Let The
Force Be With You
in Sketchbook Valley
myriad haiku blossoms—
the wonders seen here!
walk with me through this garden
of love, pain and delight
Thirty Poets
from thirteen countries wrote one hundred-eighty poems for the
"flower(s)" Haiku Thread.
Eight
flowers in this Haiku Thread were a refreshing, new
experience for me: amaltaas, anamnesis, brahmakamal,
celandines, chicory
blooms, ice flowers, rangoon creeper, valerian. I thank
you poets especially for expanding my floral experience.
saying it with flowers
a bouquet of red roses,
for his sweet love
# 07. Sandra Martyres, IN
Sandra
certainly has identified one of the deepest meanings of
a floral bouquet—a deep expression of
love. Now think for a moment—just where did the
flowers on earth originate? Certainly they
are not the creation of man—humankind.
Indeed—a force more powerful than human beings
filled the world with these beautiful blossoms, and
scents,
a
poem written
after a long long time—
the brahmakamal blooms
# 97. Sunil Uniyal, IN
Saussurea
obvallata, also known as Brahma Kamal, is a species of
flowering plant named after Brahma, the Hindu god of
creation. It is native to the Himalayas, India, Northern
Burma and South-West China. In the Himalayas, it is
found at an altitude of around 4500 m (Wikipedia).
This hardy and unusual plant named after the Hindu god
of creation also suggests a distinct connection to the
divine.
lotus
flowers—
sprung from the footsteps
of Buddha
# 104. Alex Serban, RO
Nelumbo
nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian
Lotus, Sacred Lotus, Bean of India, or simply Lotus, is
a plant in the monogeneric family Nelumbonaceae.
Native to Tropical Asia and Queensland, Australia,
flowers of India and Vietnam, respectively.
From ancient times the lotus has been a divine symbol in
Asian traditions representing the virtues of sexual
purity and non-attachment.
Most deities of Asian religions are depicted as seated
on a lotus flower. In Buddhist symbolism, the lotus
represents purity of the body, speech, and mind as if
floating above the muddy waters of attachment and
desire. According to legend, Gautama Buddha was born
with the ability to walk, and lotus flowers bloomed
everywhere he stepped (Wikipedia).
Lotuses in Hinduism symbolize prosperity, beauty,
fertility, eternity and eternal youth (Jane
Reinbold).
The ancient
Egyptians used the lotus to symbolize the sun and
rebirth (Reinbold).
In Egypt the Lotus is seen everywhere in ancient
Egyptian tombs and temples, often held in the hands of
gods and royalty. The Lotus grows in muddy waters, yet
emerges from them pure and unblemished. Accordingly, the
Lotus is the symbol of resurrection, purity, serenity
and peace. The Lotus flower was part of the Ancient
Egyptian creation story. Because the flower opens each
day and closes each night, it is a symbol of rebirth and
eternal life, the main theme of Egyptian religion.
According to the creation story, Ra, the Sun God,
created himself from amidst chaos and first emerged from
the petals of the lotus flower. When Ra returned to the
lotus flower each night, its petals enfolded him once
again. The Lotus was the symbol of the Upper Kingdom of
Egypt, seen as the tall white crown, symbolic of the
Lotus bud (Lotus
- The Flower).
In the
flower(s) Haiku submitted to Sketchbook
many of the poems either directly or indirectly suggest
a significant link to the forces of creation, a life
force, leading to a final trail of decay and then
rebirth—an
endless cycle that is awaited with great anticipation
and reverence.
One common
topic in these haiku is the role of flowers and
"love":
Snowdrop—
will I ever see
your face?
