Tanka Sequence

                                                                 

                                                              Falling

 

                                                     a dreamer’s dream

                                                     the fluff of fairy tales

                                                     and happy endings;

                                                     the fresh fragrance of you

                                                     like a May morning after rain

 

                                                     all that I feel

                                                     a lovely anguish

                                                     and a longing

                                                     relieved only by your kiss

                                                     and your arms encircling me

 

                                                     cheek touching cheek

                                                     your hand firm on my back   

                                                     guiding me as we dance

                                                     our hearts falling

                                                     into the same rhythm

 

Red Lights

 

Haiga

Cattails

Gean

Daily Haiga

Tanka Sequence: For Joseph

For Joseph F. Shaw

09/04/1932--03/31/2018

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD

To JFS on our 50^th anniversary 

first date

he reaches across

to take my hand

in an instant I know

he will hold it for life

the winter sun

through a window

warming my back;

the lazy comfort

of lunch for two

               

if I could turn back

I’d revise some stories

of my life,

yet, the part in which you come

would always be the same

 

youthful excitements

long ago put aside

for comforts of home;

my books, my music and wine

and you in my life

all the years

learning the ins and outs

of a marriage,

the last chapter not yet read,

not yet written

Red Lights

Jan. 2011

Haibun

                                                                   MY LIFE    

has been easy with husband children grandchildren and love lots of love with no problems but little ones about children’s illnesses to move overseas to buy a house and never a serious problem but days free of worry lulling me into thoughts of immunity are false for the time is now not then but now

                                                               a windless day

                                                               one by one leaves

                                                               lose their hold

Modern Haiku

autumn 2017

Haiga

Daily Haiga

Haiku: winter

 

an icy blue sky

clear to the horizon

my calendar empty 

heavy snow

we watch old movies

in black and white

bus stop

the winter dance

of cold feet

Cattails

Modern Haiku

Heron’s Nest

Haibun: Center Stage



I’m shy,  a little overweight and wear glasses.  I’m eleven years old.  I’m smart, but I don’t raise my hand in class.  I don’t volunteer to read aloud.  I don’t want to be included in a school play, even as the narrator reading from a script.  I’m not like my older sister who relishes being center stage.  When appointed to be the narrator, I’m too scared to object. I practice reading the lines at home, again and again.  My sister is my audience.  Rehearsals go smoothly; there’s only the teacher and the other kids in the play.  On the day of the show, there’s lots of encouragement from the teacher and big sis, but now there is an audience.

“You have to do it,” my sister says

“You do it,” I say.  I give her the script and go sit in the back of the auditorium. 

She does it beautifully, not merely reading the narrative, but reciting it from memory.

spring snowfall

daffodil buds delayed

another day

One Hundred Gourds, March 2012