Embracing emotions (haibun)

Heeding-haiku-with-Ha-emotions

One expresses emotions in varied ways and for some it is spontaneous and simply who they are.  Perhaps you are like me when you see someone you love and have not seen in a while, you run up to the person and hug them, kiss them on each cheek.

Overjoyed the morning I felt my son moving in my tummy…the basement of our new home had flooded and I could not hide my joy.  Could not relate to the damage, the flood or any problem whatsoever for a human life did somersaults in MY tummy!!

Oh how I weep with joy every time I see my daughter performing in a choir, when my son did a guitar solo and sang a Bob Dylan song, when they graduated both from high school and college;  and even today when I see them smiling and teasing each other…the joy just takes too much place in my heart and so I weep.

Perhaps your emotions are too close to the surface and your heart swells so much you weep the moment a word hurts your feelings; perhaps it is anger that is too difficult to conceal and you shout, rage or cry again. Maybe you have always felt life dealt you a raw deal and everyone and everything you touch must be for your loss, like a child who stomps off angry because Mommy would not let him eat candy before dinner.

And then there are those who do not express emotions as easily and it eats at them, festers and makes them sick…they are not “at ease” hence it stirs “dis-ease”.  The persons who cannot weep when they grieve, express their love when they long, show their joy when they are gripped with such a powerful love…yet to look at their body language, one cannot read the joy, happiness, rapture or sadness.

Sometimes I speak to a person who has gone through the most dreadful experiences in his past, heard such hurtful comments, witnessed such atrocities and yet I hear no emotion in the voice…flat, no affect whatsoever.  Over time the dam may open slowly when a person feels safe…In this case, a person had to hide all emotion to survive. To give in to emotion may weaken them and so life goes on with explosive emotions inflating  their soul…heart, like a ticking time bomb.

Emotions are not excluded to humans, and we can see that with animals that we love. It could be a horse you would groom for hours before riding, your dog you have walked, bathed like a baby and cuddled with a towel to keep them warm, a cat that leans in close to get a pet, a scratch but deep inside we know it is to be close to you…expressing their emotions in their loving and natural way.

My grandfather had rescued a golden mix a few years before got terminally ill.  GrandPapa died later in his bed at his home; when the ambulance came to take his body, Princess, the golden mix,  followed the cot whimpering along the side and then went running in the basement howling so loudly. She did not come up for a whole week, so great was her grief.

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confused and scared

a stranger whispers in her ear

“…luv you mum”

~

this frail body

seasoned with dementia

puckers her lips

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beaming,

hand on her belly

feeling flip-flops

© Tournesol ’15

Heeding Haiku with HA ~ MindLoveMisery’s Menagerie

daisies for life (tanka)

© Clr August 2014

Daisies are my favourite flower for reasons I have shared in the past. I relate to this flower in so many aspects. It is not especially stunning compared to so many other exquisite floras but it is still attractive and strong. Multiple petals show many facets of my personality…and still many to discover over a lifetime.

Sowing more seeds has allowed me to have daisies for life…children and grandchildren and it all starts with that first born. At that time I thought I would never have enough love to spread…I remember how much I loved my godchild before I ever had children and it worried me a bit. “Is it possible to love a child more than that or as much?” I quickly saw that it was certainly possible and when I had my second child, the love was still in abundance as there is more to spare for my grandson. Recently I’ve had two more grandsons added to our family and the heart seems to just swell more and more. How wonderful to see how the Great Spirit created our hearts and souls.

