Waning moon, day star
Aging brother, bright sister
Spring morning wonder
Month: March 2015
Madison Teas
Teas at the British Shoppe!
Cakes, scones, and pots of tea.
Gone to be no more.
Bought by one without intention,
in silly pretension devoured.
A tanka in honor of the Front Parlor Tea Room that was in the British Shoppe for many years. In addition to true afternoon teas in the Parlor the Shoppe carried teas, tea accessories, and hard to find English food items from bangers through Gentlemen’s Relish to vegemite. As with many unique businesses stamped with the personality of the original owners, well deserved retirement and a move to Florida marked the beginning of the end. Willoughby’s Coffee & Tea is a great source for tea, even a fresh cuppa… But it’s not the front parlor with friends.
Day Eight – Nature
What can I add or say except: exactly!
This Nature Quote by John Burroughs is perfect from my point of view.
I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses
put in order.
– John Burroughs
I could sit for hours and watch the humming birds
The squirrel looking down on us
Foot prints in the snow
Grass beside the frozen pond
Winter song
Winter’s crystal chimes,
glittering, cheerfully singing –
Where away? Oh Spring!
Harbinger
One blood red drop
riveting against fallen snow –
Oh, first Cardinal
It’s Unbelievable
Here’s a blog I follow. Read this short short story and see why.
On March 9th, 2015, three objects were reportedly seen in the skies over the Borracho Todos los Tiempos Vineyards.
‘Shush,’ Pete says. ‘Let’s listen.’
I cannot believe it’s made the news. Then again, borracho todos los tiempos is trending worldwide.
It’s mainly vox pops from other people on holiday. Everyone they interview adds something: an unearthly hum, a metallic tang in the air, temperature dropping.
Pete laughs.
We took a tour of the vineyard, bought a couple cases of rosé, drank most of it. Just before we went to bed, Pete took the shot.
‘Let’s all tweet it, for a laugh.’
They’re planes, not UFOs. We knew it and we were drunk.
I doubt anyone will believe us, though.
***
I love today’s Monday’s Finish the Story photo prompt. It’s bound to inspire lots of different stories.
Beautiful Trouble
Virgin, pristine snow –
so white, glistening in sun’s glow,
dammed ice. Damn!
Basho Haiku Challenge
Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694) wrote this Haiku after he entered Koyasan monastery in about 1666. Poetry had been a leisure activity of the Samurai class and Basho had begun writing at an early age and continued to study and develop his art. He is today considered one of the major forces in the development and shaping of Haiku. So the challenge is to shape your own Haiku using the same Japanese words that inspired Basho:
かれえだ に からす の とまり けり あきのくれ kareeda ni / karasu no tomari keri / akinokure On withered branch, was crow's resting, autumn ending
My interpretation, or translation, of this would be:
A withered branch,
at a crow's alighting,
nearly winter.
The Japanese for this is: Kareeda (withered, withered branch) ni (position/location) karasu (crow/raven) no (possessive) tomari (stop, end) keri (poetic past tense, recollection) akinokure (autumn dusk, end of autumn) – note that there is not punctuation to help define this and the kanji is the modern. Basho’s kanji would have been evenly spaced out and the reader would be expected to know the intended meaning. And, ‘keri’ can either be an indicator of past tense or poetic emphasis.
So, have fun. Play with it. Leave your haiku in a comment, as many as you like. Thanks for playing.
Sunday guests: Basho
Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694) was born during into a Samurai family during a tranquil period in the area of Iga (present day Mie Prefecture) and entered service as a Samurai to the son of a local noble. When Basho was about 22 his master died and shortly thereafter Basho entered Koyasan monastery. Poetry had been a leisure activity of the Samurai class and Basho had begun writing at an early age and continued to study and develop his art. He is today considered one of the major forces in the development and shaping of Haiku. Here are a couple of examples:
A withered branch,
at a crow's alighting,
nearly winter.
The Japanese for this is: Kare eda ni karasu no tomari keri aki no kure – note that there is not punctuation to help define this. And, ‘keri’ can either be an indicator of past tense or poetic emphasis. Please also consider that these are translations – Basho might be laughing at every one of these feeble attempts, especially mine.
Now the New Year,
two liters of old rice,
to begin. Spring!
Look for more from Basho, and many of the other classic Haiku poets as future Sunday guests.
Something new, something old…
Woohoo!! I just changed domains, kind of, to http://haikujourney.com for this blog – that’s something new. The something old is that https://taohobo.wordpress.com will still work and it’ll simply redirect to haikujourney.com.
As a blogger, you’ve gotta love WordPress and the tools, support, training, etc. that make it so easy to have a great blog (Ok, I’m still working on my part of that. lol 😀 )
So now I have a blog site that matches the name of my blog, makes more sense to people, will make it easier to find – in other words all the things you don’t want to have to constantly worry about while you’re trying to create content for the blog. And these are all things I may have never done if I hadn’t spent a great month with @michelleweber, @supernovia, @jeremylduvall on Blogging 101, and with @benhuberman, @lettergrade on Writing 201 and all of the bloggers, writers, and poets that were my “classmates”.
Haiku Journey 
