sleepless night (haiga)

sleepless night

mind in pandemonium

dawn breathes peace

Haiku Horizons

summer sounds (haiga)

cricket’s shrill
invades the night,
a toad burps

Carpe Diem “Little Creatures”

white mist (haiga)

© Clr , Yamaska River, Farnham, Quebec, June 2014

dam released
roaring river waters
white mist sprays

mourning a healer (haiga)

If my grandmother would have been born within the Aboriginal culture, for sure she would have been a wise elder and perhaps a Shaman. But she was a humble woman living by la rivière Yamaska; a village healer in many ways being a mid-wife, a go-to person if someone was sick from newborn to elderly. She had herbal remedies and others passed down to her from her mother and an old village doctor.

To this day, I still miss her when I am sick. For some reason her hand on my forehead and her homemade chicken broth comforted me. She spent hours and days with mothers in labour, sat by a dying person’s bed many late nights and even doctors called on her for help. Most people called called her Garde Daudelin OR GrandMaman.

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At Carpe Diem our host tells us about a Mongolian shaman named Batbayar. A beautiful story you can read more here of a Shaman and his apprentice. Our host wrote this in honour of the passing of this shaman.

..
whispering leaves
telling all wisdom of the steppes
cry of an eagle © Chèvrefeuille

To make this interesting for me, I searched where there were ealgles in Québec. In Northern and Eastern Québec there are many surprisingly, golden eagles. In the Gaspé Penninsula, residents are helping researchers with sightings as they are very proud of the eagle in their territory. (Gaspé is where Kerouac’s parents were from).

I have heard from aboriginal youths that the Northern Lights are their ancestors from the “other side”, spirits revealing they are well.

golden eagle cries
shaman’s loss mourned over
lac Natashquan

spirits announce
shaman’s safe entrance
aurora borealis

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai “Helpful”*

To read and hear more about the Golden Eagle in Québec click here.

kite on a branch (haiga)

Deviant Art Red Kite in a Tree -JBordons

red kite in flight,
snares on a tree branch
squirrel’s new friend

Carpe Diem

death and beyond (haiga)

Our Ghost Writer at Carpe Diem today is Gary Gay and our inspiration is October as the first full autumn month. I love that that photo chosen with vibrant colours is in Québec and near the Richelieu River where I raised my family.

Gary asks us to “Think outside the Box” when you use Halloween topics. It can be a good source of humour as well. Here is his example of thinking outside the box or misdirection.

My skeleton

going for a walk

in the cemetery © Gary Gay

The poem has a subject of death and yet Gary’s skeleton is still alive.

Here is my attempt in both languages in honour of that lovely autumn photo in Québec dans la Vallée du Richelieu

mains en prière
parlant à GrandPapa,
lui! sait m’écouter

hands clasped,
speaking to GrandPapa…
he! truly listens

Now for a the Halloween theme. Every Halloween I would dress up with my children so neighbours would NOT recognize me. Part of it was the fun of dressing up and walking around incognito and the other reason, I did not want neighbours to favour my children with extra treats. But I DID get treats as well…no one knew if I was man or women…they would talk to me in English to see if I was ME and I’d shrug my shoulders; they would try in French to see if I was the children’s father, and I would shrug again.

One year I dressed up as Count Dracula., with black dye in my short hair slicked back wearing a red lined long black cape. I had the pointy teeth and everything and traces of blood dripping from my lips in each side. As we arrived at the crescent there was a mom with very young children. One little girl looked up at me and started crying. I felt so bad but hugging her would surely have traumatized her more. I never wore scary outfits thereafter and dressed as a hobo the remaining years.

blood stained chin
black cloak blows in autumn wind,
little girl wails

Mother Earth’s quilt (haiga)

Our host has posted music to inspire us. I don’t know about you but fairies, leprechauns and angels keep fluttering in my mind’s eye. Perhaps it is the Irish in me for I do love Celtic music and this piece brings me close to my Irish roots on Ballybunion. I am not much of a fairy tale writer as you may have noticed in my other blog I wrote for the Lavender Lady at MLMM prompt. My children told me while they were growing up all the bedtime stories, I invented when tucking them in, were not subtle enough…all had a morale to the tale and they quickly figured it out. . Well, what do you want with a mom who is a counsellor and family life educator? But I do remember one tale of the rabbit with those long droopy ears and that extra tall giraffe who were bullied but I digress.

This music brought me to a whimsical place but not quite lost. My desk faces a patio window and I see the trees shedding more each day especially with the cold rain in the past three days. So listening to this beautiful piece of music I can’t help but see fairies working tirelessly adorning warm coverlets before the white duvet that is far from warm, but cold…very cold will cover our earch.

Here is the music our host has posted to inspire us:

Adrian von Ziegler – Sacred Earth

And here is his beautiful haiku:

Mother Earth blossoms
while I dream of unknown paths –
the scent of roses

My humble offering I wrote this morning but never had a chance to post because I forgot it on my laptop at home 😦

Autumn Fairies – Mental Mishap Deviant Art

cross-stitch fondly
gold and amber threads,
Mother Earth’s quilt

fairies darn briskly
trimming season’s quilt,
frost’s preamble

Sacred Earth – Carpe Diem

Pearly grey isn’t so bad (haibun)

Things rarely turn out as I imagine. This is sometimes best for what joy, discoveries and excitement would I find if my life was all mapped out. I’d be like a peg on a wall map. My need to control would actually make me a slave of my making. Do I get disappointed with the outcomes of life’s events? Of course I do many times. The heartaches, the disappointments and the self-degradation are part of life and in some ways who I am. I am a product of my past and life experiences. How I make of it, is still my choice. We always have choices…not always in abundance. I may have to choose for a pearly grey from a drab grey but still, I have a choice. And with the darkness of despair how else would I be blinded by the beauty of the glowing stars as well as golden sun? If I have doubts about love and being loved, I meet exuberance when I am embraced by those who do love me. It may come from someone I have not been waiting and then that makes it a double bonus cherished and forever imprinted on my heart.

I am a daydreamer by day and by night. Many times I cannot tell where a dream started or where a fantasy ended. And is that important? When life takes too long to show its glowing stars, I escape into stories I devour for days and days. And more recently, I dip into my consciousness and write what transpires from many escapades in delusions and fantasies, me, myself my muse and I.

skies weep,
autumn showers
paths shimmer

raindrops
on golden leaves
hold me hostage

tints compete
greys lose race,
autumn scoffs

mediocre mouse
corn field plays
bumblebee
dreaming on canvas
beauty penned at night

MindLoveMisery’sMenagerie Heeding Haiku with HA

Couples (Carpe Diem – Tan Renga Challenge #47 “How rare the sight”

This prompt is a tan renga challenge. Our host, Chèvrefeuille at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, has chosen a haiku written by Magical Mystical Teacher (MMT).

It was her response on this haiku by Basho:

how rare!
on leaving the mountain
the first eggplant

MMT’s response haiku was the following:

how rare the sight—
yellow blossoms brushing
the sky with light

now we are to write a tan renga two lines of 7 syllables to this haiku. Our host`s tan renga is here:

how rare the sight—
yellow blossoms brushing
the sky with light (MMT)
I always will love her
underneath the Laburnum (Chèvrefeuille)

I struggled with various responses because I had several images of “yellow blossoms” from my personal life. So I broke it down to two and here they are:

Across the street from the church at my hometown, there is a small garden by the river, with various flowers. I remember taking a picture in June of the lovely yellow lilies and wished I could come back later in the summer to catch the flora at its peak in blossoming. Well, I did not but here is snapshots from June.

how rare the sight—
yellow blossoms brushing
the sky with light (MMT)
Across the church, newly weds
yellow lilies cheer them on.
(c) Tournesol ’14

Of course there are also lovely daisies and sun roots in my friend’s garden in Bromont facing several mountains. This is where we went to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary last Sunday. A huge tent was pitched next to the Willow tree…what a lovely day celebrating such a lovely couple. To this day, I have never met a loving couple like these two people. You can feel the love they share. They still cuddle and always hold hands sitting close together.

how rare the sight—
yellow blossoms brushing
the sky with light (MMT)
Underneath the Willow tree
sun roots scan the mountains.
(c) Tournesol ’14

Originally posted at Tournesol dans un Jardin

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #47, MMT’s “how rare the sight”