Thirty days, thirty haikus. In April 2021, for National Poetry Month, Nicole Gulotta from The Wild Words provided springtime haiku prompts on Instagram using the hashtag #30dayhaikuproject. Here are my responses:
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Motherhood is….
Read moreFor two weeks in April 2021, Bec Ellis challenged sharing about motherhood using the #motherhoodisprompt. Here are my responses. Mummy, Mum, Mama, Mom – it’s a dear and cherished name change that lasts a lifetime, changing our hearts forever. Mine’s been dip-dyed by two kids, but it’s a repetitive process, as I get to know all their iterations. It’s not easy, and some days I’m a better baker than others. I prevent getting too ‘holey’ by having alone time pit-stops…
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Returning Light
Read moreThis morning, as I sit in my bed, cup of tea in hand, the sun is flooding my covers and, for the first time since autumn, hitting me in the face. It should feel a very welcome return, a sign of spring and returning light to be appreciated. And yet… The sunny early spring days are no doubt energising and uplifting, after the long days of dark. Their warmth feels strengthening on my skin and on our garden. But I…
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Throwing it
Read moreThrowing pebbles at the roaring waves, Of crashing noise, of cold, salty sprays. Shouting nothings across the vast sea, From the deepest, darkest, parts of me. Sometimes you need to stand toe-to-toe, With wilderness out there, wilderness on show. Your storm settles, your tension expressed. The roaring and crashing can now, rest.
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Winter Walk
Read moreMy feet shrink and grow with cold and use, The surfaces they meet equally crisp. My lungs washed clean and cool, renewed. Ears throb to my optimistic pulse. Nostrils cleared, breathing in icy water, Temporarily dry and mourning scent. My eyes both feast on forms revealed, Bare bones of nature, cooly glazed, Somehow more, now they are less, Punctuated by timeless green neighbours. The light, though ethereally soft, seems bright, It lifts and pushes me, from inside out, Reaching to…
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January Thanks
Read moreThank you skies for clearing, grey clouds and foggy head. Thank you air for cooling breath, as we ran wherever hearts led. Thank you forest for holding us in miniature forests of heather, moss, and lichens. Moments to cherish, in January.
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The Gift of Yule
Read moreAnd so it turns. Apparently the days will get brighter and longer from now on. There are many cold, hard days ahead before the strength returns to the sun and the Oak King, but the cyclic turning of the wheel of the year has to be comforting, especially this year. There has been so much goodness, appreciation, growth, light, and love this year. We are a very lucky family. We love and care for many other people, and know we…
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A Walk Through the Trees
Read moreExploring the forest with my kids is probably one of my favourite things to do. But there is something magical and life-giving about using my child-free Thursdays to get out in the forest alone. To listen to the wind in the trees, the birds hiding in the bushes, and my own breathing as I get to carry a brisk pace. Without little legs and imaginative meanderings, I get to raise my heart-rate and pound out some stress. Today’s walk was…
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Letting Go to Welcome
Read moreThe letting go of autumn feels just so fitting this year, The peak of our year’s outward energies curtailed, now released, Each feeling, hope, regret, sorrow, wish. Released, and let go, and in doing so, Leaves the true shape of who we were all along. Welcoming the inward winter.
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Passing Time
Read morePicking pumpkins during the wettest rain of the week – that was the last minute plan. I pulled on my big girl boots, rounded up the hibernating troops and a plethora of waterproof gear and headed over the river in search of seasonal rituals. But the clouds burst in such quick succession, we were treated to a sunny double rainbow over the fields. Our usual trick of timing our pumpkin ‘harvesting’ to the favoured day between there being full fields…
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Fungi
Read moreThe fruiting visual beholden in damp, Secretive but yet so stunning to spot. At once reminiscent of tiny worlds, Of miniature magic, of faeries and elves. But also of hidden underfoot sprawls, Webs of connection and soft growth unseen, Alluring contrast of feast or of death, A juxtaposed, umbrella-posed, quiet fungi stands.
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Deer
Read moreThere’s magic in the air. Can’t you just smell it, feel it, see it at this time of year? Yesterday Sam insisted on bringing our DSLR camera on a walk in the woods with his grandparents, as he wanted to “take photos of the deer”. Apparently the deer have been illusive out there all week, but five minutes into our walk, a small herd of Fallow deer appeared from the tree line on the next ridge. Slowly, one at a…
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Grounded
Read moreThis new moon and personal circumstances have found me feeling frustrated, trapped, panicked by the passing of their childhoods, and altogether ungrounded. Today the forest and all things green and smelling of early autumn called to me. But my family had other plans. Seizing the last of the warm summer weather, we headed to the beach, fish and chips in hand (my first takeaway). We got battered by the rolling break, gritty and salty. But we got grounded. Seems the…
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Summers
Read moreWhen summers are recollected in smells and tastes, Sensations on bare skin and grit between toes. When familiar routines, songs and recipes bring expanding of heart. When they touch a plant and it warps them viscerally back decades. When we’ve done our best to savour and enjoy, Summer and our children.
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Betwixt: A Portrait of Family Life in Between
Read moreMaturing Spring, waiting to accomplish Summer. One boy halfway between four and fourteen. A cosy spot, between the outdoors and the in; Halfway out the window, halfway in the green. One on his job, one hard at play. Both learning, brains working, toe to toe. Safety and freedom by staying constrained. Life crystallised and basic, Feelings numb betwixt extremes.
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The lapping season
Read moreThe in-between season. Embracing still the quiet reservedness of Winter. The headspace. The concentration and relaxation. The cozy and the sleepy. The coolness, the naked branches, the pause. But Spring feels tangibly close. It’s in the wings, waiting for its cue. The colours, the music, the hints of warmth on cool breezes. The new air greeting our lungs, stirring our souls to look outward, get out and embrace the world beyond our walls and fires. The lapping of Imbolc on…
