Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

toad in situ
a sudden appreciation
for ugly

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

indoor cat
squeezes out all she can
...early spring sun

Happy Haiga Day!

I participated in another Spark postcard exchange created by Amy Souza (see label on right for more about Spark) during the month of January. I've been feeling a bit downhearted of late with the continuing decline of decency in this country, especially with regard to he whose-name-shall-not-be-mentioned, and his drink-the-Kool-Aid followers, so, I decided to create my postcards around the theme of laughter. I think it's the only thing that'll get us through 2020 and beyond.

There were 4 exchangees this time. I wrote haiku for three of the postcards, and a cherita for the fourth.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

waking to the sun
she laughs herself silly
over yesterday

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

grandpa laughs
at the little one's joke
...again and again

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Painting, "Katri Smiling," by Helene Schjerfbeck.

Text:

sisters in the tub
as many giggles as
soap bubbles

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

in black and white

they punctuate
their sentences with laughter

these BFFs
from a time before BFFs
were a "thing"

Happy Haiga Day!

Yesterday was the beginning of the Lunar New Year, which this year is the Year of the Rat. Below is a postcard that I created for both the calendar and lunar New Year's celebrations. It also marks the 11th year I've created a postcard for the Nengajo, a tradition in Japan where people send special postcards friends and family to arrive on January 1. I sent this postcard to the participants in a postacrd exchange arranged by Jone MacCulloch--I apologize for missing both the calendar and lunar New Year dates!

Next year will be the Year of the Ox and will complete the twelve-year cycle of Chinese Zodiac animals.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

first morning
tiny footprints through
the glitter

Poetry Friday--In Memory of Lee Bennett Hopkins

I decided to step away from my Poetry Friday hiatus to participate in a celebration to honor children's poetry champion, Lee Bennett Hopkins. Lee died on August 8, 2019.

I have used a line from his poem, "City," which is found in City I Love (Abrams, 2009):

A hydrant is my swimming pool.

It is the inspiration for a cherita and I've altered a photo by John Vachon, taken in 1941, to illustrate it.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

a hydrant is my swimming pool

a respite from city heat
mere minutes in the moment

laughter of friends the memento
--a valve waiting to be reopened
at a moment's notice

I never had the opportunity to meet Lee in person, but I did participate in a Highlights Foundation workshop back in 2017 in which he video conferenced with the attendees. I corresponded with him briefly about a poem being considered for a future anthology. Sadly, the project was subsequently canceled by the publisher and I wasn't able to brag, "I'm in a Lee Bennett Hopkins anthology!"

Find more tribute poems at The Poem Farm where Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is hosting today's special celebration #DearOneLBH. Many thanks to Jone MacCulloch for originally suggesting we share LBH's poems by using them as a springboard to something new.

Happy Haiga Day!

Haiku © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Photo © Andrea Murphy, used and altered with permission.

Text:

the resident cat
totally unreadable
...visiting dog

Happy Haiga Day!

©, Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

shaved ice vendor
pink and blue all sold out
...summer heat

Happy Haiga Day!

The photo was taken last weekend (March 10) and today is the last Sunday of winter. Let spring begin!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

late winter snow
fist-size snowflakes present
no challenge to spring

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

late snow
not enough to upset
waking denizens

Happy Haiga Day!

My friend Janet Buell and I were partners in the 40th Spark challenge, which wrapped up on Friday. Janet took on the artist role, while I was the writer. You can see the inspiration piece Janet sent to me, "Ravens in Snow," and my response to it, here. The poem I sent to Janet, and her response to it can be found here.

I wrote a number of different poems over the ten days of the challenge and picked three to submit as my response. The following is a haiku that I didn't use. I paired it with a Japanese print from the late 1800s. The print is one of my all time favorite works of art! (I took the liberty of adding the iridescence.) You can find it here. I have several other cherita poems that didn't make the cut for the response, but which I will use for Happy Haiga Days in the future.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

raven in snow
iridescence refashioned
by the sun

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

between snows
the improbability
of lace

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

what is missed
by watching one's feet
--ice storm

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

snow day...
waiting for the plow guy
to show up

Happy Haiga Day!

