Check my latest post on my Blogspot, Fallen Leaf (haibun) at Tournesol dans un Jardin
A story and haiku both written in English and in French.
Fallen leaf (haibun)
Tag: CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI
Growing up (haibun)
From my Tournesol dans un jardin blog
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)
Dove Flying in Sky
growing pains
sever symbiosis
spread your wings
© Tournesol
Submittted for: Carpe Diem#540, Wings
Posted by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts, 2014/08/16
Today’s Haiku posted at Blogspot
Today’s haiku posted on my blogspot blog, Tournesol Dans un jardin are here.
just in time (haibun) CarpeDiem #532 Movement
Khalil Gibran wrote, “We measure time according to the movement of countless suns; and they measure time by little machines in their little pockets. Now tell me how could we ever meet at the same place at the same time?”
changing tides
my restlessness has gone
time is at my side
© Chèvrefeuille
How true! We seem to always be focused on time. How fast we can get this done and that completed. When I am writing, I don’t measure my time but I do see that a whole day sometimes has passed me by on my day off. So what? I enjoyed myself; I was able to create and be inspired by my muse. And all this is free and it is not even fattening! I have earned my time to just be and if writing is one of those moments of `being`, so be it!
Years ago, I used to be a personal support worker in homecare. My favourite days were bath days and individuals would humbly allow me to help them with their personal hygiene. I would take my time…up to an hour many times. I felt privileged to be welcomed in their homes like that. I am pretty sure that today, thirty years later, this “time” is considered a rare luxury…sadly so.
I stopped wearing a watch when I had the children and was a stay at home mom for five years. I didn’t need a clock or a watch. Babies and children can easily determine their needs without a clock and so that is how life was then.
internal clocks pulse
mother nurses, cleans, comforts
infant cries
© Tournesol ‘14/08/03
I remember when I first started working as a youth counsellor at our help line, I used to feel uneasy for talking a bit longer than some of my colleagues. Finally after three years, I had this amazing clinical supervisor who had watched me, observed my style and told me it was just the way I was. That was how I was able to engage with youths before they felt comfortable to disclose. When youth asks me if they are taking up too much time and feel they should let go, I tell them, “This call ends when you are finished sharing what you need to get off your chest, and we can find some options to help you through this.”
Sometimes we may be short-staffed due to illness and colleagues may worry seeing there are other callers waiting in the queue. I don’t look at that…I refuse to for I cannot be present with a youth if I my mind is wandering about caller number 2 or 3. I can ONLY take one call at a time and be with that person in a meaningful way.
just ended a call,
sun sets below the skyline
dinnertime.
© Tournesol ‘14/08/03
New Year’s Fun (haibun) (CarpeDiem #526 Issa (5), “New Year’s Writing”)
It is a Japanese custom to write with a writing brush on the second day of the year.
New Year’s Eve was always a special time for me as an older child. I used to babysit with my best friend her little brother at her house. We were allowed to stay up until way past midnight, drink cola and eat chips! Something I was never allowed at home unless there was a party. Her parents were having a New Year’s Eve “reveillons” with my parents at my home. About 30 seconds to midnight I would dial (in those days we had rotary phones!) and wait until midnight before letting go of the last digit of my home phone number, to be the FIRST to wish my mom and dad Happy New Year’s.
Another race New Year’s for our family was to be the first to ask our father (grandfather in my mother’s case) to be blessed for the new year. I always felt extra special if I got to my dad before my sister. At my grandparents, however, all seven children knelt in the living room as my grandfather blessed them all ONCE. {My grandmother, actually took over this role when my grandfather died even if she was a woman.}
If there was not too much snow, we often went out behind my grandparents’ home to ice skate on the river. Those were wonderful times when it was safe to do this as the winters were cold for many months, not like today where we get rain at Christmas.
I was saddened reading about Issa’s childrens’ passing so early in life. But I am pleased he wrote poems of laughter and joyous times in their memory.
kodomora ga kitsune no mane mo susuki kana
the children
pretend to be foxes…
pampas grass
© Kobayashi Issa
New Year’s Eve
children playing with the fresh fallen snow –
fireworks coloring the sky
© Chèvrefeuille
I will be writing in that youthful joyous vein.
Guy Lombardo
ringing in the New Year
got Mom first
Santa’s new skates
on the moonlit river
Dad blessed me first.
© Tournesol ’14/07/27
Submitted for: Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, #526, Issa,(5) “New Year’s Writing”
Day’s end (haiku) CPHK #525
Under the cedars
gathering of the crows
before sun bows.
before the sun bows
birds’ jamboree
then take flight.
© Tournesol ‘ 14/07/27
Submitted for: Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, Buson, #525 Glimpse of Dawn
Summer jog (haibun) CPHK # 523, Basho (5) “How Rare”
I rarely have the opportunity or privilege (I should really say) of dining with a colleague from work. Since we work on a 24 hour crisis line, our breaks are never together. Yesterday by chance, it was. I introduced my friend to my favourite vegan restaurant, The Green Panther. I have written about this place before and even taken photos with my notebook next to my plate of yummy falafel.
