Countryside Musings...

It's fall over at One Deep Breath, and the theme for this week is Countryside. I've been reading "Last Child in the Woods," by Richard Louv, and growing fearful for the future of nature. (Although he also reports many encouraging steps to overcome what he's calling "nature-deficit disorder.") So today's prompt brings us this:

crisp leaves line the path

it's fall in the countryside

where are the children?

I'm still looking for a photo to match my memories of shuffling through the leaves, inhaling the sweet scents of fall in the woods. Hope to have one up soon.

For more on this inspiring book, please see: Why Kids Need Nature, a review for parents that discusses Louv's book and its key points. And head for the hills this fall, with your kids!

Check out other countryside experiences at our weekly haiku gathering.

Solitude as Hyper Fib...

how
it
calls me
from other
points on my life path
where to find wabi sabi now?
in the wild where solitude rests forever alone

If we extend the fib concept for another line, we have the "hyper fib"-- which may, in fact, ruin the terseness of the form, but can still be fun to play with. I suspect blogger will play havoc with the shape of this and give me a few extra line wraps, unfortunately.

Solitude: so rich to roll around the mind. Inner solitude is often available. But for physical solitude, I turn to thoughts of deep woods, especially those of the northeast U.S. where I grew up. It was never obvious to us as children that it was tame. Trees gave the illusion of solitude, getting lost in the backyard. Here, midst the playground of a major metropolitan area, solitude in the "wild" can be tough to discover. What do the kids do for solitude in such an environment? More haiku on Solitude at One Deep Breath.

Perhaps when the time comes that
there is no more silence and no more aloneness,
there will also be no longer
anyone who wants to be alone.

--Joseph Wood Krutch

For the rest of this quote, a larger excerpt at least, please visit Romantic Naturalist.

Haiku, um... Wednesday?

Okay, Sunday then! I've really been enjoying last week's posts over at One Deep Breath-- where our challenge is "the sound of music," and oodles of new talent is appearing! I've had a fun week getting acquainted with all the new contributors, as well as seeing what our regulars have to say.

Time to give up and join in! Here's the one I actually did write on Haiku Monday:

two crows in one tree
calling on the morning breeze
day's music to me.

And here's one to inject a little levity:

last night it got late
"I'll do the dishes," he said
Music to my ears.

And, did you notice, "music of the spheres" not only rhymes but has the same syllable count? So here's one more for good measure.

music of the spheres
singing from all Nature brings
music to my ears.

Alas, it's as if FF is still on vacation-- not just The Trip, but even now that I'm home! So I have a huge backlog of ideas I just need to turn into pixels. One of these days, I'm sure, I actually will!

Coffee and Tea... Haiku Monday

I missed out on the "ceremony and ritual" assignment at One Deep Breath, but today's challenge will do nicely. Is it cheating to use a haiku written earlier? Morning tea and coffee are an enduring ritual at our house, quiet time together...

Cold morning, hot tea

The one I love beside me

Two cats on the bed.

Scenic Route Fibs

Okay... Promised, fibs were-- and here they are! Below are two views of Lizard Head Rock, aka Tunnel Rock, in Red Rocks Park.

this
road
goes home
more slowly
winding through red rocks
giving time for contemplation.

to
home
this goes:
winding road
better than freeway
quiet and much more respectful!

Thanks for all your comments! It is indeed a fascinating place and a great distraction for the trip home. You've inspired me to get back to work --and post more photos--on the main Red Rocks site--soon! Meanwhile, please see details on these rocks on the long-neglected Local History Explorer.

The Scenic Route

For Haiku Monday, this week's assignment is to take the road less traveled.

I can reach my destination on the interstate, or... not!

the four-lane is fast,

but I'd rather go slowly

where red rocks beckon.

Oh! Bet this would make a good fib assignment too!

For more on this location, see Historic Red Rocks!

A Raft of Haiku

This week's challenge from One Deep Breath was "garden." Well, that struck a chord, or two actually! As haiku are addictive, I'm going to indulge in a few today. (Thanks for your patience.)

The Garden: first thought was the wonderful garden-in-progress we visited in Maine, the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Worth a visit, formally opens next year. This summer it's lovely in spots, a little raw in others. But I admired the lichens, we saw a leopard frog along a manicured path, and the idea of wild and tame together caught my fancy.

Brand new Maine gardens
Lichens 'mid tame flowers
Making room for wild.

Or, a variant in Fib form--

New
Maine
gardens
Frog hides here
amid tame flowers.
The wild waits beyond our dim sight.

I love the shape of Fibs when they're centered!

