Daily Haiku – July 21, 2016

morning departure
the valley sleeps awaiting
new visitors

© Gsk ’16

Morning Haiku and Waka – July 16, 2016

passing reflection
as the sun rises at dawn
a last adieu

© Gsk ’16

Haibun – A life well travelled – June 19, 2014

Throughout my life travel has been the by-word.  From State to State my path was laid, learning new aspects of human existence.  Early I began to discover that long-held “truths” were not in fact truth and certainly not universal.  Each people, every nation had views that were so very different from the views I’d absorbed in my childhood.

Diversity as a concept is a wonderful thing and maybe the only truth that really exists.  We are one in life but diverse in our view of life.  It’s not always been an easy path to walk.  I’ve watched my citadel of childhood beliefs became abandoned ruins but then if you travel and live in the wide world, it’s the minimum price to be paid.

railroad tracks
passing through a village
beckoning onward

the carousel of life
spinning wild confusion
diversity

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Written for Ligo Haibun Phicture Prompt

Siberia or South America (A Haibun)

Siberia and South America

I remember,  I was reading, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and I decided that Siberia was a country I would absolutely never want to visit.  Ridiculous of course.  I lived on the other side of the Bering Strait for most of my adolescence and loved every moment of it. Though, I must admit Anchorage is not the northern tundra. Besides, the book was about the terrible conditions in a Soviet concentration camp…not a travelogue of Siberia.  Yes, silly of me…yet I’ve never felt attracted.  Well, except for the idea of going by train from Europe to Japan through Siberia…I first read about that train in another great book called “Silk”, written by Alessandro Baricco…the train trip seems very romantic.

South America is an entire continent. For the most part, I’ve read so many terrible things about the polical and economical situations of that continent, that again, I’ve felt no urge to run and buy a ticket.  I’ve loved to watch documentaries about the Amazon and the Incas and about so many other aspects of South America.  I’ve read some fantastic adventure stories and even a few SF novels that have had their settings in South America.  But, no, outside of in my fantasy and through my imaginatin, I feel no urge to visit that continent.

Basically the attraction that I might have felt for the raw beauty of the tundra or the fastastic Andes, has long been put to rest, by the nightmares that men have created.

travel see the world
realities of our Earth
strife – hate – war – hunger

Written for Ligo Haibu: The prompt for this week: Siberia or South America…it was requested to use the word chosen in the haibun…I chose them both.

Carpe Diem #369, Yekaterinburg

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

city of sad fame
western window to Asia
Yekaterinburg

Haibun: The Clock and the Collage

The clock and collage

A collage of original post cards and photographs are placed under the clock, not the usual cheap travel posters.  In fact, there aren’t any travel posters. It’s nearly 8:25, the travel bureau opened at 8.  I walk up to the young lady’s desk, she smiles.
“May I help you?”
She’s young and has a warm smile, an air of serenity.  I ask myself if she may help me.
“Did you go on a trip recently?” I enquire, not knowing why I’m there at all.
“Yes.” that’s all, just yes.
“I’d like to go there too.”
I buy the ticket and book the hotel.  I will be leaving the day after at 8:20 for Barcelona.

unknown goal
life offers surprises
through the serenity of a smile

Writing Prompt: What is a Haibun

The Clock and Collage

Poem: Open Doors

Free Verse

Open Doors

thinking of doors
the entrances and exits
of buildings
of homes
into a new existence
somewhere to be sheltered
somewhere to hide
passages
from within and without
reflecting:
my world has been
the constant
meeting
with ever different doors
into worlds
I knew nothing about.
happily,
at every turn,
along my long road
eventually I found
an open door.

Free Verse: At last, I Am Home

Free Verse

At last,I Am Home

I love to travel

visiting with people

looking at new faces hearing new accents,

seeing the wonders of exciting new places!

The air seems so different,

the sounds and smells

fill my mind and soul!

Then the time comes to leave,

I sit beside the window in the train

saying my fond farewells…

At last, through the pass

I enter from the valleys into our region,

There!  I see the mountains!

Ah! Whether it is sunny or raining

my heart quickens

and I know

that at last

I am home.