This poem is a response to this prompt about wildlife. There’s plenty I could have written about, even in the city where I live, because plenty of birds, butterflies, lizards, and other animals live in the garden in my backyard. Today I was particularly inspired by being in a park with a lake earlier. The water sparkled, and so did some of the insects. Also linked to DVerse OLN.
Jewels on the lake:
Helicopter-dragonfly
Hovers in the sun
But why must all the operations in life be performed without an anesthetic?
– Ernest Hemingway, To Have and Have Not (1937)
A haibun alluding to the solstice for DVerse’s Haibun Monday.
Sweet, ripe strawberries convey the taste of summer. Store-bought may be bigger, but nothing can beat the beauty of garden-grown. The sun from my own back yard reddens the fruits, which have grown from hand-planted seeds, just as this daylight has grown from the seeds of winter nights. Teeth sink gratefully into the fruits of our labor.
This moment stands still
Reaching the peak of ripeness —
Sweet strawberry juice
For Dverse’s Quadrille Monday, the word of the week is “smudge.” I might not have ever written a quadrille so promptly! This was kind of a stream-of-consciousness, but I think that works with the theme of my poem.
Well, in not posting yesterday, I broke my 2-month+ posting streak. It felt weird not to share anything, but I had a full day, and of course I wrote a few things. 🙂 Today, I’m sharing a haibun inspired by FOWC: Modular and DVerse Poetics’s prompt about risk. I looked up the definition of “modular,”and it made me think of furniture from IKEA.
Because I want to post something today, here is something that I’m linking with DVerse’s prompt about repetition.
You think with time it will ease.
You think you can kiss away all my worries.
Yo don’t understand the hurt is too deep.
You do not see how much I keep
Trying to stay upright in a mental gale,
Something that ought to feel like a breeze.
You do not see my strength start to fail.
For DVerse Poetics, we are to use the inside and outside of a fruit as inspiration. Unexpectedly, I ended up writing something, and though it’s no masterpiece, I think it works.
Outside:
Sturdy, thick skin
Can be scraped to make zest,
Can get under sharp fingernails
Which peel
Open —
Citrus juice spills
Over hands which hold soft
Segmented flesh out, sweet and tart
To taste
This poem is for FOWC: Search and was partially inspired by this prompt about what provides comfort. It is written in a form that I learned from Abigail Gronway at “Dark Side of the Moon” a long time ago. Go check out her blog; she writes fantastic poetry! I am also linking with DVerse OLN.
May’s full moon is on Wednesday, and it is known as the Flower Moon, as Frank, the host of DVerse Haibun Monday, says.
This month, I have noticed a wealth of new flowers in the garden: varying shapes and shades, hues of pink and yellow, almost whatever one could name. Bees are busy pollinating, and the blueberries, too, are growing and ripening from a gentle light-green. We have already picked a bowlful; soon the fruits will fill baskets. The garden is waiting to give many other fruits and vegetables as treasures.
after heat of day
buzz of all activity
rests under the moon
For DVerse “Meeting the Bar,” we are waltzing with our words. I’m a little late to the (dance) party. 🙂
We walk by faith not sight,
Yet faith’s more than a guess:
The Holy Trinity
Becomes soul’s welcome guest —
He teaches how to live
And how to, trusting, rest.
The life of faith is hard,
Yet also it’s a dance:
A deep relationship
To daily life enhance —
Eternally enjoy
Exploring this romance.
