the quiet of 7 a.m.

coffee aroma

with summer breeze and birdsong

-- a perfect morning

Copyright © 2013 Nan P.

happy new year!

Every day is a journey,

and the journey itself is home.

-- Matsuo Basho

Happy New Year! I feel ready to start 2012. I stayed up until just after midnight, had a good night's rest, and am looking forward to this day where I will watch a friend sworn in to a local elected position at noon, and then plan to cook a nice dinner. There will be basketball on the telly, music and Netflix, a good book on the table, and I will put off taking down the Christmas tree for just one more day -- to the delight of the cats and the part of me that loves having a tree in the house!

The year ahead will no doubt have its challenges, as 2011 certainly did. Life is pain, sometimes. And yet, when I look at the context of my life, I feel incredibly blessed to be able to recognize that I have a healthy situation for personal growth: good health, enough resources, the love of those around me, and enough energy to work through any difficulties that are present. I am grateful. I look ahead and pray that I will have the humility and wisdom to embrace what the haiku above is telling us.

I hope you will consider joining me for the January 2012 writing challenge at The River of Stones. The basic info is HERE. I will be posting my small stones over at my other blog, tiny river splash. Have a great day!

harvest moon -- 100 percent full

Harvest moon:

around the pond I wander

and the night is gone.

--Matsuo Basho

rooms of my mind

The prompt this week over at Big Tent Poetry involved an exercise. First, we were to take 30 minutes and draw our home -- graphically identifying as much detail as we could. Then we were to take about a half-hour to free-write on something that came to our attention during the drawing process --stream of consciousness. From the free-write, we were to write a poem. I decided to try a sort of a haibun. [*Photo credit and link below.]

This is my poem:

rooms of my mind

I wander through the rooms of this house and ponder what the walls contain. Three people, two cats, and a fish dwell here, among the possessions, while light and air pour in through window screens. These walls hold music and art, with wireless Internet flowing through ethers. There are memories, emotions, along with the residue of laughter and joy and pain. Neat and tidy, this house appears simple. Yet its closets and drawers are packed tight with hidden excess, revealing an inability to let go. Over time, the windows breathe more and are less efficient, giving the airtight home more airflow.

Do the rooms of my mind breathe too? At one time, I could envision every detail of every room I’ve ever lived in. The closets and drawers were packed tight then also. The elements have faded and memories and facts are more interconnected than before. Segmented and disciplined, the rooms of my mind are breezier these days. Still, they contain much, and betray little.


breezes flow freely
through the rooms of her mind --
she smiles sweetly

Copyright © 2010 Nan P.

* Photo found at FineArtAmerica.com -- Gentle Breeze by Lyle Huisken

ancient mountain pools

This week's Big Tent Poetry prompt was to write a haibun.

"Haibun, a form that originated in Japan, combines prose with haiku to describe a journey and very often an epiphany. The prose (think prose poem) sections are built around images, and the language is precise enough to capture only the essence of what is being described. The haiku that follow are only loosely connected to the prose."

We traveled from the bustling, urban city to the moist, hot rainforest in less than five hours. The acrid smells and sirens gave way to tropical bird sounds and dripping. The balmy air thickened inside my lungs as I breathed deeply and took in the medicinal scents of the plants and flowers and soil. On the day we traveled to Mountain Pine Ridge, we traveled for nearly four hours from rainforest up a mountain road. These roads are not like roads I know. They are narrow and one-way and absent of asphalt. Our giant, aging tour bus was able to manage speeds of five to ten miles per hour. It creaked and rocked over the pitted dirt roads over hill and dale, up the mountain. I laughed when I saw the sign that said that our destination was not accessible by bus, only by car. Our cowboy bus driver with his shy smile, deep eyes and machete for protection brought us to the pinnacle of paradise, almost by sheer will. We took in the pristine beauty, unlike any vista I had ever seen. We swam in the crystal clear pools and slid on the rocks and gentle water falls into the crevasse-depths of the pure, cool water while the warm sun warmed our skin. Pine trees and pine scent were everywhere around us. We inhaled our delicious picnic lunch, packed hours earlier. Lunch never tasted better. After hours in this paradise, we returned to the bus to find one of the tires flat. In a moment, we went from enjoyment of timelessness to wondering how we could ever get back without a working bus. We had passed a giant, dead snake on our ascent, and its image passed before me. Our location was so remote it would take nearly a day for anyone to come get us, and buses were few and far between. Stanley was able to change the tire with the one suspicious looking spare tire on board. We took the descent, knowing the best was behind us, and when we arrived back at our casita, deep in the canopy of bird calls and greenery, we were grateful we had made it back, with no spare to spare.

the ancient mountain
pools clear water for those able
to make the journey

and

fear and faith
accompany the descent
from paradise

Copyright © 2010 Nan P.

the waning crescent

the waning crescent
only one percent full --
throws in the towel

snow and deadlines

Morning snow
on wooded branches -
Deadlines loom.

