Caring About Our World Reflecting About Life
Beatrix Potter purists may not approve of 2018’s computer-animated Peter Rabbit film. I enjoyed it.
in winter cold
we gather around
the glowing TV
Human actors (starring Bea and Mr McGregor) interact with animated wildlife, propelled by an upbeat soundtrack, sprinkles of humour and wholesome sentiments.
Peter Rabbit talks
with no taradiddles*
he can admit fault
:
*word used in the film during a Scrabble game (not to be confused with paradiddle)
©️2018 Ontheland
Winter has its in-between times. Dazzling crystal snow melts, exposing open fields. Moisture fills the air.
snow-rinsed
grasses glisten
every shade of brown
:
sedges rest
pines hold the sky
ever green*
:
After a warm spell, below-freezing cold returns—winter once more:
:
the crisp smell
of winter air
feels like Christmas
:
*some sedges and grasses stay green under snow
The felt sense of winter varies depending on where you live. Having lived in Ontario all my life, it feels like winter when there is snow and/or freezing cold.
©️2018 Ontheland
I live 30 minutes west of a small city of 150,000 people. Walking down the main drag, called “Princess Street”, I remember my previous life in Toronto, my home for over 30 years.
It is early twilight on a November afternoon. I am in town to take a ‘haiku stroll’ for this week’s Sense of Place writing event. The air is biting cold. Not fully prepared, I promise myself to wear warmer gloves and a scarf next time.
In the descending dusk I feel caught in a void between the warmth of daylight and the glitter of night lighting. I beg the street lamps to turn on. After a few blocks I sigh with relief as they do, but there is still a lackluster feel to this outing. Is it me or the people around me?
Cold dusk
eyes barely lift
along the sidewalk
In the summer, baskets of flowers liven up the street but today the only signs of vegetation are barren trees.
desolate
lone sapling
by the curb
This small city is not spared from homelessness, a worse predicament here than in a larger city with more services, I imagine. I marvel at how people are panhandling with no blankets or chairs.
hands clench
seated on frozen cement
by her cardboard sign
My walk is a short “U” down towards the lake and up again to my target, a warm coffee shop.
:
©️2018 Ontheland
Waiting for her to wake up from an afternoon nap, I think of the small thing I need to mention when she wakes up. I move quietly in the kitchen. The cupboard bangs and I flinch with regret, but her slumber is undisturbed and Bentley continues to lick his paws. I sigh with relief.
grey dampness chills
my grip on this metal pen
warmed by silence
:
©️2018 Ontheland
To blame is to disown. My cereal curdles as California wildfires turn homes to ash and, yet again, power trumps empathy and expertise. The vitriol and forest management tales emanating from Washington threaten to spoil my breakfast.
shovelling snow:
the President’s fire fighting
philosophy
:
©️2018 Ontheland
New York Times:
Trump Says California Can Learn From Finland on Fires. Is He Right?
In response to dVerse Poets Pub Monday quadrille prompt (‘spoil’) I have written this 44-word haibun.
We shiver awake in late autumn
As the sun sleeps
we make breakfast and tea
Until the sky brightens
with enough solar glow
to light our way.
more dark than light
in this somnolent time
my lamp flickers
:
:
Note: I have combined a cherita with a haiku to create a “cherita haibun” for Carpe Diem #1544 which features “autumn lamplight” a kigo (season word) for Japanese haiku.
©️2018 Ontheland
The wood fire, a girl guide log cabin lay, is a miracle of flame and heat in a deep pit of snow. Bundled trekkers huddle in the dappled clearing knee deep in fresh powder. Our frozen faces, fingers and toes tingle as the long day winds down with a winter cookout, a WINTER cookout, how amazing are these foil packets we cradle in our hands!
hot s’mores
at trail end
sweet melts in snow
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
A s’more is campfire treat of roasted marshmallow on chocolate between graham crackers.
My haiku, that concludes this haibun, appears with others on the theme of ‘taste’ in Kathy Munro’s November 14, 2018 post on Troutswirl: “A sense of place: HIKING TRAIL – taste”.
©️2018 Ontheland
