NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—FISH TEARING

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fish tearing

fighting off flies

we win

At Pedro's restaurant on the beach in La Manzanilla my friend Jean and I often order an entire red snapper (each), grilled to perfection with garlic. She christened the eating of same "fish tearing" because the only somewhat successful way to fight off the flies that come swarming (and who can blame them?) is to eat it with one hand while waving them off with the other. Absolutely delicious and worth the fight. We miss you, Pedro!

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—BACKGAMMON SAND

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backgammon sand

every game

the waves win

This morning began with a Zoom gathering of five of us who would usually be in La Manzanilla this time of year. A mini-writers' group. Afterwards I was moved to go through some pictures. Here's one of the beach! I suspect there may be a few more this month. 

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—NIGHT SKY

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night sky

cosmos beckons

not so far away

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—PIT HOUSE

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pit house

remains

the forest remembers

The picture was taken on Zuckerberg Island. Can you believe how little snow there's been this winter?

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—FROZEN FLAG

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frozen flag 

the river sculpts a leaf 

oh Canada

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—LULL

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lull 

the onomatopoeic susurration 

of a lullaby

For most of these recent poems I've just let the words and pictures explain themselves, but I wanted to say a couple of things about this one. I was just setting the post up, centring where the lines would go even though I hadn't a clue what I was going to write about tonight. I did one of those keyboard things you do, bashed out a few letters so I could italicize them, and the word "lull" appeared. So I thought about that for all of a minute, decided to go with it, and the rest of this strange little senryu came loping along as if it knew where it was going. Then I wondered what picture could possibly go with it and landed on this one. All of which took approximately ten minutes.

This month I'm taking a four-week poetry course on seriality with Paul Nelson who is a proponent of Alan Ginsberg's "first thought, best thought" approach to writing. Paul is a founder of POPO, the August postcard poem exchange I've written about a few times. I'm starting to think that the four hundred and thirty-four postcard poems I've written in the fourteen years I've been doing that are a kind of serial poem in themselves. 

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—HE STOKES THE FIRE

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he stokes the fire 

warms our bodies 

still he warms my heart 

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—SHE HUGS HER DOG

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she hugs her dog 

shawl I crocheted years ago

 hugs her  

  

  

Love in the time of Covid. My mom, who’s a hundred and a half, taken a couple months ago. Now I’m back to visiting her through a window. 

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—COHORTS

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cohorts

there's always someone

who has to be different

Really reaching here, but sometimes the Muse is not cooperative. And I went for a five kilometre walk today so now I just want to go to bed! So I give you geese, shitting all over the soccer field down at Millennium Park. As they do. 

This one most definitely fits the definition of a senryu, as per a quick copy from Wikipedia (to whom I donate yearly so I hope they don't mind!)

Senryū is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 morae. Senryū tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and senryū are often cynical or darkly humorous while haiku are more serious.

However, neither haiku nor senryu written in English need adhere to the 5/7/5 morae, or syllable "rule." 

If you're interested, there is a fairly concise explanation of the two forms here. 

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—TREES TURN INTO BROOMS

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trees turn into brooms

sweep away

February clouds

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—MY FRIEND'S BIRTHDAY

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my friend's birthday

remembering treks to her house

her mother's fresh rolls

Happy Birthday, Susan! Hard to believe those treks happened some sixty years ago. We didn't have cell phones in those days so I don't, in fact, have pictures of your mom's incredible dinner rolls but these are more or less how I remember them. 

And those treks! Up the path behind our house, over the big empty field that is now holds so many homes, over a fence (nobody minded), down to Duhamel Creek, crossed it on a log (!), up through more beautiful woods and fields until finally I came to the road below the house that was then at the end of Heddle Road and on to your place. How lucky were we!

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—DESPITE THE COLD

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despite the cold

river stones reach out

catch the sun

 

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—POLAR VORTEX

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polar vortex

he sets out molds

ice candles tomorrow

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—UNEXPECTED MARVELS

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unexpected marvels

blue sky and birdsong

snow begins to melt

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—PINE FOREST

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pine forest

decades of needles underfoot

so silent

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—CLAY POT MY FATHER MADE

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clay pot my father made

pens within

remember him

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NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—RIVER ICE CLOUDS

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river      ice      clouds

stillness 

a clock ticking

NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—AFTER DAYS OF RAIN

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after days of rain

unexpected sunshine

pinch me

NaHaiWriMo—A MONTH OF HAIKU—IMBOLC RAIN

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Imbolc rain

snow transmogrifies to slush

Saint Brigid weeps