The Geometry of Sunshine – A Haibun

Parallel lines seep through the leaves. It highlights the perimeter of moss, a verdant tangent kissing the circumference of rocks and logs. Morning dew collects in an overturned mushroom umbrella, bending the light at a 45 degree angle. The reflection distracts a vibrant red cardinal from his song. He puffs out his chest, taking measured steps along the branch, before resuming his aria in the spotlight. 

A grid of trees holds points of sunshine, a linear connection between time and purpose. At one vertex, a grateful squirrel pops out her head, inhaling fresh air, thinking of her cache of acorns. At another, a woodpecker begins a radius from bark through phloem to heartwood. The tap-tap-tapping sending perpendicular reverberations, intersecting the quiet morning light. 

Morning’s right angles

Chords of sunshine connecting

The shape of nature

Full disclosure – this is not a “morning sun”, it’s the setting sun. I am a night owl and not an early bird.

Catching up with Patrick’s Pic and a Word Challenge! This haibun incorporates #264 – Sunshine, #266 – Vibrance (I used “vibrant” instead), #267 – Light and #269 – Geometry. Geometry was one of my best subjects so this poem was a fun challenge! Can you find all the geometry terms?

I have always loved math even though after a time, the concepts started to elude me. This happened when I started high school, around the time when my head became filled with other things. I didn’t understand this phenomenon until I became an adult and studied it my feminist social work classes.

My older daughter (the author) turns 13 tomorrow. I see this process starting to happen to her – she is really good at math and science (she’s a whiz at computer coding) yet she claims she hates this subjects. She is only one of three girls in her private school class and I know she’s heard comments from other students when she is able to grasp a concept before others.

Nature can be cruel (as the saying goes), but nature is also full of beauty and wonder. This is also true of humans. We can chose what we focus on. We can chose what narrative governs our lives. I hope my girls can see the options and make the best choice.

©️ 2021 iido

Spring Transformations – A Haibun

The smell comes first – crisp like biting into fresh lettuce and clean like a new baby. Then a breeze with a “just right” coolness that even Goldilocks would approve of. Next comes small green buds, slowly sprouting from the soil and branches, testing patience and bringing hope.

The scent is different inside where nature has less power. Chemical, metallic, like a fake robot baby or what some earth dweller thinks the sun might smell like. There is no patience only promises of change, the beginnings (but not the endings) of transformations that manifest in mops plunged in buckets of soapy water, clothes sorted into “too big”, “too small” and “just right for now” (again, Goldilocks would be so proud), and the whirring sound of a treadmill going nowhere fast. The buds of transition form, shaking off the covered winter self to sprout the wings of the self that could be considered “the cat’s meow”.

Transformations start

The promise and hope of spring

Even cats can change

This haibun was written for Frank Tassone’s Monday Haibun prompt at DVerse to write about spring. The picture is courtesy of Sadje’s “What do you see?” Prompt #15.

This has been a bit of a busy week but only because I’ve been trying to get miles for the Taji100. That means that the time I would usually spend at night writing, I’ve been walking on the treadmill. I’ve logged 35 miles out of 100 so far!

It has been unseasonably warm this winter and we’ve also been inundated with a lot of rain. Spring seems to be already here in terms of the weather. But my body is still in hibernation mode. I don’t yet feel the need to do any big cleaning or to get out and about. I’m still holding on to my sweaters and fuzzy socks.

I’m not ready to transform into my “spring self” – the one that is ready to take on the world. Nope – my “hold on to the hygge self” is still going strong and honestly, I don’t mind the winter induced resting period. Making time to recharge and slow down is important and something that a lot of people overlook.

Cats know the value of inactivity. They may not literally transform into “catterflies” but cat owners can argue how cats can be transformative to their owners. Here’s to transformations – whether they can be seen or not!

©️ 2020 iido

The Maple at the End of My Street – A Quadrille

The setting sun filters

Through your leaves

Highlighting the new

Yellows and oranges and reds

I see you

When I return home

After I’ve gone

Through the motions

That life is ok

Even when it’s not

You filter the beauty

Back in my life

Joining in the fun this week with this 44 word poem for Merril at dVerse, Quadrille #89 – Are You Set. It was also inspired by Jamie Dedes’ wonderful Wednesday Writing Prompt to “moments and places where we enjoy the beauty and peace of nature and a deeply sensed connection with the source of our being”. You can read other responses to this prompt here. (Note: The poem above is an revised version from my original submission to The Poet by Day.)

I love sunset more than sunrise. Maybe it’s because I am inherently a night owl. It just seems so peaceful! I especially like seeing sunsets while I’m driving the car, with my kids quiet in the back – usually after a long afternoon of after school activities. My 6 year old son usually says, “Mom, look at the sunset! Take a picture! It’s so pretty!” I usually respond, “I can’t, I’m driving. Take a picture with your mind.”

©️ iido 2019

Bed and Breakfast – A Haibun

The blue sky smelled of manure. Even the allure of coffee and raw milk, homemade bread with rhubarb jam and omelets plucked from their mother just that morning couldn’t overcome the scent that distinctly said, “You’re on a working farm.”

The distinct sound of a tractor pulled up to the farmhouse door. The farmer offered us a hay ride around the farm and explained the difference between hay and straw, silo versus barn. The farmer named each machine and it’s purpose, but not the animals.

That night, I briefly wondered if the chicken that gave her life for our pot pie dinner also sacrificed her progeny for our breakfast. And if the rooster that would wake us in the morning, knew what happened to his family.

Plastic and foam trays

Deception and protection

Farmers eat the truth

Yes, that’s me on a tractor – picture courtesy of one of my sorority sisters who posted some “throwback pictures” of a reunion we had a bed and breakfast in the Pennsylvania countryside a few years after we graduated college. I don’t think the tractor was actually moving for the picture, but it was a first for this city girl!

Coincidentally, Jamie Dedes’ Wednesday Writing prompt requested: This week share poem/s out of your own nostalgia, experience, impressions, gratitude, concerns, or convictions about farms, farming, or farm policy. Despite now living in “farm country”, I still don’t know about farming although I do appreciate the numerous farmers markets in our area.

One thing I do know: I am very appreciative of the men and women who work on farms because I know I don’t have the constitution or inclination to grow things or kill things to eat. Maybe because living in cities, I was never exposed to that reality and thus my aversion to being close to the true source of what I/we eat. Food came in a package and didn’t have faces. Maybe if more people were aware of the reality of farming, there would be less food waste and a better understanding of the need to conserve and protect the environment/nature and animals as finite resources. But what do I know…I’m just a city girl…

©️ iido 2018

Giant – A haiku

Comparatively

I am just a clump of dirt

You should be in charge

I am back on the streak with Patrick Jennings’ Pic and a Word Prompt #158 – Giant. These giant trees can be found on one of my favorite routes to run in my area. The path is paved and stroller friendly. At the bottom is a pond and at the top is a playground for a quick break before turning back around. The trail is a gradual uphill for 1.5 miles – going up can be brutal but you can fly going down.

As a mother, I loved Patrick’s short story – what mother doesn’t think her child should rule the world? But it also made me think about HOW I would want my child to rule – by believing that everything in the world is there to “serve” him, for her to plunder and use without regard? Or by instilling in my children that they need to care for our earth and the animals and people living on it? Is it fair that we puny humans are in charge of such grandeur when we are like toddlers playing with a new toy and then discarding it when we are bored or destroying it without even thinking about our actions? Most times, I think it’s not.

©️ iido 2018

Limbs

Swaying in the breeze

My youth lives in your shadow

Sheltering my dreams

This has been a busy week – my running and my writing has suffered! So a haiku for the Pic and a Word Challenge #154 – Limbs. I love love love the poem Patrick wrote – so simple in its sincerity and sensuality….

Here’s hoping for some simplicity this week so I can get more running and writing done!

©️ iido 2018

Nature’s Gift – A Haiku

I almost missed this Wednesday Writing prompt by Jamie Dedes at The Poet by Day. Thank goodness for time zone differences! Her call to action this week:

What among nature’s gifts do you cherish, the free gifts of life that marketers don’t sully and that are ours for the taking. Tells us what, why, how and when in your own poem/s.

I enjoy reading and writing poetry about nature. Yet, writing something about nature that hasn’t been sullied by marketing was a tall order for me! Flowers, trees, mountains, lakes, sunsets, sunrises, beaches, sun, moon, stars, clouds, the air we breathe….is there nothing that hasn’t be co-opted by capitalism?

Then, I cane up with this:

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Shade

Building or tall tree

Nature’s coolness shared with me

A welcome reprieve

Yes, I know they sell parasols and “sunbrellas”, but nothing feels more like the world is loving you than a warm sunny day and some shady trees just waiting for you to sit and be.

Thank you for the prompt, Jamie! It was a good reminder for me to appreciate these gifts from nature.

©️iido 2018

Haiku Challenge Accepted!

I continue to feel brave today and have decided to post a haiku for Brian’s nature themed Comment-a-Haiku Poetry Competition at Vita Brevis. I’ve actually been feverishly writing haikus all weekend, looking at old nature photos I’ve taken, and staring intently out the window looking for inspiration.

It was difficult to pick one that I thought would be a worthy competitor – there is a plethora of talent and beautiful imagery in the comments section of the post. I picked the one that called to my sense of “nature haiku poetry”.

Below is my submission for the Vita Brevis nature themed haiku challenge. If you continue to scroll down, you’ll be able to read some of my other nature themed haiku musings. Thank you so much for this opportunity, Brian! Drum roll, please….

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“Nature: A Mother’s Love”

We reap your colors

And still, you send us rainbows

Your tears mixed with oil

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(My runner ups)

“Morning on the First Day of Camping”

Cool fingers massage

My city shoulders relax

Green giants heal me

“Sacrifice”

I heard you drowned in

Plastic bags and straws so, I

Trade coffee for water

“Not happily every after”

Can’t think of beauty

Without beastly pollution

Nature has no prince

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Did I make the right decision? What’s your favorite?

©️ iido 2018