What a pleasant surprise to see our poet, extraordinaire, filling in for Chévrefeuille today. Paloma not only writes beautiful poems, haiku and other Japanese forms, she goes into depth with each “prompt”…she truly takes her homework seriously and I have learned so much reading her creations and the added information and lovely music videos she chooses so well and that add flavour and warmth to her posts.
For today, we return to our featured poet, Fuyuko Tomita
(Note that the Japanese version is in five lines – but – as she explained to Chévrefeuille in a separate post – the English version is slightly different. She is translating her poem so as to keep the spirit of the original, more so than the structure of the original.) I love that idea! Occasionally I will compose a haiku or tanka in French or in English and feel confined when following the form when the meaning can be compromised.
Here is our interim host, Paloma’s response to this prompt:
at the bird feeder
three cardinals are squabbling –
a love triangle?
I commute to and from work on public transit and most of my thinking and composing is done walking or waiting for the Métro or the bus. I have a mini notebook I can hold in the palm of my hand and I scribble haiku when I am still standing or sitting but when I am walking, the words seem to dribble even more. I try to remember when I get to work or home but most often the thought may be there but “that verse” or “ that line” is somewhere floating and I am left waiting for my muse to conspire…she comes when she IS ready…
(tanka)
shuffling home tonight words spill recklessly her muse takes over
I close my eyes off and on today and I seem to be in a wabi-sabi mood if that makes any sense. If I let myself float to places of nothingness I feel nano seconds of peace, sometimes sadness but not a hurting sadness. A feeling of when your heart swells and forces you to take a deeper breath, a louder exhalation…a sigh of melancholy. That is my day today…pure, simple and free. I close my eyes and remember those moments nursing my children…those precious moments in the middle of the night…no distractions in those days…no cell phones, no television…no dvd’s either. Just that opportunity to look into their eyes as they look up with wonder, with loving adoration, depending so much on me for love, sustenance and nurturing…those liquid blue eyes gaze at me.
such sweetness/so long ago, I close my eyes/back in time.
I just started reading Put your Lips Together by Hamish ‘Managua’ Gunn on my day off and sleepiness seems to take over me yet my mind won’t shut off…and so I quickly transferred those intruding thoughts to my keyboard, so I could go back to nothingness and passively pass the rest of my day off.
My mind’s entranced by words I read. It’s nice to wander to nowhere lands. But soon I feel a heaviness… I am too sleepy to read … I rest my head on velvet softness. Such a quandary since I must read to stop the thoughts exhausting me. I hang onto words from a new writer’s thoughts; his thoughts are motivating and let me to travel to places I’ve never been; ah yes, I remember one that I’d been long long ago in Aberdeen. Memories flood my soul as I drift in and out of alpha waves. IlLike riding the waves; I am so light …no featherlike, the sea transports me to islands where fishing is the only means of survival.
My eyes are heavy but my mind will not sleep. STOP!! I just want the mind to dull…be rid of any thoughts for a few moments…no contemplations, please, some respite, I implore.
I love to write but writing unlocks the dam of thoughts that gush forth so strong at times I can’t decipher good from bad, hell from heaven and so I read when my eyes can stay open to escape…And travel in the minds and thoughts of other writers so easier to take those words. They do not rush in tsunamis but more like streams of honey and melted butter. Small increments at a time …tiny palatable morsels. The perfect balance to satiate a hungry reader.
A funny thing happened to me on my way home tonight. I dressed warm, ready for my usual bitter cold walk to the metro. I actually look like a burglar dressed up in black, all you can see are my nose and eyes. I still chanced the shortcut out back and there was only about 300 metres with snow drifts to get to the street. No problem. I was quite pleased with myself considering that the street was only half ploughed. The scraper had scraped right to the icy surface. The street looked like a skating rink. No kidding! If more people would have been awake at this time, for sure some might have skated and youngsters would have slid on their boots. I get to the Métro Rosemont and for the first time I see dozens of people inside the small square waiting for their busses. Yep, it is that cold! (Oh did I tell you I froze for an hour Valentine’s evening after my nice café adventure? I waited an hour in the cold for a bus to get home. I was so cold by the time I got home, my body would not get warm enough. I felt feverish and achy all over. Had to call in sick the next day (Sunday) as there was NO way in this century I was braving the cold.)
So back to tonight. I take the métro to Bonaventure and my bus is already there awaiting me (well, it feels good to think so). I get on the bus engrossed in my novel I am reading by Alice Keys, Rose (check her out at Aliceville)…up to Chapter 89 now. Gosh! One thing I do not like about e-readers is you cannot tell if you are close to the end so for the past 20+ chapters I am wondering when that will be. I will let ya’ll know about this book that has captured my attention for the past 2 days now. I am a slow reader and when I want to remember something I highlight it…and read it over. I know, weird but that is me if I read a book that someone I sort of know wrote itJ. I have been too brain dead and tired to write much lately, so I am so glad I have a novel that is keeping me absorbed.
I settle on the bus and open my Kindle again and once I get on le pont Champlain I hear a funny sound. It sounds like a phone but no one is picking up. I feel in my breast pocket of my winter coat and take my new I-phone out and yep, it was for me. I have to change that ringer to match what I had on my Samsung…a little Motown sounds I recognize…not this techno weird stuff.
