

 Chèvrefeuille has written about the freestyle haiku  of Basho from 1683 to 1685. It’s called Kanshicho. I enjoyed the sound of Kanshicho so much I wrote a ‘tribute’ series:

~

Kanshicho style

nod to tradition

heart on the loose

~

Immersed in flow 

no beginning no end

traditions echo

~

Open heart 

a moment pulses

gulls surf the wind

~

I am linking to Carpe Diem’s most recent weekend-meditation. Reading this Carpe Diem Writing and Enjoying Haiku post inspired me to write these haiku.  Besides mentioning freestyle, Chèvrefeuille talks about awareness of multiple meanings…if all goes well I may write a second response.



©2017 Ontheland