winter interlude (haibun – daily moments)

© Clr ’16

Consistency breeds comfort. It feels familiar when repeated at the same time over and over, like a mother’s lullaby soothing her baby.   After the first snowstorm of the season, nature seems to produce a steady snowfall every other day…sometimes  a heavy flurry that often tapers to a slow constant flutter.

She hears a humming in the middle of the night a drone that calms her back to sleep.  Bu,t this morning she awakens just before sunrise and watches the snow fall gently.   It’s a light snow at first …just enough to veil the outlines of the droning machinery outside her window.

She looks at the trees, fitted with sweaters of pure white and the cedars hide bashfully under stoles of pure fresh powder.

It’s Sunday morning and the sun is rising somewhere in the east far above snow clouds.  The sky is a pearly grey, not threatening in the least but rather like a dome hovering over her home.  It feels like a shower of white poppies…nature suggesting Sabbath’s day of rest.

She hears another snowplough clearing a shopping centre’s lot across the street; those eager patrons will be checking the last day of Boxing Day week hoping to find another deal, the right size, and right colour… the real deal!  If not, they’ll just sit in the mall with a Laura Secord ice cream cone and watch the tired faces of adults being pulled by their offspring s chanting, “Just one more, just one more!”  Comfortable armchairs are strategically placed in the centre hallway of the mall where tired fathers and husbands wait patiently and people watch.

A smug smile forms on her lips as she relishes the warmth and calm of her home, not inclined in the least to go out unless she needs something.  She sighs, relieved at the thought of not having to brush half a foot of snow off the hood of a car and  scrape the windows of melted snow turned to ice and sits back relishing the sound of  her furry friend purr.

arresting snow – falls,
manmade humming stills,
settles on a branch

© Tournesol ’16/01/03

Daily Moments of January 3, 2016

Heeding Haiku with Chèvrefeuille at MLMM

night flurries (haibun – daily moments)

There is an image printed in my mind, I have seen so often walking home late at night in the winter. The snow falls, and sounds almost like muffled thunder. It can be so easily mistaken for  my breathing or sounds of traffic from highways outside of the city.

I remember living in my condo on the 20th floor how difficult it was to decipher sounds in the building. One could not tell if there was running water, if it was coming from the 10th floor or the 6th floor. Noise traveled through the pipes and could easily mislead the human ear.

I am reminded of that fact when I hear sounds in the winter night. I live in a suburbia yet I can see the bridge from my home that reaches the island of Montreal. I am surrounded by three majour highways and so when I hear a rumble in the nigh, I cannot always point out if it is from the sky or a huge truck bouncing on the highway kilometres away.

As I walk along the street leading to my home, I feel privileged seeing the untouched beauty along the way. The evergreens look like royalty with pristine snow sprinkled on their branches; barren trees now have white shawls loosely hanging on each limb. And as I look at the walkway to my home, I am royalty leaving my footprints on virgin snow.

(c) Clr ’15

flurries in the night
trees decked out as we sleep
paw prints on the snow

Daily moments also inspired by

 Carpe Diem Haiku Writing Technique : Movement (Undou)

lost (Haiga – Freestyle haiku)

I feel a bit silly after writing my love of spring weather and embracing that “feel good” ambiance on my way to work this afternoon…hence the tanka, Love is in the air.  As I stepped out tonight to come home at  22:00, this is what I saw…I felt like writing a poem starting with SNOW is a 4-letter word but decided to turn this into an opportunity and write a more thought-provoking “free style” haiku for this haiga festival.

 

March 3rd Snowfall leaving work

 

 

March 3rd Snow fall haiga first part corrected

March 3rd Snow fall haiga second part

 

 

scribbles a haiku
sunnyside of sidewalk
now lost in snow

 ~

now lost in snow
mind slips in overcast
too spent to resume
blow blow, let the wind blow
weary brain may recover

© Tournesol ’15

Carpe Diem Writing Technique Freestyle Haiku

Monday noon walk (choka + haiku)

© Clr ’14

(choka)

winter wonderland
snow filling my balcony

sipping my java
redundant image I see

cars slowing their speed
public transit the smart means

at twenty below
feels like minus thirty-five

dressing warm for work
wrapped in wool and feather lined

with studs on my boots
sun still pierces through the clouds

squinting and slogging
shuffling my way to the bus
admiring this winter scene

~

(haiku)

snow covered path
shadow at my side, leaves me
I get on the bus

© Tournesol ’15

CP Special Fuyuko Tomita’s “shadow”

First snow of this year (haibun)

cropped-header-for-tournesol3.jpg

Finally a snowstorm! That may sound a bit silly but the past two weeks without any snow during the holidays was truly not fun nor was it pretty. It was a dark and dreary for the holidays. I missed the wet snow flakes falling on my face when walking outside Christmas Eve; I missed the snow banks that looked like the wall of a fort protecting me when I walk on the sidewalk. The days are still short although slowly lengthening and the snow is necessary to give light in our wintry world…my world!

Today is Sunday and it has snowed nonstop for the past 36 hours and it’s my first day back at work. I actually look forward to walking to the bus stop and hearing the crunch crunch underfoot.  And tonight will be even nicer as I walk late in the evening in the middle of the road as I know the sidewalks in the city will not be cleared…it’s only Sunday, the city knows they have until Monday morning to get things cleared up on major arteries including sidewalks.

calm after the storm
footsteps echo on fresh snow,
winter wonderland

© Tournesol ’15

Haibun Thinking