The Darkest Hour – Haiku – November 17, 2015

For today’s Carpe Diem Haiku Special, a lovely haiku by Ese of Ese’s Voice:

in the darkest hour
wishing upon the morning star
just like years ago

© Ese of Ese’s Voice

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in the darkness hour
the promise of a new day
first red rays of sun

© G.s.k.’15

 

Three Gems – Haiku – November 5, 2015

[gilded lilies]
dew drops on autumn leaves
three gems

© G.s.k. ‘15

 

Carpe Diem Special #180 Ese’s first haiku this month as featured haiku poetess “red dragonfly”

This Month’s Haiku poet is Ese of Ese’s Voice her poem today is:

how calm she looks
with beads of dew frost on her wings
– red dragonfly

© Ese of Ese’s Voice

Tan Renga – Ese’s Hokku – April 4, 2015

through the darkest hour
every tree top in the forest
adorned with a star

© Ese

guiding lone wandererers
to their summer homes

© G.s.k. 15

Tan Renga with Ese, Jen and myself – REBLOG – March 16, 2015

Jen’s Lightning

 

For Carpe Diem Tan Renga #77, our task was to build upon a very sensual haiku by Ese of Ese’s Voice.  After I’d added my 7-7 lines, Bastet and I decided to continue the poem into a renga.  Here is what we came up with – it seemed a shame to leave it in the comments section.  🙂

Due to WordPress formatting weirdness, Ese’s original is in black,Bastet’s portions are in blue, and mine are in green.   This probably should have been continued with one more 7/7 segment – but – it just felt *complete* – and I hope Bastet won’t mind if I cap this renga with a favorite piece of music.

◊

stroked by the lightning
delicate peaks of sand dunes
– silence before the storm

in the oasis
a single tree shudders     

the wanderer
looks to the sky in hope
rain in the desert            

everywhere and nowhere
a roar of new life                  

the Tuareg
set up their evening camp
lightning flashed                     

gentle laughter at the fire
and teapot reflections              

hot sugary tea
the cup passes hand to hand
rice boils on the fire                 

the imprint of one thousand moons
blossoms over wet sand             

the desert rose
sparkles by the firelight
The Sahara weeps               

in her dark eyes
waves of laughter and song      

as she danced
the heaven touched the earth
desert men sigh  

     

 

This post is a reblog of Jen’s Blog it or Lose it! post lightning renga

A flash of lightening – Tan Renga – March 15, 2015

Today’s haiku master for our weekly hokku is Ese of Ese’s Voice

Credits: Pixdaus – Posted by Skip

 

stroked by the lightning
delicate peaks of sand dunes
– silence before the storm

© Ese

impetuous winds whisper
passionate encounters

spring’s inconstancy
sunshine smiles then anger storms
ah – March afternoon

© G.s.k. ‘15

Tan Renga – Winter Meadows

winter meadows
blossoming frost works
on window panes
(Ese)

fragile lacing winter glass
before the fire warms the day( g.s.k.)

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“The goal of this Tan Renga Challenge is to write a second stanza towards Ese’s haiku. That second stanza must have two lines and if you are willing to, you may use the classic syllables-count 7-7, but that’s not an obligation.”

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai – Tan Renga

Mermaids – Ligo Haibun – February 23, 2014

Mermaids

When I was a child, many years ago, I was fascinated by mermaids.  Hans Christian Andersen’s story, The Little Mermaid, was one of my favorite stories, and I always felt so sorry for the poor mermaid.  There she was, in love with the man she’d saved from drowning, whom she’d sacrificed her voice for and living in constant pain from those limbs for which she’d given up her beautiful tail. Completely ignored by he for whom she’d sacrificed herself; alone, destitute and destined to die from heartbreak.

 I never reflected though upon the story, until many years later.   I witnessed a beautiful young woman, who was very talented, sacrifice all her talent for the love of a man who never realized how precious she was and so betrayed her trust for another.  I realized that no one should ever go to such an extreme for any reason, much less for love.

mermaid in the woods
contemplating faithless love
life’s lessons

Written for Ligo Haibun at  Ese’s Voice

The Arsenal – Ligo Haibun

Ligo Haibun

“..and we’ll make a mountain of ’em!” said James as he rolled his perfect snowballs.

