thanking her (senryu) Daily Moments March 8 2017

Tossing and turning her thoughts kept her up.  She finally gave in and started writing her thoughts.  Today was International Women’s Day and although she often jokes that it is the world getting prepared to wish her Happy Birthday the following day, it means a lot to her.  She thought of her mother, her grandmother, her teachers and amazing women who taught her so much.  And started writing this…

SHE taught me so much and more…

SHE taught me so much!
she taught me that crying for help
someone would be there always
she taught me touching and hugging
makes it [almost] all go away

she taught me a smile
will get me so much more
and a polite thank you too

she taught me fashion
from head to toe, and that
beauty at any age
must never be rationed

she taught me to read and write
and with so much patience
to read the words ever slowly
that told so many stories

she encouraged me to tell
the stories of those who could not speak
to trust in my pen
and write forgotten tales

she taught me to laugh out loud
flaunt my senseless essence
but also to know when to be quiet
when conflict was present

she taught me to believe
in myself and that would take me far
she taught me love can be beautiful
if only I loved myself more by far

she taught me the gift of giving
and how it returned with so much more
she taught me that killing one with kindness
was better than fighting any day

she taught me to see those who suffer
but not with my eyes
to hear with my heart
and care with my soul

she taught me to be strong
because women
have always carried burdens
for eons of time

she taught me the shadow
at times is a safer place to lead
to model what most speak
is learned so much more

she taught me never to give up
to learn each and every day
was like prevention
chasing the demons away

she taught me chubby or skinny
are women’s distinct beauty
in all different shapes

she taught me to pray
and believe
and never lose hope
if ever I went astray
the Great Spirit was there

she taught me diligence
and hard work
the fuel in meeting my goals
that the journey takes paths
different for each and everyone

she taught me the darkness
was a sign to stop and rest
to lick my old wounds
and heal in good time
the sun would appear
when my scars would form

each and every one
who have touched me
along the way have taught me!
that I am woman, and yes,
I am different than man
and so very much more
and proud to be woman!

not a day goes by
looking up at the sky – without
thanking her

©Tournesol’17/03/08

Daily Moments March 8  2017 – Thanking her

 

Behind shallow masks(troibun) daily moments Mar.8/17

I am almost finished reading George Orwell’s 1984. Yes, it takes me a long time because I find it depressing and so I jump to The Essential Rumi now and then and Love Poems by Rumi.

I have also been watching old war movies where masses revolt in the name of solidarity and fairness. This makes me think of my encounters with workplace disputes in the past 30 years…yes, a little more than 30 but let’s leave it at that out of vanity. [snickers]

behind their masks
pretense of brotherhood
hidden agendas

behind their masks
screaming justice for all
texture of envy

pretense of brotherhood
renouncing authority
all for one, one for all

hidden agendas
lusting for power
polarity rules

Are there ever winners in workplace disputes? What does management seek? What does staff want? Are there a few isolated incidents or has it become an unhealthy workplace environment? There are never any easy answers. Each side holds his cards closely to the chest and the games ensue.

I don’t think things have changed that much since the ‘70’s. Well, yes, for women they have…indeed they certainly have even if there is still room to improve but that is life is it not?

Is it not our goal to always push ourselves to be the best person that we are? Is it not a desire to personally reach some form of clarity, enlightenment…nirvana? Well, okay, that is a bit much but older readers will certainly be bobbing their heads and agree that that is really all one can do…the best that you can. Ultimately, ask yourself, really, are you doing the best that you feel you really can? If someone would offer you a 40% increase in salary to do better, what would you change? That answer will say a lot…

©Tournesol’17/03/08 Continue reading “Behind shallow masks(troibun) daily moments Mar.8/17”

nature’s pulse (haibun)

This morning I read this prompt hoping to have inspiration for the entire day. My intention was to write something later in the week after my work shift late in the night.  But, the words of our host, Chèvrefeuille already teased my muse that I had to write something before I left for work.

