Snow and Sun settle
Upon the slumbering pines
Yuletide gleaming bright
The longest night – hidden hope
Darkness surrenders to light
A Winter Solstice tanka for you, gentle readers.
May you find peace & joy this holiday season.
❄️ Happy Holidays ❄️
haiku
May Day Celebrations
The fire of the sun
In a spray of bright flowers
Spring turns to Summer
Petals float down from blue skies
Dancing with me in the breeze
May Day A spring holiday celebrated for millennia around the world, usually with flowers, crowning of a May Queen, and dancing around the maypole. Every country or region has its own specific customs.
Beltane An ancient fire festival marking the first day of summer (making Summer Solstice in June “midsummer” – Shakespeare, anyone?). Fires were used to represent the waxing sun and thought to provide protection and abundance for the coming season. The Green Man is often associated with this festival as are fairies and tree spirits.
Lei Day In Hawaii, they celebrate Hawaiian culture and tradition with dancing and the giving of leis (necklaces made of flowers). Each island in this archipelago has its own distinct flower which is used to make the leis.
The May Queen
(an excerpt)
You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;
To-morrow ’ll be the happiest time of all the glad new-year,—
Of all the glad new-year, mother, the maddest, merriest day;
For I ’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I ’m to be Queen o’ the May.
~~~
The honeysuckle round the porch has woven its wavy bowers,
And by the meadow-trenches blow the faint sweet cuckoo-flowers;
And the wild marsh-marigold shines like fire in swamps and hollows gray;
And I ’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I ’m to be Queen o’ the May.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Wishing you all joy on May Day!
🌸🌸🌸
Be Free… Write
You can’t write. The words are gone. Your muse is AWOL.
I posted about struggling to find the words for a special occasion but this is an ordinary day. In the wicked world of a writer. The weather shifts and… A sudden freeze. Or a prolonged drought. These things can go either way.
However you got here, you’re here.
You’re about to crawl into the corner and cry or have a panic attack. (Again, these things can go either way.)
We all know enough to get up, stretch, breathe, move… But when we sit down again, we must write.
Something silly.
Like haiku.* It’s a fun break. Also, I really think the counting of syllables helps me. Kind of like rubbing a worry stone.
I can’t write a word
Am I sad or pissed? Don’t know!
I’ll write a haiku
Or whatever. You get the idea.
Six words stories are fun, too:
Aliens dissect humans. Discover no heart.
Dieting = refusing pizza, eating chocolate cake
I can’t write a bloody word!
I’m stuck. In the muck. Oh…
But free-writing is the absolute best. You can free-write your way out of just about anything. Like a literary MacGyver. Be Free… Write.
My Sunday thoughts in 200 words or less.
Free-writing is a powerful force. No thinking, no stopping, no correcting, just writing. May the Force be with you.
Have you ever tried haiku? Six word stories? Free-writing? What works to get you unstuck? Who caught that “Six words stories are fun, too” was 6 words? Smarty pants.
* No haikus were hurt in the writing of this post. Also, I don’t find haiku humorous (in general) and I’m not downplaying the beauty of a well-written haiku or the poets who write them.
Lemon Shark 