Featuring cherita!


December 29, 2016

Poetry Friday--A Haiku Sequence

These were written in addition to the haiku I wrote for the daily haiku challenge. I came across the art and then imagined myself at a New Year's Eve party at the end of 2016. I decided a series of haiku/senryu would work best. I'm not sure, though, if they could stand alone without the picture.


Click on the image to enlarge. © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. "Where Angels Play" by Louise AbbĂ©ma (1878).

Text:
At the Close of the Year from Hell

"can we hold off
on that cup of kindness?"
...nary a chuckle

our fulsome wishes
almost believable
New Year's toast

waitress hovers
waiting for a reaction
New Year's Eve

a need
to continuously check
the level of ice

the last night's
first resolution:
never again

Head north a wee bit and you'll arrive at Mainely Write where you'll find the last Round-Up of 2016. Have a safe and happy New Year!

The Last Week of Haiku-a-Day in December

We're winding down to the end of December and the end of a year that will long be remembered (by me at least) as the year from hell (with the major exception of the birth of Owen).

Here are the haiku written within the last week. I will add the last two days of the month's haiku by Saturday.
December 23

Christmas morning
the smell of damp socks on
the radiator

This haiku I wrote to use for my Christmas Day haiga. I actually found this photo by Francis P. Johnson first, then wrote the haiku to fit.



December 24

Christmas eve
always, always, always
something I forgot

December 25

Christmas breakfast
nothing special when one
lives with a cat

December 26

the warmth
of a cat's breath
December dawn

December 27

Christmas over
the end-of-year review
of deaths

December 28

going outside
while I can still hear the birds
...ravings of a twit

December 29

oak brown
all that remains
December

December 30

her knowledge
of snow limited to white
indoor cat

December 31

my only bling:
dried fruit in my oatmeal
New Year's Eve

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Here's wishing you all a 2017 full of haiku hope and happiness, justice and peace.

December 27, 2016

December 25, 2016

Happy Haiga Day!

Merry Christmas!


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Photo by Francis P. Johnson.

Text:

Christmas morning
the smell of damp socks on
the radiator

December 22, 2016

Poetry Friday--Now For Something Completely Different

I've been in a blue funk since November 9, without hope of breaking through. So, for this holiday Poetry Friday I've decided to post something from a poet who is not me! Yes, indeed, there are Christmas miracles.

I wrote about Robert Francis back in October and shared two of his bird poems. Since that time, I've borrowed several other small volumes of the work of this New England poet.

Illustration from A Year with the Birds (1917) by Alice Eliza Ball and R. Bruce Horsfall (1917).

Here is another bird poem, from The Orb Weaver: Poems (1960), which is particularly relevant at this time of year:
The Seed Eaters

The seed eaters, the vegetarian birds,
Redpolls, grosbeaks, crossbills, finches, siskins,
Fly south to winter in our north, so making
A sort of Florida of our best blizzards.

Weed seed and seeds of pine cones are their pillage,
Alder and birch catkins, such vegetable
Odds and ends as the winged keys of maple
As well as roadside sumac, red-plus-seeded.

Hi! with a bounce in snowflake flocks come juncos
As if a hand had flipped them and tree sparrows,
Now nip and tuck and playing tag, now squatting
All weather-proofed and feather-fluffed on snow.

Hard fare, full feast, I'll say, deep cold, high spirits.
Here's Christmas to Candlemas on a bunting's budget.
From this old seed eater with his beans, his soybeans,
Cracked corn, cracked wheat, peanuts and split peas, hail!
And from a volume titled The Satirical Rogue on Poetry (1968) comes this little holiday gift:
The Well-made Poem

Spare me, please, the man who speaks, whether
disparagingly or approvingly, of the well-made poem.
Has he never read or heard that poems are not made
but grow--like snowflakes, like flowers, like seashells?
Has he never perceived that a true poem--like a rose,
like a goddess, like a diamond--is not made but born?

Fly over to Buffy's Blog for this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up! Happy holidays!

Week 3--Haiku-a-Day in December

Seven more haiku to add to the #haikuforhealing challenge posed by Mary Lee Hahn.
December 16

mid-December
record lows hurry the switch
to wool socks

December 17

bound...
if only it were the snow

December 18

the quiver
of the cat's body--
squirrel!

December 19

there really is an
alternative universe
--vote affirmed

December 20

marathon listening
of Christmas CDs
...still no change

December 21

shopping...
I put it off again
4 days 'til Christmas

December 22

yankee swap
the complicated exchange
of crap
© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Illustration from Uncle Zeb and His Friends by Edward W. Frentz (1919).

