one bun

Tokubetsudesu #50 one-bun

Before

the news that yet another long time friend has passed, we long for visits

friends of youth, remembered, in a prayer

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

departing summer

Carpe Diem #766 departing summer

Yes, it is not the end of summer.  There are still the 100+ days of July and August to face.  Lots of sweat to be glistening on foreheads.  Parched lawns .. moms anticipating school's start .. kids wanting one more day of freedom .. fields of cotton yet to turn white.

When one is no longer in the summer of life, seasonal changes feel a little like seasons of life.  Departing summer is more a time that brings to mind fine wine in the final stages of aging.  Next will be lying in a cellar gathering dust.  Or coming uncorked at the next wedding!  Whoot! Whoot!

partly grey skies
the last flower wilts
in the fall sunset

©  Janice Adcock

Inspirational haiku from CDHK:

summer passing
the path to the beach
where no one goes

(C) Jane Reichhold

abandoned beach
finally I can find peace
summer has gone

(C) Chèvrefeuille

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

leaves

Carpe Diem #765 leaves

©  Janice Adcock

winding road

'neathe the golden canopy

leaf littered forest

squirrels scampering all around

burying next year's trees

©  Janice Adcock

summer departs

all the warmth left

in leaf fires

(C) Jane Reichhold

waves come and go

like the seasons

summer leaves

(C) Chèvrefeuille

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Berlin Wall

Carpe Diem Time Glass #33 The Wall Berlin

Amazing what comes along with a Sunday afternoon visit to a now departed aunt and her husband, a WWII vet.  We had taken our video camera to capture a few of his WWII stories.  Uncle Pete willingly obliged with all sorts of tales which we recorded.

Knowing well that Aunt Punkin' had traveled after the war to different posts with Uncle Pete, questions were directed to her.  She spoke of the time in West Germany, "Yeah, during the airlift days."  A statement as casual as saying the time it rained at the picnic. But it prompted looks of surprise from aunt and uncle's oldest as Uncle Pete's previously untold stories unfolded.

Over a decade before The Berlin Wall was the Berlin Blockade.  That resulted in the Berlin Airlift.  Pete was an aircraft maintenance sergeant by this time.  His job meant keeping the planes running for those flights to carry food and other supplies to the West Berliners.  At times he would be on the flights in and out of Berlin.   "Ay'god (one of Uncle's Peteisms) it scared the hell out of me on that landing.  Dropping out of the air in between all those buildings..."

Tensions rose and fell in the post WWII world.  Blockades morphed into barbed wire then to stones and mortar.  "Ich bin ein Berliner" .... "tear down this wall."  Bay of Pigs to Ukraine.  China Wall to Israeli walls to gated communities.  

lines 

in shifting sands

ad infinitum
©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

stones

©  Janice Adcock

Carpe Diem #764 stones

one stone at a time

the gravelly voices speak

place me here ...

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

©  Janice Adcock

©  Janice Adcock

Indian Summer

Carpe Diem Time Machine 10 Indian Summer (Koharu)

summer like heat

©  Janice Adcock

the paddy workers long

for an autumn breeze

©  Janice Adcock

Inspirational haiku:

after a warm day
a thin layer of fresh fallen snow
covers the garden

(c) Chèvrefeuille

the lazy bones yearn,
late summers refuse to move
winter knocks on door

(C) Nimue

on a wintry day,
summer blooms in my heart-
the radiance of hope

(C) Loredana

Warm fingers
Plunged in icy pool
Hummers rove

(C) Becca

Indian summer—
brief respite from the burden
of firewatch at night.

(C) Mark M. Redfearn

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

a beautiful peace

Carpe Diem Special #153, Rallentanda's fifth "a beautiful peace"

source:  CDHK

a beautiful peace
I sit quietly with them
feeling their presence

© Rallentanda

shadows
graves seem to move
spirits dance

© Chèvrefeuille

It is approaching time to be on the road for a few weeks.  Family reunion in Minnesota. Many of the cousins have settled in that area so the reunion will be there.  As with the 2010 reunion, none of the parents of the cousins will attend.  This time it is because only one uncle in law is still alive.   All of the previous generation are dead.  Hard to think of one's self as the older generation.  Guess that is why parents were so resistant to moving into easier care situations.