Today we celebrated the birth of my first born…
(tanka)

daisies for life
meadows seasoned with love
birth of a child
mother’s never-ending love
a family is born

© Tournesol ’14/11/07

Bones (senryû)

Originally posted at my blogspot at Tournesol dans un jardin, Bones

Bones 

wildflowers
emerald blankets covering
beds of bones

*

beds of bones
sounds of wailing children
haunting the night

*

haunting the night
smell of death and venom
barbarians’ breath

© Tournesol ’14

little creatures (haibun)

The prompt today is about small creatures. Our host presents us with Issa`s Giddy Grasshopper as our first inspiration:

giddy grasshopper
take care…do not leap and crush
these pearls of dewdrop
© Issa (source)

then Basho`s haiku here is another inspiration; I am quite partial to this one.

how pitiful!
underneath the helmet
a cricket chirping.
© Basho (Tr. Ueda)

The goal of this new feature is to write haiku about little creatures and more importantly to take notice of your surroundings.

Our host has written “Little Creatures” haiku:

deep silence
this lazy summer evening –
song of a cricket
© Chèvrefeuille

Young children seem so fascinated by nature`s tiny creatures. My son would look at ants working busily for hours…one tiny ant hill and he would cry inconsolably if someone stepped on that hill or any insect. I love how children teach us adults or many times remind us of what we once found important in life.

I remember as a young child spending hours in the field behind my house searching for grasshoppers. My mother was a hairdresser and she would put me outside to play which sure was better than going for a nap. Even in those days as a young child I hated going to bed.

I would jump, startled, if one jumped by me, then I would follow it, chasing it like a hunter. It would tease me regularly, keeping me busy most of the afternoon. Once I caught it, I would cup it in my two hands to make sure it would not get away and ask it to give me molasses. Okay, I had no clue at 4 and 5 years old what the darn thing did but either it was scared and it pooped out of fear or it had no problems of “irregularity” (see me chuckle here. Almost every summer afternoon, I would spend hours searching, under the hot sun accompanied by the piercing sound of crickets.

Credits: Grasshopper

afternoon quest
child stoops low in the field
grasshopper jumps

grasshopper jumps
she holds it gingerly
whispering
“give me some molasses
come on grasshopper friend.”

she giggles
grasshopper tickles her hand
ooops,it jumps away

rests under the elm
mother nature’s lullaby,
crickets chirrup

(c) Tournesol

Posted originally by Cheryl-Lynn at Tournesol dans un Jardin 2014/08/17

Submitted for Carpe Diem’s Little Creatures #1 Issa’s “giddy grasshopper” 

Ramblings on life (haiga)

(haiku)

hot muggy day
spider finds a cool safe place
took a bubble bath

August sailing
gusty winds tense the jib
crow kissed a windshield

fly fidgets
buzzes around his arm.
SWAT!

spider spins
all night long diligently
Eureka!

children’s park
swings, teeter totters, slides
barbarian invasion

children giggling
bright coloured kites catch the sun
string floats silently

© Tournesol ’14
© Tournesol ’14
© Tournesol ’14
© Tournesol ’14
 

(free verse)

If I were an insect,
who knows how my life would end?
If I were a bird,
who knows how the wind would blow?
If I were a child living in the wrong part of the world,
who knows when my life would end?
Life is a gift for some,
a puzzle for so many,
an affliction for too many…

What life lends
may be a mystery
black and white blends
interesting and dreary
I can always count
on rivers to flow
on the sun to glow
sunsets sublime
and the moon to shine

originally published @ Tournesol dans un Jardin

© Tournesol 2014/08/12

Delight (haiku)

Clipart – Caterpillar

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

 

Garden of love (tanka)

At Carpe Diem this week, the Ghost Writer #16, is Jen of Blog It or Lose It on ”Tanka by Shiki”. Not surprising she did her research and did justice to the poet Masaoka Shiki. I encourage you to read more here and read more haiku and tanka by Shiki, Jen as well as Kristjaan.

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As my evening was ending, I was reflecting on gardens and wondered what I would write to contribute to this beautiful post.  I could not help but think of my own garden I have created over the years, seen the seedlings blossom and nurtured them to maturity. I even saw them multiply into grand blossoms.

And yet, it’s not as if I have a family of ten children but I do consider my family as a garden that we weather through the seasons with joy and hard work but mostly with love.  As a gardener toils in his garden, the labour is fueled by love.

