Midsummer

Carpe Diem #779 Seika (Midsummer)

Not folks who normally took midsummer vacations, the couple were a little anxious about being on such a long trip in summer's heat.  After all, they certainly were not getting any younger.  Encouraged by a family reunion taking place in a distant state, they decided to begin the trek.  By the end of the first eleven days the heat proved to not be a problem.  The temperatures were well below normal.  Abundant late spring and early summer rains had fields lush and green.  Trees still had the shiny leaves of early spring.  Rivers and streams were running bank full along the highways and byways of the Midwestern states.  The trip was idyllic. 

Well, except for them leaving the waterpik at the first house.  Then she losing some money at the race track but not more than a meal at chain restaurant.  Of course he did not see the distant hills quite as clearly.  Heaven only knows where his glasses were left  .......

making new friends

by the swift river's edge

two old goats eating

 

petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

 

Mugiwara boushi (Straw hat)

Pete and Jude were their names.  One was born the year he was and the other was a year or two older.  Everyone is dead that would remember.  And only a few alive that would care.  A couple of Missouri red mules that worked the stony soil of the family farm.  Pete lived to be 33.  He is still alive.

the old mule

no longer pulling the plows

nibbles a straw hat

©  petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Funsui (Fountain)

It was just a place to get a drink of water.  Just water.  Just a drink.  A water fountain.  But you best be able to read, young lady.  If you drank from the wrong one you would be in deep trouble.  She could never figure out where the Mexicans drank.

sparkling water

splattering over the edge

soaked cricket

©  petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Kingyo (Goldfish)

Carpe Diem #777 kingyo (goldfish)

 the movement

resembles a silken scarf

a goldfish tail

© petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Amido (Screen door, window screen)

in or out

the screen door slapped loudly

spider's web swings

©  petra domina

loose window screen
the snake wriggles inside
naps on a bed

©  petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

peony

Carpe Diem Time Machine #12 botan (peony) June-2013

The roots were dug with care from the soils of her garden, replanted only to be left behind ....

the pink blush

at the edge of the bud

an ant sips nectar

© petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Amenbou (Water strider)

Carpe Diem #778 amenbou (water strider)
 

fish jumping

water strider scurries 

hopeful lures

©  Janice 'petra domina' Adcock

You might enjoying listening to a group by the name of Waterstrider here.

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Shika no ko (Fawn)

Carpe Diem #776 shika no ko (fawn)

nestled

in the tree shadow

a fawn

©  petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

tears falling

Carpe Diem Utabukuro #4 tears falling

in the pouring rain

blackbirds gathered in the trees

mournful caws
she stands in stunned silence
as the doctor walks away

©  Janice 'petra domina' Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

plowing a field

On The Trail With Basho Encore #8 plowing a field

source: google, the bottom cutter
was like the one in the story

She was only about 10 but there she sat on the red Farmall tractor, cutting stalks in the field.  Her auburn hair, blue eyes and freckles were but accents to highlight the God given beauty within her heart.  Long sleeved shirts, jeans, sturdy work shoes and a straw hat were the attire of anyone working the blackland fields of Texas.  This 10 year old was no exception.

A slight gust of wind blew the hat from her head.  That would mean a certain sunburn to her fair skin.  So she devised a plan.  She would plow to the end of the row and grab the had on her way back.  The turn was made and she headed toward the hat.  She could hold the brake with one hand and lean down to grab the hat with the other hand.  That is exactly what she did.

Losing her grip on the brake pedal, she fell to the ground.  The tractor leaped forward. The last thing she remembers is seeing the stalk cutter, all those sharp knife like pieces of metal, heading for her.  Her daddy looked up to see her standing in the field.  The tractor with the stalk cutter in tow was running in a circle.  It was heading toward her and she was just standing there, dazed.  She is 75 now.  Still does not know why she did not get chopped to bits by that stalk cutter.

clap of thunder!

startled plow-mules bolt

torn down cherry tree

©  Janice 'petra domina' Adcock

FYI, Another of the stories from childhood.  It happened to my older sister.

