International Haiku Day

INTERNATIONAL HAIKU DAY and POETRY FRIDAY

International Haiku Day on April 17 is a great opportunity to dust off haiku skills. Our backyard forsythia inspired me. We have never had the good fortune to witness this New England harbinger of spring in our yard until this year in a new home. 

A bit of process here - notebook, pencil, phone camera were my tools. Next, close observation, appreciation, brainstorming. Blossoms, bloom, yellow, lemon, burst, thicket, hope filled my list and crafting began. I don't feel constricted by the 5-7-5 syllable "rule", because English words tend to be longer than Japanese, and I feel a shorter syllable count is more true to the nature of the haiku form.

"Yellow thicket became lemon thicket, and you can see where this is going... "Lemony Snicket" popped into my brain, and the rest fell into place. "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is a polite way of describing the times we're living through, and probably best for a poem. I have found it difficult to maintain the optimism with which others often characterize me. Hope is sometimes buried, but the re-appearance of spring encourages me.

hope blossoms

midst unfortunate events -

lemony thicket 

I was pleased to have some haiku accepted by Moonstone Arts for their April 17 celebration. It's my first experience with them, and I like their philosophy and mission.

 I've been away for a long time. It's wonderful to know that Poetry Friday celebrations are as robust as ever. Thanks to Heidi over at My Juicy Little Universe for rounding up the poetry community and posting a video on teaching poetry!

 

Egg Poems

 

 Happy Poetry Friday and Spring! Michelle Kogan hosts the Poetry Roundup today, featuring spring poems from the latest edition of The Best of Today's Little Ditty.

The old blown egg idea came to me last week, probably in anticipation and hope for spring here in the Northeast. Also because we’ve been enjoying eggs from our daughter’s chickens, and somehow I look at each egg less casually since I know the effort that produced it – both the hen’s and our daughter’s!

So I googled blown eggs and set to work with a turkey lacing pin and a lot of hot air! These are the egg poems I wrote.

solitude

embryo sheltering

in place

enlightenment

first sunlight streaming

through pecked hole

 

 My hope is that those who are at home will find ways to embrace solitude in these unusual days, and that those who are out there working for the good of all of us will be protected and

safe.