spreading beauty
nature bows in honour
honeysuckles bloom
Thanking our host and mentor, Chèvrefeuille at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai for teaching and inspiring us to not only write haiku or other forms of Japanese poetry (waka) but to grow in the experience…as a good parent he nurtures and breathes harmony and enlightenment among the family.
a lone flower
yearns to rise in splendour
field of sunflowers
a lone flower
searching for the sun
at one with nature
yearns to rise in splendour
embroidering each petal
one thread at a time
field of sunflowers
seventeen syllables
forming corolla
She remembers metals taps on the soles of her shoes, click click clicking on the sidewalk pretending to be Gene Kelly. Do you remember buying bubble gum for a penny? Oh! and for nickel, you could get an ice cream cone or a loaf of bread! She remembers scratchy feeling crinolines and hula-hoop slips…the latter you could not sit unless you wanted everyone to see your undies. Thanks goodness mini skirts came out…no room for crinolines!
She remembers when she was ten running to the chip wagon with a quarter and getting a small order of French fries and a hot-dog. Those were the days her mother was too busy in the beauty parlour…she loved those days and preferred this meal to Swanson’s frozen dinners where meat tasted like cardboard.
She remembers watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show and falling in love with John; that’s when she bought his book of poems and fell in love with poetry.
Saved from theswinginsixties.tumblr.com
Do you remember Sonny and Cher. Those were the days the only fake thing Cher had were her eyelashes…how I found her so beautiful!! Did you know that her real name is Cherilyn? (Thought that might be an interesting tid-bit.) She remembers her first love lasting twenty-eight years; married the year the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour started.
Do you remember when milk was delivered to the house in bottles? She remembers the bread man delivering to the house in a horse drawn cart. How she felt sorry for that horse who looked so tired and old! She remembers watching the fireworks at St-Jean Baptiste on June 24th and eating her nickel cotton candy!
Then came mini-skirts and fast cars, sit-ins and love-ins. Teenage love and wedding bells…baby carriage and empty nests…and suddenly grandchild is soon entering high school!
The beautiful hokku presented by a very gifted poetess, Paloma, seems fun and free spirited. As I visualised these anthropomorphic tree creatures, my mind wandered to the scary trees of the Wizard of Oz and then my mind wandered into darker places. My mind imagined spirits long passed. I could not help but hear the cries of children’s spirits walking towards the residential school in Cutler, Ontario. My colleague was telling us about the stories and how the children`s park we were just passing on the way to the old condemned school, the cries of children were often heard in the night.
She told us how her great auntie and grandmother has been ripped away from their families over 1,000 miles North when they were five and six years old.
Well, that did it! I could no longer think of anything else but ghosts and spirits lurking in purgatory or some haunted forest. And so, I came up with this completion.
There’s a Summer Blog Party going on at Jaqueline’s Blog fromACookingPotandTwistedTales. This poem written by Jaqueline inspired me to write a cascade of Haiku. We are encouraged to Tag Poem her Summer Tale poem…
A little Summer tale… We wore Summer dresses
spun like flower coloured cotton
that sat on each stalk.
She thought about her speech she was chosen to give for her group. Her spiritual advisor had chosen her to give her confidence and believe in herself after working for months on her spiritual growth. She had scrunched up dozens of paper already, never satisfied with her words. She closed her eyes and repeated her mantra which usually helped to calm her mind and then like magic, her muse took over.
“I hope to convey my learnings these past months where I have searched deep inside of my soul and am pleased to have found my true self.
I exist because I am who I am I desire enlightenment at this stage of my life I hope to gain insights as I continue to search my soul I do believe there is a higher consciousness and trust my Higher Power will guide me I shall let go and let myself be in the hands of The Great Spirit, Whom I love and now, I am prepared to receive His love and blessings.
through muddied waters against forces of nature a lotus blossoms
