mind over matter (troibun)

Our host, Chèvrefeuille from Carpe Diem Haiku Kai shares a passage from The Pilgrimage for this prompt “Beyond Control”:

Beyond control … that’s the title of this episode …. And it refers to something I read in “The Pilgrimage”. During his journey, his pilgrimage, Paulo encounters several difficulties beyond control. One day he is attacked by a horrible dog and he remains with wounded hands. That same dog encounters him many times and one day he goes to a gypsy fortuneteller to ask her why this dog is so many times on his path. It turns out that this dog is his demon, his back-pack, he still has to carry. That dog will leave him alone only when he conquers his fears, his pride, his greed and more. CDHK: Beyond Control

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Life has been strained lately. Thank goodness, her passion for her work in serving is still alive and well. However, day to day life is tainted with should’s and should nots at so many levels; it feels like walking in a maze where only rats seem to know there way around. She tries not to bump into any toxic pillars in her daily life.

And so, she decides to imagine herself an innocent caterpillar on a tree branch trying to rest peacefully until a flock of crows decide to have a cawing party in her tree! It is getting fairly loud listening to them try to out caw each other. She is trying very hard to blend with the colours of the branch so she is not part of their party snacks. She is feeling a bit too exposed yet nowhere to go.

caterpillar halts
powerless and trapped
fear prevails

She then decides to fight the good fight and confront her fears. Her sword is laughter that turns later to beauty. She shares humorous scenarios with some friends and together their laughter breaks down the power of her fears. No longer feeling threatened, she retreats into her own world of beauty.

(troiku)

caterpillar crawls
dreaming of butterflies
suckling sweet nectar

caterpillar crawls
pausing with anticipation
metamorphosis

dreaming of butterflies
all living things imagine
patient blossoms

suckling sweet nectar
taking pleasure
a hummingbird too

©Tournesol’17/01/28

Daily Moments – thoughts and reflections on fear

A troiku is a new haiku form created by Chèvrefeuille from CDHK. To learn more, click here.

safe on the road (tanka)

savouring
sheltered in your arms
that afterglow
led by your light
my golden star

©Tournesol’17/01/28

CDHK Walking the Road and Hospitality

moment of grace (haibun)

the dreamer
never dreaming
to live a dream
leaving everyone else
behind in the future

long meadow
is too short to hold
the emptiness
of leaving a family
longing for their faces

high in the mountains
suspended over the valley
even spirits
smoothing the paths
toe to heel, toe to heel

ocean breezes
a coolness blowing inland
my message
meets hers mid-air
the tie that binds

Jane’s book “She Alone” describes a trip her daughter, Heidi, made into the Sierra Mountains. Between the stories Jane created tanka like the ones above.

Here is my haibun inspired by her masterpiece.

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They decided to go on a hike up Owl’s Head . She knew her daughter was not an athletic type. But one thing they both had in common, appreciating the clean air of the forest. It would just be a bit more tiresome to savour it on the mountain…was it all worth it, she wondered, hearing her daughter grumble?

panting up the slope
soft breeze whistles
through the trees
awestruck suddenly
a doe freezes on their trail

tender moment
between mother and daughter
holding their gaze
speaking
would have been redundant

lightheaded
presence of Abenaki spirit
circling at the peak
brush of white feathers
snowy owl flaps its wings

©Tournesol’17/01/27

CDHK

summertime (haibun)

Image result for trapeze sailing — Sailing Magazine

They felt like lovers again for twenty four hours. The children were at their Nanny’s and so they took advantage of the sunny day with that steady breeze from the South. Sailing in the morning was heaven. The breeze picked up in the afternoon, so they suited up with their trapeze harnesses for an afternoon of pure exciting bliss. They had smeared their bodies with sun block but she ran into a surprise that evening.

sailing rendezvous
babe swaddled in her harness
sun kissed face
painfully learns the hard way
her lips were on fire!

