Haibun: The Watch

Haibun: The Watch
“Those we love never truly leave us, Harry. There are things that death cannot touch.” – Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two

An early leaf burning: smoke wanders and its incense drifts to heaven. The voices of cicadas are silent now in the stand of cedars on the hill. I go to the pile of stones gathered from daily walks down to the creek and back. I bring one back and place it carefully on the pile. I began years ago with the death of friend, and then the death of my mother and the three suicides of friends last July and the death of my cousin Billy last October. I also place a candle in a gallon jar, that will burn though the night. The night will be cloudy, the stars unseen. But that doesn’t mean the stars aren’t there, just hidden from view. Like the loved ones gone before. I will sit on my back porch and watch the candle through the night, keeping watch, drifting in and out of sleep, of dreams. I sit entranced in the midst of the haiku I wish I could write.
the silent cedars
on the hill bear witness
to unseen stars

 

Cedars on the Hill

For Sherry’s prompt at Real Toads, the art of Emily Carr, an artist from British Columbia, Canada.  A very interesting artist.

Cedars on the Hill
Cedars are terribly sensitive to change of time and light – sometimes they are bluish cold-green, then they turn yellow warm-green – sometimes their boughs flop heavy and sometimes float, then they are fairy as ferns and then they droop, heavy as heartaches. – Emily Carr

I watch the cedars on the hill across the way
like I watch the changing of the seasons.
the deep blue green,
the paler green,
the red of the dying branches.
I walk among them
and brush my hands against them
taking their scent unto myself.
small creatures live beneath them
and birds build their nests in them.
I love them most when it snows
and creatures hunker for warmth
in them and beneath them.
beneath the heavy sky
they stand in groups
and are their own community.

Cedar – Emily Carr 1942

 

 

 

 

Haibun: Cedars against snow

For Real Toads Tuesday platform.  This haibun only has 39 words, more than enough.I feed a family of ten feral cats on a daily basis. Slowly I am getting them all fixed with rabies shots.

Haibun: Cedars against snow
Against the snow on the hillside, the cedars show up almost black. The wind whistles over the snow; the occasional bark of crows wafts over the meadow.
a crow caws
across the meadow – feral cats
line up for food

feral cats

Cedars

a gogyoshi for Open Link Night at dVerse. A gogyoshi has five lines like a cinquain or tanka. However – that is the only “rule” for this Japanese poetic form. No syllable count, no rhyme or rhythm required. Exactly five lines, any style.

Cedars
cedars in the meadow
lined up in a row –
all is silent in the snow
except for the lonely call
of a crow.

Cedar – Ansel Adams 1956

Four Winter Haiku

Posting winter haiku today for Poets United Poetry Pantry.  Thanksgiving is past and in our rearview mirror.  Winter is in front of us.  Thank you to the Poets at Poets United for all their kindness and support.  Some of my photos are posted there today.  Tomorrow, Sherry Blue Sky will post an interview with me and more photos on Poets United.  Come visit! http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/2015/11/poetry-pantry-280.html

 

Public Domain Photo

 

I.
dead leaves carpet ground
beneath bare trees – end of
fall…winter begins

II.
Bitter cold morning –
Quick whiff of wood smoke before
Nostrils become numb.

III.
Spits of icy rain
bitter wind tossing tree tops
spring seems distant dream

IV.
brown hillside – splashes
of green cedars – small creatures
find food and shelter.