Category Archives: NaHaiWriMo – May 2012

NaHaiWriMo May 31st prompt … smell or taste.

Posted on by under Haiku, NaHaiWriMo - May 2012

The final prompt for the month of May is for me the most difficult. It is “smell or taste.” Some few years ago I stated that I would rather loose my left arm than loose my sense of smell. I was looking forward to a third career/hobby in natural perfumery. Smell is to me the most important sense. Ones sense of smell is tied to emotional memory among other things. I lost my sense of smell for the first time in 2010. Today greatly diminished my sense of smell is all too often non-existent, as a result of illness. I have become very angry about this. I realize that this is not a logical response … it non-the less is currently mine. Seasonal kigo mid-summer rain.

mid summer rain permeates the earth with freshness – for others

NaHaiWriMo … May 30th prompt: Write a haiku from the work of others.

Posted on by under Haiku, NaHaiWriMo - May 2012

This is a poem by a friend whose blog (by Blogger) is titled: “STARDREAMIG With Sherry Blue Sky. It can be found HERE. She is deeply spiritual, committed and filled with compassion. She has an enviable connection to nature. I only say enviable because I have been ill for some good bit and this has curtailed my time out of doors. She has a deep spirit. Today’s prompt for NaHaiWriMo is to take a piece of writing from another author and extract from it a haiku for myself. I think that this is a terribly clever haiku prompt.

Sherry’s wonderful poem represents her style, her tone and her spirit well. She is a woman who has known difficulty but one who lives with grace and optimism … one for whom I have significant respect and fondness. She hangs on to faith no matter what. She is a women who is no BS, who is loyal, who sets a fine example for women everywhere. Her poem is followed by my haiku … patterned after her poem.

“A Day Graced By Doves”

God sent me a morning
bathed in sunlight,
horse in the pasture,
wash on the line.

God sent me a morning
graced by doves,
with everything golden.
I’ll make it mine.

I’ll wrap it around me
to keep me safe,
to comfort and hold
my inner waif.

I’ll breathe it in,
till the day is done,
then God will send me
another one.

My Haiku:
summer dew doves grace the morning – spirit birds

NaHaWriMo May 28th & 29th Haiku prompts: circle and touch.

Posted on by under Haiku, NaHaiWriMo - May 2012

This month of May’s prompts at NaHaiWriMo by Sheila Windsor have been interesting and challenging … the chakra system.

May 28th prompt: circle – spiral (summer kigo – burning hot)
Haiku
burning hot whirling circles – kundalini

May 29th prompt: touch (summer kigo – Memorial Day)
Haiku
memorial day warriors touching my – heart

NaHaiWriMo May 23rd Haiku Prompt: Hortensia Anderson

Posted on by under Haibun, Haiku, NaHaiWriMo - May 2012

One might this that a haiku prompt of someone of whom you have never heard might just be the most difficult prompt yet. Not so. I do not know Hortensia Anderson and I am so new to Japanese forms of poetry that I had never even heard of her. She died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. From my NaHaiWriMo friends I can tell that she was beloved by all. Still, easier to just skip this prompt. I chose instead to Google her. I found her to be a poet of haibun and haiku … extraordinaire. Frankly, someone whom I need to read. I am so very glad that I did that.

Haiku:
fireworks for hortensia someone I did not know – my loss

NaHaiWriMo May 22nd Haiku Prompt: Ink.

Posted on by under Haiku, NaHaiWriMo - May 2012

Writing haiku is for me, a real challenge. This is why I study haiku and write one haiku daily. The first thing that english speaking peoples often think of when they think about haiku is the 5-7-5 syllable count. The expression syllable count is a misnomer … or an inaccuracy. I am of the school of no 5-7-5. One should be inspired about ones subject, one needs to use a kigo (season word) and the goal in haiku is to bring the two parts of your haiku together to cause a bit of an aha moment for your reader. These are my words, they more than likely would not do in a haiku instructional manual.

When using a prompt, the work becomes more difficult. One needs to visualize, one needs to be inspired. And “oh dear,” I am not inspired by the prompt ink … so this has been a difficult haiku. The first thing that I thought of was tattoo ink and tattoos. Long ago in ancient Japan tattoo ink was made of among other things leek juice, also a property of the actual process of tattooing. So, there you have it.

The following photo was taken from James Young of Japanese Tattoos

Haiku:
under a parasol washing the skin with leek juice – a new tattoo

NaHaiWriMo May 19th Haiga and Haiku prompt: Blue … as in chakra blue.

Posted on by under Haibun, Haiga, Haiku, NaHaiWriMo - May 2012, Photography

I love blue. In the summer I wear blues and whites. Many rooms in my home are painted a blue. My library below is blue … it is my favorite place to be. I always feel soothed here. One’s throat chakra is the color blue … one speaks from the throat chakra, hopefully with clarity and good intent. This chakra according to Anodea Judith whom I have long views as a western authority on chakras has tourquoise, aquamarine and celestite as minerals linked to the throat chakra.

So … I love blue but not in the winter. Below my library where I spend much time.

Haiku:
words of clarity reach into the night – blue cornflower