We are inspired by a beautiful poem by Rumi:

We are as the flute, and the music in us is from thee;
we are as the mountain and the echo in us is from thee.
We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat:
our victory and defeat is from thee, O thou whose qualities are comely!
Who are we, O Thou soul of our souls,
that we should remain in being beside thee?
We and our existences are really non-existence;
thou art the absolute Being which manifests the perishable.
We all are lions, but lions on a banner:
because of the wind they are rushing onward from moment to moment.
Their onward rush is visible, and the wind is unseen:
may that which is unseen not fail from us!
Our wind whereby we are moved and our being are of thy gift;
our whole existence is from thy bringing into being.
© Rumi

Our host says:

[“What has this to do with the poem for today? Well … what can I say? In the peom of today Rumi is speaking about “existence” and with that came my “revalation” to tell you a little bit about existentialism, because that was the first thing I thought about. Maybe that’s just a coincedence, because I am reading Nietzsche’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra” at the moment, one of Nietzsche’s most famous works. And existence triggered me to look at existentialism …¸”

our host has written  a beautiful haiku in response to this theme:

a game of chess
played in the shadow of lion banners –
the wind unseen

© Chèvrefeuille

This reminded me when I chant in the spring, summer and autumn, I seem to see the trees, flowers and grass responding to my words as I walk.  Here is my contribution to this post:


©Clr’17 le Richelieu

nature’s pulse (haibun)

Being a water sign she has always felt closely related to the water. As a teenager, she remembers writing an essay about swimming on Lake Champlain where she spent many summers in Vermont. But this time, she did not swim across to the point of the island to rest on the floating pier. This time, she just swam until she could no longer keep her head above water and her favourite mode of swimming was under water. In her essay, she writes how she gets close to the fish, the rocks the discarded bottle at the bottom of the lake. The fish swim past her but some swim along her and she becomes one with the water. 

 

The naïve part of the essay was that she let herself drown. She was too young to realize that she didn’t have to drown to be part of the water and nature. She knows now when she is sailing on a catamaran, she is part of the wind with her jib, with the hull, part of the swell of the water.

 

Just as when she swam underwater, she is part of more than the water, even when she is sitting on a rock by the riverside she is part of the trees and the sun that dries her cheeks…

 

by the riverside
water splashes on her feet
minnows delight

rumble of rapids
gulls’ screaming – emotions freed
to her heartbeat
cascading with intention
spilling over dams

©Tournesol’17/03/07

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai 

Daily moments – reflections of nature’s pulse, March 7 2017

cold winds (troiku)

(Troiku)

March winds
despite sunny skies
turn bones to ice

March winds
fast and furious
hat flies off his head

despite sunny skies
with a vengeance
winter hangs on

turn bones to ice
by a pot belly stove
hot cuppa thaws

© Tournesol’17/03/06

Daily Moments – March 6 2017 – cold winds TROIKU

Haiku Horizons “cold”

A troiku is a new form of haiku created by Chèvrefeuille at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

Writing process (daily moments March 5/17)

Plus que ça change,
plus
c’est pareille. 

Far from original and lacking imagination, she crosses off the lines and taps her pen rhythmically staring out her patio window. It was as if the bare branches of the elm tree could give her a sign or perhaps it was the buzz of the traffic that was humming her verses. Tap tap tap, she stared and yet she did not see anything outside that window. She was in her own world, the pen stopped tilting, her breathing slowed and who knows where she was. Perhaps she was in the land of Calliope and Thalia filling her mind with farfetched narratives she could later interpret with her own voice.

A car honks; her pen drops from the loud intrusion and brings her back from her brief reverie. Her mind goes back to a place she so enjoys. Feelings of boredom and helplessness feed her.. She sighs and notices her cat has awakened by her sudden movement. She stretches her paws touching her mistress’ pen. Watching it roll off the table both the cat and she just stare a moment, both too comfortable in their relaxed positions.

She chuckles at the silliness of this moment and strokes the soft, long fur of her friend; leaning to pick up her pen, she meets a flash…a fleeting thought that guides her pen back to her notebook.

“The old woman hugged her thin wool coat around her and stopped at the red light. She looked to her right and saw a little girl with blonde curly locks framing her chubby face. The little girl looked at her and smiled. Her sparkling blue eyes smiled even more. The woman was surprised since most people gave her dirty looks or pitying glances. This little girl did not seem to see her the way adults did.

The light turned green and people stepped off the sidewalk to cross and the little girl jumps onto the street squealing with delight, “We are going to see Nana! Hurry, Mummy!” She pulls on her mother’s hand with purpose.

People brush by the old woman with privileged impatience; she cannot seem to find the energy to move her legs. She stares at the little girl and her words linger bringing her back to a place she has not visited in a long time

one single tear
giggles and bubblegum
drop on her cheek”

(c) Tournesol’17-03-05

Daily Moments – Writing process – Haibun  March 5, 2017

disguised teacher (tanka)

https://cupertinopoetlaureate.org/2015/03/24/side-by-side-transltions-of-rumi/
Cupertinopetlaureate 

Written for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness
Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence. Existence:
This place made from our love for that emptiness!
Yet somehow comes emptiness,
this existence goes.
Praise to that happening, over and over!
For years I pulled my own existence out of emptiness.
Then one swoop, one swing of the arm,
that work is over.
Free of who I was, free of presence, free of dangerous fear, hope,
free of mountainous wanting.
The here-and-now mountain is a tiny piece of a piece of straw
blown off into emptiness.
These words I’m saying so much begin to lose meaning:
Existence, emptiness, mountain, straw:
Words and what they try to say swept
out the window, down the slant of the roof.

