Haiku Juli

100 PRAISE HAIKU

(17 syllables, more or less... Praise, more or less...)

Written with the occasional help of my 9-year old granddaughter Mari

April 2023 - February 2024 Manzanita House, Green Valley

1. Praise the garden wild

teaching me beauty death truth

unsentimental

2. struggling cricket

tissue with lipstick stain

burrowing under dry leaves

3. Fog fireworks full moon

game frenzy in the morning

must be holiday

4. Praise praise what to praise

so much to be grateful for

light in husband’s eyes

5. Smelly basement day

what will we find in corners

praise growth in the dark

6. Mother daughter laugh

old black and white photograph

praise praise memory

7. Little girls first flights

excitement with stuffed monkey

will she remember

8. Washing machine box

tilting sideways in the grass

little girl peeks out

9. Hot dawn early rise

vital convening today

water garden first

10. glade of fallen trees

wood rats bio-char and me

sacred morning light

11. Praise gentle praise dead

Praise my fierce mocking mother

Praise her spirit now

12. The child notices

pink fingernails and earrings

picking blackberries

13. splashing in the spa ice-water waterfalling

laughing with mouth shut

14. three sour blackberries...

pulled from the vine unripened

teaching me patience

15. Orange stuffed monkey

buffeted and splayed in road

rescued! Hildy lives

16. Resentful daughter

creek drying in August sun

pray for winter rain

17. bright morning stillness

bent oak becomes grandfather

Oscar the rascal

18. praise jen’s wild mind/soul

fractured untethered and scared

pray she comes back whole

19. Barbie is a doll

does she really need a DreamHouse

she can’t even sleep

20. tuna is a fish

yummy as tuna salad

tasty and delish

21. Bozo knocked my head

Now I need a replacement

Give me yours Bozo

22. Vanilla ice cream

you crushed my dreams, vanilla

Bean like Godzilla

23. Cold misty morning

elsewhere the earth is on fire

i need warm slippers

24. scorned by my daughter

i wake up angry and sad

stare at the oak tree praise find praise

25. Mythic morning fog

woodpecker at my window

what does it all mean?

26. Six vultures sitting

in trees strange smell on the breeze

what’s for dinner girls?

27. Orange ball rising

dull glow through foggy morning

there she is again

28. Moonwalk, country lane

five old people watch it rise

sing Blue Moon off-key

29. Chat with gardener

god depression trees his life

misses his daughter

30. Silly young scarecrow

taunted by bird in a field

scared out of his wits

31. Oaks and redwood trees

backyard giants to be climbed

hiding in branches

32. fast as a cheetah

crackling like lightning at night

i have an idea!

33. turkey in graveyard

the day before Thanksgiving

run, turkey, run!

34. it’s Veteran’s Day

remember the ones who fought

keep our country safe

35. fog in the distance

clinging low to the treetops

looking like a lake

36. dragon in the fog

itchy nose and has to pee

where is my bathroom?

37. squiggles and nothing

fill my mind when i’m playing

makes me laugh so hard

38. curled up worm on floor

pick her up with a tissue

shell-hard carapace!

39. hard rain yesterday

wake up to sunny morning

2 antlered bucks in yard

40. sweet sister visit

old animosities fade

share secrets and laugh

41. sniffly little girl

blankets hot tea and honey

play scattergories!

42. Interconnected

Strum the string we all vibrate

one world one people

43. Hard loud rain straight down

trees wave gently in the storm

five deer munch wet grass

44. Chilly morning fog

the day before thanksgiving

frog croaking “I’m here”

45. Holiday morning

cricket on the window screen

company coming

46. cold sunny dawn

table set for six loved ones

where’s that extra chair?

47. retreat to the woods

i don’t need to be famous

do need to create

48. Heater’s on the fritz

Temperature’s dropping fast

Turn on the oven!

49. He is in repose

In the shadowy blue hills

My brother long gone

50. It can’t be described

In words, she said, but then she

Described it in words

51. Cold dawn, heater’s out

freezing floorboards shock bare feet

hopdance down the hall

52. Grateful for Erik

convener extraordinaire!

spiritual brother

53. Quick! Write more haikus

How to get to one hundred?

Time is running out!

