Poetry Thursday - Snowfall

cystal petals fall

a gift from heaven to earth

flowers made of ice

a haiku, by Aisling, December 3, 2009

all photos by Aisling, December 3, 2009

Poetry Thursday - Last Days of August

Since this is the last Poetry Thursday of August, I am posting this haiku... however, I plan to fully enjoy these last few days of the month, which are also the last few days of my "summer vacation" from college.

cone flowers linger

petals waving in the wind

farewell to august

a haiku for the last days of august, by Aisling, 8/27/09

Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you peace in these last days of August.

Poetry Thursday - Haiku for an August Morning

an august morning
dew spills from petals to earth
sun spills from the sky

~ august morning haiku, by aisling, August 19, 2009

all photos by aisling, August 19, 2009

1) garden in early morning 2) bachelors button 3) the first cosmos bud 4) lady's mantle; alchemilla mollis 5) balloon flower 6) web in grass 7) morning sun over the eastern hills

Poetry Thursday - a haiku

sun on the water

yet more beautiful and bright

daughter on the dock

Poetry Thursday - Haiku for July

dusty bare feet walk

clovers catch between my toes

sun bathes me in light

~ haiku for july, by aisling, july 14, 2009

photos by my daughter, Haiku, summer 2009

A Haiku - Nightfall

finally rain falls

filling the darkness with sound

the sweetest music

~ a haiku, by Aisling, August 28, 2008

I took my children to a travelling display at a museum in a nearby city that focused on the pop art of Japan. After that, we headed to a mall to purchase just a few school supplies. As much as I resist "conspicuous consumerism", I can't quite resist stocking up on a few notebooks when they are 10 cents a piece. This is the time of year that I get a little bit nostalgic for those really thick "back to school" fashion magazines that I once loved, though I haven't revamped my wardrobe for autumn since I was a school girl.

In the late afternoon, with one daughter at work and the other getting a new hairstyle at a salon, I took my sons home. They played, getting dusty in the dry August afternoon, while I cut broccoli in the garden and made dinner. Limerick, my husband, has a lunch BBQ at work tomorrow and asked me to make a dish to pass. I opted for pasta salad with farfalle (bow ties) noodles and lots of fresh veggies (including carrots, basil, broccoli, and little yellow tomatoes) from the garden. As I ran out to the garden for a couple of red onions, I felt the first drops of rain. Ah, finally rain falls...

photo by Aisling, Summer 2008

Natural Things

playground on the beach

waves crash, wind moves through the trees

happy children laugh

~ Aisling, July 30, 2008

Our town is having their annual four-day summer festival. A midway has been squeezed into a parking lot near the marina, giving Ferris wheel riders a glimpse of sailboats and sparkling water. Events, from concerts to races, contests to full-scale dinners, have been planned to fill the days with idyllic summer fun.

Yesterday, my boys took a couple of rides at the midway and then, reluctantly, set the rest of their tickets aside for another day. We walked down to the playground on the beach. I sat on a bench and watched as they ran from one play structure to another. Other children were playing there too. A little girl with white-blond hair skipped proudly in a white gauze skirt. One torn flounce fluttered behind her in the breeze, like the most elegant train. Before we headed back to the heart of town, where a band was playing in the street, the boys wanted to dip their toes in the lake. The sheltered harbor on one of the Great Lakes had faded from aquamarine to pale bluish gray in the time we were there. The sun was setting behind a bank of white clouds with sun beams streaming down in the way that always makes me think of angels descending. Even my nine year old son appreciated the beauty of that sky. "I wish I had a camera!" he exclaimed, "That looks really cool!"

After "just one more time down the slide, Mom," we walked barefoot along the sand and up the blacktop trail to the edge of the park, where we sat down in the grass to put on our sandals. We had started back to town when suddenly my five year old shouted, "I forgot my kiwi!" I was confused, until he ran back to the grassy spot where we put our shoes on and grabbed a wispy bit of "seaweed" he had been carrying around.

While I sat, listening to my sons and the other children laugh and call to one another in bright loud voices that harmonized like music with the sounds of wind and water, I composed the little haiku that began this post. It will have to serve as my "photograph" of the moment, my memory keeper, for I didn't have a camera on hand. I don't always capture such moments in haiku, but I do try to hold them in memory. I used to tell my daughters, when a camera was needed but not available, "I guess I'll have to take a picture with my heart." With four children, growing so fast and so beautifully, my memory is overflowing with heart-pictures.

...

The photo above is from my garden, where the crib my children once slept in has been re-purposed as a trellis. It wasn't in good enough shape to save for other generations. This is liatris, Kobold blue, taken July 27, 2008 by Aisling

A Beautiful Thursday Afternoon

wind taps the window

dances through the room singing

come outside to play

~ a haiku, by Aisling, July 24, 2008

Most of the day, I've been in the house cleaning. I've scrubbed the inside of the refrigerator, done several loads of laundry, and done some reorganizing in my bedroom. I'm accomplishing some things that are long overdue, but the beautiful day is calling to me. When this next sinkful of dishes is done, I think I'll go outside and pull some weeds in the garden. I'll take a look around and see what is ready to harvest so that I may plan dinner. I may even wander over to the "berry bramble" and nibble a few golden raspberries.

Where-ever you are, whatever the weather, I hope you enjoy the beauty of the day.

photo by Aisling, Thundercloud Plum & today's beautiful blue sky

Country Dance

corn stalks wave their leaves

silver and blue oat fields sway

partners in the dance



~ a haiku, by Aisling, July 10, 2008

Unfurling...

soft catkins emerge

lilac leaf buds swell with green

spring is unfurling.

~ Aisling, April 17, 2008

photos by Aisling, April 17, 2008 1) willow catkin 2) sensation lilac leaf buds 3) little bee on the first daffodil to bloom this year.

Poetry Thursday - Handmade

Our Christmas tree is very homespun and eclectic, with no design scheme what-so-ever. Handmade creations, made by artists of all ages, hang amid mass-produced ornaments received as gifts and in stockings over the years. There are ornaments my husband made as a child, with his aunt or at a neighbors house, and there are ornaments I made with our children. There are both colored and "tiny white twinkle lights" because there is no consensus in the house as to which is better. Dotted around the tree are my favorite mid-twentieth century glass bulbs. I have only a few, but I love they way they reflect the sparkling lights - white and colored.

The styrofoam ornament above is one that my husband made as a child. It is hanging on the tree next to an ornament our youngest son made at preschool last year, and above one that his aunt crocheted early in our marriage. At Christmas time, the years and memories of our family are all stitched together, homespun and heartwarming, like a patchwork quilt.

(a Christmas Ornament haiku)

made by little hands

some so many years ago

some just yesterday

~ haiku by Aisling, December 20, 2007

The Greening Earth

A red-winged blackbird

sits atop a red-twigged tree

near the water's edge.

The reflection of

last autumn's cattails wavers

through spring's bright algae.

Cloud-mottled gray sky
falls like rain. The mist rises

from the greening earth.

The Greening Earth haiku, by Aisling, April 23, 2007

photo by Aisling, April 23, 2007... a pansy with her rain-washed face