Month: October 2014

muted silence (tan renga)

/ Tournesol / 20 Comments

When  I first read this haiku by JazzyTower from Thoughts and Entanglements     I had an idea of what I wanted to write to complete it but then I read Jen’s Winding/Woven at Blog it or Lose it and it inspired a different slant to my renga and haiku to complete this hokko.

Here is Jen’s completion:

winding through past life
foreign tongues absorbed in dreams
sense of home prevails      (c) Jazzytower

woven into a poem
fading quickly at sunrise    (c) Jen R

Here is our host, Chèvrefeuille’s completion:

winding through past life
foreign tongues absorbed in dreams
sense of home prevails                                 (c) Jazzytower

hear! monks chant Om Mani Padme Hum
spreading peace all around the globe      (c)  Chèvrefeuille

It was that second line “foregn tongues absorbed in dreams” that formed my original stirring  and Jen’s post completed the potion.  For the past twenty odd years, I often dream lucid dreams.  I can change some things and it’s like I am co-editor of my film now and then EXCEPT for nightmares.  I am aware where I am, I am fully concious I want to get the heck out of Dodge but that editor in chief just will not let me. Man, that is a terrible feeling and when I wake up I do NOT want to go back to sleep…all lights are on and time to stay awake for a while reading or writing.

Screamng girl by Sandra Hultsfed – Deviant Art

winding through past life
foreign tongues absorbed in dreams
sense of home prevails        (c)  Jazzytower

stuck in this twilight zone
clawing out in muted screams

sequinned in sweat,
facing sighs of relief, Home!
Home! home at last.                      (c)  Tournesol

bliss (haiku)

/ Tournesol / 18 Comments

Bastet gave us a lovely musical video to help inspire  our muse at MindLoveMiserysMenagerie  Such a lovely choice too! I love violins and the harp…such beautiful instruments that mimic nature as well as human nature.

Bliss

harp breathing life
sunflowers twirl in concert
bees buzz

violin weeps,
mother’s happy tears
newborn

butterfly haven,
sunflowers pirouette
nature’s ballet

© Tournesol ’14

I can’t help but feel movement in this prompt, in nature and spiritually as well. Hence, this will be my offering for Carpe Diem “Movement”

an angel stands in wait (haiku)

/ Tournesol / 6 Comments

Thinking of my friend this week…

her sobs echo
across the Atlantic
a long journey

Caspian Sea and
Arabian Gulf imbibe
salty tears

the skies rumble
iridescent light,
safe passage

pain free at last
an angel stands by, waiting
in white light

heavens whisper
the last chapter,
Rumi stirs

© Tournesol ‘14

*******************************

Don’t run away from grief , o soul
Look for the remedy inside the pain.
because the rose came from the thorn
and the ruby came from a stone.

© Rumi

un grand homme/a great man (haibun)

/ Tournesol / 12 Comments

© Clr – GrandPapa 1957                                      

We seem to be in the spirit of death, being in the middle of autumn, approaching Halloween and all Saint`s Day November 1st; we also call this month in French, le mois des morts (month of the dead).  November 11th, being rememberance day where we pay tribute to all the soldiers who gave their lives for their country and for world peace.  And so I continue on remembering another great man…my grandfather, when he died in his home, Princess, his old mongrel (spaniel mix) went down to the basement and howled grieving for her master.  She stayed there for a week in mourning.

la mort d’un grand homme – Grandpapa

pinson est muet
dernier souffle du maître,
vieux chien hurle

death of a great man – Grandfather

blue-finch falls silent
 master’s last breath,
old dog howls

© Tournesol ’14

crossing (haibun)

/ Tournesol / 18 Comments

Our host at Carpe Diem’s prompt is “A Departed Soul”.  Many of the great masters of haiku  wrote “death poems” about their own deaths. One of the “big five” who delivered haiku, Shiki wrote this on his deathbed:

sponge gourd has bloomed
choked by phlegm
a departed soul
© Shiki

having gazed at the moon
I depart from this life
with a blessing
© Basho

and our host writes:

morning dew
evaporates in the early sunlight
spirit climbs to the sky
@ Chevreuille

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

crossing (haibun)

I love our host’s haiku because it reminds me of my GrandPapa who passed June 17th during the day. I don’t remember if it was morning but the “morning dew” makes me think of the river where we were brought up and where my grandfather died in his home.

The dove is often represented in “death” but its significance is more personal to me.  In French the translation for “dove” is Colombe which is my mother’s name.

I love daisies.   I feel connected to this flower as the petals represent the multiplicity of my personality. The layer of petals beneath the top layer are facets to be discovered throughout a lifetime. I remember, when working in homecare, how sad I would feel when a client passed. Weeks and months caring for a person in their homes was humbling for them and such a loss when they died. After a few years, I wrote to my supervisor that I could no longer continue working in this department for each person who died, I felt a petal from the daisy fall. If I continue, what will be left of me?

Here is my attempt in writing a haiku with this tone of  “death poems”:

© Clr ’14

on the river
a petal floats
crossing over

~

river breeze
wings of a dove
whoosh

© Tournesol’14

This was my response to this prompt when originally posted in July 2014 “Departed Soul (haibun)