Tag: life

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

Journey to freedom


First an earthbound seed,

tendrils grasp, vines wind high

on path to open sky

~

egg-cradled feathers

escape their shell, find a nest

life yearns to fly

~

focus, defocus,

touch unfathomable space—

from earth to sky
~


~

This series of haiku emerged from Suzanne’s On the Road prompt of July 28 (a new one came out yesterday). The prompt touches on an enigmatic Zen koan.

©2017 Ontheland

cycles

As we turn every corner of the Narrow Road to the Deep North, we sometimes stand up unawares to applaud and we sometimes fall flat to resist the agonizing pains we feel in the depths of our hearts. There are also times when we feel like taking to the roads ourselves, seizing the raincoat lying near by, or times when we feel like sitting down till our legs take root, enjoying the scene we picture before our eyes.– Soruyo

Contemplating this quote offered by Suzanne of On the Road and life as I know it, I wrote this tanka:

A life has cycles

as summer falls to winter

a pattern is clear

placidity precedes storm

and chaos ends in rest.

~

©2017 Ontheland

On the road

“I set out on a journey of a thousand leagues, packing no provisions. I leaned on the staff of an ancient who, it is said, entered into nothingness under the midnight moon.”~Matsuo Basho, The Record of a Weather-exposed Skeleton – his first travel journal.

Thinking about travelling lightly, I wrote the following haiku. Many thanks to Suzanne for her third On the Road prompt which touches issues I continue to grapple with. For those readers who did not join the Brownies or have sisters who did, ‘Be prepared’ is a Brownie motto.

How lightly

does a Brownie pack

for camping?

~

Be prepared?

You already have

all you need

~

Looking for happiness, I threw away the map.

©2017 Ontheland

May the road rise up to meet you

In response to On the Road—The Journey Begins:

image

May you walk with ease

along a well-marked path

May your load be light.

∼ ∼ ∼

When mantras hum

the road carries me

cares dissolve

the journey and I 

are one again.

∼ ∼ ∼

Suzanne is launching a new bi-weekly prompt series called ‘On the Road—Prompts for Haiku, Haibun and Haiku.’  The introductory post explains her vision:

We are all travelling some kind of road – the road of life – the road to the deep interior – the road to nowhere – the road to recovery – the road home …  Our journeys can be physical and/or metaphorical;  inner and outer.

On the Road prompts focus on various aspects of the journey.  Two prompts are posted each week.  One on Wednesday and the other on Saturday (Australian EST).

The prompts are offered as suggestions for haiku, haibun and haiga.

The first prompt is an old Irish blessing “May the Road Rise up to Meet You”.  My first response is a haiku and the second is a tanka.  After I wrote it I realized that a tanka may be outside the scope of this challenge…that remains to be clarified.

©2017 Ontheland