Ken Wagner, Haiku Habits

resisting the fall

green hanging on

and petunias keep blooming --

resisting the fall

Here are couple of photos from today's unexpectedly sunny fall showing. The pin oak is starting to mottle red, ever so slightly. The wine barrel of petunias stubbornly continues to bloom and grow -- with only the purples persisting, all the other petunia varieties having died out in the recent cold weather. You can click to enlarge the photos. Isn't the sun through the green just gorgeous?

geese in flight

warm valley —
countless geese
seeking refuge

By Michael Garafalo

Photo found at: http://nonizamboniblue.blogspot.com/

summer trim

after heavy rains
the tree's abundant branches
need a summer trim

before . . .

after . . .

It may not look all that dramatic here, but the difference really is noticeable. Tom trimmed the bottom layer of branches up so that we can fully walk under the canopy.

spring happenings

pin oak's new green
sprouting and fluffing forth--
inciting summer

Memorial Day Weekend marks the end of spring and the beginning of summer. We have taken the cover off the pool and are adding the water to get warmed up in the sun and ready for summer swimming. I am off to the little mom & pop gardening business later today to pick up some petunias, geraniums, vinca vines, dusty miller, and some tomato plants for the barrel. I love this weekend. It signals that we will spend more time outdoors than indoors, finally.



The signs that spring is passing on through are everywhere. From the great spring concert we enjoyed at Matthew's school last evening to the leaves on the pin oak popping out. We are heading into summer. (Now that Matthew plays alto sax, he sits in the rear rows, so I have a harder time getting a good photo.)

Twenty years ago this afternoon (the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend), Tom and I "tied the knot," as they say. While our anniversary is technically not until Tuesday, I tend to remember it as the day within the weekend. It was a very rainy day, although the sun did shine through the stained glass windows of the church as we were saying our vows. If I can find our wedding album, I will try to scan a photo from the day to post on Tuesday. Our photographer didn't turn out to be the best, but the photos still do spark fun memories.The snap shots turned out to be much better than the posed photos -- which is not uncommon when the photographer is not that skilled. I can't remember, but I think the mass began at 5 p.m., and the reception followed immediately at a restaurant/banquet hall nearby. It was a fun celebration, with good music and dancing and food.

Have a nice weekend, yourself!

life outside the window screen

warm breezes and

life outside the window screen --

a pang of regret

It was a gorgeous weekend. Tom brought out the deck furniture. I was dying to sit out there and take in the air, read a book, and look at the birds at the feeders. With the exception of my constitutional Sunday morning walk with my neighbor Darci, I stayed disciplined and sat in front of the computer typing up interview transcripts and writing up field notes. I stayed off the Internet, and I got quite a bit done. Not everything is done, of course. Another week and a half of this pace and I'll be just about done with this course.

Tom is a great dad and took Matt and his two buddies Jack and Russell to play laser tag at the mall this afternoon as a special ending to the "last day of vacation" until summer vacation. Matt enjoyed last week off, and is feeling quite bummed about tomorrow morning. We cooked out on the grill for dinner. Back to the routine tomorrow.

haiku explained

I've been a fan of haiku for several years now. I knew that the western idea of haiku as a strictly structured 5-7-5 syllabic line poem was not the true rule, but I had found no explanation that persuaded me away from those guidelines, in part because I didn't have a true understanding of the intention/definition of haiku. I knew it was a Japanese form, and from my study of karate, I know that spelling out meaning is not part of that culture of teaching/instruction.

My teacher would not explain things a whole lot. He would show us things, correct us when we were wrong. We would learn through imitation, at first. We would practice, practice, and practice a kata, and then at some point, the meaning would come clearer. The student evolves understanding from within, and there is an "aha" moment. The meaning is constructed over time. Once that meaning is established, the practice becomes easier - and harder. Every kata will be better from that point on for the gain of the new understanding.

What did I know about haiku? I knew that I was attracted to its form. My understanding was that haiku is a brief and starkly constructed poem that brings in an aspect of nature or season with some some kind of human "leap," so that the imagination can feel or picture what is being expressed. I have stumbled along blindly, (having fun,) writing these haiku, not getting any real critical feedback to improve the practice, and I would have a sense of when one was "decent." It is like when you are drawn to something (art, music, etc.) - you know that you like it - but you don't know exactly why, and you might not even care why. However, on some level you'd like to have a deeper understanding of it.

Occasionally I search the web for a new haiku web site. There are a proliferation of such sites online, but none really had a great explanation of haiku to take me to the next level in my enjoyment of reading/writing haiku. I had contemplated the famous Japanese haiku I've read and thought about how translation from Japanese affects meaning, and how the syllabic structure is so compact and definitely does not fit any sort of artificial structure. The other night I hit haiku gold when I found David Giacalone's, the archives of f/k/a. I recognized the name as someone whose work I had seen published, so I tooled around in the site and found an excellent explanation of haiku (versus senryu versus zappai).

Quick Definition of Haiku: Haiku is a “one-breath” poem (no more than 17 syllables, but the best often have far fewer in English) that relates nature to human nature, and usually compares or contrasts a pair of sensory images, which are separated by a pause. At its best, haiku lets the reader share in the poet’s “haiku moment” — a moment of insight or awe.

Quick Definition of Senryu: Senryu is a short poem similar in structure to haiku but featuring observations on human nature (often ironic, humorous and/or coarse).

What haiku isn’t: Not only is it untrue that haiku must be 17 syllables (in English-language haiku, shorter is better, and many of the best are 10 to 14 syllables), but it is especially untrue that any poem/verse set forth in the 5 - 7 -5-syllable format is haiku. Most of what we see on the internet — even if quite funny and imaginative — is (at its best) senryu, but most so-called haiku is really very light verse, or doggerel. It would be great if you could help correct the misconceptions by calling your next “haiku” contest by another name. Maybe “lowku” or “hipKu” or “hypeKu.” (”ku” means verse or poem in Japanese.)

[Gurga], discussing his use of the term zappai: “[T]here is a third genre in Japanese practice that includes light verses in haiku-like form written purely as a joke. . . . Zappai means ‘miscellaneous haikai verse’ in Japanese.

“Likewise, in the West, poems written in three lines and seventeen syllables, clearly not haiku in tone or feeling, have often been called senryu by those sophisticated enough to to differentiate these verses from true haiku. Even beyond senryu, however, lies that large class of poems written in parody of haiku or using the 5–7–5 haiku form and mock-Zen spirit as a vehicle for lowbrow humor. . .

“If a short poem sounds like an aphorism, epigram, proverb, or fortune-cookie wisdom, it is probably zappai. Whether we choose to refer to these kinds of light verse as zappai or pseudohaiku, however, is not really important. What is important is that it be understood that, though their authors may choose to call them haiku, they are merely versified ideas in haiku-form, not poems of the haiku genre.

For more from David Giagalone, check out his haiku primer. I also recommend reading the full explanation hyperlinked above.

Now, in looking back on my various haiku, I realize that some of the poems work as haiku, others are senryu, and some are zappai. Will I change my labels? Nope. I will just evolve my understanding and go from here. Now that I look back, I could probably go back and edit many of them to improve them, though chances are, I won't. Meanwhile, I am thinking about one-breath poems that are 17 or less syllables.

junco

the junco hops
and looks for food
that blew away









image from photobucket.com

spring light

This grey morning

while rain is pouring

spring lights break the ground
-- Ashi

It is a cloudy and cold morning in Central, NY. We had rains all afternoon and evening yesterday, and there are only small patches of snow remaining in just a couple of areas. The day ahead is much like yesterday. Time for relaxation, a walk, time for chores that I didn't complete yesterday, and a bonus at the end of the day, getting together with our neighbors Darci and Josh for a fun dinner out at a Japanese restaurant. Matt loves this particular restaurant, and has planned in advance what he will order . . . "the adult portion!"

In our tiredness last night, we failed to set the clocks ahead, and decided to sleep in until 8 a.m. (9 a.m.) this morning. I had a fleeting thought at around 10 last night that I would just spring the clocks ahead in the morning, and then this morning, I didn't remember until Tom said, "hey, we didn't move the clocks ahead." At 8:10 this morning, we went around the house changing the clocks, and I am realizing what a good idea it is that this change-over takes place on a weekend.

Yesterday was a banner day for procrastination. I spent some time cooking a big crock pot full of tomato sauce and baking a cake, while listening to a new CD, Beck's Modern Guilt. It is quite good. (You can hear samples on YouTube. The title track is here and my favorite track, Orphans, is here. The videos and music have modern Beatles-esque look and feel to them. The melody of Orphans definitely reminds me of a jacked up Cat Stevens' Moon Shadow.) While I did accomplish getting the laundry done and doing some cooking, I didn't get the tax stuff together, or do the bills, or do much homework. I love weekends like this when I can afford myself the opportunity to procrastinate . . . which is something I can't do most weekends, and don't ever do at work.

Matt's game yesterday turned into a scrimmage when the other team failed to show up. They have a 10-man squad, so they did some really cool drills and had an exciting scrimmage. I don't get to see his practices, so it was fun for me to see how much he has improved. He gets the game, the plays, and he is passing and moving around really well. When I looked at those photos I posted last night and compare how small he was just 3 years ago to how big Matt is now, I can hardly believe it. I imagine that in a few years I will look back on how he looks now and say, can you believe how much bigger and older he is now? He looks forward to a time, in the not so distant future, when he will tower over me. He is nearly as tall as I am now. It is just hard to imagine that just a few years ago, I could carry him in my arms.

Matt had his buddies Jack and Russell over yesterday afternoon and for supper, and today he is there for a few hours. All in all, it is a good weekend, even if it is a cold and dreary outside. Spring light isn't just all about sunshine, and spring light means that winter will soon end. (In the haiku above, the author intentionally says "spring lights break the ground," because he is not talking about spring light as in the light in the sky, but lights, as in crocus, snowdrops, and daffodils. Cool, huh?) I had better get myself moving now. I hope you are having a good day, wherever you are and whenever you are reading this. Ciao.

is it really spring?

sunlight in the tree
red finches at the feeder--
the days get longer

After below-zero temps at the beginning of the week, we saw some thaw yesterday, and it looks like we may see low 50 degree temperatures later today. The snow is nearly gone, and with the bright sun on the deck, I ventured out to snap this photo of my favorite tree this morning. (Notice that last season's pin oak leaves hang on stubbornly still through March.) It felt warm outside to me, but it turns out it was only 30 degrees. Funny how that seems balmy after the deep freeze we have had to endure.

Another beacon of spring is the sound of the birds chirping in the morning! I have missed those happy sounds. We even heard the "crazy geese" passing overhead early this morning. They are so loud, but it was an incredibly welcome sound. It sure beats the sound of the plow scraping by. I do know we'll have a bit more of winter before spring truly arrives, but having a day or two like this as a signal to hope is a very good thing. We'll set the clocks forward tonight, and won't it be a good thing to have that extra daylight at the end of the day?

Matt has a travel basketball game this afternoon, so my plan before then is to get some laundry done, pull together tax documents, and perhaps even get some homework done. I am very happy to have the weekend finally here. For a few reasons, it was a very long week. I've looked forward to this moment: drinking a good cup of coffee, tapping out a blog post, reading my favorite blogs, and getting to the work of the home for a few hours before being with our community of basketball parents while we watch our kids do their thing. Life is good.

snow plow in the dark

the morning plow scrapes
and salts the slick road outside--
in the dark and cold

tip of the iceberg

chunk ice floating

larger base, heavy beneath --

tip of the iceberg

I wrote this haiku a few years ago. Traditional haiku is not supposed to utilize metaphor, but this one can be read from a natural perspective or from a perspective of metaphor. I can't help it! From my framework, nature is metaphor, sometimes. I found this image on the Internet this morning and couldn't believe the perfect fit for something that was articulated in my head some time before. A quick google search conveys it graphically in one instant. Cool.

belize quick takes

plane's window shades down --

bright sunshine escapes from cracks

approaching Belize

Before our first trip to Belize, I had to admit, I wasn't exactly sure where in the world it was. I knew it was in Central America, but I had to look at a map. I thought it might be helpful to put in some quick facts in Belize as I will be posting a few thematic pieces on our recent trip.

During the 19th century, Belize was referred to as British Honduras, after being colonized in the mid-19th century by England. It is by that name that many people of a certain generation remember it. It was a rich landscape colonized by the British for their interest in exporting mahogany. In 1974, the name for the colony changes from British Honduras to Belize, in anticipation of its independence. In 1981, Belize became independent from England. Though still a member of the British system, with the Queen as its symbolic head, it is now a sovereign democracy with a prime minister. They have municipal elections every three years, and a general election every five years. There are two primary political parties, both fairly centrist.

Throughout its history, Belize has disputed borders with Guatemala, and has been the location of geographic rivalry between English and Spanish colonists. A fairly complete summary can be found at Wikipedia.

