NaHaiWriMo #29 & #28

prompt: leap day / year

leap day -
on my way back
the busker still silent

and this concludes my NaHaiWriMo contributions for Feb 2012. Prompts continue all year but February is the main month. I may still pop in and out over the year.

The prompt for #28 was to rewrite a computer generated haiku into a passable haiku / senryu. I've had a go, but it isn't great ...

generated "haiku":

rumbling echo gnaws
icicle quarrels hotly
hotly lame

my rewrite:

woken by hunger
I trip down the stairs -
an ice pack from the fridge
to my knee

NaHaiWriMo #27

prompt: an intentionally bad haiku

with a bad haiku
my NaHaiWriMo ends now?
"Bye ev'rybody!"

I was told off for calling my zip haiku bad so I thought I'd give it another go.

NaHaiWriMo #26 & #27

prompt: zip
prompt: an intentionally bad haiku

zip-a-dee-doo-dah
fraying my nerves
your wonderful day

NaHaiWriMo #25

prompt: yellow

talk of redundancies
even the spring bulbs
in corporate colours

NaHaiWriMo #24

prompt: any word beginning with or containing the letter x

not talking to me
but at the end of her message
x

NaHaiWriMo #23

prompt: wig

recession -
in the party shop window
the colours of fright wigs

Some of the small towns near where I live have been hit hard by the recession and there are fairly high levels of unemployment, with shops being boarded up etc.

I was tempted to go for the black humour and have 'ghost town' as the first line, so that the words ghost and fright would be in the same haiku (also it would have given a political nod to the Specials song of the same name - written in similar economic times).

However, the town in question isn't a ghost town so it wouldn't have been right and it would have been too halloween rather than social comment. It's just a town making the best of hard times. Maybe we can be optimistic that one of the small businesses still open is the party shop?

NaHaiWriMo #22

prompt: vent

regeneration site
the old tunnel's air vents
all in a line

NaHaiWriMo #21

prompt: umbrella

a sudden shower -
my daughter tries each brolly
in the shop

NaHaiWriMo #20

prompt: talus (scree)

in mudstone and shale
the ancient delta
spills from the rock face

In spite of the fact (or because?) I'm a geology graduate, I tend to shy away from writing about rocks. There's no good reason for this, I guess, except that it was part of my life 20ish years ago. Maybe I should dig out ('scuse the pun) my old notebooks to see if they spark any resonant memories.

I have written about scree before, though.

NaHaiWriMo #19

prompt: sandal

midwinter snow
the frosting of sea salt
on my sandals

NaHaiWriMo #18

prompt: rattle

toy cupboard clearout
I save the plastic bottles
part filled with pasta

NaHaiWriMo #17

prompt: queue

post office queue
we learn all about
his family overseas

NaHaiWriMo #16

prompt: pool

away day
the thoughts I don't pool
lie outside the window

NaHaiWriMo #15

prompt: opera

Caruso recording -
the gramophone crackle
lights the fires in his eyes

NaHaiWriMo #14

prompt: nachos (!)

two friends
deep in conversation
the cheese that binds their nachos

NaHaiWriMo #13

prompt: mountain

cowbells and crickets -
the thunderclap rolls
from mountain to mountain

inspired by a trip to the Swiss Alps a few years back

NaHaiWriMo #12

prompt: laundry

spin cycle
morning sundrops twanged
from the clothes line

I found this prompt really difficult and I have to say I'm not a fan of the result.

I think part of the reason is that I have successfully written haiku in this area before, from dead dragonflies caught in dry sheets to school dress pockets full of daisies. I think inspiration has eluded me here this time.

NaHaiWriMo #11

Prompt: kitchen

smoke alarm
our dance around the kitchen
ends

NaHaiWriMo #10

prompt: jam

morning rush hour
at the side of the road
wild damsons

NaHaiWriMo #9

prompt: ice

frozen dawn
the runner recovering
in his own steam

NaHaiWriMo #8

prompt: hat

I was going to submit

school fair
on the fireman's helmet
a faint smell of smoke

but then I realised this was too similar to an old one of mine, so here's another one:

toy museum -
in the photo she took
her bobble hat shadow

and for an explanation of that one - see this picture of me on Flickr

NaHaiWriMo #7

prompt: grief

back home
"there's nothing we can do"
hits home

NaHaiWriMo #6

prompt: frame

the broken panes
of the old greenhouse -
still the new shoots


Well, it's day 6 of NaHaiWriMo and I'm starting to get into it. This one was a bit tricky (though not as tricky as catfish) and my thoughts turned to my allotment.

It has been a useful exercise as I have hit a writer's block recently and this has (so far) sorted me out. I'm not disappointed with any of the haiku yet, though there are another 23 prompts on the way, of which there are bound to be a few duff ones. I look forward to the daily prompts and it helps to get me off to sleep at night, pondering them.

I have a notebook next to the bed.

For further details - if you have a Facebook account, simply search for "NaHaiWriMo" and you will find one of the multilingual pages.

NaHaiWriMo #5

prompt: egg

home birth -
the fried egg breakfast
I cook for the midwife

NaHaiWriMo #4

prompt: dog

two dog walkers
meet -
two conversations

NaHaiWriMo #3

prompt: catfish

closing time
the aquarium catfish
rests on its barbels


desk haiku. My one experience of catfish that I remember was in an aquarium. It seemed to like mooching about on the bottom of the tank all day with its barbels lightly touching the gravel beneath, so I bet it was there at the end of the day, still facing the current.

NaHaiWriMo #2

prompt: boat

every day
playing at the boating lake
the same old men

NaHaiWriMo #1

I wasn't going to do NaHaiWriMo, but today I thought I'd give it a go. I'll probably dip in and out.

Today's prompt: apples

finding their niche
with the supermarket regulars -
Russets in season