Tag Archives: Haiku

July 29, 2016

Skylark – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku

skylark

Today’s Dictionary.com word of the day is Skylark. I love, love, love today’s word. The Dictionary.com photo for today only shows the more recent definition of the word. The other definition refers to particular type of bird and I learned something wonderful and new today! I had no idea that skylarks are so named because of their unique quality of singing while flying and hovering high above the ground. Skylark the noun, which refers to this amazing bird, entered the English language in the late 1600’s. The verb version didn’t show up until two centuries later.

I have this recurring dream. In it I am always flying. It feels so real. I am swept up in the thrill of feeling my feet lift off the ground and ascent into the sky, higher and higher. Ironically, in my waking moments I have a debilitating fear of heights. My knees turn to jello and my head spins whenever I find myself in a high open place. But not in my dreams. In my dreams, I swoop and glide and take in the sights below…and I had not really thought about it before, but in my dreams, my heart sings.

When the burdens of life weigh me down I have this dream and am encouraged to rise above. When sorrow hangs like a dark cloud above me, I am encouraged to break through the clouds into the sunlight and beautiful cerulean blue sky, light as a feather, wind in my hair…and to let my heart and soul sing!

In my next life, I think I would like to be a skylark. Or perhaps my dreams are merely hinting at a previous incarnation to remind me that I have already learned to rise abover and to sing while flying!

Happy Friday to you! Have a wonderful weekend. Here’s my haiku!

Skylark Song

Next incarnation
oh let me be a skylark
flying high in song!

kat ~ 29 July 2016

3 Comments | tags: Challenge, Haiku, skylark, word of the day, word of the day haiku challenge | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Haiku, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Spirituality, Word of the Day Haiku

July 26, 2016

Lock – Haiku Extremes

By Kat Myrman

This week’s prompt for Haiku Horizon’s weekly challenge is the word Lock. Lock is one of those words that has multiple meanings or applications. I would venture to say, more than most! It can mean all of these things (from Dictionary.com):

As a Noun:

1. a device for securing a door, gate, lid, drawer, or the like in position when closed, consisting of a bolt or system of bolts propelled and withdrawn by a mechanism operated by a key, dial, etc.

2. a contrivance for fastening or securing something.

3. the mechanism that explodes the charge; gunlock; safety (def 4).

4. any device or part for stopping temporarily the motion of a mechanism.

5. an enclosed chamber in a canal, dam, etc., with gates at each end, for raising or lowering vessels from one level to another by admitting or releasing water.

6. an air lock or decompression chamber.

7. complete and unchallenged control; an unbreakable hold.

8. Slang. someone or something certain of success; sure thing: He’s a lock to win the championship.
9.Wrestling. any of various holds, especially a hold secured on the arm,leg, or head:
leg lock.
10. Horology. (in an escapement) the overlap between a tooth of an escape wheel and the surface of the pallet locking it.
11. Metalworking. a projection or recession in the mating face of a forging die.

As a Verb (used with an object):
12.to fasten or secure (a door, window, building, etc.) by the operation of a lock or locks.
13.to shut in a place fastened by a lock or locks, as for security or restraint.
14.to make fast or immovable by or as if by a lock: He locked the steering wheel on his car.
15.to make fast or immovable, as by engaging parts: to lock the wheels of a wagon.
16.to join or unite firmly by interlinking or intertwining: to lock arms.
17.to hold fast in an embrace:She was locked in his arms.
18.to move (a ship) by means of a lock or locks, as in a canal (often followed by through, in, out, down, or up).
19.to furnish with locks, as a canal.
As a Verb (used without object)
20. to become locked: This door locks with a key.
21.to become fastened, fixed, or interlocked : gears that lock into place.
22. to go or pass by means of a lock or locks, as a vessel.
23. to construct locks in waterways.

So…of course I couldn’t write just ONE haiku. I give you two extremes of this very complex four-letter word.

Locks of Hair…
wispy locks of hair
pressed lovingly in vellum
strands of fine-spun gold

CNNWIRE Image from Nice, France

Locked and Loaded…
locked and loaded
terror rages in our streets
promote peace not walls

~kat – 26 July 2016

5 Comments | tags: Challenge, Haiku, haiku horizons, lock, Poetry | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Haiku, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings

July 22, 2016

Woolgathering – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku

By Kat Myrman

woolgathering

Have you been woolgathering lately? Today’s Dictionary.com Word of the Day entered the English vocabulary in the 1500’s, literally meaning the gathering of the tufts of wool shed by sheep and caught on bushes. It is also associated with indulgence in idle fancies and in daydreaming and absentmindedness.

B.A. Phythian explains the connection between the word’s literal and figurative applications in A Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1993): It was an activity for poor people hoping to gather enough fragments to weave together, entailing a certain amount of haphazard rambling among hedgerows and fields by women and children. This rather random wandering has been a metaphor for dreaminess since the 16^th century.

For additional understanding, here is Merriam-Webster’s definition:

Woolgathering once literally referred to the act of gathering loose tufts of wool that had gotten caught on bushes and fences as sheep passed by. Woolgatherers must have seemed to wander aimlessly, gaining little for their efforts, for in the mid-16th century “woolgathering” began to appear in figurative phrases such as “my wits (or my mind) went a-woolgathering” – in other words, “my mind went wandering aimlessly.” From there, it wasn’t long before the word woolgathering came to suggest the act of indulging in purposeless mind-wandering.

I don’t know that I have ever heard this word used, but most of us are not exposed to the literal activity of woolgathering in this day and age. Perhaps a better metaphor for 21^st century woolgathering could be TwitterTrolling. Hmmm…I like it. “Her twittertrolling caused her to miss the boarding call for her flight.”

Woolgathering and twittertrolling, are considered indulgences in this modern era where time is money and we are constantly working to do more with less to satisfy some shareholder’s bottom line. If you do engage in occasional woolgathering it is a good idea to do so with one ear open and your wits intact so you don’t miss something important.

Here is my Haiku then…playing a bit with the sheep reference. Have a great Friday!

Those who are naive
minds adrift, woolgathering
are easily fleeced.

kat ~ 22 July 2016

9 Comments | tags: Haiku, Poetry, woolgathering, word of the day, word of the day haiku challenge | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Essays, Haiku, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Word of the Day Haiku

July 18, 2016

Magnetic Poetry Monday – 18 July 2016

By Kat Myrman

Happy Monday! I tried a new kit at MagneticPoetry online…The Mustache Kit. And to make it extra challenging, I decided to do a Haiku. I give you “Smooth Operator!” This was too fun! Have a great week! 🙂