HH: Cicada Summer

Haiku Heights #259 ~ Crescendo
Carpe Diem #232 - Cicada

Brazilian Cicada

cicada summer

intense evening crescendo

nature's raucous choir

Haiku Heights - Crescendo/Carpe Diem - Cicada

CD: Gion Festival (Gione)

Carpe Diem #230

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at the festival

wandering the booths of wares

i lose track of time

***

to see the parade

fathers hold children up high

memories to keep

 ***

people flood the streets
ornate floats parade by me
 don't lose me in crowd

 

Merge: Halfway Gone

Write at the Merge: Week 26

This week's challenge is to write up to 500 words using Lifehouse's song "Halfway Gone" or a photo of a lighthouse as inspiration. The combination reminded me of a harrowing experience I had when I was maybe 20 years old at The Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA where I was stationed for nearly a year. I was part of a group of "guys" who hung out together. I think I was their mascot. We were all in the Air Force.

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It was a rare quiet weekend day when my four "big brothers" and I got to hang out at the beach in Carmel next to Pebble Beach Golf Course, high on the cliffs to the right of us. Mike decided he wanted to go for a walk so all of us followed. The four guys thought it would be fun to climb around the cliffs. Not wanting to be a spoilsport, I agreed. They were all big and strong and I don't think I was yet 100 pounds. I felt safe with them.

Starting out was innocuous enough. Rocky small hills with a slight incline. Then we turned the corner and I saw the huge cliff walls. Wanting to back out, I was assured many others had done this and there was a path. They lied. I followed their lead; and when I started to panic, two were ahead of me and two behind. We were half way between ocean and golf course. The beach led us to that midway point which was very deceiving until rounding the bend.

I knew the sea lions were on the rocks not too far out; but at one point, I could hear them below. Making the mistake of looking down for the seals, I saw the jagged rocks jutting out of the water directly below us and how sheer the cliff had become. I froze. Literally. Could not would not move. The two ahead of me had solid footing. One held the other as he leaned toward me stretching out his arm urging me to let go with one hand and he would grab me. About that time the rock I was holding onto with my right hand started to slide out of the cliff. I was ready to be rescued by helicopter. Unfortunately, it was in the early 70s long before cell phones. And no one knew where we were.

One of the two trailing me decided he would brace me from behind so I could lean against him. I felt him moving around me. His right hand and foot were secure, but as he reached around me to grab hold of a rock to the left of me, he fell backwards off the cliff. I knew those rocks were below. I screamed so loudly and began to cry with both rocks coming loose in my hands. I was sure I was going to die and was sure Tom had fallen to his death. The guys assured me he was fine but I didn’t believe them and wouldn’t look down. Poor Tom climbed back up from the water to show me he was okay. A guardian angel guided his fall because he didn’t even have a scratch.

I don’t remember much of the rest except somehow they got me from that spot and we climbed up to the golf course as soon as we had a path. I cried the entire way because of sliding rocks. No more rock climbing. Ever. 


Words: 499

Blue: Butterfly House at Smithsonian

Blue Monday

Photo by Grace Beam

butterfly garden

swallowtail rests on flower

perhaps feeling blue

Wisteria Haze

Image from Pinterest

wisteria haze

purple blooms weave landscape

vines climb and entwine

spinning magical canopies

the fragrance of Italy

MWM: Brunate Shrine

Mornings With Mary

Photo by Brian Beam

hiking winding path

Italy hilltop village

a shrine to Mary

This shrine was built into the hillside of a very steep hill in the town of Brunate, Italy. We climbed it in May 2005. Shrines everywhere to Mary throughout Europe.

CD: Cherry Blossom Love

Carpe Diem Freestyle #1
Sedoka (Love Poem)

My first attempt to write a sedoka, a Japanese love poem with the form of 5-7-7-5-7-7.

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cherry blossoms fall

petals landing in your hair

pink snow as you shake your head

i've come to love you

this season of blossoming

your touch says you love me too

CD: Fireworks (Hanabi)

Carpe Diem #229 

sparklers in the sky

rain down on river Edo

children clap for joy

***

hanabi sky lights

connecting stars with color

fade to twinkling dust

 

Wordle: Inhumanity

The Sunday Whirl
Wordle 114

complex forest tracks

lead to answers at still edge

mind files lie pale

noxious class of gas

released by uncaring man

leaves inhumane mess

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Toads: Riders on the Storm

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads 
Sunday Mini Challenge ~ Jim Morrison 

This challenge is to write a poem based a song by Jim Morrison and include the title within the poetry.

 

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the waves of the world

toss and throw our life about

riders on the storm

I began with a longer poem but created a haiku about the favored second stanza in the comments.

 

CD: Green Paddy (Aota)

Carpe Diem #228 

soul of the farmer

the rice paddies are now green

soon the gathering

***

wake up to green plants

as far as the eye can see

a sight filled with awe

 

CD: "The Cool of the Wind" by Kikusha-Ni

Carpe Diem Special #43

Write a haiku with a similar feel and tone as this one written by female haikuist, Kikusha-Ni:

there is nothing
like the cool of the wind in this place
blowing down from Mt. Fuji

My inspired haiku:

Mt. Fuji sunset

the night wind becomes cooler

we huddle for warmth

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CD: "The Rainy Season"

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge #3

Our challenge is to add two 7-syllable lines to the following haiku by Buson, one of the four greatest haiku masters next to Basho, Issa and Shiki:

the rainy season
a paper lantern in hand
I walk along the verandah

My inspired two lines:

wet and shivering from cold

sudden wind snuffs out the light

   

Trifextra: Not So Lucky

Trifextra: Week Seventy-Three

Trifextra: Week Seventy-Three

Trifextra: Week Seventy-ThreeTrifextra: Week Seventy-Three

Trifextra: Week Seventy-Three

Write exactly 33 words inspired by the phrase "three's a charm."



Her third marriage was supposed to be the charm. Eighteen years into it, when she thought she found her forever love, her world fell apart. He couldn’t handle when she needed him most. 

HH: Coneflower

Haiku Heights #258 ~ Lunch

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a bee's sweet treasure

tempting coneflower nectar

butterfly's delight

HMH: Summer In Bloom

Haiku My Heart

birds flutter in bath 

butterfly flits in garden 

summer is in bloom

Haiku My Heart

OSI: About Face

One Single Impression
Prompt 277: Wrinkle

each line and wrinkle

your story etched over time

the beauty of you 

 

CD: Evening Lull (Yuunagi)

Carpe Diem #227 

sundown breeze

birds leave the garden

evening lull 

***

 past midnight

snuggling together

evening lull 

FSF: Sarah's Will

Five Sentence Fiction - Blades

Write a five-sentence story inspired by the word "blades".

 

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Still grieving for her best friend who had died from a rare form of cancer at the age of 27, Phoebe was contacted by the executor of Sarah's Will exactly a year later and given a handwritten letter sealed in an envelope asking that she ride through the Grand Canyon in a helicopter. Sarah had loved hiking and mountain climbing and had fallen in love with the Grand Canyon often saying, when she died, that is where her soul could be found.

Phoebe, a nerd in every respect, was terrified at the thought of flying in a helicopter but felt compelled to carry out her friend's last wishes; and while being buckled into the front seat of the helicopter next to the pilot with the best possible view, she kept eying the lack of a door and how easy it would be to fall to her own death if somehow the safety harness malfunctioned, yet she steeled herself to see this through.

Although a spectacular view, she had a death grip on her seat for the first half of the ride until she forced herself to let go and focus on being one with Sarah if her soul truly was now with her on this flight. At the moment she let go, she saw a raven gliding parallel with the helicopter looking directly into her eyes and Phoebe's fear suddenly evaporated and was replaced with a sense of calm and joy.

VisDare: The Delicate Balance of Life

VisDare 25: Precarious

Write a 150-word story based on the visual prompt:

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She had hated piano lessons. Her older brother Robbie had learned to play and her mother assumed lessons would continue with the next child. After two years of agonizing scales and practice, Niki convinced her mother it was not her cup of tea, although gymnastics was an interest.

By age 10, she was doing backflips, somersaults in midair, and happily competing with the school’s gymnastics team. Her favorite had been the balance beam. Often she would practice walking on any four-inch surface or as narrow a surface as she could find. 

The piano, no longer being used, was moved to the patio in the summer. Niki would annoy her brother by hopping onto the keyboard and walking down the keys.  Now that she was gone, killed by a drunk driver a week before her fifteenth  birthday, Robbie often thought he heard the sound her toes made strolling along the keys.