MrSmith1's picture

    A Sun-settled Friday Afternoon at the Haikulodeon

     

     

    This week, I thought I'd try something a little different; a theme posting. 

    Not all, but most of the haikus and photos this week are sunset related.

    (All photos courtesy of Kristina Rebelo unless otherwise noted.)

     

    Here's this week's heap of haikus:

     


     Sweeping 'cross the sky
    lost souls in search of heaven
    as daylight retreats.

     

    ---

     

    Thus each day must end,
    to let each night begin, so
    we may build new dreams.


    ---

     

     Apres tour jetes,
    a small ballerina stops
    to smell the roses.

     

    ---

    On St. Patrick's Day
    I think of Agnes Kelly
    and of her journey.

    Agnes Kelly was my maternal great-grandmother, who came from Ireland to America around 1880, lived on the Lower East Side and had three children.  Abandoned by her husband, (who later drowned in the East River), she remarried and moved to Benton Harbor, Michigan.

    (photo courtesy of me.)

    ---

     

    Our connection to
    the past may be much closer
    than we imagine.

    (One of only three photos I have of my father's mother, Sarah Anne Howard (born 1882).  I had never seen a photo of her until I found this one while flipping through my sister's baby book about 10 years ago. She divorced my grandfather in the early 1920's and died in 1938.  She is buried in the Naval Academy cemetery in Annapolis.  She grew up in a house right next to the Naval Academy. which is now a Bed and Breakfast and the story I was told was that the Howard family helped found Annapolis so I guess the family burial plot was there before the Academy. Another interesting branch of my family tree.)

     

    (photo courtesy of me.)

     

    ---


    Glorious sunset,
    you take my breath away and
    beckon me to dream.


    ---

     

     Don't panic when there's
    fire in the sky; it may just
    be the setting sun.


    ---

     

     To be committed
    is to fly through each sunset
    in search of the dawn.


    ---


    The weathered rowboat,
    Lodged in the pond's muddy dregs,
    remains moored ... oar-less.

     

    (Photo courtesy of me.)

    ---

     


     Sometimes the world will
    overwhelm us with beauty,
    our heart seems to burst.


    ---

     

     Moody clouds roiled through
    the dark sky o'er the harbor ...
    tethered sailboats bobbed.


    ---

     

    And then, a rainbow
    swept across the darkened sky,
    for the storm had ended.

     

     

    --

     

     

     

    Silhouetted sunsets;
    barren trees plead for fruit on
    snowy coastal dunes.


    ---

     

     'Wow, Freaks!, Really? Freaks?,
    I thought they were now known as,
    'Normally challenged.'

     

    (Actual photo taken by me at the Oklahoma State Fair around 1970.)

     

    ---

     

     

     

    You can be sure of
    one thing; real surfers know where
    to park their woodys.


    ---

     

    Fear is a fabric
    that folds under stress, and when
    in hot water, shrinks ...

     

    ---


    What night ships do you
    sail upon? What adventures
    find you in your dreams?


     

    ---

     

     

    One of Life's perks is,
    no matter how you slice it,
    Coffee must be ground.

     


    ---

     


    Clouds surround mountains,
    evergreens anchor the slopes,
    temple bells echo.

     

     

    ---

     

     

    What he heard was, "Love
    your harp, it's healing!" She said;

    You're Hard of Hearing!

     


    ---


     

     

    A convent garden ...
    a praying mantis climbs a
    Jack-in-the-pulpit.

     

    ---

     

     

    Behind the lighthouse,
    soft, puffy clouds dot the sky.
    Sail the ev'ning tide.

     

     
    ---

     

     

     

    The dark before dawn;
    lonely hearts beat quicker in
    anticipation.

     

     


    ---

     

    Desire often hides
    behind the structure of our life
    seeking permission.


    ----

     


    The end of the world
    will always draw a crowd to
    watch the damned fireworks.


    ---


    after each heartache
    a glistening beach at dawn
    eases my sorrow.


