poetic journeys: camino haikus

In the autumn dawn,
the sun nudges a pilgrim
into long shadow.

Sunflowers bow heads
in prayer to flagging pilgrims,
faces wilt and yawn.

How melancholy:
sheep bleat and jangle cowbells
leaving clouds of dust.

In an olive grove,
a shaded library sits,
words sweet as citrus.

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“POETRY” Invitation: I invite you to write a poem of any poetic form on your own blog about a particular travel destination. Or you can write about travel in general. Concentrate on any intention you set for your poetry.

During this time of isolation and social distancing, please feel free to write poetry about any subject, whether travel-related or not.  I’d love to read and share them here!

One intention for my Camino was to write a haiku: A Japanese verse most often composed, in English versions, of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables.  A haiku often features an image, or a pair of images juxtaposed, meant to capture the essence of a particular moment in time.  Another rule one should follow in haiku besides the syllable count, the number of lines, and the opposing two images, is that lines one and two should read as a complete sentence and lines two and three should read as a complete sentence.

I set a goal for myself to write three haikus about some aspect of my Camino. I ended up writing four. 🙂  This is the first time I’ve tried haiku, except for a few feeble attempts in a poetry class.  I don’t think I really succeeded in using two opposing images in each poem. I’ll have to keep working at these. 🙂

You can either set your own poetic intentions, or use one of the prompts I’ve listed on this page: writing prompts: poetry. (This page is a work in process). You can also include photos, of course.

Include the link in the comments below by Thursday, June 4 at 1:00 p.m. EST. When I write my post in response to this challenge on Friday, June 5, I’ll include your links in that post.

This will be an ongoing invitation, on the first Friday of each month. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!