an open window,
the soul outlasts the body:
eternal spirit
This single open window at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris inspired my haiku. It is a very peaceful and comforting place. Dad is not gone, just in a different form.
Travel is so illuminating and inspiring.
Copyright 2017, Glover Gardens Cookbook
The concept of a “visual haiku” was contributed by a Glover Gardens Cookbook follower via a comment on one of my posts, a photo of three things. I love that idea! Here’s another: an arch, some morning glories and the California horizon, taken during a recent Wine for No Reason trek to the Temecula Valley. We were at the Frangipani Winery, a very warm and welcoming place.
arch framing blue sky
morning glories glorious
California dreams
Interested? Here’s more:
Copyright 2017, Glover Gardens Cookbook
she looks for answers
concentrating, listening,
absorbing the sky
Copyright 2017, Glover Gardens Cookbook
Readers of this blog will know that my Dad died unexpectedly less than two weeks ago. Like anyone who loses a loved one, I’ll be processing this for a while. Not in a maudlin or “poor-pitiful-me” way; its just that my world has changed forever. Aside from sadness and nostalgia, my overwhelming feeling is one of gratitude for the gift of having a wonderful Dad for so many years, one who loved me (and so many others) with his whole heart. And so, a haiku:
joy-sorrow feelings
how long will i love-miss you?
ten times forever
Copyright 2017, Glover Gardens Cookbook
Earlier this week, I posted the Glover Gardens Father’s Day outdoor cooking gift list, but, as the Beatles sang, the best things in life are free. So here’s a very simple haiku for my Dad.
you are my guidebook;
I am who I am because
you are who you are
Love you, Dad! You’re the best.
Copyright 2017, Glover Gardens Cookbook
If you follow this blog, you’ve seen the first part of this post, when it was shared on May 14. The second part is now revealed, a few weeks later than promised. (It’s been a busy spring here at Glover Gardens.)
I saw this picture a few nights ago on a friend’s Instagram account, and then dreamed about it. In my dream, I wrote various very simple haiku to accompany the photo. It is so lovely, and almost begs its viewer to create a story around the female figure walking away from the camera.
What do you think when you look at the photo?
Perhaps she is simply on a stroll, daydreaming.
she strolls peacefully
framed by the oak canopy
dreaming her future
Or is she walking away from something?
having decided,
she slowly left her old life
never looking back
Maybe she is walking toward something, or someone.
joyful beats her heart
this journey just beginning
there will be no end
What do you think? I will reveal the real story and the location in a day or two. (Update: of course, now we know that my “day or two” was actually three weeks…did I say it has been a little busy around here?)
The Glover Gardens Cookbook Facebook page link to this post collected a couple of comments I wanted to share.
I vote joyful and walking toward something.
I think she’s had it! She is walking away to live the life and be the person she once was, before she got sucked into her horrible present life of hell.
(I’m pretty sure the second one was irony.)
The real story is … none of the above. The photo was snapped during a mother-daughter outing as part of our recent visit to New Orleans (the figure in the photo is the mom). A group of us from Southeast Texas met in the Crescent City last month to soak up the culture and music of Jazz Fest, and two of our crowd peeled off to visit Oak Alley Plantation one day. My friend and her grownup daughter had a lovely time touring the property, and this photo captured under the 300-year old alley of oaks was simply serendipity. When I asked for permission to use the picture along with the haiku musings it inspired, I also wanted to know how it came about; the daughter (a lovely woman in her early 20s who is also my friend) said:
I made her walk in front of me so I could snap a pic… perhaps it’s half posed / half natural. I think the dress she was wearing happened to catch the breeze just right, making it perfectly airy!
So here’s one more haiku, to close out this train of thought.
Copyright 2017, Glover Gardens Cookbook
Image poetry:
girl on the beach in repose
knows, she simply knows
Copyright 2017, Glover Gardens Cookbook
