Rants, mumbling, repressed memories, recipes, and haiku from a professor at the University of St. Thomas Law School.
Friday, June 08, 2012
Haiku Friday: Our gardens
[Check out my first TV appearance ever in this video, at 0:26]
It has been my dream to grow tomatoes. For ten years in Texas, I failed every year. My garden was part of the problem-- it was both shady and scalding hot, meaning that on jungle plants liked it there.
I think this might be my year! I bought the hardiest strains I could find at the Fulton Farmer's Market near here, and so far they are looking good-- just flowering now.
Let's haiku about what we plant. I'll go first:
Deep in my longing
Is the desire to raise up
Those tendrils of life.
Now it is your turn! Just make it roughly 5 syllables/7 syllables/5 syllables. If you win, I will print your biography right here on Monday! Ready, set... haiku!
Japanese eggplant,
ReplyDeletekale, and lots of tomatoes
grow in my garden.
I almost forgot--
Japanese cucumber too,
and a lot of herbs.
I sit with coffee
ReplyDeleteWatching a kalediscope...
green, pink, gold, white, blue
Morning sun washes
the faces of the flowers
butterflies drifting
Chirp, chirp, tickseed ripe
Gold Finches swoop from the woods
breakfast awaits them
A breeze rustles leaves
grasshoppers spit tobacco
stare with beady eyes
A hummingbird zooms,
stops, sweet nectar all around
sampling each like wine
Bees buzz just below
Pollen covered transports
Adept at their work
My cat is prowling
like a tiger, protecting
his territory
Beyond, green tendrils
holding misshaped ornaments
Snake toward the sun
This is what I grow
beautiful, each day, to me
My canvas of life
There is a spot, too
ReplyDeletehot and bright for everything
I try. I miss her.
When it is time to
pick, her little face eager,
good that we planted.
Marauding bands of
ReplyDeleteDeer assail my plot by night
Like white-tailed Vikings.
I feel the first four
Stages of grief in concert--
A medley of pain.
Bare stems are all that
Remains of once majestic vines.
Acceptance? No. Rage!
(this haiku/eulogy was written in memoriam of the great watermelon massacre of 2012)
CTL, where are you living? The Berkshires Mountains?
ReplyDeleteI'm trying for cukes
ReplyDeleteIt isn't going too well
They'll just be pickles.
It's God's magic trick
ReplyDeleteJesus marveled at it too:
"From the mustard seed..."
Care for my garden.
ReplyDeleteThat's what God first commanded.
But we got kicked out.
CTL - those pesky deer.
ReplyDeleteI have herds of deer
Therefore I have fenced the plot
Cukes and 'maters - MINE
We have parsley, sage,
ReplyDeleterosemary and thyme. Sing it!
Sad song, but good eats.
Christine is hot. I see some very Japanese haikus glinting 'midst the others: 2,4,5,6,8.Nature's images to lend shading to human emotions,cares.
ReplyDeleteSun will not lend light
ReplyDeleteTo all Veranda's exploits.
Basil gasps for glow.
She stands marble,this
Babe unborn,statue's pearl white
Blessing on green growth.
Geranium's neck
Like Sudan maiden,kisses
Begonia's shoulder.
Her name is Ivy
Spreads petticoats froth over
Fence breast of wrought iron
CTL--nice work. "White-tailed Vikings." "Medley of pain."
ReplyDeleteIt grew fast, and big!
ReplyDeleteThe bountiful Betsy bulb
And then, good eating.
I once killed a CHIA
ReplyDeletePET HERB GARDEN. That takes some
talent. BLACK THUMBED LIZ.
Basil, Lettuce, fruit
ReplyDeleteAll I can imagine, fruit
The fruits of had work
Basil, Lettuce, Fruits
ReplyDeleteAll that I can imagine
The fruits of hard work
@Osler: Magnolia, TX for the time being. Neither mountains nor hills...only trees, deer and rednecks (my people).
ReplyDelete@Christine: Neither a fence, nor Deer-Stop Tape® nor RepelsAll® granules (®=nod to IPLG) were sufficient to save my watermelon--nor my charentais melon, nor my various flowering annuals (especially pintas) nor blackberries.
@Renee: I am honored to receive such high praise from the Razor's official wordsmith.
CTL: I feel your pain! Here is mine:
ReplyDeleteCritters in my yard
You come at night with one goal:
eating my pumpkins.
Would love to nurture
ReplyDeleteLots peaches, but birds get 'em,
Lil' sons of beaches
Bob