Tag: Haibun

bleu lavande (haibun)

© Bleu Lavande, Fitch Bay, Québec

Many farmers give directions very differently than city people are accustomed to. Living in a very small town we would chuckle a bit when asking for directions when looking for directions to get the best sweet corn or my favourite apples that were usually the first category that came out early in the season…Lobo of course, juicy and tart they made your lips pucker.

Directions were often turn left at the red silo and at the fork keep to your right until you get to the Old School House make a sharp left behind the speed limit sign…careful now, you might miss it if you are admiring that old school…city folks are always dazzled by that plain old building. Now keep on going until you get to the Willow Tree. If your windows are open you should smell the lavender field just over the hill. Across the road a fair bit, Fontaine’s tractor should be parked with his trailer full of fresh picked corn of the morning and the afternoon if you come by before supper.

Our host has given us one last haiku by Richard Wright:

keep straight down this block,
then turn right where you will find
a peach tree blooming © Richard Wright

This is to inspire us to write in that same tone…the blossoms made me think of various scents of certain trees and plants blossoming. How fitting to include the poignant and soothing scent of lavender!

I have included a link here, describing Mr. Pellerin’s story on how he started his venture in the largest lavender farm, Bleu Lavande,  in Canada and second largest in North America. I find his story fascinating. His farm is situated in the Eastern Townships about an hour and half drive from Montreal.

passed the Willow tree
just over the hill, explosion
of lavender

© Tournesol ’14

Carpe Diem Special

White Christmas (haibun)

© Clr '14-12-11
© Clr ’14-12-11

December 23rd, the temperatures rose over 10 degrees Celsius. It was springtime weather at the end of December.  Two days of rain cleaned the streets, sullied snow banks and melted most of the snow. Makes it doubly hard for half-doubters..one of my three grandsons… to still believe but painstaking stories, Crosby’s songs and want-to-believe children makes it still happen…one more year.

grey puddles
born from melted snow
earth’s enigma

~

White Christmas
fairy-tales echo
crooner’s refrain

© Tournesol ’14

Carpe Diem White Christmas

River rink (haibun)

© Jessie Botanical at Deviant Art

I remember first time I skated with my mother and sister. Mom and my sister were so darn adept on their skates…they could actually stand up witout wobbling! I must have been about four wearing dark brown leather skates that folded at the ankle, so my body rested on the leather rather than those blades.  But my mother was so patient with me…chubby me, clumsy as could be…no side boards to hand on to …just low snow banks after they had shoveled a personal skating rink just for us on the river behind GrandMaman’s house.  I must have been wearing my older cousin’s skates…boy’s skates to boot!

I later managed to stand up on better skates but wobbly I was. One night when I was about 12 the river was cleared of snow and my uncle wanted to go out skating with his girlfriend…well! I decided to tag along this romantic venture…but I did stay back several feet…it was a full moon, we skated across the river…whoosh…scratch…whoosh, whoosh…the moon was so bright we could even skate to the little inlets…I was a bit worried the ice may not be as thick but still felt safe following my uncle…my hero.  What a guy to let his niece tag along on this magical evening. I will never forget that night…whoosh, whoosh…scratch…whoosh, whoosh…wind blowing softly on my face.

children giggling
wobbling on the ice
river holds

hands clasped
lovers glide on the river
under a full moon

whoosh whoosh
blades scratch the river floor
frozen in time.

© Clr ’14 Saw this girl at Montreal Atrium today, at the bus terminal/Metro Bonaventure and could not resist…that would have been me a long time ago.

© Tournesol ’14

Carpe Diem

solitude (haibun)

© Clr '14
© Clr ’14

Solitude may not always mean sadness, it is simply being alone. Many times it is by choice.  It is interesting that loneliness, isolation, seclusion and privacy are synonyms found for solitude.  I suppose if it is not by choice it can be painful and lonely. However, if it is by choice, it is almost a refuge, a place to breath, collect one’s thoughts…create, compose.  Perhaps when we know of someone who is living alone, we could ask if they feel lonely and not assume all persons living alone are unhappy.  I love people; I am a very social person and love to laugh and enjoy the company of friends and my children. I also love my “alone” time where I can hear myself think.  The silence sometimes screams …those are often my thoughts waiting to be put “on paper”.

