Haiku 12262018

day after Christmas
lies in tattered shreds
covered with heavy frost

Coming of Snow

For Real Toads, Marian’s Fussy Little Forms Prompt:  Puente is a rewarding form created by James Rasmusson. The word puente means bridge in Spanish, and–naturally–this lovely form features a bridge. It is a simple idea:  Three stanzas – First and third stanzas have equal number of lines (your choice how many) Middle bridge stanza is one line, enclosed in dashes or tildes.  Middle bridge stanza serves as last line for first stanza and first line for last stanza. I used classic haiku for my stanzas, combining two forms. I am in an odd emotionless time at this point and it is reflected in my poetry.

Coming of Snow
bitter cold morning –
quick whiff of wood smoke before
nostrils become numb

the smell of snow in the air – sharp and sweet

frost forms on window –
moon stays warm among the stars –
quiet night sleeps

The Kittens

For Sanaa’s Get Listed at Real Toads. The four words I chose were lucid, touch, sleep, gravel. This is also being posted on dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night.

The Kittens
it was a clear and chilly morning.
The gravel crunched beneath my feet
as I walked back from getting our newspaper
from the foot of the drive.
The chill snatched the sleep from my eyes
and the frost sparkled on the grass.
The morning was like a lucid dream
and I bent down to touch a blade of grass –
the frost melting beneath my fingers.
I put the paper on top of some boxes in our garage.
Something caught my eye.
I looked behind the boxes and saw a nest of newborn kittens,
huddled close and tight for warmth
And then I noticed the maggots
crawling on their beautiful fur.
My mind warp sped to the body of a cat
I had seen in the road a few days earlier.
The kittens were stiff in death –
Orange, tabby, black, and calico
all together in a nest of death.
I began to weep in grief.
The morning turned to nightmare
as I grabbed a shovel and walked
to the edge of the woods to bury them.
When I was through
I sat on the back steps and thought
of how the death of wild kittens
could hurt so damn much.

haiku: 122817

frost forms on window –
moon stays warm among the stars –
quiet night sleeps

Autumn Deepens: aki fukashi 秋深し (あきふかし

night and moon: autumn
deepens – frost glitters on leaves
and fades in the sun

12/21/12 12:21 am

The earth softly turns

In its sleep.  A sigh in the

Dark.  Sussuration.

 

A half moon gently

Glows through India ink tree

Branches.  Bare.  Frozen

 

In time. Ending and

Beginning as well.  Beginning

Winter and iron

 

Earth.  Ending of warm

Soil and extravagant blooms.

Time to rest, repair.

 

My footsteps crunch on

Frosted grass.  No fear of this

Darkness, this aloness.

 

No grief at this end.

No fear of this beginning.

Silent. Aware. Calm.

 

The earth softly turns.

I hear it sighing in its sleep.

I smile in darkness.