# 118. Alegria Imperial, CA
wildflowers—
wearing my hair
a different way
# 77. Cara Holman, US
Essence of shyness
She hides behind a flower
Blowing kisses
# 82. Sandra Martyres, IN
First
date—
the bunch of hyacinths
hidden in a pocket
# 142. Maria Tirenescu, RO
from
his posy
a primrose peeps
her first proper kiss
# 99. Karin Anderson, AU
a red
rose bouquet
his profession of love—
evening mist
# 72. Sandra Martyres, IN
scent
of jasmine ...
thinking of
the first time we met
# 112. Chitra Rajappa, IN
tulips—
recalling
my first kiss
# 126. Alegria Imperial, CA
her
hands
full of red roses
unfolding desire
# 40. Bernard Gieske, US
bouquet of violets—
on the white tablecloth
a love letter
# 32. Marija Pogorilić, CR
roses
wither
on the dining table—
my unanswered calls
# 110. Juliet Wilson, UK
Drinking tea alone—
in the vase nearby
the dry peony
# 160. Maria Tirenescu, RO
winter dawn...
the last photo of her
amid azaleas
# 64. Chen-ou Liu, CA
northern wind—
new ice flowers
in our window
# 02. Juhani Tikkanen, FN
sakura...
the cold wind of January
lingers
# 119. Willie R. Bongcaron, PH
A second
major topic in the Sketchbook Haiku Thread
is the role of flowers in life and death:
Jack-in-the Pulpit
so quiet
this cathedral woods
# 10. Bernard Gieske, US
spring rain—
next to the empty chair
a flower bouquet
# 102. Alex Serban, RO
only
an hour ...
the white anemones
turn brown
# 131. Vania Stefanova, BG
waiting for him
with a laurel wreath—
end of war
# 149. Cezar-Florin Ciobīcă, RO
morning stiffness—
fresh-cut tulips
on the drain board
# 49. Ignatius Fay, CA
her
fingers
deft with needle & thread
Dutchman’s Breeches
# 48. Bernard Gieske, US
she
showers petals
on her infant's coffin
the tears come
# 94. Sandra Martyres, IN
daffodils
in her hand the letter
of a late friend
# 175. Ramona Linke, DE
farewell
to a fallen comrade...
white roses
# 161. Willie R. Bongcaron, PH
Violets
in the graveyard—
it’s raining
# 138. Maria Tirenescu, RO
withered flowers fall
upon the bedside table...
an empty bed
# 165. Keith A. Simmonds, TT
tribute to the dead
she places a red rose
on his grave
# 96. Sandra Martyes, IN
autumn twilight
an old dog sits by the grave
overgrown with ivy
# 60. Chen-ou Liu, CA
final
offering—
a wreath of white flowers
at her funeral
# 92. Sandra Martyres, IN
funeral service
a long stemmed red rose
piercing my skin
# 59. Janice Thomson, CA
wreaths of flowers
at the church service
he covers a yawn
# 11. Janice Thomson, CA
chrysanthemums
on a new grave—
the first snow flakes
# 156. Maria Tirenescu, RO
asylum window—
granny's breath becomes
ice flowers
# 147. Cezar-Florin Ciobīcă, RO
Old
cemetery—
amidst ruined crosses
violas grow
# 148. Maria Tirenescu, RO
peace
rose—
an enduring love
for the ages
# 180. John Daleiden, US
A flower,
sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the
reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants
of the division Magnoliophyta, also called angiosperms).
The biological function of a flower is to effect
reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the
union of sperm with eggs.
In addition to facilitating the reproduction of
flowering plants, flowers have long been admired and
used by humans to beautify their environment but also as
objects of romance, ritual, religion, medicine and as a
source of food (Wikipedia).
Flowers seem
to offer humans comfort, solace, and hope. While the
blossoms extend an immediate visual experience of beauty
to the beholder and the pleasurable remembrance of
scent, they also offer a reality check about the
mutability of life with the knowledge that regeneration
is a matter for the ages.
The haiku
above have been selected as exemplary verses featuring
the following characterstics:
-
constructed with fragment and phrase lines
-
arranged
in three lines
-
contain17 or less syllables in a 5 7 5 pattern—frequently
fewer syllables are used
-
presented with a kireji—written
and unwritten, but obviously present
-
some
haiku employ the middle line as a pivot
-
all
introduce some type of flower
-
many use
juxtaposition of images to express implied themes
-
taken
together as a Thread the haiku rise to a symbolic
presence indirectly suggesting metaphors for
universal themes as discussed through out this
essay.
east and west
let the force be with you
lotus blossoms
~John Daleiden, Phoenix Arizona
in the Sonoran Desert
