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Too much time
Overthinking
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The heart beating
Too much time
wasted
going in circles
overthinking
losing track of time
dizzy spiralling
© tournesol 2025/08/28
daily moments 25/08/28
Tag: poetry
calm after the storm (haibun)
Recently, winter showed its face with a venegence…two days of heavy snow and snowdrifts scaring drivers into ditches and so much more. But we are on week 3 and clean up is still going on but the temperature is rising and allowing the snow to be less permanent…the sun is shining and hope is in the air…spring, hopefully is around the corner. The darkness of February and the blues is lifting and onto March winds to clean the grounds. Let’s hope the melting slows down a bit for the earth to catch up as well.
heavy snowfall
slows life momentarily
in February
bedlam throughout all the roads
‘til the slosh of melting snow
(c) tournesol 2025-02-28
Easter – Pâques (troiku – daily moments)
Spring is in the air Awakens our inner child Play, Love, Joy Spring is in the air Inviting new beginnings Awakens our inner child Rain or shine Heart still skips with joy Play - Love - Joy An ageless mantra For all (c) Tournesol 2023-03-25 le printemps est dans l'air éveille l’enfant intérieur jouer, aimer, jouir le printemps est dans l'air séduisant des nouveaux débuts éveille l’enfant intérieur ensoleillé ou pluvieux le cœur fait des sauts jouer - aimer - jouir un mantra Pour tous·tes © tournesol 2023-03-26
Mid-morning calm (haibun)
I’m in the country this week minding my son’s dogs and cat. Heidi (German Shepherd) and Mia (Golden mix) are sisters and they are like two giant peas in a pod. They play together, sleep together, eat together but compete to get petted of course. And GiGi, the Persian could care less about those giants. She does her own thing. She loves jumping on the kitchen counter and drinking water straight from the tap and pleads with me daily. My son warned me NOT to do that since it took him months to have her finally drink out of a bowl. Since he leaves the kids for ten to twelve hours, he would not want her to dehydrate. It is so tempting though to indulge the little thing, like Nana giving too many sweets to the grands…that is exactly how I feel with these pets.
It is a long trek to get to work for me but the peacefulness here is palpable.
birds muted
soft breeze pacifies
mid-morning calm
&
mid-morning calm
after canine game of tag
shadow bed
(c) Tournesol ’15
Happy Mother’s Day
It’s Mother’s Day and I keep thinking backwards and then forward…I miss my mom but i see her in me, and through me and through my children and love her for keeping her spirit alive in all of us. She is in my children and grandchildren…loving them so so much.
It’s that time of year again
remembering uncooked chocolate pudding
and toast in bed
each grain of powder saying, “I love you Mom”
ceramic paper weights
paper doilies
macaroni necklace…
I remember picking dandelions
and drawing pictures,
gluing absorbing cotton clouds
hearing her voice singing songs with made up words
laughing with delight and childlike joy
running her fingers in her curly hair
hugging me, whispering “I love you, darling”
(C) ClRoberts 2022-05-08
la sage femme (haibun)
Art Image Publications PICASSO Inspired Art Projects Weeping Woman – Pablo Picasso, 1937
After a long night sponging the sweat off her patient’s face, she felt her grip her brown spotted hand. “Ne t’inquiète pas…ça ne sera plus long ma fille, pousse fort une autre fois à la prochaine contraction.” * But then her weather-beaten face frowned…a tear rolled down her chin. The silence was deafening as she placed the white sweet smelling cloth over the young mother’s mouth while the father took the lid off the shoebox.
shuffling home
weather-beaten hands
holding a shoebox
© Tournesol’15
*translation: Not to worry,my child, it won’t be long now… push hard at the next contraction.
sage femme: midwife
This is one of many sad true stories my GrandMaman shared with us growing up. I can’t imagine the sorrow she carried with her mixed with joys…
Inspired by our host’s meme today “weather-beaten” at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai
Our host, Chèvrefeuille says: “This month our central theme is “on the trail with Basho”, because Basho was a traveling haiku poet as e.g. Santoka Taneda was in his time (1882-1940). This month we will (try) to follow Basho’s journeys through Japan. And this first haiku which I will share here is from one of his earlier haibun (or travel-journals), “The Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton” (Nozarashi Kiko) in which he describes his journey together with his disciple Chiri along the places described by Saigyo, Basho’s great role-model;”
weather beaten
wind pierces my body
to my heart
© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)
Here is our host’s offering and he asks us to write with the Haiku Writing Technique baransu (in balance):
cold spring breeze
makes the cherry blossom shiver
one heartbeat long
© Chèvrefeuille
heavy blossoms (Troiku)
white peonies
luscious blossoms spill
over balconies
white peonies
memories of her youth
when Mother was there
luscious blossoms spill
spreading their fragrance
nature’s free scents
over balconies
river breeze cools
unclad beauty
© Tournesol ’15/edited 19/17/02
In memory of Jane Reichhold – Aug. 7/16 (troibun)
Walking home with her grandson after a wonderful day in the city, she could not help but admire the sky. Once, her grandson was sound asleep, she read about the sad news…such a loss in the world of haiku. And then, she understood the mysteries of the sky tonight.
dash of white clouds
stand out
in the night sky
dash of white clouds
splash of goodness
wings of an angel
stand out
seventeen syllables
more or less
in the night sky
greets an angel with a smile
crescent moon
© Tournesol’16-08-07
And then she read this beautiful haiku posted by Chèvrefeuille at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, after she had written the above troiku.
without lights
the brightness of a blue sky
full of stars © Jane Reichhold
a star
stands outs tonight
for eternity
© Tournesol’16-08-07
shamanic journey
a red dragonfly comes
to guide the canoe © Jane Reichhold
new beginnings
only spirits see the path
still, unknown to us
© Tournesol’16-08-07
In memory of an artist, teacher and poet, Jane Reichhold.
une seule plume (troibun)
Walking to work on avenue de Gaspé, she looks at the trees just starting to bud. A seagull screeches overhead. She smiles and wonders if he is announcing to his buddies of some overturned garbage can.
one lone feather
on this city street
where’s the white dove?
one lone feather
message from above
dearly departed
on this city street
searching for leftovers
doves and gulls
where`s the white dove?
Maman, es-tu vraiment là?
ma belle, Colombe
© Tournesol’16/04/27
This is a troiku, created by Chèvrefeuille, with a narrative, I now call a Troibun.
Translations:
Title: one lone feather
Mother, are you really there?
Colombe, my departed mother’s name, is French for dove
P is for poem
life is what she writes about,
liaisons and love affairs,
rife of erotic passages,
relations…some, short-lived,
brief encounters lost too fast,
she’s wept so many salty tears
grief stricken beyond her years
yet, memories of lovers lost
beget in her sweet moments
where pain and suffering will exhaust
and only images
that burn her cheeks
and warm her heart
shall trickle into heated
words in love poems.
(troiku)
first kiss – after,
a decade of solitude
stuff to write poems
first kiss – after,
too many years
like riding a bike
a decade if solitude
spiritual cleansing
looking within
stuff to write poems
always a good tragedy
love, lust and heartbreak
© Tournesol’16/04/19
Blogging from A to Z Challenge
Tournesol dans un Jardin 