Greetings, Poetry Lovers! Did you catch the blue moon earlier this week?
Our Southeast Region of the Haiku Society of America had a "blue moon" themed chiisai kukai (a little contest, basically), with our fearless leader and wickedly talented poet Michael Henry Lee as judge. He selected five poems to feature on the region's Facebook page (& in the HSA newsletter), and I'm delighted to share mine was one of them. The poems are listed in the order he received them. Hence, mine is last, because - you know that's how I roll most of the time. (Insert shrug emoji here.)
Here's my haiku:
blue moon
the tang
of wild muscadines
Robyn Hood Black
and here's the Facebook link to all of them.
This poem came to be because I'd had the poem prompt on my mind for a few days without any bursts of inspiration. Then on a walk with our dog one day, I closed the back yard gate to notice that the muscadine vines at the edge of the woods, which had held a few green orbs earlier in the summer, now had even fewer blue ones! (I'm sure there were more that our woodland friends got before I paid attention.) I found a few more muscadines on the path in our woodsy front yard, too.
I suppose the visual ideas of a "blue" moon and the purply blue grapes clicked into place and I soon had the two images for my poem. I washed a couple of the grapes and ate them, enjoying the wild kick to their sweetness - and, the rest of the poem got in line. Pondering the haiku later, I realized the "tang" was a fun word to have chosen because I am of a certain age, and I grew up in Central Florida, where we would run outside to watch rockets go up from the Cape. Anybody else remember drinking Tang, the powdery orange drink of astronauts?? (Here's a reminder.) I still recall how it tasted!
Finally, in a blatent bit of self promotion and only related by a hint of moondust, I've had records (the old vinyl kind) on my mind as well. Just the words "Blue Moon" make the old song start playing in my head. (Here's a version by Billie Holiday. And one by Nat King Cole.) Where am I going with all this?
I recently found the most wonderful kitschy plastic record charms offered by a fellow Etsy seller. My dad was in radio when I was young, and I still have some albums around here and one of those vintage-y looking Crosby turntables. Its plastic components aren't quite as nice as the old players. Anyway, I ordered a bunch of the miniature records and thought it would be fun to pair them with vintage Swarovski black crystal connectors for earrings. (Here they are in my Esy shop.) The charms were made in Japan in the 1960s. (I was made in the USA in the 1960s.) There are four different paper labels on the tiny records, and one is another Nat King Cole song, Autumn Leaves. That reminds me that the couple of mornings we've had in the 50s and 60s here this week are winks at what's to come, as we turn from Summer to Fall in just a few weeks.
Time to set my haiku antennae to another change of seasons!
Rose is paying attention to the seasons, too, this week - catch her great Roundup post over at Imagine the Possibilities. Thanks for hosting, Rose!