Paying respect (haibun)

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The family gathered in her home, feeling her presence everywhere. One daughter, sat rocking in her mother’s chair by the window, reminiscing

all took turns
even the woodpecker,
paid their respects

nature’s performance (haiku)

bows solemnly
honouring life that was,
enters twilight

just in time (haiku)

Oli’s backyard

Mother Nature’s gift

just in time for Mother’s Day

apple blossoms

wasted fabric (haibun)

She walked in the nursing home looking for her mother. The nurse pointed to the old woman by the window in the rocking chair. She gasped! It was not enough dementia had robbed her of her mind…

shrivelled rose
lost in her robe
scents linger

Ancestral home (haibun)

She follows the inspector like a mid-day shadow. He scratches on his notepad, silently walking the perimeter of the weather-beaten house. It leans more towards the river now. She sighs with a heavy heart, not realizing how time and weather has bent the ancestral abode.

weighed memories
sagging shoulders slope
weathered house bows

by the bank
feeder swings on rusted wire
lives perch

Written for Carp Diem “Weatherbeaten” meme

dazzling sun rays (haiku)

Glorious sunshine
captivates to distraction
stumbles on sidewalk

stumbles on sidewalk
sunshine infuses content
despite bitter winds

Three Word Wednesday

Devotion (haibun)

Since she was a young child she would often whisper a short prayer on her way to school such as The Lord’s Prayer with the image of her grandfather in her mind’s eye and this practice continued as an adult on her way to work. In the past year she has been chanting her personal mantra with the image of Amma; sometimes her grandmother’s and mother’s images seem to slip in without her control.

Now she simply begins her mantra with the image of Amma and if her grandmother and mother want to slip in, she just goes with the flow. It is a wonderful way to start her day at work. In many ways she feels protected from some of the pain and suffering of her daily work.