fashionista

Carpe Diem #695, Fashionista (or fashion-queen)

forest green velvet
diamond clasped ermine drape
Fujisan style

©  Janice Adcock 2015

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

weeping willow

Carpe Diem #697, Weeping Willow

weeping willow bends
stroking the lotus blossom
gracious companions

©  Janice Adcock 2015

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

nudity

Carpe Diem #696, Nudity

Ok,  she was not expecting a nudity prompt.  It is not that she was a prude or anything. There was a time in what feels another life that zills were played by her hands.  Body was shimmied.  Camel walks were done.  Maybe some veil and floor work with a few twirls.  Now, at this age with the beginning of angel wings growing on the bottom of her arms - - nudity?  Oooh, pleeease.

Source:  Google Search

twirling enticement

graceful veiled movements

nudity whispers

©  Janice Adcock 2015

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

soaking wet

Carpe Diem Special #138: Santoka Taneda’s “Soaking Wet”

walking on the mountain
clouds roll in giving chase!
soaking wet descent

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

mansaku

Carpe Diem #691, Witch Hazel

mansaku tea
warmth at the end of a day
a geisha sings

©  Janice Adcock 2015

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

mud snail

Carpe Diem #692, mud snail

muddy toes wiggle
sluggish movement in the fields

paddy crews singing

©  Janice Adcock 2015

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

skylark

Carpe Diem Time Machine #6, Skylark

departing goose honks

in spring's mossy softness

skylark builds her nest

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for and Paloma daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Momma Moments

It is inevitable.  It's a Momma moment, the instant when one thinks, "I need to call Mom cause I haven ..... no .. she gone ... forever ..."  Since I did not call her every day, hearing her voice is not something I think of each day.  Two of my sisters did call every day. They have Mom Moments every day.

There are the dreams about her, Dad, and the MIL, Edna.  If I spend time scanning photos, can almost bet I will be dreaming about one of them that night.  Thinking about all the photos that are not identified and no way to find out who they are.  Coming across a graduation program for MIL, 1933.  Little cards of all MIL's classmates.  Precious treasures needing a place to store.

When does one get beyond this phase?  Not for a while.  My husband's mom passed 18 months ago and he still has Mom Moments.  BIL's mom passed about 10 years ago and he still thinks of things he wants to ask her.  Guess it probably never stops, the Mom Moments.  Not as long as there is life, questions, and pictures with no names ....

her spirit moves across the room brushing gently against your memories

Higan Festival

Carpe Diem #690: Higan (Equinox)

For the full text for this prompt click here.  Here are some of the inspirational material for this post:

"fair weather by Spring's Equinox"
so they say …
liars!

© Issa

Here are some haiku about Higan to inspire you:

walking on and on
among the endless
blooming higan flowers  

© Santoka Taneda

a lone crow
pensive on its perch
spring equinox

Near my great grand parents, grandmother and infant aunt's graves

family reunion

on the banks of the river

ohagi bouquets

©  Janice Adcock 2015

To learn more of the Higan Festival, click here.

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

melancholy

Carpe Diem #689, Melancholy

drizzling cold rain
sparrows throw a partah!
gloom flies away

©  Janice Adcock 2015

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

baransu

Carpe Diem Haiku Writing Techniques #11 "baransu"

Our writing master and host of the blog, Chèvrefeuille, must be nothing but a single creative dynamo.  How else could he work full time as an oncology nurse, be a husband, father, grandfather and host several haiku memes.  Now he creates a new form of haiku! Truly a remarkably brilliant individual using all of his Creator's gifts.

The following is a portion of the latest creative endeavor from Chèvrefeuille.

The birth of a new Haiku Writing Technique.

As I started preparing this episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Writing Techniques (CDHWT) and picked up the challenge to create a new haiku writing technique I had the Tan Renga in mind.
As you all know Tan Renga is a short chained renga composed by two poets. One poet writes the first stanza, the hokku, and the second poet writes the second stanza, the ageku, by associating on the images in the first stanza.
The first stanza looks like a haiku and has three lines (5-7-5 syllables) and the second stanza has two lines (7-7 syllables). What has this to do with Baransu, this newly created haiku writing technique? I will try to explain it.

Haiku has three lines as you all know and maybe we can bring balance in these three lines, by association. I will give an example (by the way the following haiku are just for explaining Baransu).