    ---

     

    The morning stillness
    will soon enough give way to
    mid-morning madness.


    ---


    As the chaos fades,
    I pause to think hard about
    where to go from here.


    ---


    double haiku:

    Diminishing light,
    the quiet insistence of
    each small breaking wave

    The tide coming in,
    The day going out,  a bird
    flies through the sunset.


    ---


    Muted shades of dawn,
    the pier in the distance is
    still out of focus.

     

    ---

    The day must leave us.
    We must rest to prepare for
    the struggles to come.


    ---

    Another day comes
    to a fiery end.  Night soon
    comsumes the embers.


    ---

     

    I sail into the
    darkness.   The sunset leaves me
    without any friends.


    ---

     

    Watching the sunrise
    Albino Darth Vader thinks,
    'Look on the bright side.'


    ---


    before-and-after-ku:

    A triangle of
    tranquility sails the sea
    'neath darkening skies.


    Shafts of golden light,
    signaled we'd weathered the storm,
    so, we headed home.


    ---

     

     

     

     


    The wind fills our sails,
    we glide ‘gainst a golden sky
    Sea salt in our hair.


    ---

     


    A tangerine sky.
    Clouds that haunt the horizon,
    lure me into dusk.


    ---


    A beach umbrella
    keeps a lonely vigil as
    the tide starts to turn.


    ---


    The deepening blue
    gently quiets golden waves.
    Nightfall approaches.


    ---

     


    The setting sun sinks
    into the ocean, stealing
    colors from the sky.


    ---

     


    As the setting sun
    melts into the horizon,
    stripes along the shore.


    ---

     


    A gritty sunset.
    Smoke pervades the horizon;
    San Marcos wildfires

    ---

     

     

    Pelicans fly high
    above the smokey vista, as
    the sun slowly sinks.

     
    ---


    The sun was stymied,
    but blue skies infused the clouds,
    a dark hope prevailed.


    ---

     

     

    Hard to believe, but next month begins the 7th "April is Spondylitis Awareness Month" campaign. I came up with the idea for the campaign after hearing a report on the radio describing April as grilled cheese sandwich month.  I vowed then and there that if a grilled cheese sandwich could have its own month, then by God, Spondylitis Awareness deserved one too.  April Showers = Ankylosing Spondylitis.  Perfect.  So I just started telling people that April was Spondylitis month and promoting it on internet message boards and websites and things just grew from there. Soon it was embraced by the Spondylitis Association and April is now recognized around the world as Spondylitis Awareness Month ... And that's the true story of how a grilled cheese sandwich helped create Spondylitis Awareness Month. There are 2.7 million Americans with some form of Spondylitis. That's about equal to the population of Chicago.   


    Comments

    Ooooooooooh these pix are stunning. This is all I got right now and do not take it as snark!

    Okay, sometimes folks

    End up in the East River

    It is only fair

    Souls soaring Heavens

    Just to adore the Eternene

    Well: Define this God today?

    I have some legends

    My Gramps arrived at Ellis

    In 1909

    Carl died without fame

    He had lost his lust for life

    I tried to help him last

    He had lost the will to live

    But I was thirteen

    WE NEED SOME MUSIC TO GO WITH THE PIX

     

     

     


    Sorry, I crashed. Well I have not yet, but my PC did..

     

    that is all i got right now.

     

     

     


    Michael Brown died this week end. He wrote this song and Don't Walk Away Renee. Steve Martin was the lead singer on both songs. The same girl inspired both songs. 


    Damn, you are right.

    I never knew who Michael Brown was.

    I loved both those songs.

    All of a sudden, I am back in the 60's. Wow!


    This is one of my favorite songs in those days.

    Thank you. I forget sooo very much.

     


    It brings back memories from 1966 in the fall of the year. Cool crisp days, colorful leaves and young love. 


    This is one of their most over looked songs.  You can hear the train in the beat and harmony of this song.  



