Day 36

I like the distance view with the glasses. OK, I admit it. I wasn’t seeing clearly for a while. Yesterday I distributed all the papers by noon. Over 8K steps. It’s a social occasion with stops for conversation. Today I want another long walk and will meet Julia for lunch at Wing Wah. I’m hungry for hot and sour soup. The bales are growing grass but Karen says they aren’t ready for planting. I have plants waiting to start there.

Senior News

April is poetry month. It has been my habit to write a Haiku each day of the month focusing on nature, the weather, spring, or food. Haiku is an ancient Japanese poetry form that has been adopted by the west and uses 17 syllables: five, seven, five. Thinking in Haiku form can be addictive so I am warning you that if you begin to make up poems, they will appear in your mind while waiting at a red light, standing in line at the market, sitting in a meeting, anywhere, any time. My friends send messages in Haiku and we answer in Haiku, often changing a couple of words and making new meanings. Here are some examples from my friends and myself.

Daffodil                                                           Tulips

Yellow face looks up                                      Tulips bloom in snow

Says hello to the spring sun                            Orange heads like orbs of sun

Makes my heart happy.                                   Warming my soul

Ducks                                                                        My Friend’s Garden

Paired mallards swimming                             Bouquet of sunshine

In the creek fringed by                                    Bright gift from Mother Earth

Shrubs, singing robins.                                   Thanks for the beauty.

Morning                                                          Willow

Cool clear air, no wind                                   Bright green tongues of leaves

Robin’s call, arrow to heart                            Speaking from slender brown stalks

Gathering flowers.                                          Renew yourself, too.

There are poetry forms and poets that are well worth investigating during April or any other time. Mary Oliver is a favorite of mine. If you can borrow a copy, get one at the library, look on line for any of her numerous volumes, the experience with be exciting. She can say so much in a few words and her descriptions and observations are amazing. One of the most read among my wide collection is “Thirst” where Mary touches on spiritual matters such as grief as part of love, religion and faith, for the first time in her 40 years of writing. Before this she focused on the natural world.

Maya Angelou is another poet whose words can come right into the heart. She has left us 50 years of inspiring poetry collections as well as autobiographies, essays, stories of the struggles of African American women. She wrote plays and acted and danced.

Wendell Berry writes poetry expressing the need to live with the natural rhythms of life. He uses free verse to express traditional values as parenthood, fidelity, religion, and is a critic of today’s culture.

Remember

Waking up brain cells

Writing Haiku: exercise

To erase cobwebs.