Haiku Sticky #454

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

interstices
tree frogs know when
the gap needs filling

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

first of May
as if on cue--
a butterfly!

Poetry Friday--Dance!

About thirty years ago I took up contra-dancing. Contra-dancing is an American form that developed from English country dance (the partnered lines of dancers that you see in Jane Austen movies). It was great exercise, the live music was exhilarating, the community was welcoming, it was an all-around great way to spend an evening. After a while, though, life intervened, the community became a little gossipy, and the exercise became a bit too much for someone with asthmatic tendencies. I drifted away. Still, I miss dancing.

So today, I want to celebrate dancing, even if it's someone else doing it! And I'll do it through poetry.

It took me a long, long, time to actually complete a golden shovel. If you follow the Poetry Friday blogs, you've found that the golden shovel seems to have become "The Form" of 2017-2018. Everybody's been writing marvelous ones and I'm coming up with uninspired, pedestrian, poems. I tried too hard to write one using a line that was too long. I'm a short form writer, so why was I beating myself up trying to write something using a dozen or more words? Duh! I found this quote by Charles Baudelaire that was short and spoke to me.

Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.

I am a big Facebook user and a viewer of innumerable videos of cats and dancing babies. So, is it any wonder that my golden shovel turned out like this?

With the Music

Before anything else comes dancing.
Before talking, before walking, is
a diapered baby jiving. There's poetry
in that wiggling tush with
a rhythm in her bobbing noggin. Her arms
gesticulating. Work it, baby! And,
oh, how she kicks those chubby legs!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

[Note: if you've read the adult novel The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (a hot title with book groups), the mention of Baudelaire may make you queasy.]

What follows are a few non-golden-shovel, dancing poems from my files.

The first is from January 2011.

Dancing
Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. ~ William James

With the music we lift our
feet. Our arms float. Our hands
take on a life of their own. As
the tempo picks up we laugh
for we know what Common
Sense said is true, "You can't
dance with a broken heart."

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

An ekphrastic tanka from November 2012 inspired by "The Peasant Dance" (1568) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Text:

outdoor dance party
the musician plays through
the drunk's rendition--
no party is without
its red-nosed souse

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

The last one was written for Laura Shovan's Sound Poem Project in 2015.

enkele sprongen van een danser
(A Few Jumps a Dancer)

A few whistles a bird.
A few licks a puppy.
Too many whistles a penalty.
Too many licks an assault.


A few jumps a dancer.
A few words a poem.
Too many jumps a diagnosis.
Too many words a rejection.


A few flowers a nosegay.
A few tears a reunion.
Too many flowers a funeral bier.
Too many tears a broken heart.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Jama's Alphabet Soup will be hosting the Poetry Friday Round-Up for this week. Enjoy the feast!

Haiku Sticky #453

Haiku or senryu? The political scene is already heating up. Why, why, why must we spoil the delights of a long-awaited spring?

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

May birdsong
drowned out by news
of primary races

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

we sit in silence...
a cool breeze hastens
the end

Poetry Friday--Spark Postcard Exchange

Four times a year I participate in a postcard exchange organized by Amy Souza of Spark. The latest exchange took place during the month of April. Each participant signs on to create an original piece of art on a postcard. Since I'm primarily a writer, I put together original short poems with illustrations.

There is never a theme assigned, however, I like working from a theme and generally assign one to myself. This past exchange I used "daisy" as my theme since the daisy, a universally recognized flower, is the official flower for April. I suppose I could have used the official gemstone, but that would be "diamond" and diamond is actually a turn-off as far as I'm concerned!

I did a minimum amount of research on daisies (not much more than Wikipedia and this article), but it was enough to get me started. The things that resonated with me I incorporated into the work, for instance, daisy is a symbol of innocence and purity.

I decided to write cherita since I believe I have finally found my true form. All the illustrations/photos are in the public domain and I altered and combined them.

Here are the three I sent out:

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

warmth of the sun

the day's eye
opens wide and bright

her innocence
merely a show
to seduce the bees

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

field of daisies

memories grow
less sharp with time

we forget that
the daisy was also known
as bone flower

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

Bellis perennis

we always look forward
to her return

each day of April
two or three minutes longer
but, so is the wait


Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales is hosting the Poetry Friday Round-Up today. As for me, I'm taking off to attend the first day of the Mass Poetry Festival in Salem! Yay!

Haiku Sticky #452

Now that National Poetry Month has concluded, it's back to our regular schedule of Haiku Stickies on Tuesdays.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

May 1--
looking for the flowers
April's rain promised