December 20, 2016

December 18, 2016

December 16, 2016

Poetry Friday--"Christmas Carol"

This started out as a sad commentary on what global warming has done to bird populations. It lightened up considerably through various versions, but it still is a bit too didactic.


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. The photo comes from the Provincial Archives of Alberta. I added the angel wings. (I can't seem to get away from angels!)

Here's the text:

Christmas Carol

All the birds this Christmas season
sing songs to us that beg for reason.

Hear them carol:

Peace ON the Earth.

Peace TO the Earth.


No time is left for teaching the song.
Why weren't you listening all along?


Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference is hosting the Round-Up this week!

December 15, 2016

Week 2--Haiku-a-Day in December


It's the end of the second week, and here are the haiku I've written since last Thursday's post.

December 9

pondering plastic
more wasteful to wash
or toss away?
It's always a question I have, if we're in the middle of a drought is it worth it to use water to clean out a plastic recyclable container or, is it less of an environmental impact to throw it unwashed into the trash? Anyone want to weigh in on this?
December 10

hands around a mug
insufficient warmth
to reach my heart

December 11

competing streetlights
shadows over shadows
the darkness deepens

December 12

Christmas countdown
moon watching added
to my list
(Come back on Sunday for the illustrated version.)
December 13

online friend
what is commonplace for her
I have to google

December 14

old friends
a competition of
memories

December 15

driveway waits
to be shoveled I wait
to be inspired
(Of course, the snow is now frozen into icy ruts, so it will just have to wait until spring!)


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

December 13, 2016

December 11, 2016

Happy Haiga Day!

Here is a haiku from December 2009, which, I find oddly appropriate for 2016. I took an already dark painting by John Twachtman and edited out most of the color.


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. "An Early Winter" by John Twachtman (circa 1882), courtesy The Athenaeum.

December 8, 2016

Poetry Friday--My November's TLD Challenge, Illustrated

For November, at Michelle Barnes's Today's Little Ditty, a challenge was suggested by editor, Ann Rider. We were asked to write a poem about a place of refuge and solace. The challenge poems are all found here. I have illustrated my contribution, a haiku sequence, with a photo from a nearby woods:

Click on the image to enlarge. © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

The Woods: Haiku

spring mud
watching holes I poke
fill with water

I close my eyes
to feel the give of moss
underfoot

unable not to
shuffle through the leaves
...shall I sing, too?

so unexpected
this effervescent
sound of sleet


Head west to visit fellow librarian, Jone, at Check It Out.

Week 1--Haiku-a-Day in December

Mary Lee Hahn began a month of haiku, in part, to help heal after the results of the presidential election #haikuforhealing. I have taken up her challenge to write a haiku a day during December--so far, so good. I will share a week's worth today, and for the next three Thursdays. (Note: three, and arguably four, are senryu, rather than haiku. Senryu follow the same form as a haiku, but the subject is human nature. Pick out this week's senryu--did you count three or four?)
December 1:

December 1
temperature plummets...
still...the mid-day sun


December 2:

Singapore noodles:
a safe way of feeling
heated


December 3:

wind-tossed
leaves now gone
cat sleeps...

The illustrated version, which I also posted this past Sunday:



December 4:

blame the PEOTUS!
the pace at which I eat
salted peanuts


December 5:

giving tree
--the weight of the wishes
on each branch


December 6:

oooo of the wind
always in the background
she knits


December 7:

public library
user requests faux news rag
"your papers too lefty"


December 8:

top of the dead pine
a squirrel's nest
unmoving

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

December 6, 2016

Haiku Sticky #387


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

Oooo of the wind
always in the background
she knits

December 4, 2016

Happy Haiga Day!

This is yesterday's haiku written as part of Mary Lee Hahn's Haiku-a-Day in December challenge. On Thursday, I'll post a full week's worth of challenge haiku.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

wind-tossed
leaves now gone
cat sleeps...

December 2, 2016

Poetry Friday--"Clown School"

Soon to be led by a master clown, we all need a few lessons in how to survive.


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Vaudeville poster courtesy Library of Congress, edited.

Text:
Clown School

I tended to cautiously watch
my feet until the day I looked
up to see there are others
in this ring who fall on their
butts, yet laugh with the crowd.

If there is no difference
in the size of our feet can
it be that the difference is
in their willingness to take
the next step with indifference?

There is only one way to know...

Visit Wee Words for Wee Ones for more poetry in the Round-Up.