One part of the trip will be visiting graves.  Graves of parents.  Maybe even grandparents, uncles and aunts.  Life seems to be in fast forward now.  Son notes that a year in our life is only 1/69th while a year in the life of a child is like 1/9th.  And yet life goes on one day at a time for all .....

silent tears

filled with precious memories

peaceful rain

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

boiled rice slop

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #91, Basho's boiled rice slop

[...] "1694-summer. Basho uses less than elegant terms to describe both the rice dish and the man's wife. Notice how the sense varies as the second line twists so that there are two meanings. This is what Basho considered "lightness" or karumi." [...]

meshi angu kaka ga chiso ya yu suzumi

boiled rice slop
his old lady fans the treat
with evening coolness

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

boiled rice slop
his old lady fans the treat
with evening coolness
© Basho
extra mouth to feed tonight
too much talk and no work!

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

summer concert

Carpe Diem #763 outdoor concerts

Forty six years ago one of the most famous rock concerts was held on a farm near a small New England town.  Say the word Woodstock and immediately flower children, hippies, pot, LSD, free love mixed with music and mud comes to mind.  The 1969 concert made the evening news for the shear numbers and the lifestyle.

Dubbed as the hippie/rebel by the mother, the moniker was a misnomer.  The scorching hot August weekends of 1969 were spent with the finishing touches to a new home under construction.  Sundays were for church and sponsoring the youth group in the evening.  Yes, there were short skirts and peasant dresses, hot pants and hot cars, longer hair and shorter nights.  Work and play.  Of course there was passion, after all, they were still little more than two years into marriage.

outdoor concert

on a blanket and a breeze

crickets and doves

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

disciples

Carpe Diem "On The Trail With Basho Encore" #6 autumn night

Jane Reichhold tells us the following about this haiku:

[...] "1694-autumn. This verse began a half renga (18 links) done at Shioe Shado's house on September 21st, in Osaka. One of the reasons Basho had made the trip to Osaka, in spite of his illness, was to mediate between two of his disciples, Shido, a merchant from Osaka, and Shado, a doctor. When both disciples showed up for this renga, they completed only eighteen links. Here, with the associative technique, the autumn night, an abstract idea, and the conversation have been dashed to bits" [...]

aki no yo o uchi kuzushitaru hanashi kana

autumn night
dashed to bits
in conversation

In the aftermath of the murders in South Carolina any and all things Confederate are being seen as symbols of hate.  In the southern states the statues and memorials are in abundance.  There are streets, subdivisions, military installations and at least one university.  Even northern states have streets carrying the names of confederate army personnel.  In the past these were seen by politicians et al as a way to reconcile the southern and northern states.

Fast forward 150 years.  Repeated instances of black Americans being killed too frequently without any justice afterward.  The surface tension that sort of held things 'in tact' was destroyed by the bullets killing 9 innocents at a Bible study.  Every thing is being questioned.  The Lee and Jefferson statues on the University of Texas campus had the words 'black lives matter' painted on them.  And South Carolina is still flying the Confederate flag at its state capitol.

The Confederate flag painted on the top of The Dukes Of Hazzard car, the general lee, left a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.  States' rights.  Individual rights.  Government control.  Second Amendment rights....  First Amendment rights....  Chuck Norris suggests if just one person attending the Bible study had been carrying a gun they could have taken out the killer before all were dead.....

Basho's disciples had arguments intense enough over poetry forms to cause him to travel in a weakened condition.  How much more intense will this current war between ideals become?  And not just in the US.  Georgia, Syria, South Sudan ......   Ideals that deal in actual human lives ...... 

horrors

megalomaniacs'

disciples

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

haiku joys

Today I did little other than some chores around the house.  The Bones marathon is still taking part of my mental being.  Not sure why, but I am bingeing on the show.  Took a couple of side journeys with The Butler and Cake. Two movies that were worlds apart.  Yet both about overcoming adversity.

In between I read or write haiku.  Though I do not do justice to many of the prompts, there is the occasional one the is pitch perfect.  That statement is not meant as anything other that an assessment of the need for additional practice in the art.  And practice is as simple as looking out the window of the apartment.  Seeing that distant farm.  Dreaming of Remembering playing in the loft with my bff Reba Jane.  Throwing rotten eggs out of the loft onto the barnyard.  Using the corn crib as a slide. Just remembering and dreaming of the very next adventure.....

a perfect rose
on the garden trellis
joy

©  Janice Adcock

lagoon

Carpe Diem #762 lagoon

secluded lagoon 

reflecting pink ballet

dance of nature

morehens

swimming in the lagoon

lovers

©  Janice Adcock

Our prompt for today is lagoon and here are a few haiku which Jane has used in her saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku".

bridge
at the edge of the lagoon
the wind stops

lagoon
the name makes kayaks wiggle
with laughter

© Jane Reichhold

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

at the seashore

Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #49 at the seashore (Vision Quest reprise)