Since the passing of my mom, I don’t feel the same aloneness I felt leaving work, walking with a heavy step after a shift…I feel a presence, a shadow that quickens my step, removes a load off my shoulder…I feel blessed…in her grace…shadow of her love.

vignette of mom signed

Walking home
under the umbrella
skies weep

skies weep
souls scream shedding despair
bleeding,
I no longer walk alone
her shadow comforts me.

shadow comforts me
arriving home alone
my cat purrs

my cat purrs
lingers by my laptop,
hushed whispers

hushed whispers
I’m here if you need me
no longer alone.

© Tournesol ’14

necessary greed (haibun)

Mary Cassatt, Young Mother Nursing her child

I can see how a mother and her newborn would experience a genre of  greed …this need to possess…to be connected and not quite ready to share with the world. My mother told me I was like a tigress with my babies when they were newborns and she could relate so well as she was the same with my sister and me.

A psychologist explained to us in a class last year that an infant is born one year too soon. Gestation continues outside the womb but the connection mother/child is most important. The couple needs to cocoon together for longer than many industrialized cultures allow.

key connection
budding human nature
symbiosis
~
mother and infant
hoarding every moment
tenderness and bliss

© Tournesol ’14

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Our host says: “This week we are going further with exploring the powerful ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’, mantra. This week it’s the fifth ‘sound’ , “me” … I will give the mantra here again:

Om purifies bliss and pride (realm of the gods); Ma purifies jealousy and need for entertainment (realm of the jealous gods); Ni purifies passion and desire (human realm); Pad purifies ignorance and prejudice (animal realm); Me purifies greed and possessiveness (realm of the hungry ghosts); Hum purifies aggression and hatred (hell realm).

As we look at the mantra’s fifth sound “Me” than we can see that it purifies greed and possessiveness (realm of the hungry ghosts) and this is what is said about this mantra by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche:

“The mantra Om Mani Pädme Hum is easy to say yet quite powerful, because it contains the essence of the entire teaching. When you say the first syllable Om it is blessed to help you achieve perfection in the practice of generosity, Ma helps perfect the practice of pure ethics, and Ni helps achieve perfection in the practice of tolerance and patience. Päd, the fourth syllable, helps to achieve perfection of perseverance, Me helps achieve perfection in the practice of concentration, and the final sixth syllable Hum helps achieve perfection in the practice of wisdom. “So in this way recitation of the mantra helps achieve perfection in the six practices from generosity to wisdom. The path of these six perfections is the path walked by all the Buddhas of the three times. What could then be more meaningful than to say the mantra and accomplish the six perfections?”
—Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones.

This fifth sound is connected with the fourth and together with that sound it refers to Wisdom. Om Mani Padme Hum is a very strong mantra and in it self the world of Buddhism … it offers us the basic rules of Buddhism, one of the pilars of haiku.

This sound is about purifying greed and possessiveness, but what is wrong with greed or possession? I am greedy in a positive way: “
Our host’s inspired haiku is here:

looking for more
hunting for gold and diamonds –
haiku community

© Chèvrefeuille

After the snow storm (haibun)

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I took another long route to work today. After a snow storm, I love to see the trees covered with thick snow, many streets only one side is plowed. This reminds me when I drove to work at 6pm. I had to move my car to the other side so the snow plow could clear the street.  There was usually always a warning, a truck drives up ahead with flashing lights and honks to warn a few drivers to move their vehicle, otherwise they get a hefty ticket.

Today I was in awe at the parks and the trees. Of course I felt sorry for the cyclists because we have many avid winter cyclists who often have trouble finding their bike in the huge snow banks the snow plows created.  Today it was wet heavy snow and the streets were slushy. My feet were soaken wet…guess my boots are not as waterproof as I thought.

After the snow storm

Sopping city streets get messy

fairyland parks

~

night snow plows

craft high snow banks

ignoring cycles

© Tournesol ’14

Carpe Diem

snow wonder (haibun)

 

Snow dust and icicles
© Clr ’14

Working today from home, I was blessed to be spared braving the winter storm we are having here in Montreal.  Although I would normally take public transit, I knew the walk on slippery and some slushy paths would not have been pleasant.

