What on earth is Hai*pho? A fleeting, luminescent marriage: poem and image. Pho-to + Hai-ku.
“So much depends on the light, and the way you squint.” (Margaret Atwood’s astute observation.)
Welcome, friends, to my growing, mid-pandemic gallery. Here’s my first arranged engagement.
MARCH
Snowstorm on the way.
Hope takes a morning ramble
among buttercups.
Matchmaking with lens and keyboard prompts my imagination during our current lockdown. It propels me outside, clad in battery-heated sweatshirt (thank you, Dreamer!) and polka-dot mud boots.
And one blustery day . . . snow boots.
FIRST ROBIN
Cheerio, chirr-up . . .
Icy lacework of twigs and snow—
how the world rallies.
During these surreal times, it’s stimulating to focus on the diminutive Japanese art form. Haiku is nature-based, 3-lines, 17-syllables, arranged thus: 5, then 7, then 5.
It’s terse. Evanescent. Hopefully, memory inducing. And thought provoking.
LIKE US
A pond, locked in ice,
dreams of open water. Oh,
how we need the sun!
Hai*pho aims to grasp the come-hither hem of beauty and truth. Mercurial moods and possible meanings simmer beneath everyday surfaces that surround us.
Break the word down and voila! — a cultural marriage. Hai is Japanese, for “hello” and “yes.” Pho is Vietnamese for “soup.”
Hello . . . soup. O YES!
The pond shot above does have a soupy look. Perhaps hai*pho IS an entree. A little something to nourish hope . . .
EQUINOX
He summons the night
to dance with the dawn: shadows
elbowing sunlight.
How merciful that our hopes and prayers for healing across the wide world coincide with the equinox, emblematic of balance, and Spring, and Lent . . . everything quietly pointing toward Easter.
NEST EGGS
Shells. The fearful crack.
The soft, extended wing. Then . . .
beaks. Songs. All-new songs!
What creative endeavors are keeping you lively during the pandemic? I hope you’ll share in the comments. Who knows what you might spark in the mind and life of another?
“I will show them my wonders.”
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