A MONOKU -- Response to One Single Impression Prompt of 2-08-09

the bush burns sunlight through monarch wings

It was monarch "overwintering" season* here in sunny California a few weeks back, so this is a current monoku. I spotted this gorgeous bush at the beach overlook. It made my entire day.

A monoku (sometimes written mono-ku) is a one-line haiku, usually having less than 17 syllables, but still containing two distinct parts. The fun is if you can somehow make a word (often where the change between parts occurs) create an ambiguity in how it or the line is to be read. In this one, for instance, there's a vague sense that maybe the writer also intends: "the bush burns sunlight," in addition to the intended picture of sunlight through moving monarch wings making it look like the bush is burning. I'm not sure if this ambiguity is a requirement of the form, or just something to be worked in should a monoku clearly suggest it (the latter has been my approach). I'm looking forward to learning more about this fairly new haiku form as it develops.

If you are intrigued by or already writing monoku, Moonset Literary Newspaper is going to make their "Edge of the Moon" page of the spring issue all monoku. (One of my monoku has been accepted for it, and they've already published one of my scifaiku. Personal plug over. :-D) But even if you are not interested in monoku, you might want to check out the moonset site. Moonset Literary Newspaper is a fabulous haiku and other small eastern forms resource, chock full of illustrations, articles, resources, reviews, contests, etc., etc. and it's international.

Today's prompt at ONE SINGLE IMPRESSION is "movement." May I use the obvious image and suggest that you move your cursor right over the above link to check out others' delightful flights of imagination and creativity in response to this prompt.

[The above graphic is from Daily Mandala and is used by permission.]

*Google result for "monarch overwintering": "Ellwood Main - This is the premier site in southern California with close to 100,000 monarchs in good years. West of Santa Barbara in the town of Goleta (UCSB)...." Goleta, literally around the corner from UCSB (University of California at Santa Barbara), is where I live.

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‘til next time, keep dreaming,

**** [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 blogs: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL and ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT, and Yahoo DREAMJIN: Group for Dreamku – Haiku-Like Dream Poems ****

A MURDER OF CROWS (edited), haiga by Patricia Kelly

I just received news that one of several of my monoku (one line haiku, like the one on the photo above) has been accepted for publication. The monoku above is one that was not accepted, though it was a close second to the one they've taken. (More on the one they are publishing when it has actually appeared. :-D)

I'm particularly fond of the subject of this monoku because of my intense relationship with the moon, especially its gibbous waxing phase (the week before full). I've read somewhere in astrological literature that the phase of the moon under which we were born often has a special effect on us. In my case, waxing gibbous moons always make me more tense and cranky, and even more weird than I already am. A certain tendency to want to howl surfaces and if not actually howling, I may do more than my usual share of whining (and I'm only partly joking here). It was a boss of mine decades ago who noted this particular cyclical change in my personality and I've always been grateful she pin-pointed its source so I at least know what's going on. Even if I can't do much about it. Fortunately, the intensity has waned over the years as has the duration. I used to suffer this "lunacy" for as much as 10 days before a full moon and now at most it's a week and usually only 3 or 4 days. Even so, my boyfriend put an alert on his computer called "PMS" -- pre-moon syndrome -- and he tells me when it pops up that he's going fishing (i.e. leaving town). LOL!

The scene that inspired this monoku was also intense. I looked out the window of the above boyfriend's office because I was hearing so much crow "music," just in time to see a huge murder fly up and past the face of the low-in-the-sky gibbous day moon. What a sight! I found plenty of crows and moon pictures I could have used for this haiga, but I like leaving the crows to the reader's imagination (maybe suggested by the black font).

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‘til next time, keep dreaming,

**** [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 blogs: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL and ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT, and Yahoo DREAMJIN: Group for Dreamku – Haiku-Like Dream Poems ****