July 2016

May your seas harbor
a transparent clarity
that mirrors your heart.

A grid and haiku for summer and July, using Colleen’s prompts for the week.

dusting and dancing

Are fairies dusting
the air?  Lights glimmer, dancing
magic in reply.

Colleen is celebrating International Fairy Day (Saturday) with her word prompt this week.  Time to dance!

Conjuring

Can today assume tomorrow? Time travels without a map, like branches reaching toward the sun.

staring into light
eyes enter mind, as presence
always becoming

Seeking the hour of forever, the question lingers: is it too late or too early?

with smoke and mirrors
the gaps confuse prediction–
nothing is revealed

This may or may not be a haibun, but it was composed for Colleen’s poetry challenge this week, once again incorporating prompt words from the Secret Keeper.  I was also inspired by the wonderful tree and light artistry of Sue Vincent and Claudia McGill.

 

Sky Dancing

like calligraphy
skywriting black against blue
clouds and trees dancing

Sue Vincent’s photo prompt, above, gave me a chance to try an idea I’ve been thinking about for awhile.  A few years ago I did a cross-stitch poem on paper, and I was intrigued by the pattern that appeared on the back.  This seemed the perfect opportunity to see what would happen if I tried it over some watercolor collaged together.

I think I may have overdone it with the stitching, but I can always pull some out; the holes in the paper will make a subtle and interesting pattern too.  I’ll look at it for awhile and think about it.

Here’s the poem side, with part of the haiku and some patterns (I wanted to try those out as well).

 

June 2017 More Water Lilies

Water lilies—mirrored
sky holding deep dreams, rampant
with riotous light

Another Monet-inspired grid.  Happy June!

Time Zones

hands now forgotten
sun and moon untraced in time
light drifting unmoored

past and future reflected
in the trembling of machines

Tanka written for Colleen’s weekly challenge.  The Oracle had its own haiku commentary this morning too.  Colleen’s prompt photo, below.

vast laughing awakes
old breath of eternity
unborn yet timeless

Broken

unfathomable
 the future is exploded
time again undone

 

Mother’s Day 2017

My mother loved roses.  The Oracle caught my mood.

magic flower laughs
opens remembering heals
like stars aborning

 sacred spirit shines
between memory and rose
flowering the soul

Draw a Bird Day: Blue Jay

blue on blue–feathers
echoing sky holding sun
as wings scatter light

Blue Jay feathers are not really blue, but appear so because of the way the light reflects off of them.  At least that’s what all the bird websites say…

I am on call for Federal Jury duty the next 2 weeks.  Not sure what it means for getting anything done, but no electronics allowed in Federal Court–including phones–and I have to call every night to see if I need to show up the next day.  I may be around, or not.

The birds have been extra-present around here this spring…I can hear them waking the day right now.  Happy Draw-a-Bird Day!

May Day/International Worker’s Day

translations of light–
shifted green a mirrored edge
projected beyond

“Work well and have gratitude to Mother Earth.”
–Gary Snyder

“If we do not serve what coheres and endures, we serve what disintegrates and destroys.”
–Wendell Berry

 “When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”
— Audre Lorde