Every day my husband and I go for at least an hour long walk or bike ride in Rotorua.
We take a home-made picnic and freshly brewed coffee in a thermos.
We have sucrose-free banana and fejoia muffins or slices of loaf.
Usually I'll take my camera with a wide angle lens and a polaroid filter so I can take effective photos of trees when the sun is high up in the sky.
plain air picnics
fejoias taste fresher
among trees near water
An exercise for you would be to take a small notebook and a pencil on your next walk.
Don't talk too much.
Make this a mindful and meditative experience.
After half an hour
Sit down near or under a tree.
Jot down ideas and sensory words that come into your mind.
Nothing is off limits.
Whatever you put down will be right at that time.
Trust your intuition
leaving the japanese walnuts
i hear the sigh of
sayonara
What can You see?
What can You taste?What can You hear?
What can You touch?
What can You smell
The most poignant sense of all...
What does your intuition tell you?
When you arrive home.
Look over your words.
Write the experience up in the form of short sentences.
Leave it alone giving your subconscious time to percolate
Then
Create a haiku or tanka out of it.
NB: First try and you can't do it?
Don't give up.
Try again.
But just a word of warning.
Do not show people your work too early.
It is your baby and you don't want to have your "darlings" killed off.
I've been writing and reading poetry for over 50 years now, off and on.
I studied it at university.
I have masses of whimsical children's books with stunning illustrations and poetic prose.
I wrote my first rainbow book of poetry at the age of five and gave it to a nun at the convent school I was going to.
She was very encouraging and told my mother that I was a talented poet.
I have published chapbooks of haiku and photography
It's been a long journey.
It's never too late to start.
If you are reading this blog maybe the right time for you to start is now.
perfumed
invitations sent
out by blossoms
inviting bees
to breakfast
whispering secrets
in the breeze
acers, willows, poplars
mixed accents
varigated responses.
trees of a feather
capable
of friendship
feeding each other
from a distance
no more leaves
to fall
swaying willows
signal desires
beckoning branches
communities of trees
help each other out
transporting sugar
to leaves
providing shelter
walking among
trees is a constant
reminder to slow down
and tune into
the language of nature
Illustrated Tanka and Haiku workshops available for primary school aged pupils in the Rotorua area.
Email janet@jkeen.net or Phone 0273513887 or 3463435
for details.
Creative Quote of the day
"I would define in brief the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty"
Edgar Allen Poe.
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