A colleague tells me I forgot my home keys at the office. OH NO!! NOT AGAIN! My heart drops for a split second and then I realize I am still on the bus, I have not walked the 10 minute walk to my apartment in the cold to discover I did not have my keys and walk back again in the cold to the bus. All I had to do was sit on the warm bus that was going back to Montreal in five minutes. No problem, I tell my colleague but it would be nice if someone is off work to bring the keys to the subway near work so I don’t have to brave the cold walk again to the office. A colleague offers to drive to the Métro with her hubby who was picking her up and she would wait for me there. She has done this already once for me two years ago. Good Lord there are angels on this planet!!
So I stay on the bus, get on the Métro again. Then I see about six Montreal Police officers waiting to check the trains on the line I was taking. Shoot! They have this Miami Vice swagger when they walk, and feathered hair spiked up…nice and messy…in their camo pants and high laced boots…they have been negotiating their pension for the past year and this is one way they are protesting (dressing like this)… …like that’ll get the public respect for law enforcement. I digress…they look in each train and find no one. One police officer takes a snapshot with his phone of a tag from a gang member in my car. I didn’t dare tell him there was another tag next to me near the window…I was in a hurry to get my home keys!! Priorities now people!!
On the ride I read an email on my phone from a person who has been following me on Stigma Hurts Everyone for two years. She wrote a beautiful long letter telling me how my blog impacted on her especially a post I wrote about a homeless person entitled “Do you even see me?” Her words truly touched me how she has changed her attitude towards homelessness now and well, that truly warmed my heart to read this. I had no idea my words could have such an impact!
Then I read another email from my favourite supervisor in Toronto and friend. It is sort of a chain letter regarding an angel and G-d will do two BIG positive things for me in the next few days. As I read this I wanted to answer but didn’t have WiFi. I wanted to reply right away: G-d already did the two amazing things…my colleague who was meeting me at the Métro with my keys and this beautiful letter from a follower of my blog.
I am beaming just about now and my chest is bursting in my mom’s psychedelic housecoat (smiles).
I love days like today…not expecting anything and then being blessed with such kindness it makes me want to cry with joy.
Snuggled in the trailer with a good novel, she heard the tap dancing on the tin roof. After the rain, she walked through the garden and allowed the fragrance to wash over her.
(Troiku)
after the rain fresh scents from heaven sparrows chirp
after the rain
birds bathe in puddles
children giggle
fresh scents from heaven
garden lily beguiles
rapt butterfly
sparrows chirp
concert in the elm tree
after the rain
My dear friends Justine and Karuna mentioned this poetry writing course they are taking at The Daily Post – Writing 201 Poetry . Although I know I will not have time to follow daily prompts, I will certainly enjoy reading from their blogs. They are already gifted writers. Since the first prompt of the day suggests writing a Haiku, well, I had to play with this for fun. I have written a haiku and then continued on to form a Troiku which is a form created by our host Chévrefeuille at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai who offers daily Haiku guided prompts and shares Haiku form great masters such as Basho and Issa. The Troiku can be explained better by Chévrefeuille but as you can see I used a line from the first Haiku in each successive haiku. You really need the story explained in a lovely historical Russian story by our host about the Troiku, at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.
I seem to be truly enjoying this new form of sets of haiku created by Chévrefeuille here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai called the Troiku. As I sit here at a Café in the warmth looking out at the snow, I hesitate to leave. It is cold and I have to take a bus to get home and I also like the atmosphere here. It is so pleasant writing in this ambiance, hearing the saxophone blaring in the background with uninterrupted jazz melodies. I am a sucker for saxophones and base…it isn`t live music but the sound system is a good quality to drown the chatter of the patrons so I feel the company of jazz musicians and my thoughts percolating before my fingers dance on my keyboard.
(Troiku) evening idles
at the coffee shop
sipping un café
evening idles
swimming in my mind’s eye
writing
at the coffee shop
jazzy tunes fill the room
saxophone blares
sipping un café
gazing out the window
a poem trickles
Here are three haiku composed by Stevenson all three are about trains and we are to write a haiku trying to stay in the same mood of this sparkling star our host has chosen.
the train picks up speed, in a paper coffee cup concentric waves
the river always out there in the dark late train home
coming home on the train … the backyards
(c) John Stevenson
I’m not sure I stayed in the mood but I tried to also capture moments living by train tracks. I grew up by the train tracks in Farnham, Québec and the first few years I was married we lived just below the main train station with at least 10 tracks. Needless to say we would hear trains passing through, shunting and changing tracks most nights and we could actually feel the vibrations when trains sped by. I chose to write a Troiku and tell a brief story at the same time. The Troiku was created by our host, Chévrefeuille. To see more about this form click here
Since this blog is mostly devoted to Japanese forms of poetry, I decided to add this Choka here following a 3-Word Wednesday prompt. The 3 words are: devious – frown – venomous
(choka)
Mama frowned at him
worried for her baby cub
Charlie insisted I’ll be okay, Mama Bear
he went to the lake
he’d have to be devious
to outsmart those fish
but she didn’t know his friend
Pooh Bear was his pal
brought his bucket of minnows
they caught many fish
Mama would be proud of him!
then he heard a sound
a rattle snake snuck near him
Pooh jumped up and down
excited and petrified
not grasping he’d squished
that venomous rattle snake
Hurray, Hurray! Pooh!!
Mama’ll be ever grateful
you’re a shoe in now
come on let’s break the good news
off they marched with the day’s catch
Tournesol dans un Jardin 