Missed February first, but otherwise, here’s a month of haiku.
2/2
I spatchcocked a bird.
Found the spine and cut it out.
Then broke the breastbone.
2/3
Irish wool and fleece:
a two-sided coat stitched up
for the dog. Cold snap.
2/4
A violent pop
Shards held in place by the screen.
Ten below zero.
2/5
February air
skims the lake. A delicate
sparkle where ice-free.
2/5 – bonus
He says, “I’ll fix it
come spring.” Long-married answer:
“Oh? Spring of what year?”
2/6
Feb six, Monday, and
I do not wish to begin
this week. Will coffee help?
2/7
Gasp at the rubble.
Unquantifiable loss.
Somehow, we keep count.
2/8
Heat wooshes through vents
making cactus branch waggle.
Dog licks his paws. Home.
2/9
Grey sky. Rain speckles
the windshield as we head west.
Snow in the Berkshires?
2/10
Mountain to Glory.
Burgner’s Farm is gone. Pines Mom
planted tower tall.
2/11
She knows everyone.
Front desk, servers, her neighbors.
We’re just passing through.
2/12
One child picks New York.
The other picks Chicago.
News from Rieko.
2/13
“Maybe we’ve had six
inches of snow this season
total?” Overheard.
2/14
Taupe branches lift up
a pewter sky. But sunrise
burnishes bark gold.
2/15
Another tear down.
So begins the shrill beeping!
Next: jack hammer hell.
2/16
Children at the school
scream and holler in delight.
Sixty-one degrees.
2/17
“Will you rub my feet?”
Asking makes the dog go wild.
As if he’s denied!
2/18
Walking the dog loop,
I plan a salad for lunch:
beets, goat cheese, walnuts.
2/19
Campus is empty
but the swans can be found, one
so still, death waiting.
2/20
He arrived by train
wearing a gold and blue tie.
Zelenskyy teared up.
2/21
Pages from three years
ago. Ritual remembrance
or was it not me?
2/22
A leaden sky criss-
crossed by wires, poked by air vents.
I think: how lovely!
2/23
No school. No plows. White
streets with slush below. Curbs
in hiding. Take care!
2/24
Wind scatters ice chips.
They land on our heads like hail.
But it’s not. Sun’s out.
2/25
A light dusting fell
Cambridge street gone fairy white.
Twelve women, two cakes.
2/26
Where are the two mutts
who live at Bartlett corner?
Too cold to romp free.
2/27
Sleuth, poppycock, glare,
smudge, redress, cacophony.
Some words that I like.
2/28
He parks at the T
wearing hat, coat, gloves, flip flops.
A sign of something.
Fabulous Dee!
THanks Jude! It was all I could do not to post pix too but I wanted the words to stand by themselves.
Aw, I love that you were quietly doing this all month…and now you’ve brought it here to share, your words…here. ❤️ I mention only two, but really so much goodness!
2/14 ~ a love poem to our natural world. Love. Poem.
2/20 ~ A moment in time
Thanks Nancy. Those are two of my favorites. The earthquake in Turkey is in there too, but less obviously so.
Love the haiku poems!
Thanks Jen. It was fun!
These are glorious for otherwise gloomy February!! Not sure which ones I love most–maybe all.
Thanks Ellen. It’s fun to read a month’s worth because you get a sense of the weather and some of the big and small events.
What a poetic diary! Haiku cuts to the chase.
The brevity is appealing.
mmmmm these are so great! Each of them.
I’ll choose 2/12 and 2/25 as my favs. But as many have here said already, it’s hard to choose.
I lost interest years ago in writing poems. One of my old neighbors, who teaches poetry, read one I was proud of and verbally tore it up – not in a good way. She killed my courage to do any more. Probably a gift.
Yours are solidly in-the-moment, mentally on fire, and sweet like dense cookies 🙂
With courage, I offer:
Witch hazel planted,
Inviting ferns to weep one
Frond in hot light, later.
(That’s my math challenge for today.)
Yesterday I found this podcast: “The Witch Trials of JK Rowling”. What?! I listened to the intro and was hooked. All while driving 70 mph down the interstate with groceries in the back and eating a kindbar. I didn’t know anything about that Twitter hate-storm! Later, I mentioned it to Spouse. He was surprised I hadn’t known – I was surprised he *did* know; long-married, and doesn’t he have a job? (refer to haiku 2/5).
It looks like we got WW III, to me.
Finally finished “Ultra” – so grateful for Rachel, I know a lot more now, and I’m trying harder to pay more attention.
Ultra was fantastic. I hope she does more series. They’re so illuminating.
I’d like to slap that writing teacher who took the wind out of your sails. Such a disservice!
I have only been following the Rowling stuff peripherally but she’s starting to seem like bit of an asshole to me. I guess I shouldn’t say things like that before looking at the coverage straight in, should I?
You are kind – I know I was overly sensitive about the fact I probably made gross errors in structure as well as rhythm and cadence – plus I’m idisgusted sensitive to “criticism” that comes without any cushioning at all. I don’t really care what that person said anymore. Writing’s damn difficult.
My opinions on “The Witch Hunt” podcast about Rowling are still forming. Can’t tell if the host is out to condemn R or defend her. It could be that (hopefully) they are using this phenomenon of Rowling’s rise and fall to talk about the bigger cultural questions and issues.
That could be interesting?
Does sound interesting.
The fact that you’re even talking about “gross errors” with respect to former writing shows what a disservice that person did.
Thx – Indeed. I didn’t even catch that myself!
thank you for a month’s worth of haiku … a wonderful patchplay of words
now I’m thinking I really should read the Natalie Goldberg book on haiku that I bought a couple of years ago in Taos …
You’re welcome. I really really have to straighten out my reading of your blog. I mean the commenting. I can read easily enough but I have to enter through WP to be able to easily comment. Let me just say: I really like the rumpled version of patchwork, too.
Oh no! Not another mention of a writing book that I could easily convince myself is indispensable!
A fine way to mark and take note of the month of Feb. I especially enjoyed 2/27.
I’m not one who is much into poetry but I do read poems, now and then. What I especially enjoy is reading and noting excerpts from various poems and how they impact my day when I read them. In this month of March, I am delving back into a book that is filled with wisdom and poetry, John O’Donohue’s, Walk in Wonder. It is actually a series of conversations and addresses that he gave, over the years, to John Quin of RTE, Irish Broadcast Radio. This is an anniversary book edition so it has a forward by Krista Tippet who featured John on Many of her podcasts.
From John’s poem, For A New Beginning, excerpted from his book, To Bless the Space Between Us, this passage:
“Awaken your spirit to adventure,
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;,
Soon you will be home in this new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
Just started Fintan O’Toole’s book on Ireland called WE DONT KNOW OURSELVES. It’ll take me months to read — because novels — but I’m really learning a lot. Not the same as O’Donohue of course, but still a good kind of attention.
I’ve put this book on my list. I always carry a notebook with books that I want to read in my purse when I go to libraries or bookstores. It is checked out until 3/24/2023 but it looks like a good long read
It’ll take me a while. I like having the book because I’m underlining things.
In response to Dee (as this may very well end up at the end of the comments instead of in its place as a reply):
it is passing strange to me, since we are WordPress bloggers, that WP gives us a hard time when commenting on other WP blogs … what the what?
If I read you through WP reader, it’s fine. But I have you in Feedly where I read other blogs NOt on WP. I just need to remember.