Check my latest post on my Blogspot, Fallen Leaf (haibun) at Tournesol dans un Jardin
A story and haiku both written in English and in French.
Fallen leaf (haibun)
Category: Haiku
False hope (shadorma/senryû)
Originally posted at Tournesol dans un Jardin at BlogSpot.
When I saw this photo taken by Georgia at Basket and Sekhmet’s Library, I had to smile. I had taken a phto of 2 pay phones in the Métro last Spring. The fact that these are near such a lovely green space stirred contradictions…beauty, ugliness, pleasure and pain and this is what my muse came up with for Bastet’s Shadorma Prompt at MindLoveMiserysMenagerie.
(shadorma)
Assaults lurk
In the dead of night
behind trees
far from phones
cyclists never heard her screams
would have dialed for help.
(senryû)
predators always
study their territory
and their prey.
(shadorma)
phones by parks
gives false illusions
of safety
late at night
listen up! one`s never safe
when monsters still breathe
© Tournesol ’14
Now to make this fun a little and give me more of a challenge, I am adding my photos of these phones in the Métro. Having looked at them, my muse seems fixated on sad affairs.
(shadorma)
unused phones
ever see someone
actually
Use a phone?
subways are sometimes seedy
all’s in the open
(senryû)
people make believe
blind to sordid actions
“I ain’t seen nothin’”
(shadorma)
Unless there`s
a Samaritan
does good deeds
calls for help
shouts out loud scaring monsters
back into their hole.
(tilus)
Wherever you go, bring
along a
friend.
© Tournesol ’14
Originally posted at Tournesol dans un Jardin, by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts
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
© MMT
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.
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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”
Life as you see it (senryû)
Life as you see it
may not be in my
line of vision.
don’t see eye to eye
differences of opinion
just a different lens
why must you argue
over and over and
over again?
wars have erupted
for far much more
and much less
what are you waiting forÉ
mediate for peace now
love, hate, greed
trigger some form of hell
we can all avoid.
© Clr – Tournesol `14/08/17
Early worm catches the fruit (haiga)
Anticipation
ripened fruit awaits, but
worm beat me
© Tournesol
Originally posted by Cheryl-Lynn at Tournesol dans un jardin
Mirror (haiga)
communicating
I can see me smiling
mirrored in their face
+
curse or G-d’s joke
reflection says I am so old
ignores inner child
(c) Tournesol
Originally Posted by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts ’14/08/17 at Tournesol dans un jardin
little creatures (haibun)
The prompt today is about small creatures. Our host presents us with Issa`s Giddy Grasshopper as our first inspiration:
giddy grasshopper
take care…do not leap and crush
these pearls of dewdrop
© Issa (source)
then Basho`s haiku here is another inspiration; I am quite partial to this one.
how pitiful!
underneath the helmet
a cricket chirping.
© Basho (Tr. Ueda)
The goal of this new feature is to write haiku about little creatures and more importantly to take notice of your surroundings.
Our host has written “Little Creatures” haiku:
deep silence
this lazy summer evening –
song of a cricket
© Chèvrefeuille
Young children seem so fascinated by nature`s tiny creatures. My son would look at ants working busily for hours…one tiny ant hill and he would cry inconsolably if someone stepped on that hill or any insect. I love how children teach us adults or many times remind us of what we once found important in life.
I remember as a young child spending hours in the field behind my house searching for grasshoppers. My mother was a hairdresser and she would put me outside to play which sure was better than going for a nap. Even in those days as a young child I hated going to bed.
I would jump, startled, if one jumped by me, then I would follow it, chasing it like a hunter. It would tease me regularly, keeping me busy most of the afternoon. Once I caught it, I would cup it in my two hands to make sure it would not get away and ask it to give me molasses. Okay, I had no clue at 4 and 5 years old what the darn thing did but either it was scared and it pooped out of fear or it had no problems of “irregularity” (see me chuckle here. Almost every summer afternoon, I would spend hours searching, under the hot sun accompanied by the piercing sound of crickets.
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–
afternoon quest
child stoops low in the field
grasshopper jumps
–
grasshopper jumps
she holds it gingerly
whispering
“give me some molasses
come on grasshopper friend.”
