Poetry ~ Waka
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
© Tournesol
Originally posted by Cheryl-Lynn at Tournesol dans un jardin
(c) Tournesol
Originally Posted by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts ’14/08/17 at Tournesol dans un jardin
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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(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”
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.
(c) Tournesol
Submitted for Tackle it Tuesday “Regularity”
Posted by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts, `14/08/17
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
© Tournesol
Posted by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts, 2014/08/16
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)
© Tournesol
Posted by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts, 2014/08/16
(haiku)
hot muggy day
spider finds a cool safe place
took a bubble bath
August sailing
gusty winds tense the jib
crow kissed a windshield
fly fidgets
buzzes around his arm.
SWAT!
spider spins
all night long diligently
Eureka!
children’s park
swings, teeter totters, slides
barbarian invasion
children giggling
bright coloured kites catch the sun
string floats silently
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| © Tournesol ’14 |
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| © Tournesol ’14 |
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| © Tournesol ’14 |
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| © Tournesol ’14 |
(free verse)
If I were an insect,
who knows how my life would end?
If I were a bird,
who knows how the wind would blow?
If I were a child living in the wrong part of the world,
who knows when my life would end?
Life is a gift for some,
a puzzle for so many,
an affliction for too many…
What life lends
may be a mystery
black and white blends
interesting and dreary
I can always count
on rivers to flow
on the sun to glow
sunsets sublime
and the moon to shine
originally published @ Tournesol dans un Jardin
© Tournesol 2014/08/12
Photo credits: Julie-de-Waroquier@DeviantArt
Better late then never, I say with this interesting photo prompt. Photo challenge #20 Time Goes by like a train, at Mind Love Misery’s Menagerie awakened my memories of living by the train tracks near my grandmother’s home. I used to run across as the gate was just coming down, bells ringing and the man in the tower shouting at me to stop but a few times, I still took a chance. How lucky I was not to end up like this though I just wrote…
railway crossing
yesteryear’s tragic loss
her ghost still walks
© Tournesol
But this prompt’s title also inspires thoughts about time and we have had several haiku prompts from a few different blogs on “time” in the past weeks. This is what the photo with the title inspired…
summer days crawl
forlorn, waits for her lover
but time has stopped
© Tournesol
Thank you, Yves, for this interesting photo challenge! I am slowly transferring all my short form poetry under the nom de plume, Tournesol @ Tournesol dans un jardin.
© Clr 14/08/11
Tournesol dans un Jardin 
