Haiku: Boulders, Rocks, Stones and Pebbles

Haiku for One Deep Breath:



a granite landscape
in the cleft of a boulder
a tree shelters



these fallen stones
a roof open to the sky
the hearth grows cold

And a bonus photo, which I love but haven't come up with a haiku for yet:



Feel free to leave a haiku in response to the last photo.

All photos were taken in Scotland during September.

On Reflection...

I have been looking over the folder containing my poetry, thinking it was time to make more submissions to various journals. I found myself dissatisfied. Should I send these out again, or should I give up on them as not good enough, and wait till I have something better?

Or is there a third way? It seems to me that these poems could do with a dose of reflection. I need to print them out, carry them around. Read them out loud to myself, listen to the awkward places, let my intuition guide me to better ways of saying what I want to say. And then perhaps send them out again.

Each week I watch for the new topics to go up at one deep breath, Poetry Thursday and Sunday Scribblings. The haiku topic for one deep breath is posted usually on a Sunday evening, or perhaps a Monday. I find myself hoping that it will be Sunday evening, which is Monday here. If it goes up late afternoon New Zealand time, I can look through my collection of photos, find one that fits, write a haiku and submit my link. By this time everyone in North America is in bed asleep. By the time they are up, my link will be waiting to be posted on the site, and I in turn will wake to find it posted, and comments from visitors on my blog.

This week I watched eagerly for the topic, but didn't see it before I went to bed on Monday. And then on Tuesday I got up and it still wasn't there. Or so I thought. Later in the day I checked again, and realised I had missed it because it already had such a long list of links attached that I thought it was last week's post. And so every week I rush more and more to post my link early, so that I will be noticed and have plenty visitors. I do the same with Sunday Scribblings - I always used to post on Sunday, because that is the point, isn't it? And then I realised that more and more people were posting early, and I was getting fewer visitors, even though on Sunday in New Zealand it's still only Saturday in the US. I wanted time to think about the topic, but now if I take part I find myself submitting my link on Saturday evening so that at least it will be there before the next morning. Part of me is uneasy at this behaviour. A haiku is only three lines, but this doesn't mean it should be dashed off quickly. The best haiku are the result of long reflection. If I keep rushing everything I write, how will I write something that reflects who I am, deep down? I have time only to skim the surface.

It seems fitting that this week's topic should be "reflections".



afternoon walk
lingering on the shore line
time for reflection

Haiku: New Year

Later this month I will be going to the New Zealand national Quilt Symposium. It's time to go over my class needs lists. For one class in particular I have to pre-cut many strips of cloth, so that I arrive ready to start sewing.

It seemed a good way to start the New Year.

shifting patterns
cloth of many colours
- a new year begins

For more haiku on the theme of New Year go to onedeepbreath

Haiku Monday

This week's theme at onedeepbreath is "containers".



a small square box
of many coloured papers -
worlds not yet folded



a jar of buttons
from discarded garments
fastens memories

Haiku: Legacy

A haiku for my grandfather:

he taught me how to
move bishops, kings and castles
- how to find a mate

Are you allowed to pun in haiku? My kind gentle grandfather taught me how to play chess. Later, playing chess in the university common room, I met my future husband.

More haiku on the theme of legacy at onedeepbreath

I have posted this photo before, but I thought I would repeat it - a portrait of my grandfather in fabric

Haibun

I awake to the sound of steady rain, an unwelcome change from the warm sunny weather we have been having. I don't want to miss out on my daily walk, so I do household chores and some writing and hope that the rain clears. By mid afternoon it has stopped, though the sky is still heavily overcast.

I head out in my car and park at the base of the hill. I am looking for a little more challenge than the easy track I have been practising on. I look at the steep hill to my right. Hills like this one are the reason I haven't been orienteering much this year. Looking from the bottom to the top, thinking "I have to get up there" is a little daunting. But I am not orienteering, and hence there is a track to follow, which zigzags gradually up the steep slope. It is narrow and the surface is damp, but the hardpacked earth has not turned to mud. Long grasses on each side bend inwards so that the seed heads greet each other. They remind me of a guard of honour with crossed swords or rifles. They brush my trousers, making them damp, but not too wet to be bearable. The zigzags of the track are almost level in places, but at each turn of the track, I climb a little higher. Eventually I reach a spot where the track becomes indistinct as it passes over bare rock. I take what I think is the right direction to a plane table which identifies features on the horizon.

It is quiet on the track. I hear distant traffic, the thwack of my track shoes on the path, the swish of my rain jacket. Even the sheep have gone elsewhere. The tops of the hills have disappeared into the clouds. When I think I have climbed high enough, I turn and descend down the other side of the spur.

the rocky gorge
cliffs topped with pines
river runs below

I reach a gate and finish my walk along a road which leads me back to the car park.

alone in the car park
my only companions
starlings on wet grass

[Haibun is a passage of prose which includes haiku. It is a form that has been used historically in Japan for poetic diaries. I am also currently reading a travel book which takes a similar form: "Here Comes Another Vital Moment" by New Zealand writer Diane Brown. I like the idea of using this form for a journal of a trip, and am contemplating trying it when I go to the UK next year.
Haibun is this week's topic at onedeepbreath, where you can find links to examples from other bloggers.]

Haiku: The Unseen

papery brown bulbs -
hidden deep in the centre
next season's flowers

shadows on grass
darkness shapes forms of
absence of sunlight

from my computer -
invisible signals link
to the worldwide web

More haiku on "the unseen" at onedeepbreath

Haiku: Simple Pleasures

my favourite mug
steaming hot chocolate with
fluffy marshmallows

Sadly I have no photo to go with the above haiku as I am forgoing such pleasures for a while in a bid to lose weight.

orange spirals
in a clear blue sky
first butterfly of spring

The butterfly was too quick to catch on camera, but here is a summer view in my yard:



For more simple pleasures, visit onedeepbreath

Haiku: Countryside

This week's topic at onedeepbreath is "countryside". I realised when I saw the topic that I always think of "countryside" as sheep, cows and pastures and that I find them rather boring (despite the fact that Japanese tourists in New Zealand always ooh and aah over the fluffy white sheep).

On the other hand if I take the topic to mean "outside the city" then it expands to include mountains, forests, beaches, rivers, lakes and all the vast expanse of nature. This morning Margaret, my walking buddy, and I, went to the Travis Wetlands on the fringes of the city. A swampy area has been saved from draining and development for housing and is gradually being restored to its natural state. It is a haven for birdlife. Parts of the reserve are still grazed by cattle, as some birds need shorter grasses for feeding. The area was alive and very noisy with birdlife - various species of duck, geese, pukeko (swamp hen - a New Zealand native), welcome swallows, pied stilts and others.

I was somewhat restricted for photographs by the 3x zoom on my camera and the fact that we had to keep to the walkways.



noisy traffic
geese fly honking overhead
come in to land

Time for a Haiku

This week's theme at onedeepbreath is books and reading. I was thinking of going to the library to take photos and get inspiration, but it is a nasty wet day, so my library card is as far as I got:



my library card
- ticket to times and places
far away