Haibun: Canoeing in the Pine Barrens

For Mish’s prompt at dVerse. Today is Quadrille Monday. A quadrille is a poem of exactly 44 words using the word prompted for the day. The word today is “steep” or variants of the word. I have taken you all to my beloved Pine Barrens in New Jersey. The creek and river water is colored with the tannins leached from the roots of the pine and cedar trees.  I have done a haibun in the manner of the original created by Basho – brief and to the point ended with a seasonal haiku.

Haibun: Canoeing in the Pine Barrens
Canoeing through the Pine Barrens is peaceful – floating on crystal clear water the color of tea leaves steeped in a glass pitcher. Silence. Slight shush of the canoe on water soothes us.
sounds of birds and wind –
umber colored water flows
through the Barrens

creek in the Pine Barrens

Haiku 12262018

day after Christmas
lies in tattered shreds
covered with heavy frost

Silent as Dust Falling

For the Tuesday Platform at Real Toads.

Silent as Dust Falling
“Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom…is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go. -Anthony Bourdain”

I lay on the sand
gazing up at the stars.
No ambient light –
just the stars above me.
I realize that when I am wiser
I will seek out these places of solitude,
the bowl of simple noodles in broth,
the tree in the middle of the forest.
I will find peace in the stars above me,
peace in the loneliness of the desert,
peace in the middle of the noisy rowdy city.
Listening to the waves whispering
is the only music I need –
The rain tapping the leaves,
the snow falling silent as dust,
the leaf falling from the tree,
the songs the stars sing as they travel through the darkness,
I breathe deeply, quietly
not wanting to disturb the music.

copyright kanzensakura

Frozen Stars: a tanka

Today for Tuesday’s Platform at Real Toads: A tanka.  Tanka are not titled.

nbc news – public domain

 

December night sky –
snow like frozen stars silent
as dust falls to earth –
no wishes on these lost stars –
summer photo fades with time

 

 

I am published in this fine anthology of poetry from contributors to dVerse Poets Pub.  An incredible gathering of most excellent poets available at Amazon US and UK.

Snowflakes

In Japan there are various words and nuances for “silent” or “silence”. Shizuka means total silence. Chinmoku is reticence, holding back or, more intriguing, the silence between the notes. For Real Toads, 30 in 30. This is day five. This is the farthest I have gone in NAPOWRIMO Day 5.

Snowflakes
Shizuka –
the first snowflake is silent –
at night they drift –
falling one by one
slowly piling into drifts –
silent they fall into the night –
the wind gets into them
blowing them this way and that –
chinmoku – they hold back their words
their noise their speaking –
sound comes from the wind
or the tree branches rattling –
the snowflakes speak
various forms of silence –
snowflakes fall – drift –
only the owls hear them –
gliding through snowflakes –
they hunt more silent
than the snowflakes – I walk
among them listening to
the silence of the flakes,
the swish of the owl’s wings

public domain image

Poets United Midweek Motif: Silence

For Poets United Midweek Motif – Silence

Afterwards
The silence after the argument between us was devastating –
like the silence after an F-5 tornado –
trailers were coming to that last roll,
electrical wires were still buzzing and popping.
We sat on opposite sides of the fireplace –
burning its warmest friendliest best
but we were not to be lured into its trap.
We were imprisoned inside my house by the snow –
I wanted you gone and you wanted to be gone.
All civility between us was shattered.
I made myself a cup of hot chocolate –
with a bit of bourbon and offered you none.
The snow fell silently
and steadily outside.
I sipped from my mug.
At last the cats came out of hiding.

dVerse Poetics: The Smell of Chrysanthemums

Today Kim is prompting for dVerse Poetics: Autumn. I never get enough of autumn. Come join us and read. https://dversepoets.com/2017/10/17/poetics-the-smell-of-chrysanthemums/ This is also posted for Real Toads: http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-tuesday-platform_17.html

Silence of autumn
I sit on my back porch steps –
Autumn is silent this year –
insects are quiet at night –
The moon is a thin s(l)hiver
in the black sky.
I smell autumn coming –
I see autumn coming –
but this year
autumn is silent.
Golden leaves among the green
drop to the ground – dead
from a dry spring and summer.
Autumn is silent this year.
The first frost is not yet singing –
It waits in the clouds
for a cold dark night.
Autumn is silent.
Too many losses –
Too many tears.
The moon is a thin s(h)liver
in the black sky.
Autumn is silent this year.
My mother loved chrysanthemums.