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Life on the Deckle Edge

Poetry Friday: A Few Haiku in Times of Loss

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!

 

Fall is beautiful, and my favorite season, but it does have somber undertones. 

 

This past Tuesday would have been my mother-in-law's birthday; Jeff's mother, Marge, died early last year.  (And then my father-in-law, Reuben, died this summer.)

 

Tuesday evening, we remembered Marge with a key lime pie from Publix (one of her favorite treats), and some grocery store flowers with pink roses.  She liked to wear pink, and looked lovely in it with her blue eyes.

 

So I've been thinking a bit  about grief, and how haiku is so perfectly suited for it, with its understated expression and wabi-sabi aesthetic. Some of my poems written during the last few months of Marge's life, and published shortly thereafter, offered space for those difficult feelings.  

 

 

 

first frost

today she misplaced

our names

 

Frogpond 42:1 Winter 2019

 

 

 

waning crescent

each day she slips

farther away

 

Frogpond Vol. 42:2, Spring/Summer 2019

 

 

cold house

the children in the pictures

divide the pictures

 

bottle rockets #42, Feb. 2020

 

 

poems ©Robyn Hood Black

 

 

These poems aren't really about Marge of course – poems about her would be lively, and musical, and laced with a wicked wit.  But I suppose they offered places for me to pause along the journey.

 

Here's another one which I wrote this week, less bleak. 

 

new moon

we still hear her

in the music

 

©Robyn Hood Black

 

True, a new moon has lost its light.  But only briefly, right?  The cycle always starts over again. 

And again and again.  We remember Marge's light. And her light shines even more brightly this Thursday evening, I'll bet, as our nephew and his wife just welcomed their second baby into the world.  Marge adored babies, especially her grandchildren and great-grandchildren!

 

Wishing you comfort if you are facing the holidays without someone you love this year; and wishing everyone a good – simple, small, safe -  Thanksgiving. 

 

Change of plans re. hosting:  Our amazing Linda Baie is jumping in to round up everyone at Teacher Dance. Thanks, Linda!

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