Winds of Change

Five haiku embodying grieving

Mar 9

As promised on Tuesday, I have some haiku for you today for which I both wrote the poems and created the images. There were so many beautiful images that I included some in the gallery above. The ones I chose for the haiku themselves were chosen, in part, because they best allowed space for the text.

In case you missed Tuesday’s post (with haiku from Jason McBride of Weirdo Poetry and images from me), here’s where you can read them:

Eclectic Ink

Pirate Haiku

I’ve started with a gallery today. These images were contenders for the haiku I’m about to share with you. I have three pirate haiku for you today, with the caveat that only the images are mine. I’ll explain in the after bits…

13 days ago · 6 likes · 4 comments · Dascha Paylor

Winds of Change #1

Grief Journeys alone
Time offers only itself
Where is healing now

Winds of Change #2

Sun-kissed drops of rain
Trickle down my window pane
Tears aren’t always sad

Winds of Change Haiku #3

Winds of change blow free
Open doors anticipate
Cleansing of my soul

Winds of Change #4

Fly with abandon
Reach beyond the life you’ve known
Pain scatters like leaves

Winds of Change Haiku #5

Tranquility lies
Within the pause between breaths
Only now is real

I had promised three haiku for today, but this theme led me to more. I could have, I suppose, chosen three, but that would have felt incomplete to me. I could also have revised Tuesday’s post to reflect that I would publish five, but, honestly, I was too lazy…or busy. Yeah, that’s it. I was busy.

In all seriousness, I was surprised at the cohesiveness of these haiku. I didn’t consciously create a theme for them. I simply wrote within the space I occupied (metaphorically) at the time. I suppose it makes sense that these feel like they belong together.

I had been thinking about change. Dear friends of mine had lost people who were important in their lives. For one, it felt like an inevitability. For the other, it came out of the blue. Both losses were equally difficult.

I didn’t write the haiku in the order in which they’re presented, but this does feel like a progression of grief to me. Do the haiku speak to you at all? Have you identified with the emotions of any or all of these at any point in your life? If you are comfortable sharing, either in the comments or privately, I’d love to hear from you.