Category: Tournesol dans un jardin

le blues m’enveloppent (haibun)

Bistro à JoJo - Montréal
Bistro à JoJo – Montréal

The first time I heard the honey toned voices singing along with an acoustic guitar, I was a block away sitting in a small Jazz lounge called Le Jazzons.  Very low key place it was where I sat next to Victor Vogel as he jammed with other musicians after hours during the Montreal Jazz Festival.  As I walked out the bar I heard the music coming from rue St Denis and saw a crowd at the front of a bar I was about to soon visit and fall prey to its charm.

The closer I got, I could hear why there was a crowd where they were singing along, most swaying and moving their hips to the music inside.

Blues is the type of music that I personally feel has no discrimination.   I suppose Jazz is the same but in Montreal, I noticed more people of all walks of life packing into this small Bistro à JoJo on rue St Denis every night of the week. Oh, you can sit in afternoons too to listen to open jamming but after ten in the evening the place is hopping.  It holds less than 100 patrons, so it is not rare to see people on the sidewalk listening to the music.   This was a place I heard so many French and English people singing and talking together savouring the blues here.

posée au comptoir
sirotant une Maudite
le Blues m’apaisent

https://i0.wp.com/www.fine-digital-art.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/City-Landscape-Impressionism.jpg
Digital Art – Landscape Impressionism

Manhattan reminds me a bit of Montreal (on a much smaller scale) in that it is an island, drivers are aggressive and honk their horns a lot and it is a city of music and food. Well to me anyway. Driving off the island to get on any bridge is similar to Montreal when there are twelve lanes that merge onto three lanes and they do it day in, day out as we do here too.  So on a much smaller scale I do see similarities…I think NY has a better nightlife in all areas and that is where we differ here. We have a slower pace lifestyle and unlike our Canadian  mega city, Toronto who follows more NY style rush rush rush…we have kept a bit of our ancestor’s mode de vie, vivre et laisser vivre.

weekend gig
island of many lights
stringing the blues
serenade on the Hudson
under midnight blue skies

© Tournesol ’15

CP Time Machine

* La Maudite is one of many beers brewed in Chambly, Québec by UniBroue. Chambly is the town where my children were raised. La Maudite is a stronger beer at 8% alcohol and Unibroue has other beers up to 10% however my favourite is La Blanche de Chambly at 5%; it is a wheaty beer tasting more like a Belgian beer.

Étude de lys (haiga)

Water lilies by Claude Monet
Water lilies by Claude Monet

mise en scène
lys sur l’étang
cigale gazouille

***

staging
lilies on the pond
cicada chirps

(c) Tournesol ’15

CPHK

 

Love is in the air (haibun)

© Kylli Sparrek

This was the second drought in three years and Father said he may have to sell the farm. Mother was up in arms since it was her father’s father’s father’s farm when they immigrated from Ireland. The winters here in Canada were cold particularly in St Jacobs and the summers were scorcher. Unlike the cooler summers in Ballybunion. Father would argue with Mother, “But Luv, we have to be reasonable! Your forefathers were wise enough to save their life savings and leave their land before the famine sucked them dry. Now we may just have to make a sage decision as well. Maybe it`s time to just settle with some cattle. There is always money in beef.” Mother was silent but her body clearly stated how upset she was with Father.

Ellie was not waiting any longer for Father`s decisions. She was leaving at the end of summer which wold give her ample time to help her parents move. They knew she had a “pen pal” from Toronto and although they had let her take the bus for a visit a few times, they had no idea of Ellie’s plans to leave St Jacob’s.

Lindsay was actually more than a casual friend; Ellie had fallen in love…fallen hard. She was eighteen, fresh out of high school and ready to explore the world. Lindsay had already signed a lease for an apartment for the two of them and they would both go to George Brown College to study Hospitality and Culinary Arts. She loved baking and Lindsay`s strength was in cooking. They had it all planned. They would work in posh restaurants for five years, save their money and open a B & B north of Toronto in the country. More and more city people were paying an arm and a leg for a weekend getaway outside the city along with fine dining.

She would wait until a week before moving to announce her plans, and avoid any scene she may see from Mother especially; she was pretty sure Father would also be “disappointed with his little princess.” She looked up at the sky and it was almost like a warning of the storm she was moving into. Once her mother and father realized Lindsay was a girl, Ellie was prepared for the worst …a cyclone for sure.

young love
seedling of promise
cicada sing

© Tournesol ’15

 Love is in Da Blog – Topic LOVE – Week 1

Mind Love Misery’s Menagerie – Photo Prompt

Kaleidoscope

This is too stunning NOT to share!! the photographs are exquisite art and the colours with the quotes below will move you.

