For five years I’ve watched my mother be consumed by dementia. At first, nothing seemed different about her: she was a little vague and avoided groups of people. Then she forgot how to make a cup of tea, how to eat, how to dress herself. She forgot my name, how to speak and walk. This […]
Tag: Haibun
Our First Glimpse of the Aurora Borealis
When we first moved up to the North Norfolk coast, when Ellen was eleven going on twelve, we were amazed not only by the wide Norfolk landscapes and gorgeous sunsets, but also by the immense night skies. We had never seen so many stars or been able to identify constellations – in London there was […]
Waiting for Autumn
The branches of apple trees are weighted with apples. Plums and quinces litter the ground and brambles are adorned with blackberries, all at different stages of ripeness: emerald, ruby and obsidian. There’s a squirrel foraging in the shade of the willow tree; it hops a short way, its tail an unfurled flag, and then stops […]
Drama in the Sky
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Haibun Monday: The Sky IS the Limit Toni is our host this Haibun Monday and she has asked us to write our haibun about the day sky – from dawn to dusk and any time in between. Norfolk is known for its flatness and big, wide open skies, where […]
A Summer Kitten’s Tail
My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille August 17th 2016 … a summer tale This week it is haibun time again, for which Chèvrefeuille has asked us to: follow the classical rules for the haiku; write a maximum of 150 words, including the haiku; and write on the theme of ‘A Summer Tale’. The […]
Romance and Sea Mist
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Haibun Monday: A Little Romance: Toni has challenged us to pen a romantic haibun. Although we’ve known each other since childhood, we’d been babies in prams in parallel roads, ran around the playground together when we were six years old and had shy crushes on each other as teenagers, I hadn’t […]
Of Slugs and Snails
My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille August 3rd 2016 haibun imagination This week Chèvrefeuille has challenged us to create a haibun with a maximum of 250 words (including the haiku or tanka) inspired by the following image: Snail (photo found here) Part of my childhood, from the age of seven to sixteen, was […]
Pampas Dreams
My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille July 20th 2016 pampasgrass When I was eleven or twelve, my family lived on the top floor of a block of council maisonettes. We shared a balcony with other residents and outside our front door and kitchen window, we had two window boxes. To get to school […]
Peeling away Another Layer
My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille July 6th 2016 This week’s challenge is to create a summer haibun with a maximum of 75 words including the haiku (or tanka). It’s July. So far we’ve had mostly rain, so I haven’t worn summer clothes. On hot days, our cottage is usually a welcome […]
Ooame Orchestra
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Haibun Monday: 50 Shades of Rain Toni has asked us to write a tight one paragraph haibun, non-fiction, about rain and us, followed by a haiku about nature that ties our words together. Rain: how we experienced it, the emotions it brought out, the inconvenience it was, the beauty of it. […]
writing in north norfolk 