Poetry ~ Waka
bird grabs a worm
fills nestlings’ open beaks
a mother’s love
~
looking up
with doe eyes
her big brother
~
Walking to the school dance, they giggle at the cute boys near the band stage. One has that bad boy look with tight jeans and a pack of Export-A’s at his shoulder under that white T. His liquid blues dance when she walks towards the band.
naive and trusting
he holds the small of her back
slow dancing
© Tournesol “16/02/11
After a week of spring thaw, winter resumes its course. Walking on the soft powdery snow, she shuffles slowly using its step as a human broom…swish, swish. The soft powder lifts lightly above her leather boots like a shower of white sparkling dust. Dust with spots of diamonds glistening in the soft light of the street lamps.
unusual thaws
ice weighs on spindly limbs
snap
©Tournesol’16/02/10 Daily Moments
He was ten years old, who did quite well in school. He was third in his class, captain of his soccer team and the light of his mom’s heart. Right after school he would sometimes pick up a book for persons who were visually impaired, at the local library , for his gran; she was usually chatting with the neighbours downstairs. He’d hug his grandmother and rush up to the fourth floor to their one bedroom apartment. His mom and gran shared the bedroom and he slept on the pull-out couch which was fine by him so he felt like the man of the house watching the front door…just in case.
His mother was sitting at the kitchen table with her first cup of black coffee of the day and smoke was curling from her cigarette up to the ceiling. He loved her long auburn locks that fell down the middle of her back. He kissed her on both cheeks and munched on his after school snack, chatting with her about his day. She always seemed so interested in every word he said…smiling with her heart-shaped lips.
a mother’s love
stencils her son’s face,
ink of her heart
Someday, he hoped to graduate and get a good job to take care of his family, so his mom wouldn’t have to work at that factory all night long.
a mother’s love
shielding like a lioness
genuine and strong
© Tournesol’16/02/08
Written for: Carpe Diem Special #196 Hamish Gunn’s 2nd “on the street corner”
I witnessed an act of kindness and an act of consciousness today. My heart fills with such joy and love it is bursting at the seams and the only way to establish some equilibrium to continue my shift at work, I am writing this narrative. This will be my offering to Karuna’s challenge on Love.
Today I was waiting for the bus and it was bitter cold with the winds felt like minus 20; I held my hood under my chin squinting now and then to see if the bus was turning the corner soon. A young man was walking towards me and stooped to pick a plastic bottle on the road in front of me. He went on his way with two items in his left hand. I looked at him in awe! If we all did this regularly, wouldn’t our world be cleaner? brighter? prettier? What an environmentally conscious person this was!!
Later I received a phone call from a young man who wanted advice on how to help a homeless teen he had met on the street. It certainly is NOT a day to be panhandling on the street for anyone today. He was concerned for this young person and wanted to know if there were shelters I could recommend. I suggested he try Covenant House since youths can stay up to three months and counsellors on staff might be able to help this youth settle into housing and get support. I also recommended our phone service since our phone lines were free and anonymous. Any information shared with us would never be reported since we do not have call display on our phones and we cannot trace calls either. All a youth has to do is dial from any public pay phone and it’s free and open 24/7.
I could not help but thank this caller for being so compassionate and generous he was for helping this youth and offering to bring him to get a hot meal. He said, it was just part of his training in advocating for youths. But I disagreed because this innate, it is not learned…compassion was part of who he was.
I am filled with so much love seeing people around me who are so giving and conscious on how we are all interconnected.
compassion
thrives like an epidemic
love has no borders
© Tournesol’16/02/08
Written for Challenge for Growth Prompt #5: I am Love
Bitter cold greets her as steps out to catch her bus. Branches lay on the lawn that had snapped off the tree by the patio. It was as if Mother Nature was no longer weeping but in a state of rage.
biting wind
swirls into a raised fist
grieves in fury
© Tournesol ’16/2/8
Daily Moments – Feb 8 2016
She struggles to be on time at work but for dinners, parties, outings, she is usually late. She prefers to say, fashionably late. Being a night person and working late shifts, means late morning rise, working into the night.
nightly reflections
slow-dancing with her muse
kissing dawn goodnight
(c) Tournesol ’16-2-8
Elle savait que sa mère, Colombe, qui aimait tous les enfants de tous âges, accueillera ce nouvel ange. Cela la consolait sachant que peut-être qu’elle sera là parmi sa famille qui ont déjà traversés au delà…
délaçant ses ailles
accueillant ce nouvel ange
cette colombe
*****************
She knew her mother, Colombe, who loved children of all ages would be one of many to welcome this new angel. It comforted her knowing that perhaps, she really was there among his family who have already crossed over…
unlacing her wings
welcoming this new angel
this white dove
© Tournesol’16/02/06
Daily Moments Feb 6/16 – Une Colombe
Carpe Diem Special #195 Hamish Managua Gunn’s first “full snow moon”
This month one of my favourite haiku poets and writers is our February winner of winter Kukai. He writes from the heart and from his travels and experiences, so much in touch with nature and life.
He says: “I am a hermit here in Lappland, a tinker by origin from the Orkney Isles, with simple messages: a view from a peak must be earned by a climb, a night in the desert gives the best sleep, and stories are found deep in forests.
For me, hospitality is sacrosanct – high up on a mountainside when the winds gather, or in the desert when the mirage is no longer real, and especially just after dawn among pine needles, sheltered by mighty branches.
And those who shared their bread with me shared more. What I share in writing is always a tale from one of the four corners of the world, a street corner, souk, ship or café; somewhere I went to in purchase of pure copper for my small copper shoppe. Then the scenes come with me on walks in my forest far in Lappland; there the story forms among trees in storms and soft breeze.
But I travel because I write: if you want to climb a mountain, you must start at the top”.
I have learned much in his writing and his helpful and intuitive comments on my own poetry. Here are two haiku written by Hamish, that have inspired me to write a haiku and a haibun.
one snowflake and I
share the end of autumn
in silence
© Hamish
snowflake on my nose
evokes a childhood Noël
silent teardrop
© Tournesol ‘16/02/03
full snow moon
stirs the ladybug
on cold bare branches
© Hamish
The heart of winter where days are slowly getting longer but still, darkness fills her heart. Shuffling home at twilight, she feels the weight on fragile bones.
hungry moon
walking alone on empty
silence
© Tournesol’16/2/03
His cherubic face looks up to her face, following the familiar sound of her voice; her first born placed on her belly … those first moments he entered her world, sniffing, searching like a pup.
melodiously
wriggles towards her breast
suckling sweetness
© Tournesol ’16/02/03
Walking under clear blue skies put her in such a mood…spring added to her steps, speeding up the journey.
melting snow
arms tangled in golden glow
welcome chirping birds
© Tournesol ’16/02/02
Daily Moments – Feb 2/16
Tournesol dans un Jardin 