Haibun

 

CHURCH CEMETARY

 

Many gravestones sunken into the ground. Names barely legible.  Dutch and English names.  Family members buried near each other.  New York settlers seeking religious freedom, land, adventure, fortune.

 

One large headstone for three children: William, one day old; Margaret, seven months;  Jonathan, three months, each one born a little more than a year after the death of the previous child.

Did the parents try again and their fourth child live? Surely, this couple had a dream, a plan, along with courage and fear,  when they came to this raw, new land.  Did they ever find what they were seeking?  There are no other markers with the same family name.

                                           chilling wind –

                                           children on the playground chase

                                           a run-away kite

 Presence #38, Spring,2008

TANKA

                                              she sings of autumn
                                              and of love dying–
                                              I know not of this
                                              yet, for all my happy days
                                              there comes a melancholy

Modern English Tanka
July 2009

HAIKU

                                           cooler today   I form a plan
                                           greater than    my energy

                                          tea in china cups
                                          the wet afternoon perfumed
                                          with tangerine peels

                                          mid-afternoon
                                          a waning sun comes through
                                          the autumn damp

Cattails, Jan. 2014
Shiku Kukai, May 2011
Hokku Web page, Dec. 2003