The beautiful hokku presented by a very gifted poetess, Paloma, seems fun and free spirited. As I visualised these anthropomorphic tree creatures, my mind wandered to the scary trees of the Wizard of Oz and then my mind wandered into darker places. My mind imagined spirits long passed. I could not help but hear the cries of children’s spirits walking towards the residential school in Cutler, Ontario. My colleague was telling us about the stories and how the children`s park we were just passing on the way to the old condemned school, the cries of children were often heard in the night.
She told us how her great auntie and grandmother has been ripped away from their families over 1,000 miles North when they were five and six years old.
Well, that did it! I could no longer think of anything else but ghosts and spirits lurking in purgatory or some haunted forest. And so, I came up with this completion.
rumbling winter storm –
ents are dancing with their wives –
ancient limbs entwined
© Paloma
wind moans like an old woman
searching for the samurai
petrified branches
gnarled hands of yesteryear
death watchers
famine damned innocents
the aging and infirmed
souls of sickly children
ents sing to mute their cries
haunt the forest
sea of trees wails
up to to Mount Fuji
©Tournesol’16/05/29
Very interesting collection. I particularly love the ‘sea of trees’
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Thanks so much for your lovely comment. I wish “the sea of trees” were words from my muse but it is what this forest is referred to in Fuji, Japan…if you click on those words, it will take you to the explanation. Thanks for dropping by:)
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This is really cool!
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Thanks so much for your comment, Mama Zen. I am sure walking through this forest is probably far from Zen however 😉
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Well, sweetie, you took us to a very dark and frightening part of the forest. Well done!!!!
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Thanks, it was scary wasn’t it. I could not help but think of children and adults of all ages…not just the “unwell” elderly sent there because they could not feed themselves especially during financially lean times.
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Mom would speak of ‘the poor farm’. It was a place provided by the county for people to live and work during The Great Depression of the 1930’s.
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Such a sad affair in those days…my grandmother kept that fear all through her life…saving, hoarding cans just “in case”
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You did a great job on this Tan Renga … you even created a short Renga inspired on the haiku by Paloma. Chapeau!
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Thank you, Kristjaan,it was interesting researching different forests in the world and when I saw this one, I was quite pleased.
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Hello. Tengo 46 años y me hayo estudiando inglés
más o menos 8 años. Este artículo me ha parecido estupendo para el aprendizaje inglés.
Me ha sido muy fructífero. Lo voy a agregar a mis
favoritos. Le doy las gracias por el comentario.
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Muchas Gracias por sus amables palabras.
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