Wednesday, July 31, 2013

A random poem... "You should date an illiterate girl"

I love this poem... Thanks to Chris Huet for sharing it on facebook.

https://plus.google.com/app/basic/stream/z12yehr5tqriexyvh22ys5ca0yzwtz1xe04

haiku challenge - continued

I've really enjoyed doing the haiku challenge in July.

Now that it's August 1st, I just feel like continuing. I'll dig up some quotes and see what happens.

Since I did a Joseph Campbell quote yesterday, and there are lots of quotes of his around, I will continue for a while and see where it goes.

today's quote: "God is a metaphor for that which transcends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that." ~Joseph Campbell

God is an idea
ponder on The metaphor
expect no answers

Haiku challenge, bonus haiku

Joseph Campbell is an inspiration to me. I've you've never read or heard of him, I would suggest "The Power of Myth" DVD, a few hours of interviews with the man. It changed my life.

“Regrets are illuminations come too late.” ~Joseph Campbell

My haiku:
do you have regret?
Regrets always come too late
but that can't be helped

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 31

today's quote:

The taste
    of rain
– Why kneel? ~Jack Kerouac

My haiku:

when dark clouds hover,
the sky reaches for delight.
denied, it cries tears


Monday, July 29, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 30

Today's seed: "To begin writing haiku, and to make progress to any significant extent, requires two gifts: the ability to be alert to the subtleties of sensory or psychological experience (i.e. to notice things); and a sensitivity to the subtleties of language (i.e. to be able to express things). However it isn't necessary to know that you possess these gifts before beginning to write: the gifts are very often revealed – and developed – in the writing. The haiku path is an unfolding process of discovery , and the only magic words of access are the words of each haiku that you read and write. If there is some special or exceptional condition called 'haiku mind' then I, for one, don't have it. As far as I'm concerned, there are as many haiku minds as there are readers and writers of haiku." ~Martin Lucas, Stepping Stones: a way into haiku

Today's haiku:
I would like haiku
taught in precise, succinct ways
haiku like teaching

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Haiku Challenge, day 29

Today's seed: “The only reason for wanting to be a writer is because you love doing it. All the rest is confetti.” ~Susan Hill

My haiku:
the only reason
why we would do anything
is because of love

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 28

Today's seed: “The richer our sensory environment and the greater our freedom to explore it, the more intricate will be the patterns for learning, thought and creativity.” ~Carla Hannaford

My haiku:
build up your senses
so you can learn everything
in the smallest glance


Haiku challenge - bonus haiku

time is a machine
it buzzes and clicks and whirrs
and smells like old books

Friday, July 26, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 27

Today's seed: “The idea that memory is linear is nonsense. What we have in our heads is a collection of frames. As to time itself – can it be linear when all these snatches of other presents exist at once in your mind? A very elusive and tricky concept, time.” ~Penelope Lively

My haiku:

of time and women
all frames in his mind at once
he takes off her clothes

Haiku challenge, day 26

Today's seed: "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about." ~Rumi

My haiku:

imagine the world
of ideas and of concepts
as fields in the woods


Thursday, July 25, 2013

Haiku challenge - bonus haiku

I did an night of improv poetry last night and got a series of random words and phrases to produce poetry from. I chose to do haiku poetry.

The only one I really liked was from the word "deciduous":

I hung a tyre swing
from deciduous poetries
it swung with rhythm

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 25

Today's seed: "Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart."~Ancient Indian Proverb

My haiku:

Things do not capture
ideas and people capture
things follow behind

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 24

Today's seed: "If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced." ~Vincent Van Gogh

My haiku:

Many voices talk,
telling you you aren't enough.
Make sure you talk back


Haiku Challenge, Day 23

Today's seed: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." ~Maya Angelou

Hy Haiku:

I don't remember,
you sang or danced or something
and you filled my heart

Monday, July 22, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 22

Today's seed:  "Jung observed that dreams perform restorative, corrective, compensatory, prophetic, and developmental roles in our psyche; that to attend to our dreams is to attend to the cry of the soul." ~ Jill Mellick in The Art of Dreaming

My haiku:

When my soul cries out
my dream leans in close to me
whispering silence

Friday, July 19, 2013

Haiku Challenge, day 20

Today's seed: "Once I knew only darkness and stillness... my life was without past or future... but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living." ~Helen Keller

My haiku:

what is handicapped
when the blind see so clearly
and speak such wisdom?

