Category: Haibun

Haibun

Chasing Shadows: A Haibun

Nancy's Notes πŸ–ŠοΈβ™¬

Written for dVerse Poets Pub – Haibun Monday: Solstice
offered up by our host, Frank J. Tassone. Here is my haibun.

Giggles overtake me as I chase my squatty shadow across the green velvet carpet of freshly mown grass. I’ve waited 365 days for this hour to repeat, another chance to sit in the warmth of the evening and delight in the heady fragrance of honeysuckle, to spy a firefly and gasp in awe as the sky blazes with cascading colors of sparklers, rockets and fountains. The realization that tomorrow will be minutely shorter than today hasn’t registered; no, I won’t go there just yet …. not when there are so many summer nights to dream on and the winter will be far too long and cold.

the willow tree weeps
cicadas reject their shells
tilt toward the sun

NARΒ©2024

Haibun Monday 6-17-24: Solstice

This is β€œSaturday In The Park”  by Chicago

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NARΒ©2017-present.

Haibun

Sometimes I Wonder: A Haibun

Nancy's Notes πŸ–ŠοΈβ™¬

Lately I have been pondering some of life’s mysteries.

If I had gone out on that blind date in March of ’68 with Bill’s twin brother Jim instead of Bill [which was the original plan], and married Jim instead of Bill, would I have experienced the same happiness and blessings in my life? Would I have had the long and loving relationship, the feeling of security I enjoy now? Would my spouse still have been my equal partner in every aspect of our marriage? Would I have conceived and given birth to the amazing children I raised who in turn have blessed me with incredible grandchildren? Would we be celebrating our 52nd wedding anniversary?

Or would I be a widow?

Two-and-a-half months ago, before my husband’s brother died, I never thought about such things. Strange how death can make us wonder about life.

scattering stardust
unanswerable questions
swirling round my brain

NARΒ©2024

This is Hoagy Carmichael’s β€œStardust” featuring the voice of Nat King Cole

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not for use by anyone without permission. NARΒ©2017-present.

Haibun

Bubble Queen

Nancy's Notes πŸ–ŠοΈβ™¬

Written forΒ Haibun MondayΒ where we have been asked
by Frank J. Tassone at dVerse Poets PubΒ to write a haibun
incorporating β€œMay Transcience”, using the Japanese idiom
of β€œMono No Aware”. My granddaughter was my muse.

She’s four now and it seems like yesterday she was barely walking, crawling sideways like a huge pink crab with her undeveloped knees brushing the floor in lightning speed. Her golden blonde hair is loose, flowing almost to the tops of her thighs like the fragrant flowers trailing from a Maypole. We laugh when we worried that these glorious tresses would never grow out and she would forever be the source of jokes by the mean girls in school. But that was not to be as this indescribably beautiful child standing before us with all the presence and attitude of Xena the Warrior Princess will stake her claim and win against any goddess wannabees. No more baby bubble pipes for this one; she has moved into the power bubble zone. She is a force of nature.

intergalactic shifts
bound from planet to planet
hail the bubble queen

NARΒ©2024

Haibun Monday 5/20/24: May Transience

This is Biffy Clyro with “Bubbles”

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not for use by anyone without permission. NARΒ©2017-present.

Haibun

Moonspell: A Haibun

Nancy's Notes πŸ–ŠοΈβ™¬

Written for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge #513,
Weekly Prompts Colour Challenge (orange), Moonwashed Weekly
Prompt (hazy moon) & Weekly Prompts Wednesday Challenge (regret)

Image Credit Sarah Whiley

I was lost, a bit frightened and filled with regret for not making a note of the address. A hazy moon began to make her appearance in the evening sky, leaving the tiny Palermo street awash in a warm orange glow. Squinting in the darkness, I saw what appeared to be a tunnel at the end of the street; there was no way I was going to walk into the black unknown. Slowly I inched closer and discovered the tunnel was actually a stairway. Just as I quickened my pace, an arm shot out of a hidden doorway and pulled me inside, pinning me against a wall. A deep voice I knew intimately whispered in honeyed Sicilian tones “PicchΓ¬ ci haiu misu tantu tempu, amuri miu? Ti vogghiu beni!”ΒΊ Passionate kisses drifted down my neck. Breathless, I murmured “I’m here now, my love. Show me.”

Kiss me now, my love,
In the warm glow of the moon
You possess my heart

NARΒ©2024

ΒΊ“What took you so long, my love? I am burning for you.”

Photo Challenge #513
Weekly Prompts Colour Challenge – Orange
Moonwashed Weekly Prompt – Hazy moon
Weekly Prompts Wednesday Challenge – Regret

This is the Flamingos with β€œI Only Have Eyes For You”

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NARΒ©2017-present.

Haibun, Poem

April Showers: A Haibun

Nancy's Notes πŸ–ŠοΈβ™¬

Written for Weekend Writing Prompt #359 (tempest, 29 words)
Moonwashed Weekly Prompt (gilt-edged) and
Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge (pointless)

It’s springtime! I love to see my flowers growing but sudden storms wreak havoc on defenseless, gilt-edged blossoms.

roses madly thrashed
spring’s wild tempest rains attack
my pointless garden

NARΒ©2024
29 Words

Weekend Writing Prompt #359 – Tempest
Moonwashed Weekly Prompt – Gilt-edged
Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Pointless

This is “Dead Flowers” by the Rolling Stones – Totally Stripped

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NARΒ©2017-present.

Haibun

La Luna: A Haibun

Nancy's Notes πŸ–ŠοΈβ™¬

Written for Eugi’s Moonwashed Weekly Prompt ~ Star-flecked

It seems I rarely think of the moon; she’s just there, suspended in the sky in some kind of pretentious orbit around the earth. Unlike the sun with his blistering summer rays that our mothers warned us about, the moon’s ambient glow is somehow taken for granted. I’m sure the moon is a she. We are inextricably linked, la luna and me, and I know she forgives me for not paying my respects more often. But she is present in the most unassuming of ways. It happens silently, softly in the very early hours of a new day as her lunar aura pirouettes across my lashes. My eyelids quiver open to see her peeking from behind the tree branches sprawled across the blue-grey sky. And I watch through smiling, star-flecked eyes as she gracefully disappears into the shadows.

mellow morning moon
quietly you slip away
into the stillness

NARΒ©2024

Moonwashed Weekly Prompt – Star-flecked

This is the delightful Cat Stevens with β€œMoon Shadow”

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NARΒ©2017-present.

Haibun

Fever Pitch: A Haibun

Nancy's Notes πŸ–ŠοΈβ™¬

Written for dVerse where we are asked to celebrate
the arrival of spring by writing a haibun
that alludes to the first [cherry] blossoms [hatsu hana]

Β© NAR

It was five, maybe six years ago …. I’ve forgotten …. but it was April, that much I’m sure of because the legion of cherry trees dotting the shimmering green lawn surrounding the hospital was starting to bloom. That was the Spring I almost died from pneumonia. Funny, I can’t recall the year but I remember one particular bud on the cherry tree which I could see very clearly through my hospital room window. As I became sicker with each passing day, the bud thrived, almost as if I was giving it my life force. The day the pink and white blossom fully opened was the day my fever broke.

pink bud unfurling
branches reaching for the sun
life resurrected

NARΒ©2024

Haibun Monday 3/25/24: first [cherry] blossoms (hatsu hana)

This is Perez Prado with β€œCherry Pink And Apple Blossom White”

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NARΒ©2017-present.