54. Making making make

gingerbread, froggy snow globes

gifts for pet monkeys

55. Today all women

two meetings, a garden walk,

gifts and notes of thanks

56. Praise Rain! Praise Rain! Rain!

Falling hard straight down and loud!

Splashing us good

57. What’s the show today?

Chartreuse trees on skies of gray

low traveling fog

58. She said “love ya, bye”

for the first time in nine months

is it over now?

59. Christmas lights all night presents

piled under the tree

keep me company

60. Holidays over

back to calls and to-do lists

fog slowing my roll

61. January 6

Mariana’s 9th birthday

Celebrate Mari!

62. Praise patience, slow down

Calm your racing mind and heart

Wait, my friend. Wait more.

63. Falling into place

pebbles fitting together

new path emerging

64. Praise small steps. Small steps

slow breathing, soft eyes, stillness.

One more step and breathe

65. Louisiana green

in my eyes and in my heart

bright even in rain

66. California green

Dusty gold-limey and dry

calm my ragged soul

67. Stroll in a hard rain

running water ev’rywhere

peaceful heart and mind

68. Alone in the house

on a rainy afternoon

sing along with Prince

69. Alone not enough

Even in the backwoods

I fill my schedule

70. Emptiness gives rise to

innovative ideas

stop the busy-ness

71. What do I write next?

not more of same, but something

out of this moment

72. Spring day in winter

fooling the plants and me

we’re not through it yet

73. What to teach the child?

what does she need to know now?

let her lead the way

74. Eat, move, do. Rest. Be.

what’s the purpose of this life?

Cre. A. Tiv. I. Ty.

75. My legs like walking

gravel crunching under foot

eyes on distant fog

76. Quiet tick-tocking

of the clock I gave my dad

mine now that he’s gone

77. Praise my sweet father

who disavowed me three times

but reached for me in the end

78. On a rainy California day

my granddaughter watches cartoons

swaying fast and intent

in a dark small rocking chair

handmade by her great great grandfather Oscar

for his wife Anita

who had hand-stitched

the flowered vinyl cushion

in 1940’s Louisiana.

I remember Anita rocking in that chair on the day Oscar died

looking out the window of the sun porch he had built her

while her grandchildren sat at her feet watching cartoons.

79. Nobody wanted the old chair

so out-of-date and ugly

I felt sorry for it.

Like the time I bought a corny painting

of a naked girl sitting on the edge of a bathtub

because the auctioneer was making fun of her.

80. We live in a world of meaning, undecoded

translation takes slow time and we have none of that

furious, oblivious, blind-hurtling to —

you know what I’m going to say — death.

81. He came in the night

Hungry, needy, wet and coy

The man I ran from

82. Praise stormy weather

unexpected visitors

and anxiety

83. fat squirrels skitter

gathering fallen treasure

from the stormy night

84. my sanctuary

not a place for you to land

you are a harmless old man now

but your voice wakes up bad old days

don’t drag me back

85. wake with tight aching shoulders

battered in the night by memories of no escape

the body gets it first

the body keeps the score

86. Hard to praise sometimes

in the middle of it. Praise...

knowing it will end.

87. solitude again

sunlight on my shoulder blade

dead bee on the rug

88. Hot bright morning light

Not doing its job today

don’t tell the others

89. Quiet house, coffee done

Buzzing fly at the window

what next?

90. Men chatting upstairs

I stare at my computer

Go away, I think

91. To get through the day

People talk about nothing

... praise silence

92. Peaceful mind, peaceful

words, peaceful heart. As the flood

overtops the wall.

93. silent still dawn gone

bright light of day jabbing me

what’s next little girl?

what’s next young woman?

what’s next old lady?

94. Re-membering her

putting on her arms and legs

my grandmother me

95. Skittering small birds

scavenge for bugs in the yard

a hawk soars above

96. praise Mari-mooski

skipping to the ice cream store

reading in the fading light

exploring the icy pond

reaching for the world

97. success sits atop

a mountain of rejection

doesn’t help today

98. the sun still rises

no matter what tragedy

another day dawns

99. praise erik ehn’s grin

praise his spirit convenings

dreaming us forward

100. what is your haiku?

on this day of performance

how are you feeling?