Yellow, somewhere over Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota, October 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
gassing up the plane
yellow sun on horizon
I’m running on fumes
restless night owl
wings clipped over the Midwest
sleeping in mid-air
voicemail remains full
apologies to callers
delayed housekeeping
wings bobbing in sun
to avoid motion sickness
touch wrist pressure points
Northwest bites the dust
D-E-L-T-A imprint on cookie
“Skymiles with Biscoff”
ankles and joints swell
somewhere over Ohio
depressurizing
smoldering remnants
of the way it used to be
cause a lot of pain
nothing can contain
my rattling restless spirit
banging in the night
Liz rises at 5
and defrags my Toshiba
gift from the heavens
BWI
destination Baltimore
home of Ace of Cakes
high altitude yawns
saturate before using
low oxygen lungs
overweight luggage
travels with Baggage Angels
checks and balances
strange things worry me
laundry, shoes, and broken glass
where is my Space pen?
clouds dance on wing tips
full of milk and sky cookies —
I’m hungry to write
opening the door
family collectibles
hide in my closet
in for a landing
sun shines over Baltimore
gloomy clouds below
______________________
Note: All is well on my travels. Wrote these haiku on the plane yesterday morning. So much has happened since I arrived in Pennsylvania. Feels like I’ve been gone a week. My sister made sliced pork with peach glaze, mashed potatoes, green beans, and Southern banana pudding. My mother made chili, grits, and took me shopping for Fall outfits. My brother and Liz helped me out with a small glitch in the BlackBerry modem. All fixed now.
Tomorrow morning we start the 10-12 hour drive down to Georgia. Will try to check in as we roll over the Mason-Dixon line. We will travel through quite a few states before hitting the Savannah River. Will try to keep in touch. Writing and photography seem like the right things to be doing. Grateful for the opportunity. More as I know it. Time, time, time, time, time.
And the New Moon. New beginnings. Some call October’s Full Moon the Blood Moon. Prepare for the cold dark months ahead. Honor your ancestors. Let go of what is unnecessary. The veil between the worlds is thin.
-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, October 18th, 2009
QuoinMonkey,
I loved reading your haiku, and laughed out loud when I saw the picture of the Delta cookie. Are they trying to convince us that it’s okay that Northwest has bit the dust? Lure us with sugar?
I’m thinking of you today, driving to Georgia with Mama Amelia.
There is a two-hour course at The Loft on February 27th on haiku. The four haiku writers they list in the course description are Basho, Issa, Jack Kerouac, and Richard Wright. Jack wrote haiku? Who knew?
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What a pleasant surprise to hear from you and to read your haiku and see pics. The post is delightful. The haiku made me smile, worrying about your Space pen and eating sky cookies. 8)
Sounds like you are being pampered over there and from afar. Give everyone a big “HELLO!” from me.
And good advice on the Blood Moon. It’s supposed to hit 80 degrees here today (yesterday was also very warm, although not quite that much) and then rain by tomorrow, then colder. I love this fall weather, so wild. I want fall to linger a bit longer, say, all the way through November. Might be possible here in NM. You never know.
Take care and safe travels today.
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Thanks Teri and ybonesy. I was happy I was able to get a post out over the weekend. So much going on with the travel and visiting with my huge family which I love. On the go and non-stop. Just slowing down a bit after arriving in Georgia. Mom and I might take it easy today and hide out by the lake. But then how much am I hiding when I just told everyone in this comment. 8)
Teri, it was quite humorous to see the DELTA cookie imprint on the Biscoff. I knew any Minnesotan who had gone through the ups and downs of the Northwest/Delta merger in the press would get the underlying humor behind that cookie shot! And thanks for the well wishes on the road travel yesterday. Mom ended up driving the whole way. We left at about 9:30am and arrived about 10:30am (is that 13 hrs?). That was with taking our time and stopping in Fancy Gap, Virginia at a little restaurant for dinner. It was a fun trip with UberTwitter. I learned to post photos and locations and a lot more about my BlackBerry. Mom and I had fun. Today we are tired!
Teri, those four are four of my favorite haiku writers. I loved when I found out Kerouac wrote haiku. Richard Wright, too. There are some good links in a couple of past posts if you’re interested. In one of the links, Jack Kerouac reads his own haiku. That’s a fun one. Here are the links if you are so inclined. I hope you will report back on the Loft class and let us know how it goes.
Kerouac Does Haiku (& Other Tales From On The Road) (LINK)
Richard Wright – 810 Haiku (LINK)
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Teri, BTW, one thing I discovered when researching Richard Wright was that he played Bigger Thomas in the 1951 version of Native Son. I started reading about Richard Wright when I was discovering James Baldwin. He was one of Baldwin’s mentors. Everything is connected. That never ceases to amaze me.
ybonesy, the Blood Moon, also the Hunters Moon, came from hunting season when people were stocking up and preparing for Winter. There was a lot of food preparation and in the old days, that meant hunting and butchering animals and preparing the meat. I guess it’s not just the old days though. Lots of hunters today. I recently heard a documentary on women hunters. I guess more and more women are hunting and taking their daughters out hunting as a rite of passage the way my brothers did with their dad when I was growing up. These women hunted and got the meat ready to put away for Winter. No easy task.