Yesterday I participated in the 2019 (the third annual) Women's March, in Boston, MA. I'd say it was a great success! As always, some of the signs were a real hoot!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

women's march...
air temps in the 20's
on fire within

Poetry Friday--A Whole Lotta Nothin'

It's 2019 and I'm looking forward to some kind of change. The last year basically rung me out and left me in a heap. I even missed two weeks of Poetry Friday in December--something I don't think I've done since I started this blog nearly ten years ago. As far as writing is concerned--I've been going through the paces, but I don't have much of anything from the last three months of the year. I wasn't even tempted to participate in #haikuforhope. I thank those who had enough hope stored away to share.

So, what about going forward? I'm seriously considering bowing out of Poetry Fridays since I contribute little to all those who take the time to read and comment. I'll probably make a decision in the near future. I'm also planning on retiring within the next six months, so I've got a lot of chaos to look forward to.

For today I had a whole lotta nothin'. So, I hit the files to see what I wrote over the past decade during the first week of January. It will have to do...

A small poem written January 1, 2010:

How Lovely

Cat sleeps
and sleeps and sleeps
and sleeps, not knowing,
or caring, that time
is passing.

Cat wakes
to str-e-t-c-hhh,
drink, eat, excrete
play, groom, prowl.
Then back

she goes
to circle round and round
until finally tucking
her head into her
chest, she closes

her eyes.
Cat sleeps and sleeps
and sleeps. How
lovely to be
a cat.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

In January 2, 2011 I wrote this senryu:

online calendar
gone is the satisfaction
of discarding a year

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Just so you know, I was never able to adjust to online calendars. Paper's fine for me. (I may have gone a bit overboard though, next to my computer, in 2018, I had three small calendars! I discarded 2018 three times!)

This next one was puzzle to me when I found it, because I had no idea what inspired it. Then I came across a post about the The OEDILF. My limerick was written January 1, 2012:

A charta, also known as a patch,
is paper to which drugs are attached.
Then attached to you
And kept out of view
Your ailment is simply dispatched.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

On January 3, 2013, I wrote a tanka:

cat on the sill
nuthatch upside down
through the glass
that separates their
simultaneous complaints

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

For many years I participated in the 15 Words of Less challenges on Laura Salas' page and this one came on January 2, 2014. I have no idea what the photo was that we used that day to inspire this poem:

With God on Their Side

They embraced the myth,
approached the native
species sword in hand
and declared themselves
dragon-slayers.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

January 4, 2015, Margaret Simon posted on Facebook about resurrection ferns. I was totally unfamiliar with the fern, so I looked it up and then wrote this:

Text:

Resurrection Fern

The live oak
living up to
its name
provides
resurrection
& life--
through air
not bread,
water
not wine,
and it does
it in less
than a day.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

It must have rained on January 6, 2016:

pop-up storm
the gurgle of rain
through a rusted grate

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

And on January 1, 2017, the sun was shining brightly:

Text:

January 1
a songbird hedge alive
in the sun

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

And yet another weather-related haiku for January 4, 2018:

quick moving storm
chicken barley soup
fogs the panes

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Actually, my mood has improved considerably after reading through some of my older stuff. I hope your mood has been improved, too!

Sylvia is hosting the first Round-Up of 2019! Stop by Poetry for Children where the New Year's party continues.

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

Christmas rush
...on a field near the mall
geese glean

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Msyr, all rights reserved.

Text:

snack time over...
sweeping up random
body parts

Poetry Friday--And So It Begins

The rush toward the holidays has begun. For some, though, the season of joy is exactly the opposite.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

late November 2018

decreased daylight, rain, cold,
and, oh, the state of the world

a surfeit of tears
at the sound of a carol
the squish of a bug


The blues can do a number on you. Sit under a therapeutic light, wrap yourself in a fuzzy sweater, brew a pot of tea, stay away from the news. Cry if you need to. Just remember, after December 21, the days will get longer again. The holiday rush will slow to a halt. And, after December 25, holiday chocolate will be "priced to go!" Stock up!

Visit Carol's Corner for this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up--you may find poetry is even better than chocolate!

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

Black Friday...
only in the market for
a poem that fits

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

autumn leaves

Nature clears
her palette in readiness

for rendering
the world in black and white
and gray