Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Three spring haiku


Down the road, evening,
wearing Joseph's Crocs again,
red points of sorrel.

~

Golden girls and lads...
pulling up dandelions.
Oh for a rabbit.


~

So sweet to get by
on more than mere fortitude.
Spring's here, at long last.



~

7 comments:

zephyr said...

Lovely.
so glad i chose to swing by here before i closed up for the night.
xo

marly youmans said...

Made me think of "Cymbeline"--"Golden Lads, and Girles all must, / As Chimney-Sweepers come to dust."

Lucy said...

Thanks girls.

Marly, it is Cymbeline indeed, but I've heard tell that it's about dandelions - they are golden girls and lads in flower but then turn into 'chimney sweepers' - the seed head clocks which look like chimney sweep's brushes - and then they blow away as dust, like midsummer roses an image of fleeting youth and mortality. My aim was to catch them before they got to the chimney sweep stage!

Jean said...

How absolutely lovely. I love the gentle specificity of these haiku. The light comes through their strong colours, as it does through the tulips.

Francesca said...

I really love the dandelion haiku, with its heartfelt last line. And isn't it wonderful that the spring really is here.

Rouchswalwe said...

Ah, der Lenz! Lenzian Haiku ...

Lucy said...

Jean, thanks for such lovely praise. I can't remember being quite so relieved by the coming of spring for a very long time, it seems to bring a taste for life, for colour and making and doing things, back at last.

Francesca - the dandelions are just at their most luscious and appetizing - if you're a rabbit! I like bitter greens but can't quite manage dandelions, I'm afraid. In fact I don't really rate rabbits as pets much, in my experience they are either rather dull or escapologist, though others seem to have had better relations with them and to hold them in much affection. Frankly, I think you can't beat carnivores and omnivores for intelligence, though horses are perhaps an exception to that, and elephants of course, though I was never offered the opportunity to keep one of those. But when you've had a pet with a predilection for certain weeds, you always see those plants slightly differently - we had a budgie who loved groundsel, and even now I can't pass a particularly succulent patch without thinking of him.

R - I didn't know that word for spring, I only knew Frühling... We had our first white/violet asparagus the other day, but I have to say I much prefer the green, for which we must wait!