By the end of the day, I could see the rising temperatures had turned the snow to ice.  What beautiful images I saw as I admired the bare-branches-no-more, and tiny icicles hanging on like tear drops. I felt elation and a sudden gust of childlike wonder. For long moments, I could feel my grief dissipate, replaced by mild sparks of enchantment.

 

snow dust

coating bare branches

my grief went away

~ 

moments of joy

sheer mystic wonder

brushing my soul

© Tournesol ’14

Carpe Diem

message of serenity (haiga)

© Northern Lights - Alien Study
© Northern Lights – Alien Study

A young teen called once to say he wanted to take his life. Let’s call him Real.  He had seen too much sadness in his short years…abuse, death of a close friend and the pain weighed too heavily on him.  I knew he was calling from the far North and asked him if he often saw Aurora Borealis. “Why yes,” he quickly responded, “It is my ancestors telling me they are safe and happy in their world.  I am going to join them now.”

I asked him if his ancestors might also be asking him if he still had things to do on this land before travelling beyond to meet them. He paused a long moment…he later accepted to go to emergency and get help.  

I can never forget this youth for he phoned our service four days later to thank me, and that he was in hospital getting the care he needed.

multi-hues
whispering from beyond
a life of grace

ancestors
travelling on tinted vapours
call of serenity.

© Tournesol `14

Carpe Diem

baby blues glowed (haibun)

Zappos.com

He was only 13 months old and could barely walk in his stiff white winter boots.  I took him out of his car seat.  I placed him on the huge parking lot at his father’s garage, that was filled with virgin snow.  He looked down and lifted one foot and saw his footprint in the snow; he froze with his baby blues widened, reflecting the light from the showroom.   He then started tiptoeing so as not to mess up the white powdery carpet.

Baby blues glow,

tiptoeing on white powder

pure enchantment

© Tournesol ’14

Carpe Diem timeglass

spirit is infinite (haibun)

© Clr `14
© Clr `14

The only death I truly accepted and understood the infinite journey was my grandfather’s death. Although I was only six, I was blessed to be in a family that was open about life and death; my grandmother being a midwife, talked often of the births she assisted and it did not take away my youth as so many of my Anglo-Saxon raised peers felt…French Canadians kept many European mores I think. And so I remember going to hospital to await the news the doctors would pronounce of the impending fate of my GrandPapa. We often sat by his bedside holding his hand daily for a year, as I lived with my grandparents that year. My sister and I saw the priest perform his last rites, Extreme Unction and his last smile at me surrounded by his children the day he passed.

So for me, finite meant my favourite person had an expiry date to his suffering; he would be in a place where there is no pain, where he could run freely …and yes, I believed this and to some extent still do.

At my age, I have lost many relatives and friends to death and more recently a friend and colleague for whom I have shared a series of haiku; unfortunately there are many I have not quite accepted…sudden deaths, people too far for me to go to their service are mostly the people I still struggle to accept and sometimes I feel it was all a dream and they are still here.

How often I wanted to dial the number of my friend, Janet, who died suddenly when I was far away. The only person who read my mind, felt my emotions; our signal to chat after midnight…one ring…we both knew was the other who wished to talk until dawn. I still don’t accept the infinite passing of this friend.

(American Sentence)

Grandpapa, tu es toujours près de moi, dans mon cœur, ombrant mon âme.

(haiku)

humble corps affaibli
enfin libéré
douleur fini

âme pétillant
pure et infini
les cieux attendent

yeux brillants
plonge dans l’éclat céleste
lumière blanche

lumière blanche
le séduit à l’éther
infinité

infinité
âme sans âge baigna
grâce devin

~

weary body
humble and finite
pain-free at last

soul lives on
infinite and pure
heavens await

iridescence
eyes dip in hallowed glow
white light

white light
seduced to the ether
infinite

infinite
ageless soul bathes
celestial grace

© Tournesol ’14

Carpe Diem “accepting the finite”