Fish Tales

Tanka

Haiku

Kyoka

Poetry shapes

gentle security of ideas

for language and verse.

“The highest goal is not distinctions, but synthesis and harmony.”

~ Alan Macfarlane, Japan Through the Looking Glass

Flutter and Chase

Strelitzia retinae - Bird of Paradise
Butterfly Gardens - Saanicton, B.C.

Morning softness ~
ideas and purpose absorbed gently
to the tune of twitters and cheeps.

In this moment of calm
minor financial decision
begged a form, a number, a website

A smooth slide from cozy comfort ~
to upright deskness and gathering resources ~ 
except  ~ a number, it’s card, it’s sleeve: missing

Flutter and chase ensued.
Inner child jumping up and down on tiny toes.
Hands flapping and wringing.

Searching purses and drawers.
Most likely places.
Where it should have been, where it should never be……

So maybe another purse - no not there ~
Or another pocket - or drawer - no not there.
My organized brain that fears authority screamed Alert!

A final search of the same purses and drawers ~
more thorough, all the pockets and pouches.
A number, it’s card and it’s sleeve: found.

It was a safe place ~ in one of the purses
secured in a pouch where it has never been before.
Reservations only accepted for cell phones.

As if by magic, flutter and chase vanished,
evaporated as though never there.
Inner child returned to dolls, storybooks and sunshine.

“Pursuit is a rather desperate act in itself. There’s 

something kind of frantic about the notion of pursuit.”

~ Michael Leunig

When I Was a Child

When I was a child
I didn’t know that I wanted to be a nurse.
I began learning the task of nursing as a teenager - fifty years later I’m still here.

When I was a child
I didn’t know that I wanted to be a teacher.
In my nursing career, I teach every day.

When I was a child
I didn’t know that I wanted to be a wife and a mother.
I was married many years and have two grown sons ~ my pride and my joy.

When I was a child
I didn’t know that I wanted to travel.
I drove, and I flew, back and forth, by car and by plane.

When I was a child 
I didn’t know that I wanted to be a writer.
Boxes of journals are filled with words; digital memory is filled with more and more.

When I was a child
I didn’t know that I wanted to be me.
Today, tomorrow and yesterday I know that I do.

When I was a child
I didn’t know what my swirling young thoughts were telling me.
Today, thoughts still swirl but with intention and meaning.

When I was a child
I didn’t know that time and circumstance would disturb the dust of the moment.
In this moment, the dust is settling ~ my finger can trace my life.

When I was a child
I didn’t know what security meant.
Today I am learning the meaning and feeling of security.

“We always think we know what we want: when in truth 

there is nothing we are less likely to know.”

~ Jude Morgan, Indiscretion