My cat--

My cat--
a furry oval in

a rectangle of bright sun.

10/25/2020

Feathery crane

stalks the grey sand 

------

Blue water--

a lone sandpiper

and many gulls.

------

Far off laughter

bright yellow sun, 

bright blue water.

Don’t tug / Summer heat / To fill a pie / Hopeful

Don’t tug!
Like everything else,
blackberries
come off their vines easily
when they are ready.

—-

Summer heat—
Dandelions stare at the sun
unharmed.

—-

To fill a pie, use
both ripe and unripe berries.
As in the world,
sweet and sour are needed
for the desired taste.

I’m not happy with this one. It needs work. Too didactic & not natural.
—

Hopeful,
a bee hovers over
a glass of lemonade.

10/22/2018

October's cool sun--

a fuzzy cat reclines,

soaking it in.

And even further back!

Brown sand in my socks
and shoes.
Worth it.

--------

Blood red sun
skies made of smoke and loss—
I can’t breathe.

--------

Finally nighttime!
Noisy fans cease to the
sound of crickets.

---------- Accidentally
disturbed a tiny spider.
Now avoiding it

Short walks in the sun...

Short walks in the sun--
these glimmers of joy
will have to do.

Finally wrote something.

Cold June rain
& disappointing peaches...
Where are my wool socks?

-----

Bright white Summer sun,
pink-white blackberry flowers--
no fruit yet.

-----

Walking downhill,
assessing neighbors' yards,
smelling their roses.

Senryu or Haiku? And what's Tanka?

After you read the link, you'll understand why I often think I should have named this blog "Sorta Kinda Senryu." But, as is obvious from reading my earlier writing, I didn't really know what Haiku were, let alone Senryu. And I'd heard of Tanka before, but never tried to write one. I've only written a couple. Here's one I wrote this morning.

Blackberry flowers, 
white & delicate in the sun; 
milk thistle purple 
fringe on the green, thorny stalk; 
nothing ripe yet.

https://akitahaiku.com/what-are-haiku-senryu-and-tanka/

Written Yesterday

Solstice sun still hot --
geese cross the twinkling lake,
never mind the glare.


-----------

Old woman, rushing - -
she stops to smell a rosebush
and hurries away.

Cold Fall day... / Looking at flowers...

Cold Fall day--
opened blinds let sun stream;
cats bask in the beams.

----------

Looking at flowers,
thinking about meditating,
But not doing it.

9/30/15

Two cats lay 
curled in a sliver of sun.
Détente for now.


------------------------


Sip apple cider,
crunch the popcorn like Dad did,
remembering him.


-----------------------


The banality of Fall:
"Decorative" gourds.
"Pumpkin" lattes.


----------------------

Red leaves all year--
this maple isn't a good sign
of Autumn.

All orange now...

All orange now--
the ambient light
from the falling sun.

The Lizards and I: Two Haiku

Seeing my shadow, 
lizards flee into tall grass.
I've disturbed the peace!

---------------------------

Bright sun warms grey rock--
the lizard's patterned back
blending in.

Two Haiku

The old graveyard--
hot sun filters down
through green leaves.

---------------

Little white fingers trace
sculpted grave statues--
filtered sunlight.


As a child, I spent at least part of my summers with my two aunts in Placerville. My favorite aunt, Annie, was very involved with a church very near an old graveyard there.  I would go over there and play, reading the stones, touching the statues, feeling the summer heat even in the shade of the trees. It was a peaceful place, with headstones and statues that were beautiful to me. 

5/4/14

Tried to walk it off.
Still depressed when I got there,
despite warming sun.

5/17/14

Yellow moon, lighting
dark sky. No birdsong until
morning sun appears.

Summer sun glares down...

Summer sun glares down--
a crow hops in the shade 
of an old oak tree.

Still Falling Down on the Job: August Daily Blog Challenges 9 - 12

Day 9, Friday. A regret.

With best intentions,
I say I commit.  But no
follow through means---

Day 10, Saturday.  Opening lines from five favourite books, in no particular order.

• ''Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.''

• "There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."  (Probably the best opening line of a book EVER.)

• "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."  (A ubiquitous choice, but this is one of everyone's favorite opening lines for a reason.)

• "The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted."

• ''If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.''

Day 11, Sunday.  Earliest memory.

Sunlit reddish hair,

sparkling water dotted with

geese and small breadcrumbs.

 

Day 12, Monday.  A ghost story – yours or someone else’s.

 

Glowing demon eyes--

or werewolf-- born of fears

religiously born.

August Daily Blog Challenge Post 3: a Pleasant Memory

Here are two!

Feet buried in sand;

waves effervesce in sunlight;

seagulls chase white foam.

------------------

Warm, sweet berries burst!

A sweeter counterpoint of

brown sugar and—Bliss!


I thought about explaining my haiku about these memories, but I realized that explaining means I don't think my poems did a good enough job, so...  Let's hope they did & I don't have to.

White ghost and dark page...

White ghost and dark page,
sun upon the water-- night
approaches alone.