Tuesday 1 January 2008

Midwinter retreat

inside, darkness blurs
then hides our sitting shadows
outside, the first owl



on my windowsill
one richly wrinkled conker -
so carefully placed




rain on the window
wind sighing against the house -
a sad, gentle night




tall man with long scarf
while stooping to wash dishes
gets scarf very wet!




today I am rain
flowing over everything
tap, tap while we sit




Mona Lisa smile:
the blue angel dispenses
blue benedictions




down a muddy lane
is the secret spring where I
always make a wish




this bright band of blue
splitting the clouds wide open
is almost shocking




rabbit on the lawn
hoppity, hoppity - then
looks up and sees me




after the downpour
a washed meadow glistening
with shy renewals


(haiku written on my own in silence on retreat - came back on line to find a whole flood of them having a new year's party - what a sweet and unexpected pleasure!)


HAPPY NEW YEAR!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely! Happy New Year to you, too,Jean!

Dave said...

Thank you Jean for these lovely little gifts, some of the first of the New Year for me! May it be a happy one for you.

Beth said...

Damn! That was me, Beth, posting from the qarrtsiluni gmail site, which thinks I'm Dave!

Anonymous said...

Happy new year, Jean! What lovely, evocative words! All best for you in 2008, Planet.

Zhoen said...

Love your many little bowls and sly blue angel.

Hope for the new year. Many thanks.

No visible grass here.

leslee said...

Happy New Year, Jean. These are lovely. Hope you have a wonderful year.

Fire Bird said...

Good to see you back. Happy 2008!

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Jean, good to see you back, with my angel among those fresh-from-the-country haikus. Seems that yours was a serene end of year, looking forward to hearing more about it.

Anonymous said...

These are indeed wonderful, Jean. Happy New Year!

What a shock to discover that I had already left a comment. (Thanks, Beth!) Now that Blogger is permitting Nicknames with URLs, though, we don't really need to link to silly Blogger profiles any more.

Sky said...

delightful haiku and images! happy new year.

Anonymous said...

Oh! Beautiful! Happy New Year, Jean. I wish you joy and much peace.

Anonymous said...

All are such great photos, but the last one is more than incredible when blown to full size. There is no lost of detail or focus from the fence rails in immediate foreground all the way to infinity. You are good!

Happy New Year!

MB said...

Happy New Year, Jean! Thank you.