Mostly Haiku

"What a strange thing!
to be alive
beneath cherry blossoms."

Kobayashi Issa 




"Where flowers bloom so does
hope."

Lady Bird Johnson






"It was one of those March 
days when the sun shines hot
and the wind blows cold,
when it is summer in the light 
and winter in the shade."

Charles Dickens




"It is spring fever.
That is what the name of it is.
And when you've got it, you
want -oh, you don't know quite  
what it is you don't want,
but it 
just fairly makes your heart
ache, you want it so!"

-Mark Twain 

What is haiku?

Michael Dylan Welch wrote -

"There's something poetic about a garden.

A japanese garden seems 

especially poetic."

Haiku 

is a poetry of nature

but it is also a poetry of 

human nature. 

It gives readers feelings 

and shows human 

existance amid nature.

On reading a good haiku, 

we are mentally and 

emotionally moved to experience 

what the poet experienced. 

"Haiku is a means of sense awareness,

of mindfulness, a poetic window to the

suchness of the full range of existance."

"Birds singing

in the dark

rainy dawn."

Jack Kerouac

"The taste

of rain

- Why kneal?"

"Warm winter evening-

the chairs asked."




Poems by Kaga no chiyo 

"In this lively place
the peony
most beautiful."



"The morning glory!
It has taken the well bucket,
I must seek elsewhere for water."

James W Hackett was quoted to say

"A Haiku,

is like a finger pointing at the 

moon, and if the finger is bejewleed, 

one no longer sees the moon."

Haiku is comprised of detail 

observed by the five senses.

The poet witnesses an event 
and uses words to distill that 
experience so others may
understand it in some way.

What did you notice 

about the subject?

What colours, textures, 

and contrasts
did you observe?

How did the subject sound?

What was the tone and 

volume of the event that 

took place?


Did it have a smell, 

or a taste?

How can you accurately 

describe the way it felt?




More haiku poetry 



Red Oak

red oak tassels gone
yellow pollen lingers, coats .....
spring storms stir ...

Sara Kendrick




Spider running ....
cat's pink tongue ....
nature's breakfast, sparkling
spring sun ....


Panagiota Romios





How wild the sea is,
and over Sado Island,
the River of Heaven



Morning and evening
Someone waits at Matsushima!
One-sided love.





On Buddha's birthday
a spotted fawn is born -
just like that


Behind Ise Shrine,
unseen, hidden by the fence,
Buddha enters nirvana

Metaphors and their meanings

Metaphors

While I was looking through 

gardening books I came

 across some really interesting 

gardening metaphors. 

Here I wanted to look 

at some metaphors 

and what they mean?

While it's the dormant 

season in the garden, 

let's see how we can keep 

our brains active!

I was searching for month 

by month seasonal 

poetry and came across some

of these metaphors I would

 like to share with you.

 

Let's start with the first one I found. 

"Putting down roots"

I feel it is such a firm and 

stable metaphor in the 

world of gardens and plants. 

It can mean so many 

different things to each 

of us. 

Perhaps I see it as 

digging a small vegetable 

patchwith nutritious soil 

and carefully opening

 a packet of tiny seeds 

and placing them in a 

small prepared

 area to set root.

What about you? 

What does "putting down roots" 
mean to you?

Please share with me your thoughts.



Next metaphor I really liked is 
"As the twig is bent."

This quote makes me think 

how meaningful 
trees are to us in a garden. 



Why can we bend a twig and 

make it into something else,

 
like a place to mark some bulbs 

for the months ahead? 



How we can take some 

bamboo stakes 
and bend them into an 
arched piece to grow 

a plant up to enjoy.




Or some willow branches 

which are so
flexible and can be 
bent and shaped into basket

 ware or even hedging. 





Next I found this lovely quote,

"She was a rose among thorns"

I do feel this is refering to 

a difficult gardener 
who was beautiful but stubborn 
in her ways.

She wanted things her own way, 

and why not if she was the gardener. 

Or simply refering to a truly 
beautiful rose with the 

most exotic perfume which was 
growing in nature and the plants 

around 'her' were insignificant

 beside this rose. 

Where do you think this 

metaphor originates?

I feel metahpors are very 

clever ways of using words 

for us to use and then it's 

really interesting 

to hear the origins of them.

Next metaphor I liked was 

'Cherry picking'

It's such a lovely metaphor as 

it feels like we all need to only 

select the best plant,

shurb, tree, or fruit tree. We want 

our gardens to be beautiful 

places and why not have 

the best we can.

"March brings breezes loud and shrill,

Stirs the dancing daffodils."

Sara Coleridge 

"I hear the sparrow's ditty

Anear my study door;

A simple song of gladnesss

That winter days are o'er;

My heart is singing with him,

I love him more and more....

Oh, Spring is surely coming,

Her couriers fill the air;

Each morn are new arrivals,

Each night her ways prepare;

I scent her garments,

Her foot is on the stair. 

John  Burroughs 

"A March Glee."

"In the spring, at the end 
of the day, you should
smell like dirt."

Margaret Atwood




"Where flowers bloom
so does hope."


Lady Bird Johnson



"And Spring arose on the
garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt
everywhere;
And each flower and 
herb on Earth's dark
breast
rose from the dreams of 
its wintry rest. 