© Rumi

piece of straw
blown off into emptiness
a new beginning

© Chèvrefeuille

an ant turns
on an apple core
into my teacher

©Tournesol’17

 

Blushing (senryū)

Innocently
lips touched tenderly
she blushed

(c) Tournesol’17

Paul Militaru, photographer of this lovely rose. Visit his blog at PhotoPaulm

Daily Moments Feb 27/17 – Monsters in her closet – haibun

Having had a frightful night last night,  filled with terror in her dreams, tonight she decided she would add an insurance.  She told herself, “Well, since Mother is not here to shoo away the monsters out of my closet, I have no choice, now do I?”  And she brought her down filled duvet and set it on her comfy couch. “No way will those evil spirits roam in the living room!”

shadows
hovering
preying
searching for shelter
in her dreams

(C) Tournesol’17/02/27
Daily Moments – monsters in her closet – haibun

 

Blossoms on the bay (troiku)

doubt it not:
the blossoms of the tide also show
spring upon this bay

© Basho (Tr. Barnhill)

Oh the giddiness!
ruffles and crinolines
frilly waves

Oh the giddiness
rolling over laughing
foaming at the mouth

Ruffles and crinolines
rising and falling like –
can can dancers

Frilly waves
memories of yesteryear
our innocence

(c) Tournesol ’17/02/27

Written for: http://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.ca/2017/02/carpe-diem-1162-ueno-iga-province.html

 

Daily moments – tower of Babel – haiku – Feb 26 2017

 

How would the world be different if we all spoke the same language?  Would we listen to each other?  Is language really an issue?  Or is the apathy of too many people in the Western world that is perpetuated by the illusion of being too far removed geographically?  We don’t even understand each other on this side of the globe?  Heck, in North America we are strangers to each other if we have not traveled a little and even travelling only gives you a hint of what is going on in different states or provinces in North America.

Visiting Toronto, New York City or San Francisco for instance, is not the same as living there.  People give their perception on life in these mega cities.  Some even argue with me about what life is like in Toronto. [I am chuckling at that because I lived there for thirteen years. Heck!  What do I know, right?]  That said, even while living in Ontario, I was surprised to hear what people “thought” they knew about Québec.

I wonder what children are learning in history classes across the country.  My manager told me the other day that a friend of his in Nova Scotia said, John Cabot discovered Canada…really?  Um, I thought he discovered Newfoundland and Samuel Champlain discovered Québec.     I always learned in history that Canada was discovered by  Jacques Cartier, and he gave it the Huron-Iroquois name, “kanata” which means settlement.

I think this blogger explains misinformation so much better than me:

“Politics is bigger than us all, we can do nothing about it, it is a filthy game of interests and calculations. But life is ours, stories are ours, it is within our reach to empower others, it is within our reach to inform others about a reality of a whole country torn by war but still doing the impossible to celebrate life. It is within our reach to bridge the gaps between each other and get over political, social, religious and ethnic differences just for the sake of the one and only, for the sake of Syria.

People form their opinions and absorbs stereotypes based on what they receive on media; we have no right to complain about how that media works unless we offer an alternative.” Source: http://jamilaeyes.com/

So I suppose I have answered my question about language not being the real issue.  The news reported by mainstream media in US and Canada is too often questionable. [I am only mentioning North American because this is where I live.]  Yet, in this age of technology, there is no reason not to be curious enough and see what is being said in other parts of the world by people who are living and breathing their own realities and not just take for granted that we, foreigners, reporting in other countries may not have all the information. Sometimes we just don’t ask the right questions or is it that we choose which questions to ask to get answers we want to believe?”

nature’s jest
clear waters always flow
in babbling brooks

©Tournesol’17/02/26

Even after reading a few articles on the same subject to see if I can sift through what is truth and what is not, I still know little.  But, I refuse to believe mainstream media at face value anymore…just tired of it.  Thankfully,  blogging has gotten me closer to the other side of the globe and we also share the love of poetry and storytelling.

How I choose to learn more now is by listening to people telling their stories in their own words.

Daily moments – tower of Babel – haiku – Feb 26 2017

This was written for Linda G. Hill on her Friday reminder for SoCS.