NaHaiWriMo Week 4

More one-liners purporting to be haiku or senryu 

Feb 22 Leaf

fallen leaf the end of the long summer

gold leaf edging the pages – books my grandpa gave me

plump leaf of my lucky jade bush – broken off

Feb 23 Nature (human)

city visit the too-quick speech of strangers

Summer fades I mourn the heat I deplored

I extend my walk to see my old home from outside

I make and hang the dream catcher, start to dream again

Feb 24 In short (brief, minimal haiku)

summer ends – last flowers

late – one crow call

magpie sings unseen

autumn – empty beach

Feb 25 To 

to the hill! fog falls away

flowers brought to the patient in time for a wreath

mother of sons I learn to kick a football

raising glass to lips – eye contact

fingers to lips – the train departs

Feb 26 Our 

your long absence from our home – I rearrange the space

our ball flies high – crack! the window shatters

dusk along our street mothers calling children in

slowly our nights grow cooler summer begins to end

Feb 27 Buddha

pelting rain serene-faced statue of Buddha

Buddha's gesture invites discourse magpies warble

wooden Buddha on highest shelf – in kitchen

lotus lips deep eyes to drown in Buddha's painted face 

February 28, 2017 Nature (a pure-nature poem).

tiny black-and-white feather on the lawn ibis in flight

small feather on the grass rain-soaked Autumn starts early

mountain swathed in cloud today summer's over

loud rain-drops falling from leaves after the rain stops

small cat sleeps with both ears pricked but closer to me each night


Michael Dylan Welch, who runs NaHaiWriMo, told us: 
For those of you who might have wondered, the prompts for this month all came from two sentences (slightly adapted) from R. H. Blyth: “Haiku is a hand beckoning, a door half-opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way of returning to nature, to our moon nature, our cherry blossom nature, our falling leaf nature, in short, to our Buddha nature.” So that’s why a few of the prompts have been repeated. This is one of my favourite quotations from Blyth about haiku.

NaHaiWriMo week 3

 More attempts at one-line haiku and senryu written to NaHaiWriMo prompts 


Feb 15 Returning to

the further from it I get the more I return to my past

returning to the old house it appears smaller

returning to the place after long absence home is gone

I return in memory yesterday becomes today

I return to poetry always my first love


Feb. 16 Nature (something you can see right now)

among tall eucalypts dream-catcher workshop

frangipani in her hair / timber walking-stick

hilltop – leaves against the circle of sky

magpie picking at the grass red roses

miniature roses taller than planned

staghorn on bare trunk one chopped branch


Feb. 17 Moon

moonlight and ocean a girl walking in a blue dress

full moon above only one streetlight

full moon behind cloud leaks light around edges

who needs dreams? full moon in my window

keeping pace with our car harvest moon rolls long horizon


Feb. 18 Nature (experienced in another season)

winter street swirling leaves in dusty gutters

birds crowd my veranda rail spring rains

rain sets in – bedraggled birds shriek at my cat

my spring lawn – clover dandelion ibis feathers

garden after rain flourishing green weeds

autumn dusk dogs and children play in the street

early autumn more weeks between lawn-mowings


Feb. 19 Cherry blossom

old love letters falling cherry blossom

heat wave I remember cherry blossom

blossom-fall a change in the weather

white cherry blossoms I recall the tang of red juice

pale cherry blossom far away

throngs of blossoming cherries crowding cameras

cherry blossom hide the photo


Feb. 20 Nature (unique and seasonal to where I live)

late summer frangipani blooms thinning

later and later the cool breeze of evening

sunny early morning crisp mountain edges

midday the hot town empties


Feb. 21 Falling

walking with you frangipani flowers falling on grass

a falling feather lands in my path I remember you

falling together in laughter soft mattress

rising and falling we breathe in rhythm

your last heavy breath silence falling






Link: NaHaiWriMo on facebook


Also linking to Poets United's Poetry Pantry #344

Feb 21 #2 was published in JUMBLE BOX, a selection of haiku written for the 2017 NaHaiWriMo.

NaHaiWriMo week 2

A prompt a day. I'm doing one-liners.

