Word Association Haiku Challenge

I entered authour Stephanie Mesler's Word Association Haiku Challenge in September, and had NO IDEA we'd be still doing it as we headed into the holidays! I have to confess that there have been several times when I considered bailing, because of the pressures of other things that needed doing. But I am glad I have stayed with it. It is a great mind break and I am really pleased with some of the pieces I have written.

I am reposting everything in reverse order, and giving it its own page since even I have trouble finding it now! Be sure and visit WORD ASSOCIATION HAIKU THROWDOWN Challenge to see all the haikus that have come from this and explore Stephanie's site A Poet's Progress

ROUND TWENTY ~

The challenge for Round 20 is to write haiku of any type on the topic of gratitude.

Inner Life of Gratitude

More than mere “thank you”

honest nature runs deeper

to the grateful heart

Freely accepting

the release of any pride

no shame in the need

Demands are not made

open, felicity shifts

finding the pathway

Then liberated

the soul can sing with relief

for the answer found

The true grateful heart

humbled when grace is given

never walks alone

ROUND NINETEEN ~

The challenge for Round 19 is to write compound haiku on the theme of silence.

The Truest Silence

Summer Solstice Sunrise over Stonehenge 2005 by Andrew Dunn

Beyond lack of sound

the absence is pervasive

begs you to listen

The intake of breath

a deafening nothingness

without an exhale

Like a pausing thought

a universe in stasis

the truest silence

ROUND EIGHTEEN ~
The challenge for Round 18 is to write compound haiku using the challenge words capsule, wind, and herb. Compound haiku are any number of verses in 5-7-5.

Remembering to Walk Forward

“Now” is a capsule,

Marko Samastur from Ljubljana, Slovenia courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

a single blip of the whole

a limited view

Why define your life

with incomplete perspective

only “is” and “was”

It is true the “Past”

can educate the present

but it is behind

No looking backward

driving this very moment

by that which has been

Close your eyes and breathe

let “promise” bare you aloft

fly on its sweet wind

Tomorrow is close

and forever will come too

despite your effort

Inhale what “might be”

an herbal balm to your soul

spark of that within

We are simply “All”

“loser,” “winner” both inside

who is it chooses?

Or does Fate await

in patience, with amusement

while we just struggle

Use what is inside

be both vanquished and victor

each as it comes you

The moment is not

definition of the whole

embrace the large view

Learn from the one chance

while you engage the “what if?”

“all” you are given

ROUND SEVENTEEN ~

The challenge for Round 17 is to write double haiku using the challenge words above. Double haiku are two verses of 10,14,10 syllable lines - my prompt “Yearning”

“Yearning”

Thoughts that come unbidden to my commute

night time imaginings of the scent and the feel of you

your voice rumbling up my spine, held close, tight

Ghostly hands massaging my aching neck

grasping my arm, entreating me to come away from toil

a thousand sly glances and shared laughter

ROUND SIXTEEN ~

Fours stanzas for Veteran’s Day in an ABA rhyme scheme on the prompt “Experience.”

The Experience

from the Department of the Navy via Wikimedia Commons

A reality

one’s self is changed forever

skilled maturity

Trained for all action

committed at high level

participation

Can we understand

their sweat, their blood given us

in a foreign land

Our best acquaintance

ever honor, and duty

their experience

ROUND FIFTEEN~

The prompt word was “Life” and the haiku had to rhyme. I hate rhyming. I have a single rhyming gene. It becomes active for about 48 hours every decade, usually at the most socially annoying moment, and I become “rhyme possessed” for that period of time. As you can see from my submission, this is not one of those times.

Language is not rife

even armed with hunting knife

of good rhymes for “life”

ROUND FOURTEEN~

The challenge word was "Mystery"

We look at the road

viewed through the lens of desire

seeking certainty

We want in our hearts

the confidence of the known

mastery of change

The journey observes

laughing at all our conceits

the need for control

Fate allies with glee

coiling and uncoiling threads

feeding our desire

They know the secret

that thing which we struggle with

in our need to know

The richest texture

is in the discovering

joyous mystery

ROUND THIRTEEN~
Write a Haiku for Halloween of any length on the theme "The Horror Lies"

Into The Unknown - Version One

Marching time, to come

so swiftly present then past

what is it we know?

Ours is the control

or so we slyly believe

audacity brims

There is joy and fear

they are always a constant,

possible, lurking

Each moment has both

dark and light, joy and fear

ever in balance

And our mastery

Is an utter illusion

ourselves only fooled

The journey could be

dark or light, we know not,

there the horror lies

Here was my official response –

"Nebel Alle Fog" by Greg Berdet from Wikimedia Commons

The Unknown

What we see, we know

what we believe we affirm

confident and sure

If we disagree

we reject, ascribe to fools

again we see, know

In between is gray

it is neither dark, nor light

none are its master

It waits in shadow

unseating our certainly

there the horror lies

ROUND TWELVE ~

Three Verses …Then, Now, Still To Come

The world wide open

endless opportunities

infinite time, then

The relentless clock

marking the death of moments

life has limits, now

Of the years yet passed

felicity or abyss

that is still to come

ROUND ELEVEN ~

A ten verse cycle, with one repeating line each verse. Theme: halloween or samhain.

Blossom of summer

ripened to rich harvest gold