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Taki (Waterfall)

Carpe Diem #772 Taki (Waterfall)

Athabasca Falls, Canada, 2008, ©  Janice Adcock

in the mist

a rumbling waterfall

polishing stones

©  petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

summer waves

Carpe Diem #771 natsu no nami (summer waves)

The heatwaves rose from the blackland prairie.  The illusion of a lake lay along the horizon.  The rows of corn in the opposite field were full of ears for eating not listening. Late afternoon brought the opportunity to cool off in the local swimming hole.  Squeals of delight from children and teens filled the air.  Adults would sit on the hoods of cars or join the kids in the cooling waters.  Minnows nibbled on your legs and kids learned to float in the waters of Rhine's Lake.

The a polio epidemic overtook the area.  Pools were closed.  The farm ponds and lakes were off limits.  No one went swimming in the evenings any more.  No more wading into the lake with the muddy bottom.  Just the the heatwaves and the illusion of a lake on the horizon....

humpback breaches!

from the music of the waves

an orchestra

© petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

An Instance 5 7 5

Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #51 classical way of writing haiku

The smell of books

old library

the sweet smell of books

and all that wisdom

© Chèvrefeuille

Moving makes for hard choices.  What to keep, what to give to someone, what to donate and what to throw away...  Books donated, magazines in recycling.  Even a few books that no one wanted to recycling.  That was tough.  At least not thrown away.  The kept books were special books.  Books studied by grandfathers and fathers.  Some studied by husband and son.  One that had an article published written by one's self.  Just an instructional article, nothing poetic, but published.

crumbling covers feel

shelves filled with prose and knowledge

smells from past lives .

©  Janice 'petra domina' Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

summer sun

Carpe Diem Special #155 Adjei's second haiku "summer sun"

One of the most wonder filled things about the world of blogging is, well, the world. Being able to be exposed to thoughts and poetry from around the world is mind expanding.  With a personal goal of stretching this year, the haiku community has greatly stretched the horizons of writing for me.  This month's special writer from Ghana is an excellent example.  Here is today's challenge from our most gracious host, Chèvrefeuille .

Adjei lives in Kimasi Ghana and is co-founder of the Poetry Foundation Ghana. He is the inventor of the "afriku" a haiku especially with scenes and images from Africa. At the moment he is creating his own personal weblog. He has already published a lot on the divers websites for poetry in Africa.

Here are his haiku for your inspiration. The goal is to write/compose all new haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit as the ones I have given. You may use them all, but that isn't an obligation, you can also take one or two haiku for your inspiration.

Summer morning:

summer sun
all in her eyes
the ocean, sand and nudity!

(c) Adjei

Butterflies:

folding
and unfolding
the silent clap of a butterfly

(c) Adjei

Rainy season:

May rains drop
the bamboo fence
free from termites plaster

(c) Adjei

Rainbow:

the rain
and his so-called bowl
little kids argued all day

(c) Adjei

Four wonderfully composed haiku. 

Not sure I can even approach the quality of these beauties but try I shall.  I do find it interesting that today the African dust is floating in our air here in Central Texas.  Small world our earth...

Summer morning:

sunlight
on his arm
pulses quicken

Butterflies:

butterfly wings
tickling the warm air
flutter by

Rainy Season:

desert sands
hitch hiking on gulf stream breeze
rained out picnic

desert dust

attracts jungle moisture

raindrops form

Rainbow:

elephants

walking under the rainbow

trumpeting 

©  Janice 'petra domina' Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

perpetuum mobile

Carpe Diem Perpetuum Mobile #1 Introduction to a new feature

From our CDHK host:

"Haiku is the poetry of nature, that short moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water, and nature is (in my opinion) always in motion. Seasons come and go, the moon changes every 28 days and so on, the only thing which is steady and without clear motion is our sun, that big star of our Milky Way around which the planets are rotating.

