February NaHaiWriMo - Day 29 - leap

So we come to the end of the February NaHaiWriMo with the prompt"leap", "leap year" or "leap day"!

The prompts throughout the month haven't been easy, but i managed to scrape through and enjoyed the whole experience of writing, reading and commenting and being commented on.
To be able to meet all the challenges successfully without missing a day... that too was reason for huge satisfaction!

Looking back though it seems that though i started strongly, (even if i say so), halfway through the month i lost the punch,my haiku beginning to get more and more flat. Maybe i couldn't connect with the prompts or i just overstretched myself, but my haiku limbs definitely started cramping!Probably what i need right now is a short break from haikuing...though i know i won't be able to stay away for long!

Many thanks to all my haiku mates who participated with me and egged me on whenever i lagged behind. Thanks much to Michael Dylan Welch--Nahaiwrimo's founder and this month's prompter!

And before I go, the final haiku of this month ;

spring day
the shimmering green
of the dragonfly's leap

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 28 - Haiku generator revisited

The haiku generator again. We had had a torrid time with this prompt last year during Terri Hale French's tenure and i had blogged about it here. Due to its populaity among the poets, Michael Dylan Welch thought it would be a good idea to use that prompt again. So there we were again in that madhouse where we had to write our own version/take based on the computer-generated haiku that this site threw at us. I looked at around twenty or so haiku in the hope of finding something that i could make some sense of. In the process i found such gems as these :

impersonal barbed
boatman poses, poses
orchid jangles, swift

and,


echo submerges
cheaply, lifeless oaks rusting
icicles fornicate

Then i settled on this:

azalea drips

wetly, malodorous some
oaf palpitates, cool

and this was my version:

despite
the empty mailbox--
azaleas in bloom

Also this,

scarecrows hesitate
sadly, oafs forgetting doors
recuperate, dim

And my version

scarecrows nodding...
he again forgets
his house number

which i later changed into:

pointing towards

his way home
scarecrows

Oh boy, am i glad that today's prompt is behind me now!! And if you ask me why i landed up with oafs every time, i have no idea!

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 27 - Bad Haiku

Twenty- seventh day and the prompt for today was "bad haiku" , having exhausted the alphabets now. Bad haiku always comes easy to me and i dug out this one from a few years back

distant gunfire
sends men scurrying...
thunder erupts

Also wrote this one quite effortlessly:

old dog barking at all things new
zip it

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 26 - Z

And so we come to the last letter of the alphabet, Z . The prompt was "zip". Not too easy and after writing and discarding quite a few none of which was postworthy, finally i settled on this.

to zip
or not to zip...
this damaged l̶i̶f̶e̶ file

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 25 - Y

Y for "yellow". A much saner prompt, the only rider being, the word "yellow" had to be mentioned, not only implied in the haiku. This was what I wrote:

a yellow breeze parting the grass three ducklings

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 24 - X

The letter X. The prompt was simply to write a haiku based on a word either starting with X or one that had X in it. Writing even a x-rated haiku was allowed. I couldn't bring myself to be serious enough, so this is what i wrote:

ex's exit--
he asks for
an extra special bitter

And then to make up for the flippancy, this one-liner ;

midnight express trailing the screech owl

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 23 - W

W for "wig".

Not that i was really crazy about the prompt, but thought, given time, perhaps i could come up with something. I found relating to the prompt really difficult though. A lot have already been written about 'cancer' and 'wigs', i didn't want to repeat it.Then i wrote:

fresh snow
a new wig
for the scarecrow

but it didn't strike me as terribly original. So i tried to write some more, none of which i liked. Finally i settled on this one, because by then i had realized there was little hope of coming up with anything better.

trying out her new wig--
the sparrow in and out
of the nest all day

To my surprise, it was quite well-received!

The bottom line is this ;

Nahaiwrimo prompts the need for a wig soon

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 22 - V

The madness continues...! V for "vent", the prompt today.I was able to come up with something passably decent though and the day's deed done,sat and wrote a few more. Here's the one i posted on NHWM page.

past curfew--
the moon slips in
through the vent

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 21 - U

U for "umbrella"...a much saner prompt . Yet, the one I posted today perhaps failed to strike the right chord, going by the responses, the number of "likes" I got and then they were mostly from friends who would stand by me steadfastly, no matter what I write. Thanks to all of you, if you are reading this! This picture posted alongside might possibly make clearer what I wanted to say...

opening
the umbrella
daisies opening

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 20 - T

Things are getting stranger with each passing day. T for "talus"...yes, you've heard that right, that was today's prompt! Freddy Ben-arroyo wrote:

not phallus,
TALUS--
google it

And I'm inclined to agree with him. But since I'm a prim and propah kind of bengali lady, i must write a prim and propah kind of haiku. So this is what i wrote:

walking on talus--
she asks what happened
that summer



talus we too wait for the spring rain

And if you don't know what "talus" is, you can find it out here.

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 19 - S

The innocuous-sounding (S for) "sandal"...that was today's prompt. It was not so easy writing about sandals though, once I got down to doing it. The first thing that came to my mind was:


unfinished speech...
sandals on the podium

And then, after some coaxing:

on the beach
abandoned sandals
full of sea

After I had posted these, somehow I got back in the groove, at down and wrote quite a few. Like this one:

sandals with broken straps--
deserted
by the muse

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 18 - R

R for "rattle"...today's prompt.
It must have been easy for some, going by the different kinds of rattle posted on today's NaHaiWriMo page; but as for me, all i could think about is the strange rattling sound inside my brain.At last this pink rattle saved the day.

pink rattle--
the colour of
a childhood morning

February NaHaiWriMo - Day17 - Q

Today's prompt is (Q for) "queue" and I am quite tempted to call it quits.

last in a long queue--
everything in its own time,
the master says

aftertheeulogythelongqueuefor r e f r e s h m e n t s

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 16 - P

( P for ) "pool". That was today's prompt.


clear pool--
passing clouds
in his eyes

night swim
a brush
with the cold moon

February NaHaiWriMO - Day 15 - O

The prompt for today was (O for ) "opera". Not knowing much about opera singing beyond the great composers; it was a little tough for me, initially. But finally ...

morning hush--
the wood thrush sings
an aria

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 14 - N

Today's prompt was (N for ) "nachos".


a plate of nachos--
an entire evening
to myself

crunch of nachos
replacing
our bickering

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 13 - M

Just an one-liner today in response to today's prompt (M for) "mountain".


where mountains end and clouds begin jet contrails

(Sorry, something has gone wrong with the formatting today. This was meant to be an one-liner!)

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 12 - L

Today's prompt was (L for) 'laundry'.
Though this sounded easy, coming up with a haiku on 'laundry' was anything but easy , at least for me. Finally I came up with this.

washing the dirty linen...
geese rising
from the swamp

February NaHaiWriMo - Day11 - K

Today's prompt:(K for) "kitchen".

And this is what i came up with.

stirring the broth...
why their newborn
has hazel eyes

February NaHaiWriMo - Day10 - J

I am kind of wary of any word starting with J, but today's prompt (J for) "Jam" has been relatively easier. Had it been 'jalapeno' or 'joker' or 'jury' or 'jail'...i would be tearing off my hair by now.
Anyways, this is what i wrote today.

bread with blueberry jam--
twilight deepens
at the village inn

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 9 - I

The prompt is (I for) "ice" today. I was tempted to write,

nothing remains

but since that won't do, what i wrote is this:

ice on fire -
the way it sparkles
when she turns up her nose

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 8 - H

Today's prompt is ( H for ) hat and here is what I wrote. The first one I posted at NaHaiWriMo, the second one just for this blog.


officer's hat -
the strange voices
inside it

hat pulled low -
I never know the colour
of his eyes

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 7 - G

Today's prompt: (G for) grief


placing the last log
on the pyre -
the weight of this grief

February NaHaiWriMo -Day 6 - F

time frame -
the eggs remain
unhatched



But that is how it was yesterday. Today's prompt is (F for) 'frame'.


Alzheimer's -
a wall hung
with bare frames

framed sunshine
spilling out
a child's laughter

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 5 - E

Today's prompt: (E for) egg
Yes, of course, I love my eggs, but that couldn't be much of an inspiration today.
What I came up with are these two.
The second one is purely a spoof.

burnt toast, lost keys,
cancelled flight...
this broken eggshell
kind of morning



Tread softly, love,
because you tread
on eggshells.

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 4 - D

D for dog...that's the prompt for today.
Not that it's my favourite subject, but one way or other, I have ended up writing a number of dog haiku or small stones these days. So here are three haiku...two of them i posted today on NaHaiWriMo and one from a few days earlier.

a black dog stalking me from dream to dream

lengthening shadows -
the dog rests its head
between the paws

spring wind -
somebody whistles
to his dog

February NaHaiWriMo - day 3 - C

Prompt: (C for) "catfish"

the ephemerality of things catfish curry

gathering dusk -
the last catch of the day
catfish

February NaHaiWriMo -Day 2 - B

The prompt is: (B for) "boat".

empty boat
filled to the brim
with moonlight

February NaHaiWriMo - Day 1 - A

I had joined NaHaiWriMo in April, 2011. Since then I've steadfastly done a haiku a day, or at least tried to do and though I have taken occasional breaks, I could never stay away for long. It has become almost an addiction. In a good way, of course. I had never posted those haiku on my blog before.They lie scattered somewhere in my folders. But this month being the original haiku writing month, I decided to make an exception, following the example of some of my NaHaiWriMo mates and post them here. That might make them ineligible for publication, but at least I'll be able to keep track of them.
Michael Dylan Welch, the owner of the page, is himself the prompter this month and he has decided to give the prompts alphabetically.

So here we go. The prompt is (A for) "apple".

a slice of the apple pie -
the long queue
at the consulate