Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey
My mom used to pen Haikus for fun, and she did it her way most of the time. She didn’t often pay attention to how many syllables each line had, which made them even more special and cute.
Here are a few of my mom's Haikus:
Flooding waters
lapping at the door
catfish swimming by
(She wrote that one after Hurricane Fay hit Florida. If you read Seismic Crimes, this is the catfish that inspired the catfish in a scene in the beginning of the book.)
Siblings argue
Snake in the grass
hearts turn cold
life is too short.
(She dated that one as September 2014, and I have a feeling it was about me and my siblings.)
Fleas
Scratch
Purr
Scratch
My kitty
My bunny.
(She wrote that one for me because I nicknamed my black cat "my bunny." His real name is Cole. I started calling him "my bunny" when he was a baby because he hopped a lot. In fact, he still does.)
I’ve penned a few haiku poems of my own over the years, but they weren’t really my thing. I wrote one the morning of March 26th, though, while I was at church for Sunday service. It’s not as morbid as it may seem at first. It’s about hope and new life:
Bones, my bones are dry
But deep inside is a breath
Life, new life I have.
After that, I made it my thing to write a haiku or two or three while at church. But I've also penned others, like this one that I came up with following a walk through a nature preserve:
Erna Nixon Park
Towering trees everywhere
Take a walk with me.
Writing haikus became a hobby that calmed my mind and connected me to my mom. Every time I write one, I wish I could go to her room and share it with her, because I know she'd be pleased to also have writing haikus in common with me, but I can't. I know, though, that if she's watching she is pleased with them. That connection with her through haiku meant a lot to me in the beginning, and it still does now.
D - Donating
E - Epistle (Letter from Heaven)
F - Facebook Posts
G - Grief Share
H - Haiku Poetry
Hi Chrys - yes ... we will continue to wish we could share our thoughts, our creative talents with those who've gone. Your bone one is interesting and as you tell us it's cheery: noting life is ahead. With thoughts - Hilary
ReplyDeleteThank you! I’m pretty proud of that poem.
DeleteHaiku's are challenging. That you have some penned by your mother born of personal history is wonderful. For the love interest of my Byronic protagonist, I tried my hand at one:
ReplyDeleteDreams drift like clouds
I reach for the moon
I touch but empty night.
Your mother's were much better.
That’s a fine haiku in my opinion.
DeleteHaiku are fun. It's good to get some poetry in your life.
ReplyDeleteThey are fun. Once I started writing them, they became easier to come up with.
DeleteHi Chrys - love that this haiku is the source of the Catfish in your book. I see you describe yourself as tattooed, disabled writer which immediately raises the questions for me - what tattoos and where (not pruriently but as to the significance of them) disabled in what way (again, not pruriently but pertaining to how that affects being a writer - i have a permanent splint though I wouldn't identify as disabled but it does affect what I can and can't do) and does disability colour your writing. I like your theme and will be visiting regularly now...
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting how-would-you-know.com and you made me realise that I should have taken the opportunity to mention the origin of the blog name from a haiku i wrote in 1995...
How would you know you
were dreaming if you didn't
know you were asleep.
Andrew (Frewin)
Hi Andrew, I have tattoos on my arms, and a couple tiny ones on my hands. As for my disability, I have metal and fusion in my back from severe scoliosis. I was declared legally disable under the law, although my disability is not visible. At times, my disability colors my writing. I write about pain very well. I have not written about disabled characters yet, though.
Delete