“Yeah, and won’t they be surprised!  We won’t have to wait to throw…they’ll see! This time we’ll wipe ’em out!” confirmed Stephen.

The boys rolled their snowballs stock-piling then up along the protective fence of their “fortress”.  They worked far into the evening in preparation for the next day’s battle, due to begin at 9:00, when their cousins would come home from their weekend stay at  Eagle River.

When it got too dark to work they went inside the house…and continued planing for the great battle.  Eventually they calmed down and passed the rest of the late afternoon and evening playing “Okami” on their Wii.

During the night, the weather changed…and up from Japan came the chinook and by morning most of the snow was gone.

where is the future
where is the planned tomorrow
chinook melted snow

Written for Ligo Haibun Challenge Picture Prompt

Haibun: Time

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Funny how memory works.  When I was a little girl,  everything seemed to be so very big; trees, staircases, people, furniture, everything was huge!  Can you imagine two straight back chairs that when placed side by side could make a crib for a 3-year-old. I recreated just such a crib for you in a series of photographs above, it was an easy thing to do since the idea has stuck in my memory from so many years!

What about time…how quickly everything passes by now at 62.  24 hours to a person my age is more like a full week to a child of 3 to 5!  At that age, everything is a discovery.  Everyone was so wonderfully fuller, more complete and so much nicer or nastier.  There’s something hyper-real in the workings of a child’s mind.  I’ve often thought that as a childwe couldn’t imagine how the day would end, it’s always a surprise, whereas now, we’ve programmed our day until there is nothing left to surprise us.

An adult remembers his past differently, too.  He colors the past with emotions so that the past changes, people change and indeed even the world changes. And though I remember those two chairs as being the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in, experimentation in later years has convinced me that I must have slept very badly indeed! The chairs would have come apart each time I moved…the pillows would have fallen off, and it’s so narrow…But, I remember it being the most comfortable bed I ever slept in and I remember how much fun it was making it and grandma and mom laughing with me as I got into it….

And the future?  It was imponderable when I was a child.  The very thought of 1980 or 2000, or heaven forbid, 2014…my head would begin to swim even  just  thinking about the idea of being 20 years old!  Those numbers had magical connotations…imponderables as I said, unthinkable dates this assured the coming of the future in all it’s magical mystery, because no man could manipulate those numbers…the future could be what it would be.

voyage through time
reality  imagined
tomorrow assured

A Haibun inspired by this quote offered by Ligo Haibun this week: The future is assured. It’s just the past that keeps changing. Russian Proverb The quote was furnished by Ese from Ese’s Voice.

Ligo Haibun Challenge: January 3, 2014

Picture by kind permission of Ines Williamson

Winter is such a lovely time of the year to take an early evening’s walk.  The yellow city fog lights create a special golden quality to the air.  I love how the bridges and over passes are illuminated. The total effect is something magical…like out of a fairy story.

Walking with Stephen during this winter’s Christmas break was really something special.  We laughed a lot and created stories about the people who passed us on the street. Sometimes we inspired ourselves with a single word we caught from a conversation…like the time:

“Flash!”

“Ok…A flash of light filled the night air blinding almost everyone..”
“Except for the Willow Mage, who’d been looking in the directions of the Black Knight!”
“Who are you, oh Black Knight, the mage asked in his most imperious voice…because intimately he was really afraid.”
“Brave Mage…your people has been enchanted by a special light which flickering whitely in a box has blinded everyone to life’s reality!”
And at this point Stephen pulled out a box of cough drops from his pocket and began to pretend he was doing an “infomercial”!

“That’s right ladies and gentlemen, take it from the Black Knight…just one drop of this magic elixir is all you’ll need and your cough will disappear in a flash!”

We laughed as we arrived at the pizzeria for dinner.

intimates
laughing creating warmth
golden evenings

Ligo Haibun Picture Prompt