–
she giggles
grasshopper tickles her hand
ooops,it jumps away
–
rests under the elm
mother nature’s lullaby,
crickets chirrup
(c) Tournesol
Posted originally by Cheryl-Lynn at Tournesol dans un Jardin 2014/08/17
Submitted for Carpe Diem’s Little Creatures #1 Issa’s “giddy grasshopper”
river critters (Carpe Diem Tackle it Tuesday)
I used to love spending time at my GrandMaman’s house who lived by the river. I would spend mornings and afternoons on the dock, lying on my tummy watching the minnows swirling in circles and catfish jumping up now and then. I could never eat a catfish because they were like friends…pets to me. And the minnows would tickle my hand in the water and my ankles if I dared put my feet in the water. I say dare, because we were not allowed to venture in the water without an adult. I don’t ever remember disobeying that rule either. When I think of the freedom we had then that most children do not have today, I was pretty lucky to spend all that time alone with these little critters.
lying on the dock
absorbed by swirling minnows
catfish splashes
(c) Tournesol
Submitted for Tackle it Tuesday “Regularity”
Posted by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts, `14/08/17
Sun bows (haiga)
Carpe Diem Special #102, Jim Kacian’s 3rd “falling leaves”
falling leaves
the house comes
out of the wood
© Jim Kacian
Our host writes:flowers of ice
on the window melting in the sun –
“look dad! it snows!”
© Chèvrefeuille
sun bows
into the horizon,
hush! baby sleeps
© Tournesol
Posted by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts, 2014/08/16
Growing up (haibun)
From my Tournesol dans un jardin blog
Our host at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai has given us the Prompt “wings” and gave us a few quotes from Khalil Gibran in Sand and Foam. However, when I think of wings there are several meanings that come to mind. This morning I saw a haiku by MarkM Redfearn for this prompt. I did not know it was an offering to this prompt at the time, but his haiku inspired me to write something about children, war and wings at “Do not weep for me” But after reading several times our host’s prompt I am reminded of two situations.
I like how our host describes how amazing it would be to fly and visit the world, look down at our planet from above. That would be so cool! As children we believe that some humans can actually fly. My son certainly did believe in Superman when he was only two and a half. I was almost nine months pregnant with his little sister and I had gone into the house for a moment to check something on the stove. We lived in the country and my son had been playing in the sandbox when I had gone in. When I came out to join him in the backyard, my neighbor came rushing to me out of breath. My son had climbed the metal tower for the television antennae and was on the roof of my neighbour’s house. He was singing the intro song of the show “Superman”. I called up to him and told him to wait for mommy to join him, but my tummy was too big to manage the climb. Another neighbour’s teenager went up for me. My son believed he could fly…Dear Lord, I was so grateful he had not jumped!
it’s a bird
it’s a plane
it’s superman
So when we talk about flying, that story always comes to mind.
My mother and I are very very close. Growing up I always felt connected and even after I married (still young at 19) that bond was still very strong. In fact, I remember at 22, we had moved about a thirty minute drive from her and I experienced separation anxiety for a year. Well, not like a child, but I had developed pain in my shoulder for a long time and a rheumatologist had told me to figure out what had changed in my life in the past few months and that that was the root of my pain. I was quite insulted of his insinuation that it was psychosomatic but he was right. The pain went away on its own several months later.
Growing up as a teenager, I had never really rebelled or given my mother a difficult time like many teenagers naturally do. My parents had divorced when I was a teen and I felt even closer to my mother, wanting to protect her and take care of her. It was when my own marriage ended, 24 years later, I moved 6 hours away from home to start a new life and a new career. That was the first time I had actually cut the umbilical cord…really! Indeed, at 40 something, I was finally spreading my own wings and becoming an independent woman. I was definitely a late bloomer but better late than never, right? I could not help but choose a photo of a dove to represent my moving on with my life. In this case we are talking about separating from my mother, Colombe (which means dove)
Dove Flying in Sky
growing pains
sever symbiosis
spread your wings
© Tournesol
Submittted for: Carpe Diem#540, Wings
Posted by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts, 2014/08/16
