The Gull – April 3, 2020 – Shahai

swoop
catching the wind
– last light
gsk ’20

 

I think the  idea of a shahai or a haiga is not to describe the illustration but to communicate a feeling or sensation that the photo has “captured”. So, the gull hit my fantasy but Instead of saying:

a gull
catching the wind
– last light

I wanted to communicate the overall sensation of that moment. The swooping of the gull, being buffeted in the wind, even as I was buffeted when I took the photograph.

Now dear readers, what is your opinion about this shahai … any suggestions, any comments?  Thanks for stopping by.

Ciao,  Georgia

The Mask – April 1, 2020 Shahai [photo+haiku]*

 

behind the mask
the storm
alone

gsk ’20

*For years I’ve been combining haiku with photos.  When I began to do this I was informed that this was a haiga … in the meantime I’ve come across an article from the Haiku Foundations forum state that they should be called sha hai or photo + haiku and is the combination of two art forms to make a third.  I agree.

 

 

Haibun – COVID-19 – March 30, 2020

Santa Chiara di Trento, Italy

Haibun – COVID-19

Reading news reports of the horror that is COVID-19 can is chilling.  And although the horror of what is happening is wounding to the heart, in these times, there are those narcissists who spread false and horrifying news reports on the Social Media pages. Of course no one requires us to read them or look at what’s on the news.

raging storm
sleeping in my soft bed
safe and warm

The COVID-19 pandemic which has hit our world, they said wouldn’t be as bad as the annual flu season.  Because in our age, we have an influenza season.  I guess because influenza is endemic?  Some say only those with  weak immunological systems and the very old will probably die.  The young are safe, they are strong … no children under 16 have been affected.  And then, today, it’s an official news report, an infant dies of COVID-19.  Many shutter.

age of miricles
instant infodemia
no news

It happened so fast.  Just a few short weeks ago everyone was sitting back in their comfortable homes, watching their TVs.  The news commentators  tut-tutted on how inefficient the Chinese government was in getting the illness under control.  Commenting on the lock downs in Wuhan and Hubei province with condescension .  Then as it seemed that things might calm down, only for it to reach Italy.  The European nations looked on as  she was caught in the maelstrom.  They looked on, sometimes cruelly joking about the situation, not preparing.  It took a week or so and other European nations began to succumb, first one or two cases then hundreds and finally thousands. The United States began to report deaths in Washington state. The WHO proclaimed that COVID-19was a pandemic. Finally the United Kingdom capitulated and their Prime Minister tested positive to the virus.  Many more nations are being adding to the lists of those who have entered the brave new world of COVID-19.  Crematoriums are consuming the dead.

lost in smoke
ravens fly in droves
cawing
© gsk’20

March 30, 2020 – Cherry Blossoms

Published in Virtual Haiku

amid cherry blossoms
smell of India ink
in my drawing

© Milan Rajkumar

.first cherry blossoms
opening petals
in a haiku
the smell of Indian ink
stimulating
© gsk

Haiga – March 28, 2020

Written for Haiku Nuggets

with a lotus
in an old pond
plop plop
irreverent koi
seeks perfection
(c) gsk ’20

 

In a Silent World – March 26, 2020 –

Trains still run here in the silent world of illness that is Italy.  There are those who believe that the virus which has killed so many is not really so very bad.  Often people don’t believe, until they are in someway hurt, that bad things really do exist.

I sit on my terrace in the silence, the birds sing, the wind is warm and pleasant, the sun is warm.  There are no distant sounds of cars or jets high up in the sky to leave their white streaks.  The sky is limpid, virginal in fact, as though mankind has ceased to exist.

Looking back on the spring of 2020,  I will remember the silence of the clear skies and the earth as seen from satellites showing a “surprising” decrease in pollution.  I and many will also remember the silent truckloads of corpses, victims of the COVID-19, that snaked through the early morning streets of Bergamo. Many may never live through the silence of mourning loved ones. I mourn the many I’ve never met feeling sure that no one will mourn me.

But we are not yet finished with this illness, though we may be bored with it.  It’s so difficult to be healthy and isolated in this silent spring. Life is being renewed and spring beckons to us like a siren.

The silence is too loud.  We are so used to our comforting noise … the constant hubble-bubble of machinery and commentary.   Some will say: how absurd, why should we be isolated like this … and will congregate.  Then soon there will be more silence.

my heart beat
in social isolation
a silent world
gsk ’20

The Swan – December 15, 2017

Alone

 

Cee’s Black and White Challenge

 

 

Fish in the Snow – December 15, 2017

Floating Fish in the snow

Winter came early for us in the Lake Valley of southern Trentino.  Because of the Lake Garda’s microclimate we usually only see snow around mid January, if then.  The other morning the sky was heavy and what looked like fog was actually snowfall.  It snowed the whole day through changing our autumn suddenly into winter.  As I looked out towards the courtyard in front of my house, my fish wind chime began to tinkle and I imagined a world with floating fish.

December
cold grey morning sky
first flakes fall
ice crystals
softly blur my world from sight
hills of snow – growing

Silence grows
as snow flakes gather
transforming
humdrum scenes
into something new – special
never seen before

In that morn
of cold December
suddenly
in silence
a fish floated in the snow
outside my window.

gsk ’17

 

 

 

 

The Unopened Door – September 29, 2016

like spider silk
dancing in the wind
wine filled air
impregnates this cold morning
heralding autumn

© Gsk ‘16

Autumn Thoughts – Waka – September 29, 2016

 

 

near the roadside
a weed covered fence
and old dead leaves
no warbling blackbird sings
smell the burning bond fires

the train passes
screeching iron on iron
the earth shakes
then silence fills the air
crashing waves of silence

old man and woman
passing in an autumn day
each lost in thought
memories of the days gone by
no thoughts for tomorrow

sidewalk cafe
drinking bitter espresso
here – a crying babe
there – shadows dance in the street
McCartney sings “Let it be”

© Gsk ‘16