dreams of peace
on Earth, Yule moon above
the rising sun
:
©️2018 Ontheland
Image: the moon on Christmas morning as seen through a phone camera.
dreams of peace
on Earth, Yule moon above
the rising sun
:
©️2018 Ontheland
Image: the moon on Christmas morning as seen through a phone camera.
a blue V
below ponderous clouds
when will gunfire end?
:
one hundred years
since the war to end all wars
a “long shadow”
:
©️2018 Ontheland
For Haikai Challenge #60 Armistice
Quoted reference to The Long Shadow: the Great War and the Twentieth Century, by David Reynolds, 2013 Simon & Schuster
It’s time for another Renga with Basho. For this challenge the haiku offered by Chevrefeuille, our Carpe Diem host, are translations by Robert Hass. The bold three-line stanzas are by Basho, renowned Japanese poet (1644-1694), and the italicized two-line stanzas are mine.
:
by the old temple
peach blossoms;
a man treading rice
.
golden manna from the storehouse
each grain a nourishing pearl
.
all the day long
yet not long enough for the skylark
singing, singing
.
old farmers toil and hum
whispering paddies rustle
.
the shallows
a crane’s thighs splashed
in cool waves
.
an evening in the rice fields
quiet moments bathed in peace
.
the dragonfly
can’t quite land
on that blade of grass
.
we shall spread a blanket
under the shady willow
.
I’m a wanderer
so let that be my name
the first winter rain
.
when peach leaves are falling
my staff will be by my side
:
Thank you to Carpe Diem Haiku Kai for this challenge. As mentioned above, the bolded stanzas are by Matsuo Basho, as translated by Robert Hass, and the two-line italicized stanzas were written by me.
Carpe Diem’s third September Tan Renga challenge commences with a haiku written by Chèvrefeuille in 2015.
:
a soothing breeze
cicadas sing their song
sound of water (Chèvrefeuille)
in this cathedral of nature
my restless heart finds peace (my response)
:
©️2018 Ontheland
:::
Here I sit on the other side of an ocean and on the far side of North America, 73 years after the United States dropped two atomic bombs at the end of the Second World War— destroying Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945 and exploding over Nagasaki three days later on August 9. Hundreds of thousands of people, animals and other life dissolved in an instant.
Unfathomable.
On Hiroshima Memorial Day, August 6, 2018 I endeavour to expand my awareness beyond stock images of a massive mushroom cloud, the horrors of mass death and years of radiation sicknesses. I scroll through online articles grasping for nuggets of hope.
~
life returns
in a field of death
oleander
~
In 1949 the mayor of Hiroshima proclaimed his city to be a ‘City of Peace’. From there the city blossomed as a hub of memorials and advocacy for world peace and nuclear disarmament. In 2017 an International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for achieving a global agreement for banning nuclear weapons. What a concept! It has no legal force but the fact that a large number of nations agreed to ban nuclear weapons from the planet is a first step.
My third nugget of hope is that a United States President, Barack Obama, visited Japan in 2016 and spoke peaceful words of reason:
“That is the future we can choose…A future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare but as the start of our own moral awakening.”
The whole world needs to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki and recognize that mass destruction cannot resolve the world’s problems.
~
Hiroshima
shadows of steel and flesh
signify the void
~
~
©️2018 Ontheland
summer evening
mirrored shadows blend with light
liquid eyes dissolve
~
©️2018 Ontheland
Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2018, Finding the Way, July 15 to August 14
in the wake flowing
ripples travel to shore
shaded by willows
~
©️2018 Ontheland
Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2018 Finding the Way, July 15 to August 14
proud arms of gold
raise the globe in victory
celebration cries
songs of peace in fields of strife
lost hearts yearning for starlight
This week’s Haikai Challenge #37: FIFA World Cup invites us to write Japanese poetry about the FIFA World Cup 2018 hosted by Russia June 14 to July 15.
©2018 Ontheland
Martin Luther King’s words still resound with relevance 50 years after his murder on April 4,1968. At the time he was preparing to lead a protest in Washington called the ‘Poor People’s Campaign’. Bruce Witzel’s memorial, featuring quotations and photographs, is well worth a read.
peace
the sound of
wind chimes
morning birds calling
my beating heart
~
©️2018 Ontheland
Inspired by Carpe Diem #1371 Samsara