I read recently about an exhibition that took place in the summer at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore, called ‘Ghost Nets of the Ocean’. It was created by artists from Darnley Island in Australia, and consisted of suspended brightly-coloured sculptures of fish, turtles, squid and jellyfish, all made from ocean debris, including abandoned fishing nets, known as ghost nets.
I got thinking about ghost nets drifting onto rocky reefs and in the open sea. I imagined ghostly fingers squeezing the life out of sea creatures or dragging unsuspecting divers to their deaths.
trees drip burnished leaves
tangled in watery mists
ghost nets of autumn
Kim M. Russell, 2017
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Haibun: Water
Bjorn is our host this Monday and we are writing about water.
writing in north norfolk 
timely – have shared on Facebook
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Thank you, Maureen!
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I can imagine those ghost nets are dangerous.
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Those ocean debris are interesting; an art by itself. I would be terrified to be caught in those ghost nets Kim ~
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Our poetic minds did run in similar tracks this day. Never heard of ghost nets; probably dream of them now; sweet haiku.
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Thanks Glenn!
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A lesson… but also a poetic moment. Worthy. Definitely worthy haiku at the end of your haibun.
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Thanks Charley!
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You are welcome!
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I love that. And the Haiku works perfectly.
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Thanks for this piece – and finding the terrific photo.
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Ghost nets, what a terrible thing. If we could just be more careful with nature.
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This is eerie and a perfect representation of how we’re killing our planet.
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Such a gorgeously eerie haibun, Kim!💕 I like the idea of ghost nets of autumn.. and wonder what else is caught in its clutches. Beautifully executed.
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Thank you, Sanaa!
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How beautiful the sculpture, but how sad its history.
Your haiku is perfect.
Anna :o]
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Thank you, Anna! 🙂
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Ghost nets conjures up so much emotion for me. I see them as a stark future narrative for what went wrong. Bleak.
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Really interesting haibun and I love how the haiku uses the concept of ghost nets to describe something entirely different. Nice!
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Fantabulous! 😎😎😎😎😎
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Such lovely art from such a sad thing.
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We are killing the oceans.
There are vast reaches of deoxygenated water that will not support life.
Fukushima contamination has reached the U.S. coast.
Reefs are dissolving in the acidic water.
Mankind is the great destroyer.
namaste
JzB
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Wow. Ghost nets are quite scary especially in light of what is going on with our planet. They are mos def killers. The haiku at the end is simply splendid.
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I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to be caught up in one! Thanks Toni!
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Mainly you just hunker down and hang on. Stock up on bottled water, betteries, and candles. I’ve slept through many a one and awakened the next day to a world of strewn branches and leaves.
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You and Glenn Butkus worry about the same. I like your view of Autumn trees dying leaves.
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We often do, Sabio, although we couldn’t be further apart geographically!
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The last bit of your prose does such a great job at illustrating the horrors that can be spawned by the waste we throw into the ocean. I really like how you start by just telling us about what you see, but leave us with the suffocating knowledge…
…and I specially love the haiku. Nature is so good at reusing waste prettily. If we could only learn.
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…as these artists have. 🙂
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🙂
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Thank you, Magaly. 🙂
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Oh the harsh capture of those ghost nets. I wish they’d never form.
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I imagine that the old nets of plant material such as grass and hemp would have rotted safely but the nets used by fishermen now are made of polyamides – so-called progress.
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A sad story, yet your concluding haiku is very beautiful, and so is the artwork you used as inspiration / illustration.
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Thank you, Rosemary. I was trying to find out more about ghost nets when I found out about the exhibition. The artwork is amazing.
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