Nature is always moving and so it's like a perpetuum mobile. As I look at haiku on it selves than haiku is always changing too. As long as haiku exists the rules of writing them have changed like the waves, they have come and go and come again. So our beloved haiku is a perpetuum mobile in it's pure form I think.

seasons come and go
the everlasting motion of nature -
perpetuum mobile

(c) Chèvrefeuille

The goal of this new feature is trying to catch the perpetual motion of the seasons, of nature.

Spending so very much time with the grand sons and daughter as well as the 12 week old pup one thing is certain, perpetuum mobile.  Whether it is their bodies or their minds, seldom are young beings still.  Look at bear or any of the cat cubs.  If the young ones are not sleeping they are moving.  Hatch-ling birds are constantly crying for food, wearing the parents to a frazzle .......

in circles

the young pup chasing its tail

beneath the prayer wheel

© petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

shade

Carpe Diem #770 Hikage (shade, shadow)

With a bonnet on her head she walked next to the creaky wagon.  Her husband was guiding the mules over the long, open stretches.  The two older boys walked on the other side of the wagon out just a little ahead.  They watched for the incessant prairie dog holes.  One misstep into those holes and a mule could be crippled.  

The two toddler daughters were napping on a pile of quilts in the wagon bed.  Her youngest son sat next to his father.  The child seemed dazed in the hot, glaring sun.  She knew it was time for him to get into the wagon bed, also.  But her husband insisted it would just make him a sissy. 

Still watching her son, the woman failed to notice the pesky hole.  In an instant she was on the ground in excruciating pain.  The mules and wagon were pulled to a halt.  The sons and husband came running.  The day's progress had to be stopped till the badly sprained ankle could be wrapped.  With no trees in sight, the broom stick sufficed for a cane.  Once more the journey continued.  But for a while the youngest son had sat in the shade of the wagon.

no shade trees

the never ending prairie

one cloud's shadow

© petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

rainy season

Carpe Diem #768 tsuyu (rainy season)

There had been so much rain over the past few weeks the local lake rose 40 + feet but was still only 85% full.  

occasionally

rainy season cools parched earth

smiling frogs

petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

©  Janice '' Adcock

rainbow

Carpe Diem #769 Niji (rainbow)

akitsubata yori ano niji wa okoriken

irises--

where that rainbow

starts from 

© Kobayashi Issa

double rainbow

arching across cloudy sky

petals rain down

© petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

juxtaposition

Carpe Diem Time Glass #34, "juxtaposition"

Credits: Snow Mountain

snowy mountain peaks

melting, follow gravity

old folks nude beach

©  petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

3 Good Things

3 Good Things

This week on The Spin Cycle we are being challenged to list 3 good things that have happened either this week of each day.  Let me see what I can do:

Monday: 

1. husband let me rest late (long nite of keeping kiddos caught up with old woman)
2. my hair dried nicely (growing out hair is such a challenge!)
3. figured out a quick dinner

Tuesday:

1. Surprised grandsons with their favorite donuts!
2. Time to get a few answers from son about shelf project.
3. Celebrating 48th wedding anniversary.

Wednesday:

1. A quiet day with little activity.
2. Never got dressed!
3. Nephew's surgery appears to be successful.

Thursday:

1. Found a giant moth and photographed it.
2. Husband smoking ribs and tenderloin.  Mmmmmm smells.
3. Homemade potato salad

Friday:

1. Heat sheet for swim meet marked up
2. Able to write almost all day long.
3. Nephew is home from surgery and doing well.

Saturday, July 4!

1. Swim meet!  The last till next spring.
2. Independence celebrations with family!
3. Fireworks.

I do not know how the rest of the days will go.  But life is really pretty good all the time. And when it is not perfect, there is a great support group in friends, family and Creator!

Special things like finding a moth living its short life among my marigolds is like icing on the cake!

