First Spring in Norfolk

My daughter and I moved to Norfolk in March 1992. We’d only had a few holidays here and were moving from the hustle and bustle of London to a small village on the North Norfolk coast with no street lights, a bus to Norwich twice a day – and we knew nobody. We threw ourselves into decorating, sorting out the overgrown garden and discovering walks on an empty beach, birds we’d never seen before and seals. Finally, we took the bus into Norwich and were welcomed with a blast of daffodils and blossom.

air full of birdsong
nature’s untidiness blooms
with a bold flourish

Kim M. Russell, 15th April 2019

My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Poems in April Day 15: The Touch of Snow

Toni is our host at the halfway point in this year’s NaPoWriMo and she tells us that she’s been re-reading Basho’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North, in which he created the haibun, which she shares with us, saying that it “beautifully illustrates the Japanese concept of Mono no Aware: sadness of wistfulness at the passing of ‘things’”

 Toni would like us to write haibun of 44-150 words about events in our lives, such as love gone wrong, birth of a child, a daily walk, remembering that haibun are based on true experience – they are not flash fiction.

28 thoughts on “First Spring in Norfolk”

  4. It is quite a leap of faith to move to a new town, where one becomes a stranger. I like the flourish you added to the haiku. It speaks of hopefulness.

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  6. Being greeted by blooms and birdsong! Now that is one wonderful thing to happen! It takes a lot of courage to move from the familiar to the unfamiliar but it sounds like you transplanted well. I love the thoughts of solitary walks on the beach. Thank you so much for writing to my prompt.

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  8. I want to move into this haibun. My living room and bedroom and kitchen and such will be in the prose. And when I want to feel extra special, I shall move into the haiku… to be serenaded by birds and feel as wonderfully untidy as the blooms.

    I love this.

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  12. That was a brave adventure for the two of you, knowing no one and ‘alone’. Reading about it tugged a bit, I feel you are glad now and do know other people. I didn’t have a child with me but did move when my first wife and I were divorced (one of us had to). I holed up in a little apartment on a busy street and started paying off all the bills we had run up. Never again do I wish to fill up a credit card, let alone bunches of them.
    When I got the first one paid off I took my little VW and headed to the beach on the Texas Gulf Coast. The engine blew and I ended up being pulled back to Houston by my ex. My next purchase was a car that could leave town. We don’t have good train and bus service like you guys do. Of course the car, a used one, had car payments to make (both of were able to keep our jobs, that helped things).
    ..

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