Category: Mindlovemiserymenagerie

The Reviving Garden (Haibun – Fairy Tale)

This is a Fairy Tale Prompt – Mind Love Misery’s Menagerie

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/640_urami_falls.jpg
Urami no Taki (The Waterfall Seen From Behind) Here is  the Fairy Tale prompt

for a while
confined behind the waterfall
summer’s start

© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

**************************************************************

A fairy tale

by Tournesol’2015

The thunder of the waterfall echoed in the distance.  Cher looked up at the sky and noticed dark rain clouds. She would have to hurry home soon if she didn’t want to get drenched but first she was curious. She walked all the way here for an hour from the other side of the village.  She heard there was a path towards a secret garden. Her great-grandmother told her about it just before she died. “Cher, go to the garden luv, you must not miss this last chance to meet true joy.”  She thought her grandmother was in her moments of dementia when she said that but still…what if?

Cher was near the falls now and the booming sound of tons of water falling was impressive and a bit daunting. Should she continue, she thought to herself peaking in the little opening between the two plum trees…and then she saw…

wild flowers
competing for attention
bursting in colours

There were mini gardens within the largest most spectacular garden she had ever seen.  Daisies, buttercups, marigolds, lilies, sunflowers and so much more.  At the centre of the garden was a cherry tree and the fragrance from the blossoms were so tantalizing. There was a section beneath the tree that looked like a velvet emerald carpet it was surreal…too perfect to be grass…and yet it was with tiny clovers interspersed and part of this exquisite verdure.   She sat beneath the tree, picking at clover leaves and tasting their sweetness.  She lay on her back for a moment admiring the clear blue sky …funny how the clouds disappeared here, she thought.  The scented cherry blossoms seemed to have a hypnotic effect on her…she closed her eyes, “Just for a few minutes, I am so tired”…not realizing she was actually sleeping on a bed of poppies.  They were so minuscule and not visible to the naked human eye.

© Clr ’14

soothing relief
entranced on a bed
of poppies

She was bathing in bubbling hot springs and suddenly soft laughter of what appeared to be children, woke her up from this wonderful dream. She looked around and saw little people the size of her thumb dressed in glitzy costumes of gold, silver and her favourite  of all…azure blues.   They giggled louder when they saw her raiser an eyebrow.  A chipmunk sounding voice shouted, “Come along, let’s set the tea and sweets.  The human is awake…quickly now!!”

It took ten little people to push a porcelain floral cup and saucer towards Cher.  When she realized the tea was for her, she reached out and picked it up saving them another two “human” feet would have taken another five minutes for them.  The tea was sweet like honey and fragrant like cerise noir.   She felt like a queen being served by these tiny people. Could they actually be fairies, she thought. She must be dreaming.

 
honourable guest
visiting the Cherry garden
Way of Tea

She heard a melody that seemed familiar as she put her cup down.  Over by the daisies, on an elevated grassy turf, a  beautiful petite woman with a white silk gown sang like an angel. She must be an angel, Cher thought, Oh, my I can’t seem to get out of this dream. Gosh! I don’t want to get out of this dream!

voix mielleuse
refrain d’amour et longue vie
transpire doucement
~
honey tones
refrain of love and long life
gently trickle

Closing her eyes, she let that sweet voice wrap her in a spiritual wellness.  Each note lightened her heart, made her feel refreshed… reborn.  

bathed in
pure positive energy
born again
~
born again
 releasing her grip
softening chi

*Tetsuya  says that holding on to the bow too tightly too long only weakens the bow.  I must know when it is time to soften my grip.  This garden is one way to be in the moment and float on a bed of poppies…drift away from worries, work.  Here I am me, beautiful and perfect in all my imperfections.

Cher left the garden feeling refreshed and revitalized; she reminded herself to come back more often and not wait until the clouds turned dark and heavy…regular visits here would be a mindful choice.