It was only then, she discovered Zinc clear sunscreen SPF 50 for lips was the wise choice for sailors and lifeguards. They still went to Old Montreal for a late night dinner, walking on the cobblestone streets and when the fire started to be unmanageable, he searched among pharmacies to give her relief.

cooling her lips
serves her ice chips all night long
warming her heart

Carpe Diem #1132 ‘The wrong answer will indicate the right one.’ (Petrus)

I was going to share Kiss of Fire by Louis Armstrong, but I discovered this singer last week and Summertime seems appropriate for this haibun. I hope you will enjoy Andrea Motis as much as I do

speechless (senryu)

Haiku Horizons prompt: flood

runs towards her
flooded with emotions
speechless

©Tournesol’17/01/23

creative process (haibun) The Pilgrimage “Intuition”

Years ago, she took painting classes as a prerequisite for art therapy. She’d never had an art class in school and was not sure what to expect. The teacher would put on music and ask the students to simply let the music move them. She was always surprised three hours later when she was asked to clean her brushes, the class had ended. Three hours passed like fifteen minutes. Using the creative side of your brain seems to stop time.

melodies of strings
transported to the heavens
guiding brush strokes

©Tournesol’17/01/23

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai – The Pilgrimage “Intuition”

meditation (troibun) on the road to Santiago

My best meditation, if you want to call it that, is when I am walking. I start by looking up at the blue sky and sun reflecting on the snow, adjust my sunglasses as the glare blinds my blue eyes and I walk. I start chanting my mantra 108 times and if my mind is still chattering, I chant another set. And then I am in a magical zone.

amma mom — (c) Clr ‘157Amma, Mom, GrandMaman

Amma smiles at me
departed spirits appear
reassuring me

Amma smiles at me
mind swims
in harmony

departed spirits appear
a message
removing my fears

reassuring me
feeling their presence
blessing my day

Troiku is a new haiku form created by Chèvrefeuile at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

CDHK – The Pilgrimage on the road to Santiago – Meditation

friendship (haibun)

Our host , Chèvrefeuille, writes a very moving post at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, about friendship before continuing on to the lesson in The Pilgrimage on acknowledging friends and support around us.
In times of sorrow or personal strife, I have found solace in my solitude, my writing and my readers. The latter have become friends from afar, who have read my words and “got it”, felt it and embraced it.
I love this passage we are referred to on friendship:

[…] ‘Once, a poet said that no man is an island. In order to fight the good fight, we need help. We need friends, and when the friends aren’t nearby, we have to turn solitude into our main weapon. We need the help of everything around us in order to take the necessary steps toward our goal. Everything has to be a personal manifestation of our will to win the good fight. If we don’t understand that, then we don’t recognize that we need everything and everybody, and we become arrogant warriors. And our arrogance will defeat us in the end, because we will be so sure of ourselves that we won’t see the pitfalls there on the field of battle.’ […](Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

How true! Amma, (Mata Amritanandamayi) says, “We are all beads strung together on the same thread of love”.

Image may contain: text — Amma’s Facebook page

As much as I love to help others, be supportive and it is part of my work as a counsellor as well, I find it difficult to ask for help. I am working on that. It is not arrogance but perhaps the attitude, “I can do it on my own” may be my giving into vanity which is really the same thing.

on pebbled roads
my walking stick breaks
a rest is due

watching travellers go by
humbly ask a stranger’s help

limping’s not so bad
free of a heavy knapsack
a comrade now carts

imagination (troibun) on the Road to Santiago

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai – Imagine – The road to Santiago

Walking along the narrow path through the mountains, we feel a soft breeze. Cautiously, looking over my shoulder from time to time, the journey seems much longer now that I know I must meet up with a huge challenge.

scanning high and low
even the clouds seem daunting
demons etched throughout

scanning high and low
sniffing the air around me
danger has a scent

even the clouds seem daunting
fear listens attentively
danger has a growl

demons etched throughout
imagination running wild
gets the best of me

CDHK – Imagination on the Road to Santiago

Troiku is a new haiku form created by Chèvrefeuille at CDHK

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