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Welcome home. Somehow when you are home things feel a little more complete.
Looking to playing The Beetles Rock Band again when you return from Georgia (we have to get you on the drums this time).
R3
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R3, that is such a sweet thing to say. I really miss the family sometimes living so far away. I guess I’ve lived away for so long, it’s a part of me. It’s always so good to connect with the family again.
Things are going well here in Georgia. We are on the Georgia side of Clarks Hill Lake. MOM and I spent the day on research. I think tomorrow we are going to a museum and over to Magnolia Cemetery. I want to see a few parts of it I haven’t visited before.
Beatles Rock Band rocked! That was so much fun. I want to do the drums. My nephew was fantastic on the drums. And my niece sang with me. That was fun, too. R3, you rocked on McCartney’s bass. 8)
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ybonesy, we are heading out to a few old cemeteries today (some in Georgia, some in South Carolina). And hopefully to the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art (LINK) on Telfair Street. It’s not far from where my Aunt Cassie lived. The architecture is Federalist; it was built in 1818. I’ve photographed the outside but haven’t seen the inside yet.
Then we are heading to meet my aunt on my blood father’s side. I found out my grandparents on that side are buried in the same cemetery as my maternal grandparents. I haven’t see their graves before. We’re meeting for lunch. This is the aunt I reconnected with a few years ago. She had not seen me since I was 2 years old. Nor Mom since she was about 18. It’s astounding what can happen if we open up to it. BTW, she lives in my paternal grandmother’s house right across Clarks Hill Lake, but on the South Carolina side.
What’s happening in New Mexico this morning?
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[…] haiku in the air, Minnesota to Maryland and […]
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QuoinMonkey,
Did you know they’re going to call us “Delta North?” I guess it’s the scrap they’re throwing us since we know we’re not living in the Delta. I’ll admit it has sort of a nice ring…better than “Northwest South.”
And, after the stunt the Northwest pilots pulled with their laptops in the cockpit last week…well…
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[…] runway haiku (take flight) […]
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Teri, hadn’t heard about Delta North. Hmmm. Does kind of have a nice ring to it. When I was in Georgia, I logged on to my Uncle’s computer one morning and he had the CNN page up. There it was, the story about the Northwest pilots on the front page. At that time, they thought they had fallen asleep. Couldn’t believe it.
Of course, now they’ve lost their licenses for what they said was both of them being on their laptops when they should have been landing. Still a strange story to me. Do you believe it?
I tell you though, the Delta pilots and crew were nothing but nice to us on the flight home to Minnesota. There were two open seats beside me and the plane wasn’t the least bit full. Are less people flying?
We received three bags of goodies instead of the usual one. Lots of smiles. Reminded me of the old days of flying. Except that we got full meals. I generally have good luck when flying and this trip was no exception. Smooth flying.
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Forgot to mention, there was something about Northwest on the news yesterday. They said there is no sign of any Northwest signs in most airports anymore. And that the familiar red tails will be gone by early 2010. We did see mixed signage in BWI and I bet they are waiting until Northwest websites and planes are completely gone before they take them down. Can be confusing if you don’t know the backstory.
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[…] because in October I traveled to Pennsylvania, drove down to Georgia and South Carolina, then flew back to Minnesota, that I paid more attention to the skies. Or because I’m out driving during the day and the […]
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In the news today, a new law prohibits carriers from keeping passengers sitting on a tarmac for more than three hours. They have to give them food and water after two hours.
I’ve never had to sit that long on the tarmac. I’m not fond of airplane travel to begin with. I think I would be stark, raving mad after three hours!
They sited an incident (which I didn’t remember) about a plane that was bound for Minneapolis which had to land in Rochester because of a storm. They wouldn’t let the people get off **all night.**
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I heard about the new law, Teri. I think it’s good. I’ve had to sit on the tarmac for over one hour, maybe almost two, and I just remember how the smell of airplane exhaust made its way into the plane (I guess it can’t help but do that after you’re sitting in its own exhaust for that long) and made me feel sick.
(Reminds me of a joke: Did you hear about the skunk that went to church? He sat in his own pew.)
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ybonesy,
What surprises me (in all these reports I’m hearing on NPR, etc.) is that no one is saying, “Three hours! How ridiculous! Inhumane!” Everyone seems happy for the law. I know some law about it is better than no law, but still.
On the stranded flight (the one that had to land in Rochester, MN) that led to this law, they said the toilet backed up, there were many babies crying, the smell of soiled diapers overtaking the airspace, etc. I wonder if people were calling 9-1-1 from the plane. I would have been.
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Oh yeah, good point, Teri. Three hours is not so sweet, is it?
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