Despite the heat, everyone's tomatoes managed to flourish. I know because the library's staff room table has had an endless supply of tomatoes sitting on it. (That's okay by me, I love fresh tomatoes!)
© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Photo by Jack Delano (1942), courtesy Library of Congress.
This next one is a tanka:
© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
I don't know what I'll have for next week, so if you want to throw a challenge my way, leave a comment with a topic. I'll see what I can do.
Now mosey on over to My Juicy Little Universe and tell Heidi I sent you!
Our seasons are so different! Our first round of tomatoes gave up a month ago! Fingers crossed our later plants will bear fruit.
ReplyDeleteSeasons are now the great unknowns. In my youth we used to have a winter coat and a spring coat, now, you need one coat that has zip-out linings and hoods, and can be worn year round. 'Cause sometimes now, even in summer, the temperatures will plunge. And in winter you can be in shirtsleeves one week and the next have three days of temperatures below zero.
Deleteendless summer
ReplyDeleteheat
is too soon gone
Not, yet, Brenda! 2016 may be the year the summer heat never ends! Thanks for the haiku!
DeleteIt's chilly here & we have had one rainy day, very welcome! I don't grow tomatoes, but have loved them at the markets! I KNOW about that watering can!
ReplyDeleteHa! You never know what's going to be hiding out in a watering can though!
DeleteMmmmm.... nothing like a summer tomato, at either end of the season.
ReplyDeleteOf course I LOVE the watering can image & poem - with "my" spider on there, to boot! (Well, not really mine, but it looks like her.) A challenge? Hmmm. Maybe conjure up a poem about the very first hints of fall you start to notice, such as the slight decline in the mercury?
No decline in the mercury today, heat and humidity are back with a vengeance! I may take you suggestion, though, I've seen geese in vees over the past week.
DeleteI have a long rambling essay about haiku over on the haiku page on my blog, and used the image of a vee of geese in my example poem! :0) We have some flocks of geese down here that decided along the way just to stay year-round, but we still get to watch the travelers, too.
DeleteI am withering away in today's heat, Diane...glad to take comfort in your poetry gifts, though.
ReplyDeleteWe are also, in NH. Just when you think the corner has been turned...WHAM! You walk into a door!
DeleteFeeling the heat and humidity today even in Maine. Ugh. On the bright side, this endless heat has sparked your creativity. Love that waiting spider!
ReplyDeleteSpiders are nothing, if not patient!
DeleteIf only you could send some of those tomatoes my way! I can taste them from here. I LOVE your tanka and its golden presentation. I've read it about six times now, each time finding fresh nuances.
ReplyDeleteYou've put your finger on the best part of haiku and tanka poems--they are so spare that they invite the reader to interpret them however he/she wishes.
DeleteThat's funny...around these parts everyone was saying that the tomatoes were late this year. Your tanka is especially lovely, the withering expectations.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! Wish I could take some of those tomatoes off your hands.
ReplyDeleteYup. We are on the same page. Withering. At least it got down to 70 last night so we were able to open up the house and turn off the AC. People say that I'll miss this when it's frigidly cold. They're wrong. I'll take cold over heat ANY day.
ReplyDeleteLove the watering can and spider relationship and glad you are seeing a end to the heat!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great poem! We have had some good rains lately. Unfortunately not enough to save my tomatoes in the garden!
ReplyDeleteI'm loving the summer heat here, Diane - and do not look forward to what Jan. or Feb. may bring! I like both poems, especially the haiku; the tomatoes remind me of ours, as we've been getting at least a couple pints of cherry tomatoes every couple of days, and the heirlooms are doing quite well, also, despite the hornworms!
ReplyDeleteYou've captured that end of summer fatigue the heat brings, Diane. I love the lines:
ReplyDelete"expectations of rain
wither away"
Nothing worse than hoping for a storm system that never materializes. Hope the cooling trend continues... =)