My friend was telling me about how she had gone out for a run the other day and came back with bites on her legs and it swelled tremendously within a short time. The next day when the swelling went down, she noticed 4 little stingers all in a row by a very hungry wasp.
After reading Chevrefeuille ‘s lovely introduction to Carpe Diem’s prompt today #523 Basho (5), ”How Rare!”, I thought of my friend’s running incident.
I also enjoyed the background of Kristjaan’s blog name. Honeysuckle was his seasonword chosen in his very first verse 25 years ago. Translated into French that would be Chevrefeuille and the rest is history.
That inspired me to choose a title for my Blogspot blog. I had originally chosen le jardin de Cher and then I thought about flowers that I love. Daisies are my favourite because they are also easy to purchase any time of year. But I have always loved sunflowers. I remember the giant sunflowers that grew next to our garden shed at our family home when my children were little. Golly!! They were ginormous! And so with jardin still as the theme of my “short form poetry” blog, I chose Tournesol dans un jardin…so Tournesol will be my nom de plume on that blog. Merci, Kristjaan, for the inspiration!
{Basho was host of a renga party at the home of Nagayama Shigeyuki, a military man of the Shonai Clan. This was the greeting verse and it was used as ‘hokku’ for the renga. He had visited Mount Hagura for seven days and was glad that he could finally eat fresh vegetables. It was published in his ‘Narrow Road to the Deep North’, his most well known haibun. © Chevrefeuille}mezurashi ya yama wo ide ha no natsu nasubi
how rare!
on leaving the mountain
the first eggplant
and Chevrefeuille’s offering:
the sweet perfume
of the Honeysuckle
makes me drowsy
Now for my humble haiku with the image of my friend in mind travelling running.
cool spray mist
dreamlike beachy feel
city park
~
smell of fresh-cut grass
running through parc la Fontaine
a wasp stings
© Chery-Lynn ’14/07/24 Submitted for: Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, # 523 Basho (5) “How Rare”
Moon Beams (haibun) CP #517 Shiki(3) “reeds tremble”
July 11th midnight we left Montreal via bus towards Toronto. This would be a 6 hour trip or shorter depending on traffic and mostly summer construction on Highway 401, the most boring highway that I know. That is why I take a bus or train when travelling alone, for by car, the risk of falling asleep at the wheel hypnotized by the same white line on black asphalt is too dangerous.
I felt like I was chasing the moon tonight, walking towards the bus terminal. I tried to take a few pictures but my camera could not do it justice. It shone so bright and it looked like a tiny spec on my camera.
On the bus I would see glimpses of the moon on the right and when I aimed my camera, the bus turned slightly and it was not to the left. I was sitting on the right side way in the front on the top deck of this double-decker Megabus. Fortunately I had two seats, so I could stretch my long legs. My tablet was on most of the ride to occupy my busy mind. I was lucky if I slept an hour and now I know that it may have been due to the “almost” full moon.
For hours the white glow teased me going from the right of my window and then to the left where I could l could not see as well, then whoosh, it would disappear. The more we approached mid morning around 3 a.m.
Moon, I saw you,
swell in size
inflamed and boisterous
daring and glorious
you shine like a star
you acquiesce afar
finally with unrest
you shine ahead
towards the West
the lower you get
the larger you’ve set
into a golden lantern
it’s 3am, cannot sleep
your energy fills me
that beaming glow
as travellers follow
all through the night
you’re glowing light
keeps us alert, safe
you’ll not abandon
us until early dawn
that golden star
we’ll not see yet
as we head West
just feel the glow
from the East
as you, moon,
shall seek rest.
This was Thursday morning that I saw this “almost full moon” on my bus ride; and on Saturday the moon was at its fullest and there was a great celebration at the retreat where I was, called The Guru Purnima. We waited with anticipation for the celebration until the wee hours of the night (5am. more precisely) In the meantime, I went out for a walk and took a few photos of the full moon and my mind wandered…
(haiku)
hot summer night
waves crash on the beach
guided by moon beams
+
lovers embrace
hide behind bushes
bright moon glow
(c) Cheryl-Lynn 2014-07-19
Although this prompt is to write about the full moon in the Fall or Winter, I had these notes from my trip I felt fit so well with the mood of the full moon. You can see more explanations, Chèvrefeuille so graciously and eloquently gives at Carpe Diem #517 Shiki (3), “reeds tremble”
Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #43, Basho’s “The Old lady cherry”
Photo credits: Sara Desjardins Photography – Toronto
At Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, our task was to take Basho’s “The Old-Lady Cherry” and add two lines in approximately 7-7 for tan renga. Here is the original poem and chèvrefeuille’s example:
the old-lady cherry
in bloom: a remembrance
of her old age
(c) Basho)
a day to celebrate
the first cherry blossoms
(c) Chèvrefeuille
revel in ornate hues
time enhances your splendour.
© Cheryl-Lynn ‘14/07/19
Submitted for: Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #43, Basho’s “The old lady cherry”
Delight (haiku)
Little boy entranced
stares in his sandbox
eager ants
~
tickled, he giggles
reaching up to scratch his face
caterpillar smiles.
© Cheryl-Lynn ’14/07/16
Carpe Diem 516,(Issa) Skylight
Tournesol dans un Jardin 
