100 haiku challenge - 22

A bike ride today

Slowly through puddles and chill.

I hope to do more.

Today I got to perform the sacred rites of helping a friend pack for a move. We shared breakfast, coffee, water, joyful tunes, and the surprise of skilled book people when it comes to packing those delicate and breakable things. A codex is sturdy, but it will break more quickly than imagined. 

There were three of us, a regular three of cups at a temple to honor the riches of a quiet and textured life. I felt a little worried at first because I was late. And then because one of friends has actually studied methods of packing books to insure their safety and's then it was all fine because we pack books in almost precisely the same way.

In the end, our friend was delighted and the way forward was eased in good humor and excellence.

100 haiku challenge - 21

Golden light at dusk

Shining through leafless branches

End of a long day

This day was beautiful. I found myself wanting to be more in it, more aware of the changing light and the quality of the sun on the bricks in my neighborhood. I wanted to be the warmth and to learn the stories of the walls at evening.

100 haiku challenge - 20

My long evening stroll

smelled of mist and growing things

along empty walks.

100 haiku challenge - 19

I pulled up the blinds
and we shared a gray moment,
remembrance of peace.

Today it rained, as it has for a few days, as it will for a few days more. From my work station, I could feel the world grow grayer and hear thunder in the quiet of the afternoon. Most colleagues had gone home; those that remained were tired and slightly under different weather. My cubical mate exclaimed in gentle joyful sounds when I lifted the blind on the window behind us. We spoke of wet bark and the release of a rain storm and the moments of quiet and rest in days like this. Softness finding softness at the dripping root of things.

100 haiku challenge - 18

I saw daffodils.
Short and green and blooming
bunched yellow petals. 

100 haiku challenge - 17

Reading at the bar
on a damp night before spring.
Nowhere else to be.

I am reading the unread books on my fiction shelves. There were 17 at the beginning of the year. I read 1 and bought a new book, so there are 17 books to read. I won't rate them or review them, no matter how much I think I want to. Years of reading for sales and elevator pitches left some residue that I'm cleaning up with the work of letting go. But it was fun to read Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino last night over a beer and a burger. Fun to be silent with my elbows on the bar. Fun to let it wash over me with no expectation. 

There is a little bit of a poem in the moments of music and solitude in public. Sometimes it is a lived poem, sometimes it is written. We shall see about this one.

100 haiku challenge - 16

Slightly cold all day.
Even sunshine through windows
could not thaw me out. 

Look at that - feeling better enough to use all their words instead of a contraction!

Yay!

Except that, yeah, having a cold and feeling cold are not great for not having a cold anymore. Sending everyone the strong reminder that no matter how amazing the poetry reading is, or how excited you are to be in the space - remember to pack a mask for yourself and maybe a friend, and then wear them, because humans are disgusting and being ill is the actual worst.