.... for this Tokubetsudesu episode I (Chèvrefeuille) love to challenge you to go on a Vision Quest with me. There is only a slightly little difference with the original feature. You have to use the three prompts, all with the same theme, in three different haiku and there has to be some cohesion that binds the three haiku together.
For this challenge I (Chèvrefeuille) will give you 24 hours extra time to respond. Here is the theme: at the seashore and these are the three prompts you have to use:

1. waves
2. seagulls
3. sundown

pulled by the moon
the waves of the ocean
stroke the seashore dunes

seashore visits

graced by quiet wings

a single gull

a single gull
the gentle lights of sundown
caress the palms

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

pines

Carpe Diem #761 Pines

whistling pines

trumpet the afternoon storm

source:  here

race begins

to walk
among the pines

source:  here

at one

pine cone
integer arcing spiral
natural perfection

©  Janice Adcock

Inspirational haiku:

a tearing sound

a pine cone opens

to the heat

friendly

the pine shares its fragrance

mid-day shade

reaching for the sun

the great pine's shadow

shapes the tree

the tea

in a pine needle cup

coolness

© Jane Reichhold

pine and cedar
to admire the wind
smell the sound


© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Dukes of Hazzard

Carpe Diem Time Glass #32 "Dukes of Hazzard"

He was only six the first time he watched the new TV show, "The Dukes of Hazzard" and he was hooked.  No so much as with  Star Wars, but hooked never the less.  Friday evenings would be spent first with "The Incredible Hulk".  Next the Duke boys would slide the General Lee with Roscoe P Coltrane in hot pursuit across the 24" screen.  Clouds of dust and blowing leaves trailed behind the orange Dodge Charger.

About all that remains of the Dukes is in a case of Hot Wheels.  The tire shaped case is in the storage foot stool.  Two General Lee's are in a case.  His sons will occasionally play with them when they visit.  Not sure they even know the car has a name...

confederate flag

flying down the country road

clinched hogg's jowls

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

stargazing

Carpe Diem 60 stargazing

One of many inspiration haiku and tanka:

upon bale of hay

stars twinkle in the distance

memories flash by

times filled with our hopes and dreams

and innocence reigned supreme

© Greg Wolford

on a blanket

young and old linked

stargazing

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

summer solstice - long day

Carpe Diem #759, long day/summer solstice

nagaki hi mo saezuri taranu hibari kana

even a long day
is not enough for the singing
of a skylark

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

storm clouds overhead
longest day comes to an end
pounding rain ...

©  Janice Adcock

Morning had brought a sudden, sharp pain.  The continuing discomfort resulted in CT scans, more needle punctures and agonizing groans.  Probably just lingering discomfort, just increase the pain meds.  The nausea and accompanying need to rid the stomach of its contents grows stronger.  Another sharp pain and everything stops.  Lifeless eyes staring  out at the end .... of the longest day ...

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

friday flowers

Carpe Diem Special #152, Rallentanda's fourth "friday flowers"

inspiration:

winter - friday night

faces glow like flowers in

soft lighting at the pub

© Rallentanda

rosebud lips

bloom into smiles

as the friends gather

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

trust

Yesterday Youngest grandson (who does not like to be called the youngest he told me) and I were sewing a flag for his soccer team at grade school.  The Hard Heads.  He fits right in with that description.  The flag was composed of a grass area made of camouflage, the players are denim and the background is red.  He wanted the soccer ball to be plaid.  I showed him how to cut out circles and the rest of the stuff.  Then after the demo he was given scissors to do the task.

The players were to be zigzagged after the 'grass' was attached.  Eyes would be zigzagged.  Youngest ran the pedal.  I was guiding the fabric and telling him when to stop the machine.   Eventually he wanted to do it himself.  I saw he was ready so I was attempting to get my slow body ready to move out of his way.  He impatiently said, "Granma, you don't trust me.  You need to trust me".  I assured him I trusted him as was getting myself out of his way.  He did quite well!  The thread broke due to a slight miscalculation that only experience will help.

In reading the usual blogs this morning one noted they had given a lift to a stranger.  A second blogger responded that showed real trust in the current 'clime'.  These two bloggers had met last year and spent time together touring Scotland.  The first blogger noted that it had taken trust on the second bloggers part to invite her into her home.  My response was simple, " I think the worst part of the current 'climes', as .... stated, is society has lost trust or faith in each other."