    My mother, during the restoration of Ellis Island, decided to make a donation which bought a brick with her grandmother's name on it that was laid in a walkway on Ellis Island.  After doing research, I had to break it to my mom that her grandmother came over too early to have gone through Ellis Island and must have gone through Castle Garden instead.   Although tracing Agnes Kellys from Ireland is a bit like looking for Michael Smiths, I was able to narrow it down and by knowing that she might have come over with a sister named Theresa, was able to find a candidate that I think was her and who came over in 1881, ten years before the birth of my maternal grandmother in 1891 when they were living in what is now the East Village and only a few blocks from where I now work.  
     


    You make me feel sad.

    But feeling sad, means I still feel something.

    And it is better to feel, than not feel anything.

    Momoe sends us Enya.

    Why not?

    Feel well or at least feel alive Mr. Smith.

    Or else we just feel death?


    I feel alive when
    I feel blue, I feel that way
    when I'm happy too.

    I can't stop feeling,
    I won't behave, I won't stop
    till I'm in my grave.

     

    You're the best, DD.  Thanks for the encouragement.



     


    What a lovely assortment of haku.

    Thank you.  Here is my contribution in music that goes with this weeks addition. I could not come up with a cheese sandwich song.


    Yeah, that was the song I could not recall.

    GOD I LOVE ENYA.

    WONDERFUL!

     


    I didn't mean to make you sad.  I enjoy Enya too. 

    Here is The Book of Days.  To life journeys' "clink."


    Thank you Trking.  And thanks for finding me on FB.  That was you, right?  :)


    Yup, that was me. I hope you don't get tired of recipes and crafts. 


    Wonderful work, Smith. Enjoyed all the haiku, lovely pics, and especially your background story on Spondylitis work.


     

    Thanks Oxy.   This year marks the 20th year of my Spondyville support group / website.  It started out on an AOL message board in 1995.   Seems like such a long time ago.     


    Grilled cheese sandwiches

    used to be a lunchtime treat

    when my mom made them.

    Nowadays, I just

    throw one in a pan when I'm

    too lazy to cook.

    When I was a kid, I thought they had to be good and smooshed to melt the cheese ... flat gooey goodness. Of course, it was just my mom trying to catch a kid on the run - an unsmooshed grilled cheese takes patience!


    I just cut off my song. hahahaha

    You know, it just got to me that my sister taught me how to cook a grilled cheese sandwich when she was 11 and I was six?

    You take the two slices of bread and you add Miracle Whip and then you add the cheese...

    And then you begin to ....

    Oh it just got to me. I was supposed to add apple slices.

    I forgot about that.

    Then you fry the 'mess'.

    After incorporating the apple slices. I do not peel the apple any more.

    I dunno but you just got to me there.

    You know, I still make the same sandwich, every three months or so?

    This just hit me, as they say.

    Fifty years, and I still do it the same way.

    hahahahah

    Momoe is the real chef here.

    unsmooshed grilled cheese takes patience.

    I am so depressed lately.

    But I hereby render unto Missy, the Dayly Comment of the Day Award for this here Dagblog Site, given to all of her, from all of me. hahhahaha

    Fast food is one thing, but care and love are another thing, with regards to home made food.

    hahahah

    You struck a nerve there.

    I cannot make grilled cheese without the apple slices, after all these years.

    hahahaha

    I do not know why, this comment just makes me smile.

    And I am not ready to smile, most of the time.

     

     

     


    We are a cascade
    of childhood memories, which
    dredges up old smiles.

    Thank you for being
    both my trigger and target:
    please share forever.

    Here's my cascaded memory;  my father teaching me how to slice an apple; cutting it in half, then cutting the halves in half, then cutting a little triangle out of each quarter to get rid of the seeds.   Grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell's cream of tomato soup are still a comfort food.   Here's to smooshed sam-itches. 


    I wasn't going to do this.  Grilled cheese song. Ha Ha Ha. Enjoy

     

     


    Dick, knowing that I made you smile is more important to me than any award I could receive. But since the Dayly Award comes the heart behind that smile, I'll happily grab it and hold on tight.


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