Haiku Sticky #513

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

ripening peaches
each August outsmarted
by the wild ones

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

basic design
elements learned
unexpectedly

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.

Haiku Sticky #512

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

clap of thunder
the walk home darker
with each raindrop

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

Haiku Sticky #511

Only the second week of August and already change is upon us.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

first turning leaf
first vee of geese
first fall funk

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. "Camellia and Bird" print by Hiroshige Andō.

Text:

upside down

we're still capable
of hearing the music

have we become
too reliant on our vision
to decipher the words?