healingwords: poetry for the soul

I am posting this odd haiku today as I am fascinated by the process by which it came into my mind. I am often awake in the night, affected by insomnia but also woken by my breathing and then kept awake by the stimulant effect of asthma medication. During these semi awake hours my mind plays with poetry, sometimes I remember the lines in the morning or more often they are lost. This morning I woke with this haiku already written, I am not aware of thinking of the subject, playing with the words, counting syllables, it arrived in my mind fully formed. I am fascinated by this process, how our brain works during sleep, what creative thought we are capable of whilst sleeping.  Bats are common in my area, they flit around my roof terrace at dusk and around the campo in Summer. I have even had a bat fly into my house, down the stairs, around the living room and back up the stairs again where my smallest daughter shooed it out. However I don't think I  need a therapist to imagine the ...

I have been writing Haiku whilst in hospital, taking my mind back to nature. Here are a selection of both Spanish and English nature haiku.  rest by sacred Oak soul eased by tree energy at home in green woods velvet night, silence cloaks village, jabali roam, root buried almonds eagle loops earthward casts wingspan on roof terrace soars to dot in sky stalking hunter pads blood oozes on virgin snow cat licks crimson paw in stillness spot red robins hop, blue tits hover, coal blackbirds squabble golondrinas swoop in mudspit caves under eaves, hungry heads peak out garden birds flutter to hedgerows, wiry squirrel, brush curled, raids the nuts creep along marsh dyke snow feathered egrets arise cloud fans aqua sky marsh egret escapes black reed sticks hop the shore line saffron feet dance the waves salt flats shimmer pink flamingos strut, loop bowed necks jet dipped bills sift shrimp ...

Near my childhood home is the historic village of Berkswell where I have walked with my family and friends all my life.   Medieval buildings cluster round the village green with 200 year old stocks shaded by a huge oak. The 12th century Church of St John Baptist, built on the site of a Saxon church, stands in an extensive grassed graveyard, carpeted with bluebells and primroses in Spring. The path winds through a copse to open fields where marshy, sheep dotted grassland leads the eye to a tree fringed lake. Climbing to higher ground stands a glorious oak, watching over the land for hundreds of years. TREE OF LIFE Ancient winter oak etched black against azure sky awaits its greening. © 2017 Jacqueline Claire Knight.  All rights reserved.