
another birthday
celebrating life,
an orphan am I
© Tournesol ’15
Poetry ~ Waka

© Tournesol ’15

One expresses emotions in varied ways and for some it is spontaneous and simply who they are. Perhaps you are like me when you see someone you love and have not seen in a while, you run up to the person and hug them, kiss them on each cheek.
Overjoyed the morning I felt my son moving in my tummy…the basement of our new home had flooded and I could not hide my joy. Could not relate to the damage, the flood or any problem whatsoever for a human life did somersaults in MY tummy!!
Oh how I weep with joy every time I see my daughter performing in a choir, when my son did a guitar solo and sang a Bob Dylan song, when they graduated both from high school and college; and even today when I see them smiling and teasing each other…the joy just takes too much place in my heart and so I weep.
Perhaps your emotions are too close to the surface and your heart swells so much you weep the moment a word hurts your feelings; perhaps it is anger that is too difficult to conceal and you shout, rage or cry again. Maybe you have always felt life dealt you a raw deal and everyone and everything you touch must be for your loss, like a child who stomps off angry because Mommy would not let him eat candy before dinner.
And then there are those who do not express emotions as easily and it eats at them, festers and makes them sick…they are not “at ease” hence it stirs “dis-ease”. The persons who cannot weep when they grieve, express their love when they long, show their joy when they are gripped with such a powerful love…yet to look at their body language, one cannot read the joy, happiness, rapture or sadness.
Sometimes I speak to a person who has gone through the most dreadful experiences in his past, heard such hurtful comments, witnessed such atrocities and yet I hear no emotion in the voice…flat, no affect whatsoever. Over time the dam may open slowly when a person feels safe…In this case, a person had to hide all emotion to survive. To give in to emotion may weaken them and so life goes on with explosive emotions inflating their soul…heart, like a ticking time bomb.
Emotions are not excluded to humans, and we can see that with animals that we love. It could be a horse you would groom for hours before riding, your dog you have walked, bathed like a baby and cuddled with a towel to keep them warm, a cat that leans in close to get a pet, a scratch but deep inside we know it is to be close to you…expressing their emotions in their loving and natural way.
My grandfather had rescued a golden mix a few years before got terminally ill. GrandPapa died later in his bed at his home; when the ambulance came to take his body, Princess, the golden mix, followed the cot whimpering along the side and then went running in the basement howling so loudly. She did not come up for a whole week, so great was her grief.
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© Tournesol ’15
golden glow
greets me on a new day
timecard punched
© Tournesol ’15
Our host and Haiku mentor/master, Chèvrefeuille, prepares haiku prompts daily and sometimes three times in one day. The prompts are not just a word or sentence but also history of Haiku as well he spoon feeds us writing techniques. I started off a year ago writing 17 syllables not really putting too much meaning into the form and have learned so much since then. Check on the link below to see what he is teaching us today...Tournesol.
Carpe Diem Haiku Writing Techniques #8, Karumi (Lightness)
“Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
It’s Wednesday again and it’s time for a new episode of our Haiku Writing Techniques. This week I love to tell you more about one of the most delightful concepts of haiku writing, Karumi (or Lightness). The concept of Karumi isn’t a new idea, it comes from the other Japanese arts and Basho has tried to bring that Karumi concept into haiku writing in the, say, last ten years of his life.
Not so long ago I got a gift from Jane Reichhold, a copy of her book “Basho, the complete haiku”. You all will understand that I started immediately with reading it, after all (as you all know) I see Basho as my haiku-master.
Jane has put a lot of effort in this book, more than ten (10) years, and of course I was excited and anxious to learn all the wonderful haiku by Basho.
Basho has meant a lot for haiku. He created several new ideas and writing techniques and was really a master of haiku. During his life Basho became in a way a Zen-Buddhist (he studied under Butcho, a Zen Buddhist monk), however he was never really a monk, only during his journeys.
In his time the Japanese roads weren’t great, sometimes only small paths and travelers often were robbed along the way. The most travelers chose to travel like a monk or priest, because that provided them free and save passage. Basho also traveled like a monk or priest, clothed in a black robe and a shaved head.
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| Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) |
Basho had a big group of disciples and followers close around him, but also widely spread over Japan.
Basho, the traveling poet (he undertook his journeys almost all in the last ten years of his life), had one goal in his last years. He was anxious to spread his idea, his concept, of Karumi (Lightness) in haiku….” reach more here
I stood in awe
watched a work of art
angels created
I stood in awe
only eyes can admire
an artist paint
watched a work of art
pictured brush strokes in the sky
I stood in awe
angels created
arched moon woos
sparkly stars
© Tournesol ’15
TROIKU, is a new form of haiku (an abstract of one of the Carpe Diem Previews) created by Chèvrefeuille.

It was late at night between Christmas and New Year’s, January, 1968. A time where mini skirts,fish-net stockings and short pea coats were the fashion…never warm enough for those winters in Quebec. A tuque or beret was fashionable but never worn covering the ears…that would not be stylish. The walk from the rec centre was several kilometers to her home by the river. How he fell in love with her baby blues…
Beneath wintry skies
pulls her close to him
gasping
~
beneath wintry skies
shivering in their Sunday best
holding hands
pulls her close to him
hearts beating
deafening
gasping
lips moistened like morning dew
their first kiss
© Tournesol ’15
What a great post our interim host, Paloma, has prepared with the prompt Summertime and introduction of a new impressionist, Rihard Jakopič, His art is stunning to depict this theme as well…who could not think of sun and yellow glowing colours and as for sounds we may hear birds, gulls and waves of the ocean. But what usually comes to mind the moment I see the word “summertime” is Ella Fitzgerald singing her (to me) signature song.
Paloma has shared a few haiku from great masters here:
it seems to wash
the summer mountains…
sunrise
© Issa
A summer river being crossed
how pleasing
with sandals in my hands!
© Buson
and our host’s impression:
rising sun
paints her shoulders golden –
summer morning –
golden morning
after a night of thunder –
how silent it is
© Paloma ‘15

I was up all night last night writing to catch up and well, my muse was ready so when she’s in the mood, I follow. Not always wise to stretch myself like that when I had only one day off this weekend.
I watched the sun rise in front of my workstation my patio faces east. The sky started its purplish hues, then turned pink and suddenly I looked up from my laptop and this big round ball of bright yellow above the horizon stared at me. I took photos but it would never do it justice what I witnessed. It looked like it was a ball of fire. It reminded me of something I remembered in religion classes, tongues of floating fire. Within minutes the sky turned misty and the sun just shied away. For about twenty minutes I witnessed this and I wonder just how many people actually did see this beautiful act of nature.
Troiku was created by Chèvrefeuille
golden star
hangs in the distance
morning pleas
~
© Tournesol ’15

This amazing photo, Karuna took at LivingLearningandLettinggo inspired me.

© Tournesol ’15
I love sunflowers, my nom de plume in French, Tournesol. Here is a Troiku created by Chèvrefeuille which is a series of haiku. To learn more about this form click here.

sunrise
stillness before the wake
muse speaks to me
golden halo gleams
outlines grimy lines
on my windows
morning prayer
sunflowers greet the day
I bow
© Tournesol ’15
Of course I love all flowers in the daisy family and buttercups.
© Tournesol ’15