Not sure if I passed the faith test with the Youngest.  Only time will really tell ....

one sapphire sphere

beleaguered by violence

trusting deeds renew

on the porch

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #90, Allen Ginsberg's "on the porch"

Today's challenge is to complete a hokku by Allen Ginsberg.

source:  CDHK

on the porch
in my shorts;
auto lights in the rain                             (Allen Ginsberg)

after a lonely ... hot day
lips on mine ... together again               (Chèvrefeuille) our host on Carpe Diem

So how shall I finish the nice summertime hokku.  It should be fairly easy as it is summertime and has been raining on and off all week.  We have been very busy doing grandparent duties with our grandsons.  Swim lessons, summer fitness programs, sewing projects and trampoline completion.  Helping a sister and her family as they are passing through to a family reunion.  We are a little fatigued and moving a little slower.  And then there is the grandsons' puppy....

on the porch
in my shorts;
auto lights in the rain                             (Allen Ginsberg)

reflecting off the t-shirt
happy puppy paws and mud                    (Janice Adcock)

There are lots more versions of this completion waiting to be read over at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

desert

Carpe Diem #757 desert

like the desert

one's own thoughts

source:  www.arizona-leisure.com

dutchmen's gold

©  Janice Adcock

desert
awakened by silence
filled with dark

stars
in the sand
desert gift

your voice
tying me to the desert
toast pops up

© Jane Reichhold

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

fern

Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #48 ferns

Source: AGU

fragile fronds
imprinted in the rock
frozen in time

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

At The Horizon

Sitting on the most comfortable sofa in the world I can look out the door and see about 10 miles.  There are church steeples, water towers, shopping centers, hotels.  The night will have the lights of suburbia winking back at me.  The red H E B will glow along with a few other neon signs.  In the distance are a couple of hospitals.  Somewhere in between is Andy's Frozen Custard.

There are trees, more than one would expect for Central Texas.  Beyond the trees are the distance open fields.  That is farmland.  Beloved farmland.  We ride in the early spring with the top down and enjoy the aroma of the freshly turned earth.  In the summer we will explore looking for crops ripening.  Maybe we will run across a hawk or some other interesting bird.  Or we may just ride, feeling the warm breeze surrounding us.

As we approach the edge of the horizon the land continues to gently roll on eastward.  Fewer trees, more farmland.  And another horizon to check out on another, cooler day.  A fall day during the weeks that are punctuated with soccer and football games.  When grandsons are in school.  When all the world is focused on new goals, new directions, and new learning.  In the fall when we all reach toward new horizons.

summer passing

Carpe Diem #756 summer passing

The Carpe Diem group knows summer is not even here at this time.  This month in which summer officially begins we are writing haiku using modern kigo, season words.  The following are inspiration haiku:

a cool wind
summer passes
before it begins

late summer
even hotter by the breath
of dragonflies

mid-summer
the sadness of knowing
days grow shorter

© Jane Reichhold

naked
between summer flowers
dreaming of next summer

tears shed
on my naked body ...

source: here

summer is passing

© Chèvrefeuille

the squash bug
resting on devoured vines
neighbor's best friend

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

succulents

Carpe Diem #755 succulents

a great pot
of green leaves with thorns
the unknown succulent

a breeze
shaping the yucca blossom
bird shadow

© Jane Reichhold

aloe vera
dancing in the sunbeams
nature's balm

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

magnificent day

Carpe Diem Special #151, Rallentanda's third "magnificent day"

magnificent day

bees buzz about the garden

by lapis blue sea

© Rallentanda

empty pond

rain upon the parched earth

old frog sings

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

first celebrate

Carpe Diem Time Glass #31, Basho's "first celebrate"

Inspiration haiku:

mazu iwae ume o kokoro no fuyu-gomeri

first celebrate

the flowers in your heart

confined in winter

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

first celebrate

with the first moonbeam

the fairy's dance

the flowers in your heart

bloom in the sunny warmth 

love's celebration

confined in winter

the bear sleepily searches

first dandelions!

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

a single flower

Carpe Diem's utabukuro #1 introduction "a single flower"

through a crumbling door
walking into summertime—
the greensong of leaves 
Text © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher

This is just a sample of the poetry written by a teacher in the US southwest desert.  Her beautiful, brief poetry was introduced to me through the photo blogging world.  In 2012 knowing I would be 'down' for a few weeks, the decision was made to begin a blog.  No particular purpose other than to just record stuff in my life.  A few months in I began to venture to different blogs.  I began participating in The Spin Cycle.  The blogging world expanded from there.  Story telling blogs led to photography blogs.  And there the world opened even more.  

One blogger in particular had beautiful photos accompanied by words so brief but full of impact.  This blogger brought a different type of poetry into my life.  A poem of 3 lines with 5,7,5 syllables.  Magical Mystical Teacher is that blogger.  Through the links in her posts I was led to the Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

through the maze
of the beautifully penned words
apprentice follows

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI