Haiga -beyond twilight

The last day of haiga-a-day challenge and my last haiga, for the time being!

Boy, am i glad that I decided to participate! Though my efforts were amateurish, having had no drawing or haiga background and only the most rudimentary know-how in photoshop... the only application I had at my disposal... it was tough going, yet I had so much fun, even if it meant sitting bleary-eyed at the computer till late at night.

Because I always love experimenting with colours! And seeing something totally new emerge from a dull, flat picture or clipart was a reward in itself.Finally all the colours and shapes in the world to dabble in and splash, stretch and twirl, daub or spatter as I want! I discovered quite a few new online photo editors along the way and learnt a lot from the other participants as well.

Before I end, 'sorry' to those unsuspecting visitors to my blog whom I inundated day after day with my haiga and lotsa mahalo and aloha (even if i say so not in the right order) to all those who have encouraged and egged me on, not that I needed much encouragement though! Really and truly 'way fun' , Rick Daddario!

Haiga - cumulus

Haiga-bat wings

Haiku previously published in Simply haiku. The woods in the photo are just opposite my house.

Haiga -night rain

Another haiga based on clip art. For the record, I haven't been absolutely truthful here with the ku. Just a figment of my imagination! The bloke I live with does, indeed, sleep well.

Haiga-autumn light

An image taken from clip art which I cropped a bit and then photo shopped. At last my clip art haiga is ready!

The week that was

Last one week has been extremely erratic for me. Every body else has been writing beautiful poetry and creating amazing artwork while I have been away...! To a place I must have visited some 383 times before (well, I am exaggerating, but not much), and where I spent all the time gazing at sea and stuffing myself with all kinds of delicacies (mostly Goanese preparations of fish and desserts from all over the world) and have, at last, come back richer by a few inches. Also with an armload of photographs. Which was the saving grace, because i thought they would be wonderful raw material for my haiga project.

Only to find, that now I don't find them so interesting. I want to do haiga, using clip art like Alee, (Alee Imperial Albano at Jornales), but cannot find anything appropriate and cannot come up with anything decent.

Meanwhile, as i said, all the poets are doing great things! Johannes S.H.Bjerg has posted a fantastic haiga, created using some layering technique, on NaHaiWriMo.

autumn moon I take it on face value

To see the image you'll have to visit the NaHaiWriMo page on Facebook.

And two weeks of fabulous haiku on Dailyhaiku by Claire Everett and Michele Harvey. They have such contrasting styles and yet both are such superb poets.

I am going to quote here just two, one from each of them, but I'd suggest you visit DailyHaiku if you don't do it already... and read the whole lot.


So here they are:

mehndi
from wrists to fingertips...
last of the swallows

Claire Everett


summer fling -
strands of twine
litter the hayloft floor

Michele L.Harvey

(For the non-haiku reader of this blog, please note how in the 2nd poem the lines hint at something beyond just the image of a hayloft floor littered with twine. Again, it could be just that, only a hayloft floor and nothing else - who knows? And in the first poem, how wonderfully the image of a mehndi ritual ties in with a season in nature, the 3rd line being the key-line here.)

As for me, maybe I should go watch the match between MI(Mumbai) and CSK(Chennai) that's in progress as there's nothing like a dose of cricket to calm your restless mind. And boost creativity as well (at least, I hope so) !

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Haiga -the same sea

Haiga-near sunset

Haiga- marriage vows

Today's haiga is one I had done for Terri Hale French on NaHaiWriMo. Here I have taken a similar (but not the same) image, altered and and added a frame to it, only the ku remains the same.

Haiga -goatbells

goatbells~
the green, green valley
in my dreams

For Haiga-a-day, 19 planets Art Blog

Haiga -match point

Haiku previously posted at Haiku bandit society September moon-viewing party

Haiga - autumn dusk

I finally decided to play the haiga-a-day challenge for Rick Daddario of 19 planets art blog, encouraged by Rick and inspired by a couple of fellow haiku poets. Rick Daddario, who is an awesome artist, insists anybody who can write with a pen or pencil, has the ability to draw anything one wants. I beg to disagree. Drawing a line or shape doesn't come so easily to me. Yet i am so impressed by his artwork and having always wanted to do haiga, i thought maybe i could learn to use photoshop/digital art or whatever.

The one today is just a loosener. I've used only a sample picture, photoshopped it a bit, adding twirl and added a ku...that's about it! Maybe I'd try to do something more complex as I go along and gain some confidence.