Wonder (haiku)

Sparrows gather
beneath the elm, morning chant
cat sits in wait
~
whistling wind
grassland due south
scarecrow lost his hat
~
crystal gems
wintry garnished scenery
I slipped and fell

© Tournesol ’15

Carpe Diem

wandering at twilight (Troiku)

bare branches

Wandering alone

dark quagmires freeze

lost in time

wandering alone

deep in thought

I get lost

 ~

dark quagmires freeze

scattered trees look like ghosts

with skinny arms

 ~

lost in time

bumped into ghosts of bygone

tears freeze on my cheek

© Tournesol ’15

Frozen in time (haiga)

© Clr ’15
© Clr ’15
© Clr ’16

grassland
defies winter’s bitter frost
frozen in time

~

ice cannot bar
golden hues of straw
implies its strength

© Tournesol ’15

First snow of this year (haibun)

cropped-header-for-tournesol3.jpg

Finally a snowstorm! That may sound a bit silly but the past two weeks without any snow during the holidays was truly not fun nor was it pretty. It was a dark and dreary for the holidays. I missed the wet snow flakes falling on my face when walking outside Christmas Eve; I missed the snow banks that looked like the wall of a fort protecting me when I walk on the sidewalk. The days are still short although slowly lengthening and the snow is necessary to give light in our wintry world…my world!

Today is Sunday and it has snowed nonstop for the past 36 hours and it’s my first day back at work. I actually look forward to walking to the bus stop and hearing the crunch crunch underfoot.  And tonight will be even nicer as I walk late in the evening in the middle of the road as I know the sidewalks in the city will not be cleared…it’s only Sunday, the city knows they have until Monday morning to get things cleared up on major arteries including sidewalks.

calm after the storm
footsteps echo on fresh snow,
winter wonderland

© Tournesol ’15

Haibun Thinking

last year (haibun)

http://www.freewebheaders.com/wordpress/wp-
http://www.freewebheaders.com/wordpress/wp-

It’s been a challenging year personally and professionally. I can’t hide behind a cloud and pretend the New Year changed that. However a new year offers opportunities to continue processing areas that need attention somewhat like housekeeping. I need to look at what I want to keep among all the dusty clutter before I can find balance in my life. That is the longest part.

Think about when you are clearing out a closet and all the things you find at the bottom way at the back. You take out a box for example, that is covered with dust; you open it and look at the contents. It brings you back many years to a moment in time. You feel the emotions good or bad; you may weep a little, you may get angry and even kick that box around…again the feelings resurface and another layer is removed. You may feel you are done with this and  trash the box or you may dust it off, put it back securely at the back of your closet for another year or so. There is no right or wrong way…but your own way.

There are good things I want to topple over to this year. New and old friends I have encountered near and far, the relationship I have with my children and grandchildren is my duvet for the cold months and stroke of soft silk in the warmer months;  my  poetry and  the past six or seven months training in Japanese poetry at Carpe Diem with our host and mentor/master Chévrefeuille, his followers who inspire me and the amazing WP community that inspire and support me.  And my amazing  colleagues who are the strength and foundation that serve youths across this country and allow me to love my work.

like a gambling debt
stays too close for comfort
last year’s loss
~
spilling over
like turkey leftovers
last year’s grief
~
a new year
good housekeeping
feng shui
~
last year’s haiku
shadow into the new year
time to excel
~
my heart beats
to the love my children,
flame of a candle

© Tournesol ’15

Carpe Diem Kozo

a blessing took root (Tan Renga – haibun)

(c) All about Birds
#0(c) All about Birds

 

A long time ago two teens pledged their undying love.  Coming into adulthood, they finally marry in hopes to plan a family. Year after year, still barren they prayed together by the old oak tree at the river. With prayer and faith, on their seventh  wedding anniversary their pleas were answered. Some said they had the luck of the number 7 but the woman knew all too well from where her blessing took root…down by the river bank at the old oak tree.

 

the old oak’s roots –
reach from past to future
recall last year (c) Björn Rudberg

at the old oak tree, she kneels
rubbing her belly in thanks

faint breeze
whispers through the leaves
swallows chirp

(c) Tournesol ‘15

****************************************

After the beautiful description our host gave us at Carpe Diem, I was inspired to write a bit more.  Our host describes the various symbols and meanings to the Oak tree:

“The Oak is one of the sacred Druidic three: ‘Oak, Ash & Thorn’.  In general, Oak is associated with spells for protection, strength, success and stability, healing, fertility, health, money, potency, and good luck. Oak has been considered sacred by just about every culture that has encountered the tree, but it was held in particular esteem by the Norse and Celts because of its size, longevity, and nutritious acorns. The oak is frequently associated with Gods of thunder and lightning such as Zeus, Thor, and the Lithuanian God Perkunas. This association may be due to the oak’s habit of being hit by lightening during storms. Specific oak trees have also been associated with the ‘Wild Hunt’, which is led by Herne in England and by Wodin in Germany. Oak galls, known as Serpent Eggs, were used in magical charms. Acorns gathered at night held the greatest fertility powers. The Druids and Priestesses listened to the rustling oak leaves and the wrens in the trees for divinatory messages. Burning oak leaves purifies the atmosphere. In general, oak can be used in spells for protection, strength, success and stability; the different varieties will lend their own special ‘flavor’ to the magic.”   Carpe Diem