Haibun

 

                                          CHRISTMAS DAY 2002

 

Christmas afternoon at my daughter’s house.   Lulled by good food, holiday music and family  cheer.  Realizing too late we have stayed too long.

 

                                            a spreading whiteness

                                            as darkness descends—

                                            the intense quiet

 

Street not plowed.  Almost no indication where curbs are.  We open the side windows to see better.  Heavy-laden trees and bushes reach out to grab at the car and lash us.  Can’t make a hill.  We back down and try again.  A longer run this time, but still not quite.  Once more we back down and slide into a drift.

 

                                             wind-blown snow

                                             the slow slog back

                                             to family

 

Presence, #28 Jan. 2006

HAIGA

Haigaonline
spring 2014
part of a series,
Fantasy Garden

HAIBUN

                                                    WEEDING

Once more I’m down on my hands and knees creeping along the garden bed pulling weeks.  It’s an on-going spring and summer activity, never getting ahead, always playing catch-up. Weed killers or preventers have limited or no success.  What works, although only temporarily, is pulling them.

There is some pleasure in this chore.  It requires no deep concentration on the activity itself, freeing my thoughts to float on the breeze.  To think about big things–the unrest in the Middle East, unemployment, the national debt.  And, little things…

                                                 an ant

                                                           crawling across my hand
                                                                                             the long journey

 WORLD HAIKU CLUB REVIEW

March 2013

HAIBUN

                                            NAXOS BLUE

Blue…as the sky is blue, a hot blue seen on a scorching day at noon.  Blue…as the Aegean Sea is blue, a shimmering blue under the never ending sun.  Blue on doors and shutters, on small boats in the harbor, on café signs, on domes of churches in the dusty hills.  Blue against the glare of white stucco buildings, blue against the sheen of white marble steps and sidewalks.

                                          blue and white bowl

                                              ancient history takes shape

                                                   in my hands

A HUNDRED GOURDS, Sept. 2013

JOURNEYS, An anthology of International Haibun

Edited by Angelee Deodhar, 2014