Summertime, I am reminded of my past summers watching my children play in parks, soccer and soft ball games, swimming and sailing at the lake at our summer camp.  I am also reminded of the work I still do working with youths and realize that I do continue to  garden in my own way; and to me as well, it IS a labour of love.

 

© CLR 2014
© CLR 2014

summer breathes new life

parks fill with busy children

working in their garden

mud pies and sand castles

swings and slides bud acrobats.

 

Tonight is the eve before I leave for my vacation.  My son came over for a visit and we went out for a nice dinner and came back here and watched a movie which  I had recorded, Star Trek;  I had saved this movie to watch with my son…a movie experience is always richer when shared with a loved one, non?

dinner and movie

marks the start of summer break

with pleasant company

blossoms of my own garden

shared good times ‘til twilight

 

So although this prompt was in honour of gardens and flora, I hope this offering fits as well.

© Cheryl-Lynn 2014/07/09

By the river (haiga)

©clr 2014
©clr 2014

golden glow

reflecting on the water

river flows.

 

bonfire

on the riverbank

bullfrogs moo

 

children laughing

toasting marshmallows

staying up late.

 

campfire blazing

teens singing along

acoustic guitar.

© Cheryl-Lynn 2014/06/15

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #492 Nights of Summer

Play stopped (senryû)

© clr June 2014
© clr June 2014

 

Gazing out the window

willing the rain to stop

to go out and play.

© Cheryl-Lynn 2014/06/15

You are stunning!

I looked at the clock and noticed there was an hour left on my shift. It was a busy evening alright. But I like that because time passes quickly.  I had done two hours of Live Chat and I was now back on the phones after my dinner break. It is odd to call our breaks anything but “breaks” because we can have lunch at 2p.m. and dinner/supper at 10 p.m. depending on the shifts we work and how we have arranged to make sure the service is adequately covered.

The phone rang…

“Hello, you’ve reach a counsellor.”  I could hear faint sobbing, soft whimpering…

“Take your time, it’s okay; just take all the time you need…are you safe?”

I hear a weak “yes” and she tells me her story. She was just discharged from hospital for her eating disorder. She weighed well under 100 pounds…I winced at the thought of her wasting away and thanked the Great Spirit that she was, in fact, alive. “They fattened me up so much I can’t stand it!” she wailed.

The change for her was difficult to bear. She needed support in slowly accepting her “healthy” body.  We talked a bit about what she could do to distract her thoughts and then she shared some sad stories of her past. Such sadness I choose not to share here, but this is what I wanted to remember …  her fight to live even if for a brief dangerous time in her life and how she tried to become invisible…literally.

We explored her passions.  She was an artist and singer/song writer. I was blessed hearing her sing briefly and for a fleeting moment, I could hear her smile…what an angelic voice…such beauty, it managed to transcend through the wires of telecommunication.  She promised to try to focus on her beauty…voice, passions, art, inner and outer beauty and would call back if she felt overwhelmed.

When got I home late that night,  I could not help but imagine this beautiful person and wrote a brief message I imagined sending to her:

Image source: Thestir.cafemom.com

Do you know that you are stunning?

the last few years, I could barely see you

so frail were you, hugging seemed daunting

what if I’d crushed your bones,

you were really so very tiny;

I remember seeing you back then…

the wind was blowing and I could swear

it was pushing you farther from where

I was sitting on the park bench waiting

watching, silently observing you wasting

away and praying for a miracle.

 

That was a while ago my friend,

now the miracle did transcend

you are beautiful just as you are.

Pity you don’t yet see that far long

but hopefully in due time

with your gifts of beauty and song

you will sing the words that rhyme

and you will finally see

what’s so clear to me.

I pray someday your insight

will see your beauty transcend

as well as in the light

of day…blessings, my dear friend.

© Cheryl-Lynn, 2014/03/14

 Inspired by my original post at StopTheStigma You’re Beautiful