Tag: haibun

2020.08.02: guiding light

I had a wonderful childhood. We lived in a sprawling city that was always bustling with sights and sounds and smells even into the night. When school was out though I spent the summer living in the village where my parents grew up. Everyone knew everyone there, and a child could walk safely from one end of the village to the end and be watched by relatives or friends the entire way. So it was like a rite of passage when I was allowed to walk home by myself after staying for supper at an auntie’s house. Even if it was less than a hundred meters, I still remember the full moon lighting my way and the pride in my chest. A magical memory…

full moon in August
but i can no longer walk –
to Grandfather’s house

2020.06.19: full circle

I’m feeling a little melancholic this morning. Today will be the last time I will work from home as my workplace is transitioning everyone back into the building. I’m grateful for being able to stay working the entire time when many did not. I’m also joyful for this glimpse of something different, sometimes better sometimes not. Life goes on.

oatmeal and sliced fruit
a breeze slipping through the porch
a taste of fullness

2020.04.27: safe passage

Here it is Monday again and yet I’m not driving to work. Instead I’m looking out across the backside of my property through a neighbor’s garden onto a greenbelt of trees that is vibrantly alive with the colors of spring. Having worked at the same place for 12 years I’ve found all the different ways to go to work when the highways come to a standstill. I’ve taken country roads through scenic farm lands and desolate streets through inner city neighborhoods and everything in between. Yet my favorite commute is the one I’ve been using since the Shelter-in-place order was issued. There are good things that has come from this dreadful virus. Stay safe and have a good week wherever you’re staying or going.

crossing back and forth
squirrels avoid open field
highways in the trees

2020.04.14: culling

We humans have become arrogant. We think we are no longer a part of the created world. We think our tools and inventions make us immune to the natural laws. Time and time again, nature reminds us that we are creatures born to live and die. Are we any different than the wildflowers in the field – here today and gone tomorrow?

cold spell
what did not die – becomes
even stronger

2020.04.09: dystopia

This new age of quarantine has brought many changes. Going to a doctor’s appointment is no exception. No longer are family members allowed to accompany the sick unless they are a child or unable to walk by themselves. Instead we’re asked to wait in our cars in the parking garage. So it is that I find myself in my car, surrounded by others locked up in their cars with the motor idling, the air conditioner running, and the radio blaring. Can this really be the dream we want?

worshiping comfort
blind to the poison we make
slowly slaying us