The task for this episode is to write/compose a 'baransu'-haiku and if possible, share your 'route of association' with us too.

Here are my examples another time:

a walk through the city
step by step I discover
a newly built world

© Chèvrefeuille

the old pond
yesterday ... Irisses bloomed
only a faint purple

© Chèvrefeuille

There is much more to Chèvrefeuille's post to be read by clicking here.

Here is my attempt at a balanced haiku, baransu.  The words to balance or associate the three lines are underlined

first warm spring morning
white wing dove singing love songs
she wakes to his kiss

©  Janice Adcock 2015

Not sure if spring and love are closely enough associated or not for this purpose.  I do feel love and kiss do associate sufficiently, smile.  Truth is I did not have to be very creative with this as it perfectly describes my beautiful beginning to the day!

Namaste

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

windmill

Carpe Diem #688, windmill

The host of Carpe Diem lives in the Netherlands.  He has provided two haiga that show and share beauty in words and photos.  Here are his two.

In about one year my husband and I will be visiting the beautiful areas where the above photos were made.  In contrast to the above I give you a windmill from the Kansas, USA, plains.  The windmills of the plains were used primarily for bringing water to the surface. The ability to obtain water in the semi arid central plains enhanced the colonization of these areas by immigrants.  Yet another stab in the lives of the Native Americans inhabiting the plains in the 1800's.  

spiraling circle
warrior arms strain against foe
blades last blow

©  Janice Adcock 2015

A slightly different perspective of the same windmill and a chance to try a different technique.  Using words to address a time that so many machines and humans face.  A time past our prime, a time of brokenness or even just a time of feeling useless.

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

©  Janice Adcock

walking through

Carpe Diem Special #137, Santoka Taneda's 3rd "walking through "

inspiration:

walking through

the bush clover, the pampas grass,

walking on through them

© Santoka Taneda (Tr. R.H. Blyth)

My response:

Oh, dear Lord!  She could embarrass the heck out of her daughters.  Thinking she was saying something informative or cute she would share a story of her life.  She was convinced she was not racist because one of her best friends was black.  Both of these personality traits could be endearing in a 95 year old great grandma kind of way.  Not so endearing when put together in a restaurant.

She was sitting in her walker celebrating her 'baby' sister's 89th birthday at a local eatery.  Surrounded by her daughters and their husbands the waiter comes to take the drink orders.  'Water, no ice,' she says with a twinkle in her eye.  Drink orders taken, the waiter hurries off to the kitchen.  Dinners are decided with the usual degree of difficulty dealing with these almost deaf, quite elderly southern sisters.

The waiter returned with the drinks and begins to take the food orders.  In the chit chat with a husband it comes up that the young, efficient waiter is on a study visa.  He is from Zambia.  He gets to her for the food order and it happens.  The twinkling eyed, 95 year old says, 'Bet I've picked more cotton than you.'  The waiter looks puzzled, turns to her nearest, horror struck daughter and asks, 'What is this picking cotton?'

source:  pac.web.edu   Migrant cotton pickers

picking down the rows
bent against the sun and heat
picking down the rows

©  Janice Adcock

source

My family were cotton farmers in north Texas from the early 1900's through the 1950's. Mom from the time she could pull a sack would pick elbow to elbow with the hired hands to bring in the crop.  The bane of cotton farming, the boll weevil even had its own song.

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

entwined

Carpe Diem Time Glass #25 entwined

Credits: Modern Art

entwined in brush strokes

the heart and soul of being

nest of weaver bird

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

a new moon sky

Sparkling Stars #20, Kala Ramesh's "a new moon sky"