© Tournesol ’15

The Way of the Bow
The Way of the Bow – Paulo Coelho

 

Hayley Westenra – May It Be

Lyrics
“May It Be”

May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be when darkness falls
Your heart will be true
You walk a lonely road
Oh! How far you are from home

Mornië utúlië ([Quenya:] Darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornië alantië ([Quenya:] Darkness has fallen)
A promise lives within you now

May it be the shadow’s call
Will fly away
May it be your journey on
To light the day
When the night is overcome
You may rise to find the sun

Mornië utúlië ([Quenya:] Darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way

Mornië alantië ([Quenya:] Darkness has fallen)
A promise lives within you now

A promise lives within you now

Carpe Diem Shuukan – Revitalize

Fairy Tale Prompt – Mind Love Misery’s Menagerie

* Coelho, Paulo (2011-06-14). The Way of the Bow (Kindle Location 37). Sant Jordi Asociados. Kindle Edition.

disenchanted virgin (haibun)

MindLoveMiserysMenagerie

Oh dear, she thought. Mother had to arrange this outing, now didn’t she? She looked at her second cousin, Emile Candiac in the photo with her blushing and pretending to be shy.  If only they knew she was turning red from rage.

I wish she would devote more of her time making Father happy, instead she finds it is her duty to make me miserable.  Well, I’ll hand to her, she has succeeded.

Can you imagine, how embarrassing this will be for me if word gets out at the sanatorium that I was escorted by Emile Candiac!  All of my colleagues had refused courtships by him. He’s the laughing stock of our neighbourhood, let alone le Sanatorium Alphone Genest.   Now I will be the joke of the town!  Me! a second year resident nurse! They will all think I am so pathetic that my mother runs my social life as well as my personal life! Jesus, Mary, Joseph, what next?  Will she order me to go to the New Year`s Eve ball with him as well?  I must feign illness. I must!!

Mother thinks that at the age of twenty, I will be an old spinster if I am not wed. I don’t want to be tied down like she was so young. Is it my fault she was without a grain of intelligence or logic marrying Father at fifteen years old, a man thirty years her senior!  Emile Candia is twenty years older than me and I am not interested in being courted or even considered for marriage with such dunce!  An old disgusting one at that!

I’ve been saving  from my meagre wages, to travel.  Maybe I could go with some of the girls to the States. We could take the train and head out to Newport, Vermont for a weekend. That would be nice.  I hear their fabric, especially cotton is of higher quality than in Canada and at reasonable costs.

Now how can I get the image of that disgusting photograph out of my mind?

meddling mothers

desperate bachelors

crestfallen maidens

© Tournesol ’15

MLMM Tale Weaver Prompt

Love is in the air (haibun)

© Kylli Sparrek

This was the second drought in three years and Father said he may have to sell the farm. Mother was up in arms since it was her father’s father’s father’s farm when they immigrated from Ireland. The winters here in Canada were cold particularly in St Jacobs and the summers were scorcher. Unlike the cooler summers in Ballybunion. Father would argue with Mother, “But Luv, we have to be reasonable! Your forefathers were wise enough to save their life savings and leave their land before the famine sucked them dry. Now we may just have to make a sage decision as well. Maybe it`s time to just settle with some cattle. There is always money in beef.” Mother was silent but her body clearly stated how upset she was with Father.

Ellie was not waiting any longer for Father`s decisions. She was leaving at the end of summer which wold give her ample time to help her parents move. They knew she had a “pen pal” from Toronto and although they had let her take the bus for a visit a few times, they had no idea of Ellie’s plans to leave St Jacob’s.

Lindsay was actually more than a casual friend; Ellie had fallen in love…fallen hard. She was eighteen, fresh out of high school and ready to explore the world. Lindsay had already signed a lease for an apartment for the two of them and they would both go to George Brown College to study Hospitality and Culinary Arts. She loved baking and Lindsay`s strength was in cooking. They had it all planned. They would work in posh restaurants for five years, save their money and open a B & B north of Toronto in the country. More and more city people were paying an arm and a leg for a weekend getaway outside the city along with fine dining.

She would wait until a week before moving to announce her plans, and avoid any scene she may see from Mother especially; she was pretty sure Father would also be “disappointed with his little princess.” She looked up at the sky and it was almost like a warning of the storm she was moving into. Once her mother and father realized Lindsay was a girl, Ellie was prepared for the worst …a cyclone for sure.

young love
seedling of promise
cicada sing

© Tournesol ’15

 Love is in Da Blog – Topic LOVE – Week 1

Mind Love Misery’s Menagerie – Photo Prompt

suitable employment (haiga)

http://www.deviantart.com/art/shoes-51017827
By Autumntherose at Deviantart

careers are like shoes
come in all shapes and sizes
look for the “right fit”.

© Tournesol ’15

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Shoes-65407648
By TiredMe at Deviantart

MLMM 

Winter gems glow (Troiku)

Haiku is a image of a moment in time, put on pause… examined, dissected and most important, felt.  This was my moment in time when I got up this morning. My first day off for the weekend, like most people, a well needed rest in our long winters here.

golden glow

glistening charms melt

teardrops

I set that haiku aside for two hours and wrote another post and came back to edit it until I thought it “felt” like my moment. It did. Afterwards I decided to do a Troiku with this haiku which I learned at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

golden glow

blinding baby blues

mouse squeals

~

glistening charms melt

shallow puddles form,

strays lap

~

teardrops

softened by whispers

from heaven

© Tournesol ’15

Heeding Haiku with HA MLMM

Purple heather (haibun)

Credits: Kirsty Mitchell

They stumbled on rocks along the shore.

.

“Come along now, Bonnie, you’re holding us all up.”

.

Six year old Bonnie was stopping to collect a stone here, a stone there along the way on their family venture along the shores of Ballybunion.

.

“Stop being such a slow poke! stupid!!!” shouted her teenage brother, Sean. He was already agitated he had to tag along on this “dumb trip” when his girlfriend was back home in Dublin. “But NO!!, Mum had to visit the old homestead” he mimicked his mother’s voice, “’tis where your great-great-great-grand-dad O’Donnell was born and left for Canada during the famine” As if Sean cared about that trip that lasted one hundred years and they all moved back and lived happily ever after in Dublin, he thought. Big effin deal!!

~

“I’m not stupid! I’m smart, Miss O’Connell said so, so there,” she shouted back sticking out her tongue for good measure.

.

“Come along, Bonnie, we’re all tired and hungry. And stop picking up all those stones,now, luv. When we get to Monroe’s up ahead, we can stop for the day and eat a nice plate of fish and chips. How does that sound?” Bonnie scrunched up her nose just thinking of the smell she remembered the last time she had fish at Uncle Gerald’s. “They’re not stones, Mum, they’re precious pebbles and each one has a story to tell. Miss Con…” Her mother yanked her by the hand with a grunt and a sigh and Bonnie knew she meant business. She stuffed her pocket with three more pebbles and ran along side her mum and brother.

.

They saw the cabin near the pier and Sean rushed to Monroe’s to order his meal…he’d had enough being stuck with females for the past forty-eight hours.

~

They started walking up from the shore, high grass and spots of heather blowing in the wind made a pretty picture for any artist. Suddenly, Bonnie stopped and noticed something in the heather. “Mummy, come quick!” Her mother came by her side and they both approached slowly in case there was an animal hidden in the bush. Mae O’Donnell’s eyes widened and she put her hand to her mouth in shock. “This can’t be! It looks like it but is just can’t be! Jesus, Mary, Joseph…it is!”

~

Bonnie tugged at her mother’s cardigan, “What, Mummy, what is it.” Tears poured down her mother’s cheeks as she lifted the porcelain doll from the purple heather. “It’s me Gram’s doll. I used to play with it in the attic when I came to visit when I was your age, luv.”

gusts of sea breeze

whispering ancient secrets

bed of heather

© Tournesol ’15

Photo prompt at MindLoveMiserysMenagerie

Where do babies come from?(haibun)

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I had stopped working six weeks prior to giving birth. The six weeks at home with my son was a nice transition before his sister arrived. He would lean on my huge tummy and asked me earlier on in the pregnancy how the baby got there. He was only 2 and a half. I knew you could tell children the truth about many things and they would retain what they could grasp…make it simple, I was often told. And so I told him that Daddy had a seed that he gave to Mommy to make the baby grow in my womb (tummy). “How did it get there?” he asked. I explained that Mommy and Daddy kissed and hugged each other very tightly. He seemed to be satisfied with that.

Two years later my step-father had passed and my son felt sorry for my mother being alone. “Nanny,” he started, “You should have a baby so you won’t be so lonely.” She explained that she had to have a husband to have a baby. He responded, “Well, I could give you my seed from my testicle and you could swallow it and then you would have a baby.” My mother was SHOCKED but we always got a kick out of that cute story of pure kindness and innocence.

seeding
pure and natural
lovers kiss

© Tournesol ’15

MLMM – Heeding Haiku with HA

flowers or snow (haibun)

(c) Clr '15
(c) Clr ’15

This should be fun although  I love both kigo words  snowflakes representing weather my part of the world and the sunflowers being admired by my Aussie friends….lucky Sandy, Jen and Michael, I will write on both.

Snowflakes are pretty but when they stick to your lashes and the cold wind makes my eyes weep, well, it’s a dangerous combination, that’s all I’m saying.   Tonight I walked home in the bitter cold at minus 27 C and who knows with the wind chill…I was prepared with extra warm socks in sheep skin lined boots (Saute Mouton), layers of wool sweaters under my warm coat,  Gortex glove and mittens, cagoule under pilot hat and eternity mohair scarf…but my cagoule kept slipping leaving my face exposed to the frigid air.

snowflakes

on my lashes blind me

slipped on ice

*

frostbitten cheeks

snowflakes adorn the trees

fancy a sunburn

The sky was clear tonight with the odd cloud splashed here and there on that navy canvas and I knew it was the last night to savour this full moon.  I had to take a glove off my right hand to take a few photos with my smartphone since it works only with the heat of a hand….click, click until I could no longer feel my fingers…that was my warning to head into the warmth.  It was so worth the cold hand. The moon smiling down on me was as if my mom was somewhere nearby.

  *******************************

This summer I hope to take more advantage of just relaxing and reading outdoors.  I tend to carry my tablet everywhere to write….but by a lake or pond would be  a nice change.  I look forward to that, and sitting a garden of daisies or sunflowers…or both!

 copy-sunflower-logo1.jpg

summer read

sitting  by the pond

sunflowers grow

*

sunflowers

become a part of me

 nom de plume

(c) Tournesol’15

MindLoveMiserysMenagerie with Heeding Haiku with HA

new bond (haibun)

It was beautiful to see the patience a young child can have despite his age, his anticipation and yet, he managed it with eloquence. For a few years he would be so happy to see my cat at home so he could pet her, hold her and perhaps even play with her. The attempts were always short-lived and he would leave discouraged, certain that this picky feline did not like him. Try as I might to explain her fickleness was part of her personality and that in time if she saw him more often, she would certainly come around. And come around she did this week.

© Clr ’14 Bette and my grandson

Since he slept in “her” spot, I was actually surprised that she was drawn to him instead of being jealous but no, she totally drew closer and his patience certainly paid off. To see him beaming when he started petting her…that she allowed him to even touch her was magical to see.

Patiently waits,
human-animal bond
first calm

© Tournesol ’14

MindLoveMiserysMenagerie – Heeding Haiku with HA – New Year

Hark the Herald Angels Sing (essence + shadorma)

© William Adolphe Bouguereau Song of the Angels (1881)

(an essence )
peace on earth’s everything
cheer the birth, new-born king

pure of heart, Prince of kind
plays a part with you in mind

filled with mirth, rejoicing
peace on earth’s everything.

(shadorma)
angels hail,
Prince of peace is born
cleanse your souls
open hearts
renew your vows of kindness
compassion triumphs.

© Tournesol ’14

We have the option of writing a Shadorma (a non-rhyming six-line poem with a syllable count of 3/5/3/3/7/5) – or an Essence created by Emily Romano.

An “Essence” consists of two lines of six syllables each. There is an end rhyme (rhyme at the end of the line) and an internal rhyme (rhyme in the middle of the line).

BJ Shadorma and Beyond at MindLovemiserysMenagerie

Flash mob concerts always make me weep, they’re so beautiful!