So here we go:

Visit 19 planets art blog if you want to see Rick Daddario's wonderful artwork and haiga.

Siesta

The rain has eased off in the last few days. After four months of downpour (most of the time), torrential rains (some of the time), heavy shower (at other times), non-stop rain (at all times) and drizzle ( almost never) ; the sun has come out, clothes are dry and warm at last, the resident squirrel is back to its usual noisy ways and there are pockets of golden yellow at unexpected corners of my house.

The cat had been observing me closely for quite sometime, but after realising that I really bear him no ill-will or grudge,( we are at loggerheads most of the time, the reason being our similar tastes in food) he has stretched out on the window sill and gone off to sleep. There is so much to do, mails to write, calls to make, reading to catch up on...but at this moment all I want to do is to emulate the cat, curl up in this pool of sunlight on the recliner and snooze away! Everything else can wait!

siesta time -
a gentle tide washes over
the shingle

Wait a minute! Did i just write my first haibun?

Svetlana

Svetlana Marisova, the Russian poet from New Zealand, passed away yesterday, finally losing the battle to inoperable brain tumour. Though I had known Svetlana very briefly, only through Facebook...she had sent a friend request and added very graciously, "I have always wanted to know you"...yet I always admired and loved her poetry which belied a maturity far beyond her years. The experts would tell how sound her technique was and how she understood the zoka (of which i know nothing about) , but what struck me was their depth and always that sadness, that shadow of death which had surprised me at first, before i knew about the nature of her illness and later the intrepid manner in which she faced death.

Svetlana was a much loved poet in the haiku community and many have written loads of poetry for her in the past few weeks. But for me, the best way to remember her today would be through her own poetry.

miss august
curls at the edges...
end of summer

This was the last one she had posted on NaHaiWriMo on 1st August, only days before she slipped into a coma.

And some others,

in my brain...
a death watch beetle
marks time

pearl diving...
haiku and tumours
from the depths

in the wind
what might have been...
sleepless moon

the distance
between dusk and dawn...
deep waters

summer surf -
within its sound
I am sea

bitter spring -
not all ducks
are paired


And finally the last entry that was found in her notebook:

godwit's flight...
light disappearing
with the sun

She had been feeling homesick and wanted to come back to New Zealand from Russia where she had been undergoing treatment, but unfortunately couldn't complete the journey.

Svetlana was only 21.
Rest in peace, Svetlana. May you find oneness with the wind, the sea, this universe.

Ganesh chaturthi and Herons nest

The 10-day long Ganesh chaturthi celebrations began on Thursday, officially ushering in the festival season. This year, though, the fervor has been much dampened by torrential rains of the past one week.The good part is that the sound of rain has drowned out the loudspeakers, bad part is that once there is a lull in the rain and the crackers start, they won't stop for a long time!





According to Hindu mythology, Ganesha is the son of Lord Shiva and Parvati and there are many stories regarding how he got his elephant-head.The unusually large head also signifies an extraordinary amount of intelligence! But on another level,Ganesh is associated with the root or mooladhara chakra in the subtle body. which is the first energy centre that represents the earth element, providing a solid foundation for material life. That is why He is the first god to be worshipped always before embarking on any spiritual, religious or worldly venture.




On a personal note, Lord Ganesh has been kind to me this year, bringing with him the heron's nest editor's choice award. That is the kind of stuff I sometimes daydreamt about(when i saw other poets featured in that hallowed space) knowing fully well this was going to remain only that, a dream.But well, the editors found my poem worthy of a special commentary from Scott Mason and I would really like to thank him for that wonderful commentary! I have also been lucky to have Paul Macneil as my editor, who has been one of the sweetest editors I have come across in my brief haiku journey, if I may say so!



The Heron's Nest September issue is full of lovely poetry,many of them by poets whom I have come to know through the NaHaiWriMo site on Facebook...do check it out! Though I am yet to go through it fully, I liked this one by Cara Holman, for its layers underlying the deceptively simple lines:

fine mist
he says frogs
I say crickets

Of the many other wonderful poetry I have read in the past few days, here is another one

sandcastles...
her youngest daughter
calls me daddy

Colin Stewart Jones.

And finally, this one-liner by Kala Ramesh which she wrote at the end of an email to me:

where forest meets river the night of fireflies

We have come a long way from Ganapati festival, haven't we?
Have a great weekend...all of you!