Sun’s energy (Haibun – Troiku)

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)

Troiku was created by Chèvrefeuille

golden star
hangs in the distance
morning pleas

golden star
swells with pride
look at me!

hangs in the distance
looking up through tired eyes
blessings from heaven

morning pleas
overextending is unwise
rest rejuvenates

Carpe Diem Summertime

Carpe Diem Shuukan Revitalize

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Yellow (haiga)

We are given paintings by Van Gogh as inspiration.

Here are Chevrefeuille’s haiku in response to the painting, The Yellow House, 1988, Vincent Van Gogh

the yellow house
a sturdy rock in a man’s life –
the cry of a child

the cry of a child
seeing the rainbow for the first time
‘I want to cross that’

This is the house where Van Gogh and Gauguin stayed. Van Gogh painted the sunflower series to adorn Gaugain’s room.

Here are my haiku inspired by this painting:

token gesture
sunflowers in the guest room
the yellow house

the yellow house
echoes dark secrets
between two men

© Tournesol’15

Vincent Van Gogh. Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, 1888. Wikimedia.

Van Gogh loved this bridge because it reminded him of both Hiroshige and a bridge in his homeland.

Here is Paloma’s stunning series inspired by this painting:

morning washing –
the scent of yellow grass
clinging to my hem

long into morning –
the scent of mud and green things
baked on yellow stones © Paloma ’15

Here is my attempt:

toiling at daybreak
women washing work clothes/
scent of lye

gathering their skirts/
languidly sitting on flat rocks
under the bridge

© Tournesol ’15

Carpe Diem Time Machine Yellow

a prayer (Troiku)

poppies
say a prayer
in remembrance

poppies
put them all to sleep
but the Tin Man

say a prayer
soldiers now in heaven
blessings

in remembrance
poppies on all lapels
bugles sound

Carpe diem Poppies

echoes of her son (troiku)

pins a poppy
looking in the mirror
echo of her son

pins a poppy
children dancing in the street
wonder why the tears

looking in the mirror
ghosts from battlefields
tears on her cheeks

echo of her son
whispering soothingly
I’m okay.

echo of her son
tear not for me
I’m okay

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai “Poppies”

Our host shows us how to write a Troiku (a new form of Haiku) here

pleasure tokens (haibun)

**“But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, it’s bloom is shed; Or, like the snow-fall in the river, A moment white, then melts forever.” Robert Burns** …………Photo credits: Chris at The Muscleheaded Blog

I read this quote at The Muscleheaded Blog. A lovely quote by none other than Robert Burns. What a nice segeway into Valentine’s Day, non? Must one be in love or in a relationship at this time to be reminded of past loves, paramours and blissful pleasures of the past? I don’t think so. And so I decided to write a Troiku about those pleasure moments that are sometimes short-lived. Now look deeply into that photo as you read into his thoughts:

adream — © Chris at Muscleheaded Blog – Letters and Dreams

poppies spread
pleasure tokens prised
I shan’t forget

poppies spread
imprints a mark of love
and then it scars

pleasure tokens prised
precious moments revisits
blushing every time

I shan’t forget
tomorrows shall be laced,
those yesterdays

Quote & Photo credits: Chris at The Muscleheaded Blog

Troiku a Haiku form created by Chévrefeuille at Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai – Poppies

When Georgia mentioned this was the theme at CP yesterday, I read the prompt, thought about writing another haiku (which I still may) but liked the theme of forgotten love rather than war in this troiku as well.

Tranquil moments (haibun)

Sometimes I find myself pensive and somber in thought. It is often after I wake up and have had several mysterious dreams that stir my psyche. I come to the kitchen and start running water to clean my counter and then fill the tub with sudsy hot water. I often take a few dirty items from my dishwasher and wash them by hand. My mind is still churning as I continue to process a thing or two that requires something soothing like the repetitive motions of washing dishes.

washing dishes

clears cobwebs in my mind

tranquility

We often equate tranquil moments with nature. Living across the street from a shopping mall with a huge parking lot, I find solace in hearing the concert of three to four snow plows at night. The roaring actually lulls me to sleep. Who would have thought that gigantic machinery such as these mega snow plows could be my winter lullaby?

twilight rumbles

bulldozing through huge snow drifts

lull me to sleep

CP Tranquility

heaven’s communiqué (haibun)

At Carpe Diem the month of February is month of impressions and today, the Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh who is another impressionist.

Our host presents Starry Night over the Rhone (another painting by Van Gogh) with a lovely story:

“One of the first paintings of the view was Mountainous Landscape Behind Saint-Rémy, now in Copenhagen, which Van Gogh identified in a letter to his sister Wil from 16 June 1889 as hanging in his studio to dry. Two days later, he wrote to his brother that he had painted “a starry sky.” The Starry Night is the only nocturne painting in the series of views from his bedroom window. In early June Vincent wrote to Theo, “This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big.” Two scholars working independently of each other have determined that Venus was indeed visible in Provence in the spring of 1889. So the brightest “star” in the painting, just to the viewer’s right of the cypress tree, is actually Venus.

The moon is stylized, as astronomical records indicate that the moon was waning gibbous at the time Van Gogh painted the picture. Even if the phase of the moon had been a waning crescent at the time, Van Gogh’s moon is not astronomically correct. The one pictorial element that was definitely not visible from Van Gogh’s cell is the village, which is based on a sketch made from a hillside above the village of Saint-Rémy.”

Our host has written this haiku with this image and story in mind:

from the asylum
he observed the starry night –
seeking for the light
(c) Chèvrefeuille

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I love visiting my friends in the country. Their home faces five mountains and one is very close, Mont Bromont. They live dans un rang (a dirt road) lined with farms and vast meadows. Any season has its charm but in winter the only light we see at night are on the mountain where skiers ski at night. Streams of lights squirming in shapes and curves. I like to walk near the barn facing the cornfield now covered in white, looking up I try to locate the Big Dipper. It isn`t long before I am off in my starry world of fantasy and wonder.