Home Again Fib and Haiku: The Husband, perhaps overwhelmed by the awesome responsibility of keeping everything alive in my absence, did an impressive job with plants I'd almost killed (with neglect) before I left. This photo from this morning documents some of his success.

Herb
plants
look great,
Thanks to one
who waited behind--
I should go away more often.

Welcome morning chores
after weeks of traveling
say I’m home again!

The "morning chores" haiku reflects all the livestock--wild and tame--he had to care for while I was gone. From filling hummingbird feeders (five) to feeding wild birds, cats, dogs, parakeets, and chickens... well, let's just say I think he's glad I'm finally home to help out a bit.

More Overdue Haiku

I've gotten so far behind with Haiku Monday, I hardly know where to start! This week's assignment is to look at something from two different perspectives. So here's my entry, in the nick of time...

Driving west, home from my "magnificient trip," as one friend calls it, I enjoyed driving through a magnificient storm in the vicinity of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Many cars pulled over to wait it out, as visibility was nil, but some of us persisted (slowly) in continuing westward. No opportunity for photos, sadly-- I would have drowned!

To the Farmer:

rain falls on croplands
bringing life-giving water,
beans and corn grow tall.

To the Traveler:

sheets of rain buffet
as we try to move forward:
some people just park.

Journey... Home?

Today's haiku assignment from One Deep Breath is about the Journey. Perfect-- it catches me in the middle of perhaps the longest (literal) journey of my life-- well over 2800 miles and counting.

Today at the beach, I was thinking about the vertical displacement more than the horizontal distance and feeling just a little homesick ... so here's my haiku for this week:

six thousand feet down

our feet find a new ocean

unhomed... Atlantic.

Overdue Fibs...

Sorry I've been so scarce here! Lots to tell and show in photos, this trip, but at the moment I'm overdue for an assignment from One Deep Breath. I've been waiting for the photos to come together with the internet connection, but here goes without the visual aids.

The assignment this week is to explore a new haiku formula, called the fib, following the Fibonacci series. A six-line poem with syllable counts of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 in the lines. Follow the link above to see more fibs and great photos from the haiku team.

I'm at New Haven (CT) now, and have been through a lot of rain to get here. (Still trying to send some of it home.) Yale is beautiful, but the first sunny day was Friday. So here's the fib:

Sun
peeks
out through
constant clouds
drying up puddles:
a day to furl the umbrella.

More eastern nature notes soon, I promise...

Forest Pathway

Our theme for this Haiku Monday is pathways. A tough assignment from One Deep Breath! Here is my entry this week:

forest pathway strewn

with hail beckons

through the trees...

They say you can break the rules (5-7-5, or 17 syllables, or...), but this may have gone too far! See today's other post for more photos of Friday's unconventional weather.

So here's a more conventional haiku, following up on last week's assignment:

blessings on the land

in a healthy quenching rain:

Earth sighs in relief.

Full Moon Rain Down!

So, we've established that the Yuccas seem to be having a good year. But they may be the only ones! I'm sorry to add, things are looking bleak for the rest of Nature around here. It is dry, dry, dry. Promises to be equal to-- hope not worse than-- the bad year of 2002, when rattlesnakes moved down out of the hills in search of prey, and water rationing was the rule of the day in most local jurisdictions.

Bee Lady reports from a park down south a ways that even the native Junipers are dying! We need rain... badly! On our walk a week ago, we noticed the native Delphinium leaves were dried to a crisp, without flowering. All that green promise I reported so optimistically a month or two ago is withering before our eyes.

With all this in mind, One Deep Breath wants us to talk about the Moon this Haiku Monday. Thunder clouds gathered yesterday afternoon, raising our hopes, and obscuring its face. I never got to see the Full Moon til after midnight. I will try to add a photo later, but for today, here is my hopeful, nay desperate, haiku for a rainy moon.

Thunder without Rain--

Is This Moon Full of Water?

Goddess, Let it Fall!

I wouldn't want to short anyone else, but from what I hear, points east have more water than they can handle. We could sure use a little.

Here's a favorite remembered haiku, by one of the Japanese masters I believe, that I reenacted all last night:

Nine times rising to see the Moon,

Whose silent pace

Marks only midnight yet.

Walking in Nature

Today, Foothills Fancies has an entry (actually, two) to One Deep Breath, recommended by Endment. One Deep Breath is looking for haiku on this week's theme: Walking in Nature. Thanks for sharing, Endment!

beside a dead log

springs new life, form, and color:

Indian paintbrush

rock ledge overgrown

with moss, bearberry, lichen:

lion's secret lair?