FOUR GENERATIONS PHOTO WITH A HAIKU

This season has so much to do with family one can't help thinking about it a lot. I've always loved this photo that is nearly as old as I am (I'm 63 in a couple of weeks). I had to crop it a bit in Paintbox to fit it in at a resolution where it is at all clear. The coconut palms are missing, but you can still see a banana tree's leaves in the upper right. This was taken in Florida where I lived until I was 5 years old, when we moved here to New York where I've been since.

This photo is of four generations of my family on my father's side. I'm the babe in arms. My greatgrandmother is on the left. The grandmother I adored is on the right. My Dad is holding me. I gather he was still pretty much a stranger to me. As you can see from the uniform he'd been away in the Air Force. It was the very tail end of WWII. So my greatgrandmother and grandmother (and mother -- I'll put up some fabulous old photos I have of her in the future) were more of my world. Here's a haiku about a dream I had of my Grandmother Hill:

grandma's gift
roseate stone
in dream setting

I woke up feeling loved and secure, as I always felt with her.

* * * *

‘til next time, keep dreaming,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****My other blog: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL.

THE WILLOW (A Poem)

"Leaf upon grate, 2006" by An Xiao,
That Was Zen, This Is Tao, used by permission.

My earlier poem post, TREE IN AUTUMN, reminded me of this 20 year old poem. Although it's set in spring, the feel is much the same as this time of year. Which is also why I think an autumnal flavored image is appropriate to accompany it.

Of all trees, I have to admit I adore willows the most. I know the one in this poem is long gone by now and I treasure her memory. To read another poem about a fun childhood memory of mine about this same willow, click here ("Witch of the Willows").

Ultimately though, beyond all the memories involved with this one willow, I post this poem for what I'm trying to say in the last stanza.

THE WILLOW

Willows, I was gently warned
do not usually live this long.
But here she stands,
her companion willows long gone
leaving her alone in her aging grace,
this dearest playmate of my childhood.

The fog of tears lifts and I see
the willow does not stand in my embrace
unscathed by the passing of almost 40 years.
Several of her largest branches
have been sacrificed
to the gods of survival
by the surgeon's saw.
Even as I have shattered or lost
so many growing edges.

I slide to the earth,
my back supported
by the willow's trunk, and cry,
picking through the fragments of my past
as through shards spilled
from a broken kaleidoscope
that, one after another, I hold up
to minute inspection.

For if this is a holographic universe
I should be able to gather
a sense of self from even the least
of these slivers.
But like the willow,
I may have had to give up too much
along the way.

Yet we two survivors
of life's fierce pruning
are together on this magical spring day.
And the earth hums beneath my palms,
seeming to ripple and stretch
in the willow's dappled shadows.
While through the skin of my back
and shoulders, my dear old friend
sings to me of the chaotic grace
that creates us all.

Yes, this is what abides:
the earth, the sun,
the singing in the skin that calls us back,
again and always again,
to the translucent wholeness of now.

* * * *

P.S. I just received notice that one of my poems has won a second place prize (they called it a "strong second" :-D) in Skyline Magazine's 2006 contest. What a lovely Holiday Season surprise gift!

Resource: Tobacco Road Poet, in the spirit of An's photo, here's some wonderful haiku, haiga and haibun by Curtis Dunlap.

‘til next time, keep dreaming,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****My other blog: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL.

HAIKU: Response to One Deep Breath's Prompt of 12/18/06

Photo: Tundra Lake, Manitoba, Canada, WebShots.com


frigid rain ends
sudden sunlight crosses
the empty page

This week's prompt at One Deep Breath is about winter storms. I filled that page with writing rather rapidly after this experience. :-) I enourage you to visit the site to read the full prompt and enjoy others' responses.

* * * *

‘til next time, keep dreaming,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****My other blog: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL.

REVIEW OF DWARF STARS 2006

Dwarf Stars 2006:
The best science fiction, fantasy, and horror poems
of ten lines or less from 2005;
Edited by Deborah P. Kolodji
copyright 2006 Science Fiction Poetry Association
Published by Gromagon Press
P.O. Box 1717
Clearwater, FL 33757

"'tis the Season...," well, actually it's always the Season to indulge one's self in such a fabulous pleasure as this chapbook, Dwarf Stars 2006. But, of course, should you still be shopping for the Season, there is still time to make a gift of this delight-filled collection of very short science fiction, fantasy, and horror poetry to someone on your holiday gift list.

The poems in this collection were all published elsewhere in 2005 and selected for Dwarf Stars 2006 by the editor, Deborah Kolodji. None of these poems by 26 authors are longer than ten lines and some are haiku-length. All are intriguing and well worth savoring, again and again. A few are funny, many are deeply moving, others dazzle with unique imagery, and all entice us to visit other realities, worlds, futures. The cover art, by Marge Simon, says it all visually and in its title: Wonderment.

One nine line poem, "The Stepsister" by Peg Duthie, reminds us that there is always more to a story, to a life than is apparent. Another nine-liner, "Loki" by Amal El-Mohtar, explores the Loki myth through amazing images. And a haiku length one, by Tim Jamieson, is a poignant honoring of a friend: my friend's ashes/drifting away--/distant nebula. A poem by Ruth Berman, "Knowledge of," explores the law of attraction. And John J. Dunphy's haiku length vampire piece offers an ironic laugh.

I will reveal my prejudice first as a writer of very short speculative fiction, but I think something wonderful often happens in the process of producing a very short poem. Maybe as with diamonds, the compression intensifies and clarifies. However it may be, the poems in this collection are some of the best of very short speculative fiction.

My comments and brief sharing cannot do justice to the delicious variety of style and focus of the poems in this chapbook. But I do hope they will tweak your interest enough that you place an order. Where else can you get so many different world and time spanning journeys for just $5.00?

* * * *

‘til next time, keep dreaming,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****My other blog: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL.