Category: Haibun

Daily moments September 25, 2019 “missing Dom’ ” ~Troibun

 

You know how the smells of certain food, the images of certain things like flowers or sounds like a song all bring you back in time reminding you of that special someone?  Time stops for a moment to allow you to place yourself back with that person. That is what was happening today as she waited by the stove preparing her lunch. 

The eggs were simmering over roasted garlic and rice.  It would take a few minutes longer, she knew, but they would be “just right”, like that amazing omelette she had years ago in her friend’s kitchen in St Basil le Grand.  She remembers sitting at the counter and chatting with her as she would go back and forth leisurely but expertly, to the stove, preparing their brunch.

miss her smile
warm and genuine hugs
shimmering baby blues

miss her smile
sharing joys of music
blues and indie songs

warm and genuine hugs
former colleague that became her friend
on her first shift

shimmering baby blues
telling so many stories
spill with emotion

© Tournesol ‘19/09/25

Daily moments September 25, 2019  missing Dom’   Troibun

Godspeed Stéphanie!

rooftop sunset
(c) Clr’19 Rooftop sunset on de Gaspé, Mile End

Another person’s leaving and I can’t help but feel sad today, thinking back on that sparkle in her eyes when she first started. Watching the complicities and banters her night team had together was touching. Enjoying her photos of vacation spots exploring the world with her partner, was my way of living vicariously through a select few people I admire here.

And as if, those eyes could not take ‘shimmer’ to another level, blossoming into a beautiful woman and mother. For those who ‘get it’ when you look at your child and your heart wants to burst through your chest, there is so much love there, one could see this so clearly on her whole being as well.

Something changes dramatically when you have a child. Seeing her reminded me how those days when I returned to work with my first born. Work took second place and slowly I became to carve a new path for myself… a turning point that took a long time but brought me to my place, my passion, I still have today.

Over time, that sparkle dimmed in her eyes when she returned and I could see how she too was slowly weaving a new tapestry that would include her true self, her family and her passion. A place to breathe and feel valued and recognize the light around her again. And so, selfishly I am sad to see her go, I truly, get it.

This time it is not a new chapter but a new book. Remember how those first pages are gleaming and welcome a new story?  This is her new narrative etched with her passion and dedication to herself, her family and to those new souls who will benefit from her professionalism, her expertise, her savoir-faire and mostly her kindness.

summer waves goodbye
autumn announces change, yet…
vibrant and alive

Godspeed, Stéphanie!

© Tournesol ‘19/09/20

September 20 2019 Daily moments, Godspeed Stéphanie Haibun

ladies are wild Haibun Daily Moments Sept 11 2019

Image may contain: 2 people, people sitting

Some people have friends over for coffee or tea; others meet at a coffee shop or restaurant. But today, these lovely ladies met at a food court to play cards. How sweet is that? Once in a while another group of women would pop by their table to talk and laugh. She couldn’t understand because they were speaking something other than French or English but they sure were having a grand time!


kings, queens
party at their weekly haunt
jokers are wild

© Tournesol ‘19/09/11

they sure don’t give up (haibun)

Image may contain: plant, tree, grass, sky, outdoor and nature

It was a pleasant afternoon and the temperature was just perfect for a September walk. She felt the energy of the sun but the breeze of the season, walking through the thicket on her way to work.

mid September songs
shrill of perseverance
cicadas don’t give up

© Tournesol ‘19/09/12

September 12th daily moment

Nirvana (Daily moments) Haibun

Finally! She sits motionless to savour the moment exhaling slowly…relief, at last. The night was long waking up to hammers in her head. Finally by the end of the day, knockers slowly left, one by one.

She remembers reading that heroin users are often looking for that high…reaching nirvana. She read that there were many ways to reach this ultimate summit of pure bliss. She was a bit shocked when a monk listed orgasm on his list of “highs” but thinking about it now, that did make sense along with reaching spiritual enlightenment.

Demerol was another drug that brought some to nirvana after hours of labour in childbirth. Her grandmother was a midwife and many mothers would ask for a second “shot”…she smiles at the memory of her grandmother telling her birth stories.

It must be like this for people who use opiates for painkillers as well, she ponders. She always steered away from that because she knew how easily one gets addicted. Her doctor once prescribed a procedure that would relieve her of her neck pain for about one month. It was very costly but it was not the cost that turned her off. She lives with chronic pain day and night. For the past three decades it has married her by now. To separate the pain only briefly, might be a relief…even heaven but hell would surely await after the effects wore off. No, she thought, that would be worse. She preferred to endure the soft murmurs of her partner who drummed on joints and bones and off and on would invite his knockers for a poker game in her head and neck. But when that game ended, guests left one by one…the relief swaddled her…the other joints dulled in comparison to that last performance…a concert of sheer hell.

Right now, at this very moment, she is drunk with this relief she calls, her nirvana.

Steel drums echo

Beating to a steady rhythm

Repeating an angry verse

Robbing her of any comfort

In the name of pain

© Tournesol ‘19/09/06

miracles of nature (haibun) daily moments 9/5/19

As a young child, she kept hearing aunts and uncles saying, she had so and so’s hair, and so and so’s smile and what’s her name’s eyes. It puzzled and frustrated her so much. It made her feel as if every part of her was second hand. Who want’s a body and personality that’s a hand-me-down? So one day she got so fed up, she blurted out to her mother,”What part of me looks like me?!”

each design unique
even with one small detail
phenomenal snowflake

(c) Tournesol ’19/09/05

Inspired: Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken. OSCAR WILDE.

Just like Humpty Dumpty – daily moments Sept 4/19

Purchased a gate on line and could not put back together. My humpty dumpty purchase…they said, “No tools needed” when she ordered it. Yeah, right!

Counting all the parts
Screws, washers, thingamajigs
It still does not fit!

(c) Tournesol ’19/09/04

Labour Day (haibun) Sept 2/2019

Labour Day Haibun Sept 2 2019

Labour Day makes her reminisce. School around the corner, many hoping for a better year. Some are anxious to meet old friends and make new ones. Others wary and dread to walk alone in those busy halls filled with hundreds who ignore them. Taunting and bullying is sometimes better than feeling non-existent.

Teachers worry too. Will they have what they need to help their students? Will they get the support? Will they be able to keep their head above waters sometimes boiling with oppositioins? And then there are some who look forward to feed the hungry minds or help a student find their path and thirst for even more.

Parents running around, trying to find the extra dollars for this and that. Another pair of shoes, pants that are too short…growing children and teens, all their needs and then desires. Will they all be met?

Trying to balance work and family and school demands…such a busy time. Dreading for that first phone call, hoping for something new and positive.

Jody’s first day of kindergarten, Mommy walking home, a tear upon her cheek.

Daycares singing, shouting, playing…rooms of so many new playmates!

Empty shopping malls
Deserted streets
Workers’ day of rest

Even nature rests
Clouds that spill on tired lawns
Trees bow in thanks

Youths play distracted
Excited, anxious, worried
A new school year

A new school year
Anticipating bullies
Finding a new friend

First day of school
Etched with cool graffiti
Teens’ brand new notebook

Learning something new
Adapted to your unique style
Needs are met- at last!

© Tournesol ’19-09-02
Daily Moments – September 2 2019

simmering memories Haibun Daily Moments August 27 2019

© clr Grand-Maman 2014

After spending a relaxing day reading, she decided to prepare her dinner.  Looking in the fridge, she was  lacking inspiration.  Groceries were in need, she sighed, yet she wanted to wait since she had busted her budget already two weeks ago.  She found broccoli stems she had saved, a bag of baby carrots, left over small potatoes that would spoil soon and of course her trusty jar of minced garlic.  Looking up at her vegetable and fruit basket hanging next to the pantry, she took two onions.

She fried the garlic, then onions then filled the pot with water and the chopped vegetables added several heaping tablespoons of beef bouillon, adding spices here and there and let it come to a boil.  Of course she added Worcestershire sauce…it was one staple in her recipes along with a dash or two or three of curry.  She stirred, adding more spices but thought she might wait a while to allow the ingredients to savour the concoction she was making.  She preferred to call it ETF (Empty The Fridge) soup.  But in the past few months there was less and less to empty.  Her fridge was sparse and that was partly trying to follow her more humble budget and also she was tired of throwing away food if she had not got around to cook.  Living alone means not over buying and calculating just enough “in case” family drop by.  Although, her timing was never that great either in those instances.  She tried to keep some things she had cooked in the freezer since she usually cooked enough for at least eight persons.

She stirred the bubbling vegetable liquid and lowered the heat to simmer.  She realized she needed to add more water so she transferred the pot to a bigger pot and then she added lentils she had rinsed several times to the stock.  As she added a few more dashes of this and that, she could not help but think of her GrandMaman.  How she wished she would have been more interested in cooking as a young adult and spent more time cooking with her.  She saw her cook as a teenager but once she married and left home, she rarely watched her do her magic in the kitchen.  She was such an amazing cook too.  The only thing she got down almost perfect was her turkey dressing.  And that was just by tasting, adding this and that and tasting over and over until it tasted like Christmas a long long time ago growing up.

She stirred absent mindedly, rapt in her thoughts that  brought her back in time. Perhaps that was why cooking was so comforting for many people.

swirls of broth
waves in a tin pool
bubbling with stories

listening to her old stories
turn of the last century

washboards and lye soap
horses pulling bread and milk
times of yore

© Tournesol ‘19/08/27

this side of the glass Haibun Daily moments August 23 2019

Funny how insulated one becomes when confined indoors. Insulated rather than isolated because it feels safe. Only the hum of her air purifier and soft snores of her cat keep her company. Looking out the window, leaves flutter with life, birds communicate from tree to tree and yet here, it’s like a different world. It’s safe here and no expectations from anyone.

She was up most of the night coughing and once that was calmed temporarily, little hammers started doing their thing just to make her life less boring. She finally managed to sleep a few more hours in the morning and her hacking cough startled even her. Another week before any doctor would consider giving her medication or believe that her lungs were clogged. She could hear a rumble when she inhaled and a faint whistle from her chest when she exhaled. She wasn’t too worried but annoyed that it had been disturbing her sleep all week.
Fortunately, she had been on vacation this passed week, so rest was the main remedy and she took advantage of that.

a different world
moving outside her window
rushing here and there
I spy with my little eye
on this side of the glass

© Tournesol ’19-08-23