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Haiku Challenge, day 19

Today's Seed: "You sometimes think you want to disappear but all you really want is to be found." ~Kid Cudi

my haiku:

if you are mixing
finding with disappearing
self-reflection time

Haiku Challenge, Day 18

Today's seed: "Let you life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf." ~Rabindranath Tagore

My haiku:
May you phrase just right
like Rabindranath Tagor
you time dancing dew!

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 17

Today's seed:

"Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go." ~Hermann Hesse

My haiku:

The messiah says
if I can teach people just
this: "learn to let go"

Haiku Challenge, day 16

Today's seed: "I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding." ~John O'Donohue

my haiku:

to live how a river does
firstly, remove decisions
and then close your eyes

Monday, July 15, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 15

Today's seed: "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." ~Mark Twain

My Haiku:
when you think you see
turn instead to your mind's eye
and know you were blind

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 13 & 14

Day 13:
seed:
I am
A hole in a flute
That the Christ's breath moves through –
Listen to this
Music 
~Hazif

My haiku:
"Christ" and "Messiah"
Just mean, "anointed with oil"
mechanics are christs

Alternate:
There exists a flute.
you only have to believe
and you can be saved

Day 14:

seed:
""It doesn't interest me 
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
& if you dare to dream
of meeting
your heart's longing." ~Oriah Mountain Dreamer

My haiku:
The mountain dreamer
says something interesting
but no one listens

Alternate:
The secret remains
performing your heart's desire
As a way of life

Friday, July 12, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 12

Today's seed: “Suppose someone told you that there was something that spoke to you every night, that always presented you with a truth about your own life and soul, that was tailor-made to your individual needs and particular life-story, and that offered to guide you throughout your lifetime, and connect you with a source of wisdom far beyond yourself. And, furthermore, suppose that all of this was absolutely free. Naturally you would be astonished that something like this existed. Yet this is exactly the way it is with our dreams.” ~John A. Sanford in Dreams and Healing

My haiku:

My dreams and nightmares
have a quality of truth
but cannot be truth

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 11

Today's seed: "I wear my heart on my sleeve, only to find I have to wipe my nose on it later." ~A friend

My haiku:

blood, toil, tears and sweat
things you want for your success
but not to clean up

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 10

Today's seed: "The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience." ~Emily Dickinson

My haiku:

The soul stands ajar
ecstatic experience
steps in through the door

Monday, July 8, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 9

Today's seed: "When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the spirit laughs for what it has found." ~Sufi saying

My haiku:


My heart pumping blood
finds time out of its schedule
to have a nice cry

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Haiku Challenge, day 8

Today's seed: "That's where writing comes in. It is necessary for the survival of my haughty sanity as bread is to my flesh." ~Sylvia Plath, Journals, September, 1951.

My eyes swallow words
My ears swallow even more
gorged, I vomit poems.

Haiku challenge, day 7

Today's seed: "“We are all dreaming children as we read. And as we write.” ~Tessa Hadley

My Haiku:

You should wake up from
your childlike dream of reading
No, it's too much fun!

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Haiku Challenge, day 6

Day 6 seed: "Once upon a time there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day he was walking along the shore. As he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the dawn. So he began to walk faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn't dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer he called out, 'Good morning! What are you doing?' 
The young man paused, looked up and replied, 'Throwing starfish in the ocean.' 
'I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?' 
'The sun is coming up, and the tide is going out. And if I don't throw them in they'll die.' 
'But, young man, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach, and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!'

The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves and said, 'It made a difference for that one.' " ~Author Unknown

My haiku:

How does one clean all
The grains of sand on a beach?
One grain at a time.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Haiku Challenge, day 4 & 5

I missed day 4 for no reason. I will do 2 haiku today:

Day 4's seed:

"Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?" ~Frida Kahlo

Haiku:
My wings now fail me.
Feet, I need you now to move.
atrophe's a bitch

Day 5's seed:

"This we know, the earth does not belong to man - man belongs to the earth.
All things are connected - whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it- whatever he does to the web, he does to himself!" ~Chief Seattle

What is climate change?
The planet has a fever.
We are the disease.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Haiku challenge, day 3

The seed today: "If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.":

My haiku:

my green bough inside
shudders under your presence
the singing bird flys

Monday, July 1, 2013

July Haiku challenge, day 2


Today's quote:

"This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. "
~Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 2, Shakespeare 

My haiku:

Busting a flower
Isn't really romantic.
The blood is icky.