Feb 8 Open

door opened after the heat – fine invisible rain

not open-minded so much as blank no haiku

stinking hot neighbour swears through open window


Feb 9 A mirror

I hold the mirror to the light - all flash no image

when that car in the next lane vanishes from your mirrors


Feb 10 Wiped

saw him off with a kiss closed the door wiped her mouth

wiped the mirror – her mother still stared back


Feb 11 Clean

clean desk – sign of an empty mind?

cleans the wall – fingerprints scrabbling to get into Mexico

dead spider – no insects in this clean house

rain-cleaned air – humidity restores sticky skin


Feb 12 It (use the word but don't say what ‘it’ is)

it rises we gasp perspire seek cold water

momentary breeze it falls white to the grass

is it a bird is it a plane, no it's ... too high to tell


Feb 13 Is (use this specific word in your poem, but try to be wary of introducing too much judgment into the poem)

weeks of over 40C global warming is

Goddess Isis is (not terrorISt)


February 14 A way (of)

small bright feather blows towards me away

finding a way into my closed yard – water dragon

cat under table a way of controlling thunder


Link: NaHaiWriMo on facebook


Also linking to Poets United's Poetry Pantry #343

NaHaiWriMo week 1

Haiku and senryu. Each day a new prompt. I'm going for one-liners. I think these are only trying (and failing) to be one-line haiku / senryu but maybe they are poetry. Or possibly aphorisms.

Feb 1 Haiku

heatwave I compose haiku indoors

lapsed haiku-habit doldrums then NaHaiWriMo


Feb 2. Is (but don’t use the word)

living alone existence in the click of a keyboard

my dead husband waves at me memories

widowhood he walks ahead of me down the passage


Feb 3. A

ugly Aunty Amy favourite great-aunt to tribe

spinster Aunty Katy all her siblings’ children hers 

gentle Aunty Ella mother of my roughest cousins

afterwards we smoked in bed forbidden pleasures

‘after all’ we excuse ourselves after the damage done

after all anguish again arriving at acceptance

‘Eh’ – awkward aggressive accusatory or apathetic?


Feb 4 Hand

morning heat builds slowly her hand reaches for the fan

lethargic heat her wrinkled hand clutching the fan

fading light her hand at the door waving


Feb 5 Beckoning

summer evening she beckons from the shadows

he turns his face her beckoning hand

hot day the curl of the waves beckoning


Feb 6 A door

a door shuts – opens days later on dead spider

‘I adore you,’ he says – eyes wandering

Feb 7. Half

worse than a worm in the stew half a worm
(not original, old joke, couldn’t resist)

chocolate hard from the fridge can't cut you half what a pity

summer night half-heard music through an unknown window

waking in early half light already the heat

Link: NaHaiWriMo on facebook

Also linking to Poets United's Poetry Pantry #342

Feb. 4 #3 and Feb. 7 #2 were published in JUMBLE BOX, a  selection of haiku written for NaHaiWriMo 2017

One-line haiku/senryu Jan 2017

I've started exploring one-line haiku and senryu, under the influence of the wonderful HAIKU NOTEBOOK by W. F. Owen. Here is the whole month's output for January, as I started this exploration only late in the month.

old fifth birthday photo fancy dress and all his hair

scared cat bites my thumb not too hard the hand that feeds

summer storm my cat hisses at the vet

hot afternoon unseen kookaburra's harsh laugh

summer night loud crickets neighbour's heavy metal

long hot night my cat comes to bed briefly

hot cocoa to help me sleep I sit up later drinking 

heatwave survival the right setting on the electric fan

heatwave chocolate biscuits hard from the fridge

I look up: American sentences Aug. 2013

I look up at the full moon through a cobweb shining from roof to tree. 20/8/13

A dangling leaf begins to turn on its stem: imperceptible breeze.  22/8/13

Not far out of town, the rainforest still edges roads and covers hills.  28/8/13

I pull over, close my eyes, meditate ... falling leaves hit my car, thump. 28/8/13

After the election, Australia boards a train to nowhere.  8/9/13


Submitted Nov. 2013 for dVerse Meeting the Bar: American Sentences

Oneline, 2012 October

birthday coming the first without my husband

25/10/12

rain on the roof gecko chirps

28/10/12

red roses at twilight rain coming

29/10/12

full moon the cats are restless

30/10/12

poisonous oleander pretty in pink

31/10/12

Cobwebs and flames: American Sentences Feb. 2012

Cobwebs and flames tattooed on his legs belie the calm look on his face.  15/2/12

My heart always lifts when I hit sea air; I grew up on an island.  17/2/12


Submitted Nov. 2013 for dVerse Meeting the Bar: American Sentences