Percy Bysshe Shelly 

Winter quotes and poetry

April Poetry

"And Spring

arose on the

garden fair,

Like the Spirit of 

Love felt 

everywhere;

And each flower

and herb on

Earth's dark 

breast

rose from the 

dreams of its 

wintry rest

Percy Byshee Shelley

The Sensitive Plant

"A violet in the

youth of primy

nature,

Forward, not 

permanent,

sweet,not

lasting,

The perfume and

suppliance of a 

minute."

William Shakespeare

"When the time is

ripe for certain 

things, 

these things 

appear in

different places

in the manner 

of violets coming

to light in the

early spring."

Farkas Bolyai 

"April hath put a

spirit of youth in 

everything."

William Shapeskeare

Early Spring Lines

"I heard a thousand blended notes,

While in a grove I sate reclined,

In that sweet mood when pleasant

thoughts 

Bring sad thoughts to the mind."

        "Through primrose tufts, 

             in that green bower,

The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;

And 'tis my faith that every flower

Enjoys the air that it breathes."

William Wordsworth

International Womens 

Day poetry

"Women are the mammoth 

reservoir of power and talent 

which has yet

not been tapped."

"Empower woman,

empower the human 

community. The base 

on which the world stands

is a woman."

"A woman is one who

walks on her own footsteps

rather than following 

the direction shown by the crowd."

"Love yourself first and 

everything else falls into 

line.

You really have to love yourself

to get anything done in 

this world."

Lucille Ball 

"A woman is like a tea bag

- you never know how 

strong she is until she 

gets it hot water."

Eleanor Roosevelt

I hope you enjoy my poetry.

March poetry 

"The air is like a 

butterfly 

With frail blue

wings.

The happy earth 

looks at the sky

And sings."

Joyce Kilmer,

Spring

----------------------

"The sun is 

brilliant in the sky

but its warmth

does not reach 

my face.

The breeze stirs

the trees but

leaves my hair

unmoved.

The cooling rain

will feed the

grass but will not

slake my thirst. 

It is all inches 

away but further

from me than my 

dreams."

M. Romeo

LaFlamme, The 

First of March

"I wandered 

lonely as a cloud

That floats on

high o'er vales 

and hills,

When at all once

I saw a crowd,

A host of golden

daffodils;

Beside the lake,

beneath the

trees, 

Fluttering and 

dancing in the 

breeze."

William Wordsworth

Daffodils

"All nature seems at work.

Slugs leave their 

lair

The bees are 

stirring, birds are 

on the wing,

And Winter 

slumbering in the 

open air,

Wears on his smiling face

a dream of spring."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"You ask me why

I dwell in the

green mountain;

I smile and make

no reply for my 

heart is free of care.

As the peach-

blossom flows

down stream

and is gone into the

unknown,

I have a world

apart that is not

among men."

Li Bai 

February poetry 

by Mike Garofalo

Circled round by 

snowcapped peaks - 

white blossoms.

Awakening, 

I hear the truth -

gray rain on clay.

Daily rain -

from the deep well 

this glass of water.

Dark trees 

darker clouds -

rain on my glasses.

The pavement 

ended, 

a dirt road began -

stopping in the rain.

Old figs

unpruned,

abandoned -

peacocks home.

Other poets 

"Winter is the time for comfort,

for good food 

and warmth,for

the touch of a 

friendly hand and 

for a talk beside the fire: it is the 

time for home."

Edith Sitwell

"Keep your faith 

in beautiful 

things;

in the sun when it

is hidden, 

in the Spring

when it is gone.

Roy R Gibson

"The flowers of

late winter and

early spring

occupy places in 

our hearts well

out of proportion 

to their size."

Gertrude S. Wister

"Was it the smile

of early spring

That made me

bosom glow?

'Twas sweet, but

neither sun nor

wind 

Could raise my 

spirit so.

Was it some

feeling of delight,

All vague and

undefined?

No 'twas a 

rapture deep and

strong,

Expanding in the 

mind!"

Anne Bronte,

In Memory of A Happy Day 

in Februry

"Winter came

down to our 

home one night

Quietly

pirouetting in on

silvery-toed

slippers of snow,

And we, we were

children once

again."

"Why, what's the 

matter

That you have 

such a February 

face,

So full of frost, of

storm and

cloudiness?"

William Shakespeare,

 Much Ado About
Nothing

January Gardening quotes 

The leaves hop, scraping on the ground.

It is January. The sky is hard.

The stalks are firmly rooted in ice.

It is in this solitude, a syllable,

Out of these gawky flitterings,

Intones its single emptiness,

The savagest hollow of winter sound.

Wallace Stevens

You'd be so lean, that blasts of January

Would blow you through and through.

William Shakespeare 

"Here's to thee,

old apple tree

Whence thou

mayest bud

Whence thou

mayest bear

apples enow."

Wassailing Songs

"To read a poem 

in January is as 

lovely as to go

for a walk in 

June."

Jean-Paul Sartre

"It is deep January.

The sky is hard.

The stalks are firmly rooted

in ice."

Wallace Stevens

Hope you all enjoyed this month's poetry. 

Please keep reading with me.