Thanks to The Spin Cycle Host Ginny Marie

butterfly

On The Trail With Basho Encore #7 butterflies

So many beautiful haiku on the subject of butterflies can be found by clicking here.

damp wings

dried in the warm sun rays

burst into flight

©  Janice 'petra domina' Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

morning glory

Inspirational challenge from our host on CDHK: 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's Friday again ... so it's Tan Renga time. This week's Tan Renga to complete is a haiku by Chiyo Ni, a wellknown haiku poetess who wrote her haiku in the way of Basho.
For this Tan Renga challenge I have chosen one of her most known haiku 'morning glory'. A real beauty.

It's your task to complete the tan renga by writing the second stanza towards it. This 2nd stanza has two lines with approximately 7 syllables each. A completed Tan Renga looks like a tanka, but is written by two poets.

asano eikou yoku baketto entanguru watashiha mizuwo motomeru

morning glory!
the well bucket-entangled,
I ask for water

© Chiyo-Ni

So here is my attempt at a response:

morning glory!

the well bucket-entangled,

I ask for water                    © Chiyo-Ni

morning glory nods it head

spilling dewdrops on my face   ©  petra domina

©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

kingfisher

Carpe Diem Time Machine #11 Kawasemi (Kingfisher)

credits:  Noel Marry

blue streak!
a glint of orange
old pond ripples

©  petra Domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

summer morning

Carpe Diem #767 natsuake (summer morning)

In the cool of summer's first morning she tends her garden.  A few weeds require pulling.  Containers of flowers request a drink.  The sun's rays the previous day had left the blooms a little thirsty.  The pump handle squeaks as the water is slowly pulled up from the earth's cool depths.  She walks slightly to one side to off set the weight of the filled watering can.

Two trips are required to have sufficient water for the few plants in the pots.  On the second trip back to the flowers she stoops to remove a withered leaf among the flowers.  The leaf startles her as it opens its wings to reveal a set of eyes.  Antheraea polyphemus has awakened to the summer morning, too.

eyes that never sleep

fooling those who see

. . one old moth

© Petra Domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

full moon

Carpe Diem Extra #21 July-2015

Oh, the world of full moons.  The heavenly body that moves earth's oceans.  She pulls at the hearts of lovers.  Early humans used it, and sister sun, to gauge when to plant crops.  Now in the 21st century many farmers and gardeners still follow the moon signs.  The moon's face is littered with meteorite remains and scars.  And the junk of her curious neighbors explorations.

Some may say the moon is masculine, the whole man in the moon myth.  Let's face it.  Only a woman could beguile so many humans.  At the same time manage to manipulate two thirds of the earth's surface .... And not even raise a finger.

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Trying on my pen name, Petra Domina.  Latin for The Rock Lady.

Stones

Carpe Diem Special #154 Afriku, haiku from Africa, an idea 

of Adjei Agyei Baah. "Stones"

Challenge post:

..... have another wonderful haiku poet from Ghana, Africa, for you this month as our featured haiku poet. His name is Adjei Agyei Baah and his is the co-founder of the Poetry Foundation Ghana. He has "invented" the (as he calls it) Afriku, the haiku from Africa.

Yesterday Adjei emailed me to ask me if I would publish his haiku (afriku) at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. Of course I was immediately enthusiastic and we had a little chat. It's a great honor that I may use his haiku for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

Here are his "stones"-haiku/afriku which he would like to share here at CDHK:

shoreline pebbles...

a reminder of how far

we have come

preparing

daddy's delicacy-

taking stones out of gizzard

stone temple

leftover boulders

add to reverence

© Adjei Agyei-Baah, Kumasi, Ghana

To read more about his afriku please visit the website of the Poetry Foundation Ghana. (By clicking HERE you can read his article about afriku)

adrift now

Pangaea's sister stones
joined only by drumbeats

©  Petra Domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

flat jannie

reading blogs
discovering what one
dimensional is

flat jannie