Day 31 ~31 Haiku in Search of a Voice ~
Generations flow-
Ing as easily as air
Breathes Joy in and out.
On March 1st, I set out on a Poetry Project to write one Haiku for each of 31 days in March. I called it 31 Haiku in Search of a Voice. I created this writing project for my 11, soon-to-be-12 grandkids for the great gift of Joy in capturing moments for them. This is my gift to them. I hope they will see and hear and feel and taste and smell these 31 Haiku to which I tried to give Voices. I also wanted to accompany each Haiku with a photograph of something, some moment, a moment of Poetry, of inspiration, a moment of Voice that asked for a Haiku to be written.
On March 1st, my 90-year old Mom was hospitalized with pneumonia in an emergency circumstance. I spent the entire day in the ER and then getting her settled into a hospital room. Things looked dire as I exhaustedly headed out at dusk to grab something to eat. I needed air. I needed a clear head. I needed a miracle. I had forgotten all about my first Haiku in Search of a Voice. But as I walked out into the coming of dusk, I saw this moment, this moment of Poetry in the sky over the hospital parking lot. I snapped a photo and gave that Haiku a Voice. This was my miracle. This was Joy in the midst of my great despair of my helplessness and the unknown.
Day 1 ~ 31 Haiku in Search of Voice ~
A dove on cloud wings
Descends on the winter tree
At dusk’s great moment.
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Each day of March, each of 31 days, I found a moment of great Joy, of great inspiration, most at a most unexpected moment, as I went about my days. Not looking, but being aware. I found 31 Haiku in Search of a Voice even as my Mom’s recovery was long and very difficult and my husband became very ill with the flu. But I think Day 31 is the greatest gift of Joy of all. My Mom did come home after a serious fight on her part and is excited to begin training for her second 5k. YES, her second 5k. Mom will be 91 years old in 3 weeks and wants to a repeat of her last year’s 5k at 90, training both outside and inside her assisted living facility with her little sidekick, my grandson Brian, riding along on Rita’s walker just as he did last year. As I snapped my first photograph and wrote a Haiku March 1st, it struck me that it was March 31st… and here is the great miracle of all in the circle of days, the beginning and end of a month, and all the Joy I found in-between.
Because I was breathing Joy in and out every single day, even in my worst of hours.
I didn’t give those 31 Haiku a Voice. They gave me a Voice.
