Eyes look up skyward Then down to the ground, digging. Soft, thoughtful moment. He shaded by large tree trunk I paint him. All becomes still. Oil painting and poem byMJC
Recently, my sister sent me a small book of Japanese Haiku as a memory of my mother, who passed away several years ago. It is a small hard-cover book that my mother purchased as a gift for her beloved aunt, who had cared for her when she was a young girl and needed a place to stay. The inscription is lovely, and says, “To Aunt Edith at Torch Cottage – To one who has enriched my life beyond all means of explanation. With all my love for your love which has never failed me. Janet, Spring, 1964” It was titled, Japanese HAIKU, published by Peter Pauper Press out of Mount Vernon, in New York in 1955-56 and sold at that time for $1.00. It offered two hundred twenty examples of seventeen-syllable Japanese poems by Basho, Buson, Issa and other Japanese poets, mostly of the 15th and 16th century. It was translated by Peter Beilenson.
The book explains that a haiku poem is comprised of seventeen syllables, looking something like this: 5 syllables 7 syllables 5 syllables. The tanka has 14 more syllables added to the haiku, for 31 syllables total, looking like this:
5 syllables 7 syllables 5 syllables 7 syllables 7 syllables This is a grand total of 31 syllables.
Below, is an haiku and tanka that I prepared as an illustration. 5 NIGHT COMES BUT NOT YET 7 THE DIM SKY SPEAKS TO ME NOW 5 BLUE, WHITE, GOLD, ENDLESS. 7 DECLINE TO NEW BLOOMS OF GREY 7 ALL BECAUSE OF THE END GAME. MJC
Historically, I am told, several poets were involved in the writing of a tanka usually with the first poet preparing the haiku and the second poet completing the last two lines, thus becoming a tanka. Small drawings were often added, artistically, to the poem. Additional examples of poems and art based on the haiku and tanka are shown here. Inspired by this little book, I wondered whether it might be possible to paraphrase my mother’s words using the rules of Japanese haiku and tanka poems and here is what I came up with. TO MY LOVING AUNT LIFE ENRICHED BEYOND ALL MEANS BY TORCH LAKE COTTAGE FOR YOUR LOVE THAT NEVER FAILED GRIEF ENSNARED BUT NOT BY YOU MJC
Although I have never really completely understood why poetry has so many rules and quite often rebelled against them when forced to use them, I find this simple way of playing with words and syllables intriguing. Thus inspired, I think over the next few days, will try to come up with some personal versions of haiku and tanka, with personal drawings illustrating them, just for the fun of it.
Who knows, perhaps a tanka a day keeps the doctor away?
We stay for the winter months in the Abacos, one of the northernmost islands of the Bahamas. It is a place often nicknamed Paradise by those who visit and by those who live here, when describing its natural beauty. The extent of its unending changing beauty is hard to describe. Much of it is the subtle colors, the shifting of the light, the way the breeze runs across the beach.
Recently, I have tried to depict my feelings about this place using watercolors.
The more I paint, the more I see the wonder of this place. The more I see, the more I paint the wonder of this place. It is becoming quite an obsession.
The first painting is of early morning, what we see when we look toward the ocean. It is followed by paintings at various times of day.
Early morning.
Late afternoon
Mid-day
Before a Rain
These paintings were from our front yard. The stillness and motion of the ocean is what makes for much of the beauty.
The natural island settings of the low trees and bushes along the beach edge, facing the backyard are also very beautiful, however quite different from our front yard.
Our neighbor, Steve Knowles is a wood turner who makes beautiful wooden bowls and other wood products that are all hand crafted in his workshop at his home in the Abacos at Bahama Palm Shores. He has taken on woodturning as a hobby. Every year his work becomes more popular and he now shows his pieces at art fairs around the country.
He currently works at Abaco Hardware where he services home appliances. He is also the Assistant Fire Chief for the High Banks Volunteer Fire Services. He and his wife Anita live in a natural and woodsy part of the Abacos called Bahama Palm Shores, an area surrounded by beautiful trees and bushes, with many different kinds birds settled in the greenery.
Bahama Palm Shores is well-known for its parrots and for its natural beauty, and is also well known for being a vibrant, active little ocean-side community. It is a great place for Steve to find wood for his many craft projects. Neighbors call him to tell him that a tree or branch has fallen in a storm and he comes over and retrieves some of the wood.
Poison wood tree
Picking up wood from a neighbor.
Wood piled up ready to take to his wood shop.
Cutting wood into blocks.
Palm tree downed by neighbor.
Steve stacks the wood that he has collected and prepares it for woodturning through a process of cutting and seasoning.
He works with a variety of different kinds of wood, highlighting their grains in his designs.
Bowls emerge along with candleholders, bread boards, hot plates, billy clubs and spinning toys.
Candleholder, prepared years ago.
Ready to go to an art show.
Fish hot plate and bowls.
While he works, he thinks and dreams up new ideas for future projects, sketching them out as he goes along.
Interested people stop by his wood shop to see what he is working on or to ask him to make them something out of wood. When tourists and birdwatchers visit the neighborhood, many stop in to see his work, some purchasing items to take home with them.
Neighbors drop by to purchase gifts for weddings, birthdays and other occasions and often bring their guests to see Steve’s work. Steve has also taught some people how to wood turn.
Steve will soon be retiring, and when he does, he is going to be very busy just keeping up with all the demand for his beautiful bowls and other wooden items.
Steve Knowles’ wood turning is a good example of how one might ease out of the work force while adding a very interesting project to ones life.
We live in the wintertime in one of the most beautiful places in the world and often refer to it as Paradise.
Like any place, it has its pluses and its minuses. I don’t want you all to be too envious and think we never have problems. No place is perfect. But this place is oceanic beautiful.
And the people are wonderful, too.
Here, it is beautiful throughout the day.
What is not as well known is that next to the ocean, we have natural botanical gardens. Here is an example:
Often the first instinct of some when they decide to build on this land is to remove all the native brush, resulting in this look:
Below, is the kind of greenery that gets plowed over and removed.
Or this:
The ripped up roots and all the valuable top soil from the land often ends up in a landfill at a nearby dump.
Sometimes after razing the land, one does not get around to building or landscaping and the land sits barren. This reduces the food supply for our native birds and butterflies. Invasive plants take over. The abandoned land tries to return to normal, but is overwhelmed with invasive plants like Casuarinas and Hawaiian Grape that quickly grow, leaving little space for the return of native plants.
Entomologists teach us that insects and birds cannot survive on invasive plants. Invasive plants do not carry appropriate insects and seeds to feed our local birds and butterflies. Their leaves and seeds are not eaten by native birds. Also, fewer insects live on these plants, thus reducing the food supply for birds and butterflies. This is why invasive plants reproduce so quickly. All their seeds survive for further growth because local birds and butterflies are not eating them.
The more the invasive plants grow, the less diversity of plant life is found.
Many are now realizing the values of the original native plants on our properties and are trying to be more selective about what is removed. More often, walking pathways are cut, perhaps with a machete, and carefully selected areas are opened for driving or building. The end result is very striking.
Homes are then surrounded by beautiful, mature, native plants. The air stays cool from the shade of native trees, birds readily find their berries and bugs to eat and butterflies abound as they dip and fly through the bush.
By staying with native plants, tens of thousands of dollars may be saved in burdensome costs for purchasing of replacement top soil, high-priced charges for replanting the land with expensive and often imported plants and costs for purchasing of numerous bags of chemical fertilizer.
In addition, keeping native plants and original top soil eliminates years of frustration that comes with paying others for landscaping ideas on how to revive land that was injured by removing all its topsoil on already nutrient-starved beach property.
A number of us are wondering if there is something that might be done to encourage those who live on land in beautiful natural areas to know their options before they raze the land and have to spend years regretting what was done.
Poetry was always a part of my life, but never ever posted and declared. I expect that not all my poems will resonate with everybody equally, however having to declare my poem finished is exciting.
I do not sufficiently show my gratitude for being alive. What an off chance it all seems to be, what a lucky coincidence.
I haven’t yet sufficiently expressed my appreciation for the beauty and wonderment of raw, wild nature.
I need to celebrate more openly the pleasures of learning, of conducting research, of reading and writing, of painting a picture, of observing shapes, colors, designs and patterns of life.
Alain de Botton recently wrote about the importance of culture in helping us to develop traditions and rituals for celebrating life’s meaning.
Even in the most dire circumstances, life can be filled with spirit and grace. It can be celebrated. I have witnessed this while living in desolate rural areas and in densely populated urban areas, in villages suffering food scarcity, in places of war, and political unrest. I have seen life celebrated in many languages and in various ways, through learning in educational institutions, museums and libraries, and in simple community rituals, showing it in the way they line up in meaningful ways on the sides of hills and deep into valleys. sharing traditions of language and culture and song.
I see ritual and celebration in the way animal herds gallop, the way birds fly in flocks, the way fishes move in the waters. I see celebration and meaning in cloud formations, and in the many stars that shine in the black night of the sea.
Susan Gubar wrote about ways of seeking the gift of grace by being receptive to a sense of beneficence or loving kindness. This might be acquired many different ways such as engaging in quiet meditation, through dance or breathing and body exercise, by taking long walks in nature, bike riding, running alongside a road, or while painting a picture, making a craft or playing music, in the simple act of appreciating literature and the arts.
It may be felt in the results of a magnificent piece of research, or in the development of a new technology or in the discovery of a new way to do something. All offer the need for morality, appreciation of spirituality and community; a feeling of grace.
It may even be felt simply through the execution of routine acts of love and friendship such as a ritual sharing a glass of wine at sunset, or a cup of coffee while watching the sunrise, or hugging a child, patting a dog on the head.
Leaving it at this. I say, I wish to learn to be positive about all people who celebrate life and who seek to understand its meaning whether they do it through cultural expression, education and learning, scientific discovery and/or religious practices.
marysgardens 