Credits: Kala Ramesh

Kala Ramesh is an Indian, classical musician, who has worked extensively on Pandit Kumar Gandharva’s style under Mrs. Shubhada Chirmulay for over 15 years, and has performed professionally in several major Indian cities.  A recently turned haiku poet (since 2005), Kala writes haiku, tanka, senryu, haibun and renku, and her work has appeared in leading e-zines and anthologies all over the world.  Kala, as director of the World Haiku Club in India, organised with the co-operation of its members, the four-day 9th World Haiku Festival at Bangalore in February 2008, which was sponsored jointly by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji and Sri Ratan Tata Trust. Kala is a member of the editorial team of Modern English Tanka Press’s new anthology, Take Five: The Best Contemporary Tanka 2008/2009/2010, is on the panel of the literary e-journal Muse India, for the areas of haiku and short verse Since April 2009, Kala has been the Poetry Editor at Katha, a renowned New Delhi publishing house. In this capacity, she compiled and edited the first ever ebook of haiku, senryu, haibun, tanka and haiga written by thirty five Indian poets. Currently, she is also the lead poet (sabaki) of a Kasen renku with six other international renkujin: experimenting and incorporating the traditional renku with the famed Rasa Theory of India, comprising the nine emotions prevalent in all Indian art forms (which consists of nine rasas or essence, namely: erotic, comic, sorrow, anger, valour, fear, disgust, wonder and tranquillity, traditionally known as the nava rasas).

Kala has written wonderful haiku (and tanka) and it was almost a "mission impossible" to choose from her haiku, but I (Chèvrefeuille) succeeded I (Chèvrefeuille)think. I (Chèvrefeuille)have a wonderful haiku selected for your inspiration.

the child-like joy
seeing a star streak
a new moon sky

© Kala Ramesh

And here is my (Chèvrefeuille's) haiku inspired on her second haiku:

spring breeze
directs the wind chimes
ah! that sweet sound

© Chèvrefeuille
Now for my response.

light from shooting star

ignites children's reverie

moondust and fireflies

©  Janice Adcock 2015

It took neither a shooting star nor a new moon to excite the boys.  There were no fireflies in the area where they lived.  Anticipation built throughout the day as a container with air holes was prepared.  The promise of lightning bugs or fireflies seemed like something from another world.

Finally it was twilight.  One magical flash by the fish pond and the chase began. Squealing and running the two grabbed, missed, accidentally squished and thoroughly enjoyed grandma's and grandpa's yard. A yard designed to attract butterflies, birds and best of all kids' squeals.

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

deep silence

Carpe Diem #687, Deep Silence

Rock Mountain National Park, Lily Lake Trail

sticks and stones lie still
deep silence surrounds old dreams
wisps of lives

©  Janice Adcock 2015

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

stroked by the lightning - Ese

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #77, Ese's "stroked by the lightning"

Midwestern electrical storms are literally hair raising when a strike is near.  Our second home was at the top of a hill in former lead mining country.  Add to the location an amateur radio station's antenna farm and one has the perfect storm.  No pun intended.  Our home was struck by lightning 7 times.  Two of the strikes were serious enough to require the fire department to come check the situation.

One came in on the phone lines and managed to get in electrical lines causing a small fire. One of the lamp tables still has the scorch marks to prove the fact.  The second strike was much more damaging.  That strike vaporized an antenna wire as it sought ground.  It jumped to a tree then a thermometer probe (also vaporized) hanging outside.  Then jumped to the metal strap in the window.  From the window to a heating vent, blowing a small hole (2 ft. square) in the inside wall of the house on the way.  Once in the heating vent the electricity continued looking for ground as it coursed through the heating vents.

The power of the electricity scorched carpeting as it jumped from heating vents to the nearest metal.  All the time it is searching for ground.  The power found a nail in the subflooring near a vent in the kitchen.  The subflooring was splintered in a triangular shape and the floor covering was split.

Though electronics were unplugged from power sources, cable and antennas, the workings were damaged beyond repair by the charge present in the house.  None of us were injured though my husband was about 2 steps from being in the room when the wall blew apart.  Our hair was standing out on our necks and arms.  The smell of ozone permeated the house.

And there we stood in our young people night attire - nothing.  It was 2 AM and we just knew the attic was likely on fire.  Neither can remember how the fire department got there but we were dressed enough to meet them at the door.  A through search showed no fire in the attic or walls.  To thank them, I cooked the whole bunch of firemen breakfast.

Eventually we moved from that home.  Not before a couple more small lightning hits that took out phones, doorbells and small items.  Even in a new house in a different city approaching storms left us feeling unsettled.  It has been 35 years since that night.  Still a respecter of the power from the beautiful lightning shows.

Photo credit:  THEGEEKGROUP, YOUTUBE

stroked by the lightning
delicate peaks of sand dunes
-silence before the storm                                        (Ese)

the sweet scent of fresh rain rides
in on thunder's crashing waves.                              

bright morning sunlight
reveals the lightning footprints
fulgurites

glassy tubes formed in the heat
of lightning's impassioned stroke.                           (Janice)

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

magnolia

Carpe DIem #686, Magnolia

aging geisha sings
rain drops on magnolia leaves
nature keeping time

©  Janice Adcock

Click here to see her story.

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Dizzy Broad

That term was used to describe women when I was a child.  Usually a female not considered to be behaving in an seemly manner.  That term still brings to mind great famous and talented women from my childhood such a Lucille Ball & Marilyn Monroe.  Never was Beaver's mom called a dizzy broad.  The term was and is not a compliment.  I do still hear the term at times, usually in the political arena.  No one side owns the phrase.

I must admit it.  I am a dizzy broad.  I am broad because I have gained 20 pounds since the move to the apartment.  I am dizzy.  I can move and suddenly my body thinks it is on a merry go round.  Doc says it is the condition one of my coworkers had back in the 1980's, rocks in my head.  No, really.  It is a condition.  Not just someone that seems crazy.  Sure, I am crazy but this dizzy thing and the rocks are something else.  BPPV.

"BPPV. These initials stand for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. BPPV occurs when tiny calcium particles (canaliths) I call these rocks clump up in canals of the inner ear. The inner ear sends signals to the brain about head and body movements relative to gravity. It helps you keep your balance.  BPPV can occur for no known reason and may be associated with age." copied from WebMD.  Here is an informative little video.

Fine, one more thing to enjoy about getting older, rocks in my head....  Yesterday after visiting Doc, I came home determined to get this dizzy thing under control.  I watched videos until I went to sleep with the laptop still automatically flipping through youtube videos.  After Hubby returned from the track meet I was feeling too nauseated to attend I decided I can do it.  I can do one of the exercises.

The one I chose was one where you are one the floor and lean over in a tumbling position. After a feeble attempt to get on my knees a voice in my head (note, I admit I am crazy) says, "No, that will not work, dizzy broad.  You cannot put that weight on your knees.  Modify it by going from a sitting position." I performed the prescribed moves.  A few of the videos noted that Mayo Clinic recommends to maintain a level head position for 48 hours. Wear a soft whiplash type collar for a couple of days. That meant sitting in a chair to sleep.  I had to place pillows in certain locations to maintain the head position during sleep as I chose not to go buy a collar.

Today I am not doing much except pretending I have a crick in my neck.  That keeps me from moving my head in directions that would undo the work of moving the rock into the ear canal.  I am sitting pretty immobile today saying to myself, "I can do this."  Here is just one of the many videos I watched:

FYI, 48 hours is a long time to sit keeping one's head level.  Just sayin'.  And even bigger news, Grandson came in 3rd in the mile and 2nd in mile and a half.  There were about 40 in each event!  Proud Grandpa on the sidelines!  Dizzy broad grandma at home.

For posts about real women, real beauty, real heroes, pop over to The Spin Cycle.  

Thanks to The Spin Cycle Host Ginny Marie

first flower

Carpe Diem #685, first flowers (of spring)

dens leonis bud
sweet nectar awakes the beast
winter long nap
©  Janice Adcock 2015

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

bird feathers

Carpe Diem #684, bird feathers

'Well, horse feathers'.  Not sure how that expression became part of her vocabulary.  Probably influenced by the threat of a spanking if bad words were used.  Once a child received one such spanking, the threat was enough to keep the words in check.  At least in ear shot of the spankers.

'Fudge' is another word used as a substitute for the spank list words.  'Goat butt' could be used by the dad but not the child.  That was just a spat expression not a full fledged spank.  'Sonny gun' was acceptable as a teen.  College age brought the freedom of saying 'crap' without even a glare from the spanker.

As a senior person there are no spankers left to dominate how she speaks nor administer discipline.  She can express her dismay with whatever words she pleases in front of anyone.  It pleases her to say, "well ... horse . feathers!"

fury, feathers furl

birds in dominant swaggers

fifty shades of gray

©  Janice Adcock  2015

Sorry Haiku Kai, I just could not resist!

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

back to basics

Carpe Diem Haiku Writing Techniques #10, "back to basic"

Source:  Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

geese nibble spring grass

runoff streams crisscrossing fields

cherry blossom time

©  Janice Adcock 2015

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI