POETRY: Read More, Blog More #7

After last month's mess up where I managed to put up the posts for both that month and this month as well as botch the links, I was left wondering what I could possibly do this month to top that technical sleight of hand.

Some questions should just not be asked.

Anyway, school is finally out for the summer and I've been recouping in my garden. It's amazing how frustrations and anxieties flake off into the dirt as compost and fertilize new life. It doesn't make anything easier really, but it sure does feel good.

Most mornings are spent working in the soil, weeding and watering, and then topped off with tea, breakfast, and a good book in the garden. All the while I'm surrounded by singing birds, dancing butterflies, buzzing bees, wonderful scents - and beauty.

I also mentioned last month that I've started writing daily Haiku. And as it just so happens, most of those little gems are about my garden.

Quelle Surprise!

I don't practice perfectly. Occasionally I miss a day or two and go back to fill in. And on other days I find myself writing several. But those days I miss just feel wrong; I can tell that there is something missing. 

Because I take a few minutes every day to write (often in the garden), I find myself paying closer attention to the things around me. I have cultivated a deeper connection with, not only my garden, but all of its varied inhabitants and visitors, and of course, myself. 

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm still dealing with all the same issues as I was before. The world itself hasn't changed - but I have. 

I'm no Basho; not even close. But the benefits of "living a haiku life" are palpable. I have even expanded my initial goals, but that's for another time.

Here are a couple of my efforts:

brightly colored pot 

now a home for garden frogs
broken no more

no cherry blossoms
just swaying fields of orange
California spring

Haiku copyright © J.F. Spillane.