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.
At Carpe Diem we have a hokku by Jackie Le Poidevin to complete to form a Tan Renga. After reading Georgia’s at Bastetandsekhmet, I loved her completion and decided to add on to hers. I reread my completion and noticed it seems to fit well alone with Jackie Le Poidevin’s hokku but tells a more complete story with Georgia’s, so here it is:
Bare branches touch Over the lane where we walk, Fingers entwined.
I close my eyes off and on today and I seem to be in a wabi-sabi mood if that makes any sense. If I let myself float to places of nothingness I feel nano seconds of peace, sometimes sadness but not a hurting sadness. A feeling of when your heart swells and forces you to take a deeper breath, a louder exhalation…a sigh of melancholy. That is my day today…pure, simple and free. I close my eyes and remember those moments nursing my children…those precious moments in the middle of the night…no distractions in those days…no cell phones, no television…no dvd’s either. Just that opportunity to look into their eyes as they look up with wonder, with loving adoration, depending so much on me for love, sustenance and nurturing…those liquid blue eyes gaze at me.
such sweetness/so long ago, I close my eyes/back in time.
I just started reading Put your Lips Together by Hamish ‘Managua’ Gunn on my day off and sleepiness seems to take over me yet my mind won’t shut off…and so I quickly transferred those intruding thoughts to my keyboard, so I could go back to nothingness and passively pass the rest of my day off.
My mind’s entranced by words I read. It’s nice to wander to nowhere lands. But soon I feel a heaviness… I am too sleepy to read … I rest my head on velvet softness. Such a quandary since I must read to stop the thoughts exhausting me. I hang onto words from a new writer’s thoughts; his thoughts are motivating and let me to travel to places I’ve never been; ah yes, I remember one that I’d been long long ago in Aberdeen. Memories flood my soul as I drift in and out of alpha waves. IlLike riding the waves; I am so light …no featherlike, the sea transports me to islands where fishing is the only means of survival.
My eyes are heavy but my mind will not sleep. STOP!! I just want the mind to dull…be rid of any thoughts for a few moments…no contemplations, please, some respite, I implore.
I love to write but writing unlocks the dam of thoughts that gush forth so strong at times I can’t decipher good from bad, hell from heaven and so I read when my eyes can stay open to escape…And travel in the minds and thoughts of other writers so easier to take those words. They do not rush in tsunamis but more like streams of honey and melted butter. Small increments at a time …tiny palatable morsels. The perfect balance to satiate a hungry reader.
A funny thing happened to me on my way home tonight. I dressed warm, ready for my usual bitter cold walk to the metro. I actually look like a burglar dressed up in black, all you can see are my nose and eyes. I still chanced the shortcut out back and there was only about 300 metres with snow drifts to get to the street. No problem. I was quite pleased with myself considering that the street was only half ploughed. The scraper had scraped right to the icy surface. The street looked like a skating rink. No kidding! If more people would have been awake at this time, for sure some might have skated and youngsters would have slid on their boots. I get to the Métro Rosemont and for the first time I see dozens of people inside the small square waiting for their busses. Yep, it is that cold! (Oh did I tell you I froze for an hour Valentine’s evening after my nice café adventure? I waited an hour in the cold for a bus to get home. I was so cold by the time I got home, my body would not get warm enough. I felt feverish and achy all over. Had to call in sick the next day (Sunday) as there was NO way in this century I was braving the cold.)
So back to tonight. I take the métro to Bonaventure and my bus is already there awaiting me (well, it feels good to think so). I get on the bus engrossed in my novel I am reading by Alice Keys, Rose (check her out at Aliceville)…up to Chapter 89 now. Gosh! One thing I do not like about e-readers is you cannot tell if you are close to the end so for the past 20+ chapters I am wondering when that will be. I will let ya’ll know about this book that has captured my attention for the past 2 days now. I am a slow reader and when I want to remember something I highlight it…and read it over. I know, weird but that is me if I read a book that someone I sort of know wrote itJ. I have been too brain dead and tired to write much lately, so I am so glad I have a novel that is keeping me absorbed.
I settle on the bus and open my Kindle again and once I get on le pont Champlain I hear a funny sound. It sounds like a phone but no one is picking up. I feel in my breast pocket of my winter coat and take my new I-phone out and yep, it was for me. I have to change that ringer to match what I had on my Samsung…a little Motown sounds I recognize…not this techno weird stuff.
A colleague tells me I forgot my home keys at the office. OH NO!! NOT AGAIN! My heart drops for a split second and then I realize I am still on the bus, I have not walked the 10 minute walk to my apartment in the cold to discover I did not have my keys and walk back again in the cold to the bus. All I had to do was sit on the warm bus that was going back to Montreal in five minutes. No problem, I tell my colleague but it would be nice if someone is off work to bring the keys to the subway near work so I don’t have to brave the cold walk again to the office. A colleague offers to drive to the Métro with her hubby who was picking her up and she would wait for me there. She has done this already once for me two years ago. Good Lord there are angels on this planet!!
So I stay on the bus, get on the Métro again. Then I see about six Montreal Police officers waiting to check the trains on the line I was taking. Shoot! They have this Miami Vice swagger when they walk, and feathered hair spiked up…nice and messy…in their camo pants and high laced boots…they have been negotiating their pension for the past year and this is one way they are protesting (dressing like this)… …like that’ll get the public respect for law enforcement. I digress…they look in each train and find no one. One police officer takes a snapshot with his phone of a tag from a gang member in my car. I didn’t dare tell him there was another tag next to me near the window…I was in a hurry to get my home keys!! Priorities now people!!
On the ride I read an email on my phone from a person who has been following me on Stigma Hurts Everyone for two years. She wrote a beautiful long letter telling me how my blog impacted on her especially a post I wrote about a homeless person entitled “Do you even see me?” Her words truly touched me how she has changed her attitude towards homelessness now and well, that truly warmed my heart to read this. I had no idea my words could have such an impact!
Then I read another email from my favourite supervisor in Toronto and friend. It is sort of a chain letter regarding an angel and G-d will do two BIG positive things for me in the next few days. As I read this I wanted to answer but didn’t have WiFi. I wanted to reply right away: G-d already did the two amazing things…my colleague who was meeting me at the Métro with my keys and this beautiful letter from a follower of my blog.
I am beaming just about now and my chest is bursting in my mom’s psychedelic housecoat (smiles).
I love days like today…not expecting anything and then being blessed with such kindness it makes me want to cry with joy.
Snuggled in the trailer with a good novel, she heard the tap dancing on the tin roof. After the rain, she walked through the garden and allowed the fragrance to wash over her.
(Troiku)
after the rain fresh scents from heaven sparrows chirp
after the rain
birds bathe in puddles
children giggle
fresh scents from heaven
garden lily beguiles
rapt butterfly
sparrows chirp
concert in the elm tree
after the rain
My dear friends Justine and Karuna mentioned this poetry writing course they are taking at The Daily Post – Writing 201 Poetry . Although I know I will not have time to follow daily prompts, I will certainly enjoy reading from their blogs. They are already gifted writers. Since the first prompt of the day suggests writing a Haiku, well, I had to play with this for fun. I have written a haiku and then continued on to form a Troiku which is a form created by our host Chévrefeuille at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai who offers daily Haiku guided prompts and shares Haiku form great masters such as Basho and Issa. The Troiku can be explained better by Chévrefeuille but as you can see I used a line from the first Haiku in each successive haiku. You really need the story explained in a lovely historical Russian story by our host about the Troiku, at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.
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.
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?
Tournesol dans un Jardin 