Her garden suffers from end-of-season neglect. Nutrients wane as days shorten. Young trees, now mature, cast their presence in shadows. Flower petals and fronds wither to veined brittle frames of their former beauty. They bend closer day by day, to the earth from which they came. Winter’s cold reality approaches, as sure as the moon changes face. Life hovers on a thread.
She sits patiently
window blurred with veins of frost
waits for children gone.
Susan Judd is hosting dVerse for Haibun Monday and provides us with her beautiful photography and the descriptive phrase “beauty in decay” as a prompt for writing today. If you’re not familiar with dVerse, stop in for a visit. It’s a great gathering place for those who enjoy poetry! Also using for NaPoWriMo day 25. 30 poems in 30 days, that’s April – National Poetry Writing Month.
lillian the home poet 
Oh how I love that final line of the haiku.. it fills the whole text with a symbolic meaning.. of life and nature being synchronized.
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Thank you, Bjorn. I loved this image…and somehow found myself looking down at my hands while beginning to write. The aging process…the young trees (like children) grown and matured leaving shadows (memories) — so glad you enjoyed and felt the symbolism within the text. Looking forward to reading other posts later this afternoon. 🙂
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This so expresses the meaning behind the prompt, using nature as a metaphor. It looks like, so far, the 3 who have posted–we’ve all chosen this exquiste image.
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Just read your beautiful haibun, Victoria and left a long comment. I’m not surprised and predicted that this would be the most often used image. All three are truly exquisite.
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So much said in so few words. I love the thoughts of the plants bending closer to the earth from which they came. My hands now look like my mother’s when she was my age. This is a rich haibun.
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Thank you for your reflection here. Yes–my hands too. I remember when I was a little girl sitting in church with my my mother, my hands folded in my lap – hers folded in hers. And suddenly seeing her veins — and of course, at 7 or 8, my hands were so smooth. I think that was the first time I thought of my mother as being “older” than me — an old person. 🙂 And she was probably only 35 then! 🙂
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I did the same. It is amazing how when I look at my hands now.
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For me, I love the way that this line:
“They bend closer day by day, to the earth from which they came. ”
speaks to the natural cycles of returning to earth.
Beautiful poem. Lillian!
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Thank you so much, Hannah. Smiling I am.
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This serves to remind me of what we’re leaving behind … I’m hopeful to warmth soon.
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Thank you for your reflection here. Truly appreciated.
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I love this, and totally relate. I’m actually kind of at a loss to put my feelings into words.
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Thank you, Patti. I truly appreciate your response here – even though there are few words, it says a lot.
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I immediately was drawn to that photo too. I love the rich images in your haibun regarding the withering of life as winter draws near. And then your senryu takes us in a different direction but with a similar feel about it. So very beautiful, Lillian.
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Thank you so much for your very kind words here. Truly appreciated!
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Oh, I do like the feel in this that death brings us closer to the earth:
“They bend closer day by day, to the earth”
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So glad you liked it. Such a wonderful photo prompt.
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Life does indeed hover on a thread. I’m glad it’s as good as it has gotten. We are so blessed, daily
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Thankful for every day.
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Amen
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My favourite liine….
“Winter’s cold reality approaches, as sure as the moon changes face.” There is comfort in the predictability of seasons. Our own seasons of life are harder to face sometimes. Love the subtle metaphors that run through this.
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So very gladly you enjoyed it. What beautiful photos for this prompt.
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i love how your haibun, in a way, kind of reverses the role of prose and haiku. your prose holds far more physical nature descriptions than your haiku, which has a certain abstract feel to it even though the image of a woman at rest is still so vivid. beautiful.
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Thank you. So glad you enjoyed. Yes — looking back, since I learned this form at dVerse in January — it appears that all my haibun do this “reversal” of sorts. The natural description and then the haiku that shifts it to a metaphor — never noticed that!
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Oh, Lillian, your haibun is tinged with sadness but not regret. I love the sentences: ‘Flower petals and fronds wither to veined brittle frames of their former beauty. They bend closer day by day, to the earth from which they came.’
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Thank you, Kim. Yes — the aging process, the cycle of life — it is important to embrace the process and grow with it. I do think, in many ways, we bend closer to the earth / to our the way we were in the beginning as we age. 🙂
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Morning, my friend
I think this piece resonates with women and men in different places
As an aging gal, I can’t help but hope as the outer facade looses luminosity – inner glow is enough to even things out until the garden completely returns back to the earth;)
this piece truly is, “beauty in decay”
wonderful construct of natural gardening wisdom, Lillian
happy Tuesday
am:)
argh, this means we’ve grown another day older…damn…;)…oh, well…:)
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Love your reply here. Yes indeed, another day older. But that is much better than the alternative! 🙂 Thankful for every day I am. Sipping my morning cup — thinking of you.
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😉
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Your prose fulfils exactly the feeling behind the photograph, and the henryu is a poignant reminder of my children leaving home and making their own lives.
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Thank you….so very glad you shared your thoughts here. When my children were born, 40 years ago (how can that be???), someone gave us a framed saying which hang in our room until my daughter had her first child. “The best thing parents can give their children is roots and wings.”
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a lovely saying.
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Loved this Lillian.
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So glad! Smiling I am.
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Oh the Haiku is just so sad and so good. The last line is a so true for so many. 🌍
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Yes — we raise our children to become independent. And we revel in their success — their independent lives — and yet we also miss them, right?
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Always!
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Beautiful writing of “life hovering on a thread” and the mother who “waits for children gone”. Your title and haibun fit the photo perfectly!
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Thank you, Lynn. I absolutely adored these photos for he prompt. And so many beautiful write resulted from them.
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Yes, they were inspirational!
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