hot summer night (haiku)

freedom at last
hot summer night
skinny dipping

blue mist
ocean fog rolling in,
flippers splash

This was my response at the first prompt in June ’14 “By the River”

mourning a healer (haiga)

If my grandmother would have been born within the Aboriginal culture, for sure she would have been a wise elder and perhaps a Shaman. But she was a humble woman living by la rivière Yamaska; a village healer in many ways being a mid-wife, a go-to person if someone was sick from newborn to elderly. She had herbal remedies and others passed down to her from her mother and an old village doctor.

To this day, I still miss her when I am sick. For some reason her hand on my forehead and her homemade chicken broth comforted me. She spent hours and days with mothers in labour, sat by a dying person’s bed many late nights and even doctors called on her for help. Most people called called her Garde Daudelin OR GrandMaman.

..
At Carpe Diem our host tells us about a Mongolian shaman named Batbayar. A beautiful story you can read more here of a Shaman and his apprentice. Our host wrote this in honour of the passing of this shaman.

..
whispering leaves
telling all wisdom of the steppes
cry of an eagle © Chèvrefeuille

To make this interesting for me, I searched where there were ealgles in Québec. In Northern and Eastern Québec there are many surprisingly, golden eagles. In the Gaspé Penninsula, residents are helping researchers with sightings as they are very proud of the eagle in their territory. (Gaspé is where Kerouac’s parents were from).

I have heard from aboriginal youths that the Northern Lights are their ancestors from the “other side”, spirits revealing they are well.

golden eagle cries
shaman’s loss mourned over
lac Natashquan

spirits announce
shaman’s safe entrance
aurora borealis

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai “Helpful”*

To read and hear more about the Golden Eagle in Québec click here.

kite on a branch (haiga)

Deviant Art Red Kite in a Tree -JBordons

red kite in flight,
snares on a tree branch
squirrel’s new friend

Carpe Diem

Saint-Benoit-du-lac (tanka)

This prompt brought me to a monastery in the Eastern Townships, about an hour’s drive from Montreal near Magog at Saint Benoit du lac where monks do not only pray but they are known for their cheese.

au petit matin
et le vent montagneux
soufflant des cantiques
jumelant avec les moines
un pinson gazouille en harmonie

early morn
and mountain wind
blowing hymns
accompanying the monks
a finch tweets in harmony

Carpe Diem

Mother Earth’s quilt (haiga)

Our host has posted music to inspire us. I don’t know about you but fairies, leprechauns and angels keep fluttering in my mind’s eye. Perhaps it is the Irish in me for I do love Celtic music and this piece brings me close to my Irish roots on Ballybunion. I am not much of a fairy tale writer as you may have noticed in my other blog I wrote for the Lavender Lady at MLMM prompt. My children told me while they were growing up all the bedtime stories, I invented when tucking them in, were not subtle enough…all had a morale to the tale and they quickly figured it out. . Well, what do you want with a mom who is a counsellor and family life educator? But I do remember one tale of the rabbit with those long droopy ears and that extra tall giraffe who were bullied but I digress.

This music brought me to a whimsical place but not quite lost. My desk faces a patio window and I see the trees shedding more each day especially with the cold rain in the past three days. So listening to this beautiful piece of music I can’t help but see fairies working tirelessly adorning warm coverlets before the white duvet that is far from warm, but cold…very cold will cover our earch.

Here is the music our host has posted to inspire us:

Adrian von Ziegler – Sacred Earth

And here is his beautiful haiku:

Mother Earth blossoms
while I dream of unknown paths –
the scent of roses

My humble offering I wrote this morning but never had a chance to post because I forgot it on my laptop at home 😦

Autumn Fairies – Mental Mishap Deviant Art

cross-stitch fondly
gold and amber threads,
Mother Earth’s quilt

fairies darn briskly
trimming season’s quilt,
frost’s preamble

Sacred Earth – Carpe Diem

rainforest concerto (tanka)

The Time Glass prompt today at Carpe Diem Valley Stream, is to use the haiku composed by your host AND the photo of a waterfall. It was tempting to complete this into a tan renga but he did mention a “solo” renga or a tanka. I could not help but notice the waterfall was a photo in Maui, Hawaii. When I saw the last line of our host, “the silence” I thought of birds singing being masked by the sounds of gurgling streams OR the roar of the waterfalls.

I wanted to include birds from Hawaii and liked the sounds of the honeycreepers such as ‘l’iwi , hearing several examples on Youtube. I wanted to add the name of a tree that these birds inhabit and fell upon the Ohia lehua tree. Well, that brought me to a legend and Carpe Diem is keen on legends and stories.

Legend explains the birth of the Ohia tree and its flower, the Lehua blossom. The legend is tied to the volcano goddess, Pele. This story explains that if you pluck this flower, it will rain on the same day (for a tragic reason).

The legend of the Ohia tree and the Lehua blossom

The legend says that one day Pele met a handsome warrior named Ohia and she asked him to marry her. Ohia, had already pledged his love to Lehua. Pele was furious so she turned Ohia into a twisted tree. The gods took pity on Lehua and decided it was an injustice to have Ohia and Lehua separated. So, they turned Lehua into a flower on the Ohia tree so that the two lovers would be forever joined together. So remember, Hawaiian folklore says that if you pluck this flower you are separating the lovers, and that day it will rain.

What a beautiful legend…so romantic too! Now to complete this prompt:

Our host wrote:

Gurgling valley stream
brings joy to the heart of Mother Nature –
Il Silenzio © Chèvrefeuille

Waterfalls
drown echoes of wildlife
ohia tree
‘l’iwi chirps a concert
sucking on a lehua

I’iwi honeycreeper sees off an Apapane

river heals (Tan Renga)

Such a lovely prompt today at Carpe Diem to complete a Tan Renga. Our host shares his heart warming delight that Carpe Diem has become an engaged and loving family. Here are two completions by our host.

river stones
caressed by flowing water
pale moon shines (Becca Givens)

the sound of a waterfall
makes the night more silent (Chèvrefeuille)

river stones
caressed by flowing water
pale moon shines (Becca Givens)

behind a thin veil of clouds
she, the one I love, smiles at me (Chèvrefeuille)

Indeed, I am a late comer, more like the half-sister or step-sister whichever seems the nicest {grins}. A family that creates an art painters do, a mood great writers do and encouragement and guidance a caring parent or older sibling do. In that vein I have written this. I am starting with the completion that suits the mood of this prompt best.

Water is actually my lifeline in so many ways. At first I looked at this prompt and attempted several completions that appeared morose and yet it is meant to show the power of water and how its presence in my life changes the currents in my heart, soul and moods. So I wrote several and reread the instructions of our host giving us a choice to write another haiku or completion. Ah, so back to the drawing board and here are my haiku that map a part of my journey before I arrived to the above completion.