Blog Archives
Haibun: Pandemic
Last year was hard—it was brutal!—as the world endured the Covid-19 pandemic. Here a mother died, there a father, and somewhere else a whole family. Some of us lost our homes, because we couldn’t work. Some of us ended up sleeping under bridges, or in fields, or in other out-of-the-way places. We were desolate. We couldn’t reach out to each other for a hug or handshake because we were in lockdown, afraid for our lives. Nothing seemed to help. And then came harbingers of hope, bearing strange names: Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca—vaccines to vanquish the virus! We offered our arms for a jab, and started to look beyond our nightmare, daring to hope that our world might someday be normal again.
Hidden mountain stream—
see, a doe and her fawn come
for the day’s first drink!
Bearable
Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
three notes from a dove
making the desolate way
bearable again
Haiku and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More SkyWatch Friday
More Haiku My Heart at Recuerda Mi Corazon
Kick the Song
Fishing boat, Puerto Nuevo, Baja California Norte, México
Kick the song ahead of you,
kick it into the mist and spume,
even though you are shaking,
and three women spinning yarn
are laughing at you.
Kick the song of ruin,
kick it over the boat
where the grey-headed vagrant
slips into sleep
under the spell of opioids.
Kick the song out of the way,
so that no one ever hears it again.
Do not be afraid.
Kick.
Kick.
Kick.
More Sunday’s Whirligig #128
More Poetry Pantry #370 at Poets United
Angel
A father bends
to help his little girl
who has skinned her knee
while running.
Somehow her legs gave way
and she stumbled in the gravel
at the sidewalk’s end.
He kisses the wound
again and again, murmuring,
“It’s all right, angel, it’s all right.”
Smiling back at him
through tears, she says,
“Thank you, Daddy.
You’re an angel too.”
Then the big angel spreads his wings
and carries his little angel home.
More SkyWatch Friday
More Sunday’s Whirligig #116
More Poetry Pantry #358 at Poets United
Scintillating music
Cactus needles, Yuma Conservation Garden, Yuma, Arizona
scintillating music
carries her into most nights
with a flagrant disregard
for what her neighbors think
a leap of faith
that’s how she found her way
and it dawns on her
each time she prays late at night
that the spill that might have happened
did not
the end that might have come
did not
the leap that might have killed her
did not
she knows she owes everything
to that leap
and is not nonchalant
but
grateful
More Macro Monday 2
More Sunday’s Whirligig #115
More Poetry Pantry #357 at Poets United
Cluster
Colorful aspen leaves, Lockett Meadow Campground, Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona, autumn 2016
faith along the way—
a cluster of yellow leaves
guiding her footsteps
Haiku and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Macro Monday 2
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Faith”
Starlight
Christmas tree decorations in a Yuma County, Arizona church
Where is the starlight
to keep my feet from stumbling
on the long way home?
Haiku © 2016 and photo © 2014 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Obstacles
Chunks of concrete near an abandoned irrigation ditch, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
Last days of autumn—
how many more obstacles
will hamper my way?
Haiku and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Consolations
Detail from a tiny triptych at Fábrica La Aurora, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, México
The painting itself is about the size of a U.S. quarter-dollar coin.
on the pilgrim way
a mother’s consolations
and the piercing thorns
Haiku © 2016 and photo © 2014 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Haiku My Heart and Twelve Days of Mary at Recuerda Mi Corazon
Desolate
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Southern California
desolate places—
choosing my way carefully
through the deadly thorns
Haiku and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Blue Monday
More SkyWatch Friday
More Haiku Horizons: “Choose”
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