Today, the population of Belize is approximately 300,000 people. It's geographic size is similar to that of the state of Massachusetts, or about 800,000 square miles of land. There are five major ethnic groups that comprise modern Belize: Creole (Kriol), Mestizo, Maya, Garifuna (shipwrecked African Slaves from French sovereign areas), and Spanish. There are also sizable populations of Mennonites (Europeans who left Germany before the war and emigrated on a zig zag path across the Atlantic and south through Mexico to Belize in the 1950s), as well as Chinese, Lebanese, East Indian's and Arabs. Belize is also home to refugees from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. According to Peter, there are not a lot of racial tensions in this multi-racial country. He attributes this to the fact that it is a small country with a lot of interdependence and intermarriage. The Belizean Constitution prohibits discrimination. The main religion in Belize is Roman Catholicism, but we saw evidence of a number of different Christian churches throughout.

Most people in Belize speak three languages: English, Spanish, and Creole, with Creole being a uniting vernacular with 98% of people speaking Creole. (Similar to that throughout Central America, it is an English-based Creole rather than the French-based Creole of Louisiana.) All schooling is in English. Primary education is free and compulsory. Secondary education is free (must pass an entrance exam for private education). All higher education must be paid for through tuition and fees.

The export economy includes citrus concentrate, bananas, seafood, and lumber. Agriculture is a very large industry within the economy of Belize. Tourism is also a very large part of the Belizean economy, with 1 in 4 people estimated as being employed in some aspect of tourism. Belize has 3 of the 4 barrier reefs in the world that are "underwater mountains" caused when plate tectonics exposed the tops of mountains, and the erosion of the tops created lagoons. Belize is a country of cayes (keys) and mainland rainforest. Twenty percent of the vegetation is pine savanna. We passed areas that looked clear cut, but Peter explained that fire is a part of the natural ecosystem, and in the dry season, with windy periods, pine cones heat up and fires spread, dispersing flammable seeds -- a symbiotic process.

Belize City was the capital of Belize until 1961, when Hurricane Hattie ripped through, leveling the city. This caused leaders to relocate the capital to Belmopan, in a more central and secure location. There are approximately 16-18,000 people in Belmopan, the administrative center of the country. Belize City, however, remains the largest and busiest city in the country, with an estimated 70,000 people. Belize is a developing country. Most of the people there seem happy and productive. People were very friendly and open and relaxed. I am trying to maintain that Belize state of mind!

Our trip involved five days on the mainland, mostly in the central regions (Cayo and Belize districts), and two days on Ambergris Caye (the largest of the Cayes). After two trips to Belize, I still don't feel like I've seen enough. I hope to go back some time soon, and I highly recommend that you check it out! There are so many things to see and so much to learn. This was not a "luxury vacation" type trip per se, but it was most definitely a learning adventure that has changed my life for the better.

[Remember, to enlarge a map or photo, simply click on the image.]

holiday season begins

vanilla clove scent

wafting through the shopping mall

prompting them to spend

We have returned from our jaunt down "south," to Pennsylvania. I can't remember where along the trip down that the snow disappeared, but on the way home yesterday, just north of Binghamton on Route 81, the snow started appearing on the ground again. We came home to just slightly less snow on the ground than when we left on Thursday.

We had a really lovely Thanksgiving holiday with Tom's family. Thursday's meal was a very nice feast, and Matt enjoyed his annual Thanksgiving football game in Uncle John and Aunt Kim's back yard. We had a great time playing a game called "Apples to Apples" on Thursday evening before heading to Sue and Steve's down near Philadelphia. Friday was a busy and fun day, which included a visit to a great bead store in the morning, some time at Dave & Buster's, a movie (Madagascar 2), and dinner at a yummy Chinese-Japanese restaurant. Sue and Steve are always thoughtful and generous in hosting and making us feel at home, and this visit was no exception.

As soon as we got home, we started our annual tradition of putting up the Christmas tree and window candles. It was a big job, but made all the more enjoyable by putting on some favorite Christmas music. I really enjoy the extra lights at this dark time of year!

I guess it is just hard to believe that December is upon us. So much to do in the weeks ahead. My paper is due a week from Tuesday, so I plan to work on that a bit today and put the finishing touches on it next weekend. Matt has his holiday concert on Thursday. I look forward to getting started on my Christmas cards. As always, I will do my best to not let the frenzy of the season get to me. It is supposed to be a holiday of peace and love, not of greed and materialism. I plan to tune into the joy of the beautiful Christmas music as often as possible.