I found these haiku in the pages of a notebook I was rereading from August of 2006. Has it really been almost a year? They were written at Ghost Ranch when I got separated from the writing group after lingering too long at the pond. I sat on the prickly ground, alone and silent, chewing on a bite of apple, steam from a soggy T-shirt rising in the dry heat.
I sat for 10 minutes. And then wrote these haiku. I’m posting them in solidarity for my friend at Ghost Ranch. I have a clear visual of the open space where she is painting, the yellow pond (it’s green to me), and the path up Box Canyon. The wind – it’s swirling around in my head. I’m racing around trying to get packed. I’ll be in Albuquerque sometime tonight. Then on to Taos.
It will be good to be back in New Mexico. And at the same time, I long to be home.
13 haiku
the cottonwood wind
floods by me in an instant
shade next to my back
the dragon fly flits
over the lime green water
my back to a tree
lizard on a rock
doesn’t seem glad to see me
ducks into a hole
red rocks rise skyward
desert breeze shakes the cedars
next to the green pond
gold fish swims by me
startles my shivering breath
then leads the way home
leaf winding slowly
yellow wasp on white flower
bobbing to and fro
leaf lands on the pond
the cottonwood is silent
a ripple swims out
big hole in the sky
a dragonfly flew through it
and left me alone
the twisted bark wraps
its thigh around the red ghosts
soaked next to dry bones
blue sky sparkles green
through wind in the cottonwoods
ants fight for a crumb
the wind smells like sage
I sit next to an ant pile
pray not to get bit
rock towers flood through
the blue dragonfly’s four wings
I watch from the side
hairy bumblebee
black diamond down its soft back
sucks on a flower
-haiku from a writing practice at Ghost Ranch, August 2006
Friday, July 6th, 2007
-related to posts, What I Remember About Writing , A Taste of Ghost Ranch, NM
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