haiku | Perle Champion

Z is for Zen in a Zig Zag Life

30 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, Cookin, haiku, Poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Cooking, Haiku, Poetry, Zen

Day 26 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is Z

Z is for Zen in a Zig Zag Life

zig zag stop start then
deep breath – no help – start again
pour wine – chop carrots

© Perle Champion

My path of late feels like an undisciplined zig zag run through an obstacle course that is obviously of my own making. The only place where I really get into the moment, the zazen, is when involved in a kitchen chore, and occasionally in the midst of writing or painting.

The thing about the kitchen chore is there is immediate satisfaction. I slice and dice and transform the carrot, onion and other veg in to shapes of my design. I mix and put dough in the oven and soon have a steaming loaf of bread.

The thing with my writing and painting is there is no immediacy. I paint or write for hours and it never quite feels done. I drop one piece to begin another and in the end, I have 10 paintings half done; 2 novels unedited; and numerous essays that don’t quite hit the mark.

Does anyone else feel that scattered?

Y is for Yapness for Shiny Yellow Yag

29 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, haiku, Poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Poetry, Yellow Brick Road

Day 29 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is Y

Y is for Yapness for Shiny Yellow Yag

the myth – shiny yag
siren call to soul’s yapness
that yellow brick road

© Copyright Perle Champion

The idea of the yellow brick road leading us to the answer is a myth.

The scarecrow is to Dorothy what the Cheshire cat is to Alice. The message is that which fork in the road to take is her decision. There’s no right or wrong. The trick is to know where you’re going.

Glossary

Yag – synthetic diamond
Yapness – hunger

W is for Words well written

26 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, haiku, Poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Dissidence, Haiku, Poetry, Writing

Day 23 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is W

W is for Words Well Written

the meekest takes pen
in hand – swords beware their steel
the well written word

© Perle Champion

As a citizen of the U.S., I appreciate my right to say and write what I choose. In this and many countries of the West, we needn’t fear being jailed for something as simple as a poem.

Many countries in the world still jail and or execute dissident writers.

Follow the link to a list of writers imprisoned for writing their truths.

Kazakhstan – The Poet journalist and activist Aron Atabek has been in prison since 2007 and has spent much of his incarceration in solitary confinement.
China – Liu Xia is a poet, artist, and founding member of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre. She has been held in her Beijing apartment without access to phones, internet, doctors of her choice, or visitors

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/21/national-poetry-day-dissident-poets-pen

U is for Universe Urban Urchin

24 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, haiku, Poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Poetry

Day 21 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is U

U is for Universe Urban Urchin

urban universe
inner urchin champing at
society’s bit

Living in the city these days is forever changed. My siblings and I ran free as children, by bike, skate and foot until mother whistled us in at dark.

After dinner, we’d run up to a friend’s and lay out on the front lawn staring at the night sky on summer nights hoping for a shooting star or ufo; imagining walking on the moon. We’d rel uctantly go in when called in at 8 or 9 or sometimes 10, only to go out the next day and do it all again.

Today, my friends with small children keep their children in secure back yards, and sit in chairs to watch them in the front yard or drive them to ‘play dates.

T is for Tantalus Tortured in Tartarus

23 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, haiku, Poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Poetry, Tantalus

Day 20 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is T

T is for Tantalus Tortured in Tartarus

tantalus tortured
tipple and taste beyond reach
hubris’ consequence

As capricious as the ancient gods were, they meted out some well deserved punishments. Unlike today, when we have a shooter of children on film and still call him the alleged shooter. Ah Zeus, where are you when we need you.

© Perle Champion

The punishment of Tantalus in Tartarus is to stand knee deep in water but be unable to slake his thirst because whenever he bends down, the water vanishes. Over his head hangs fruit, but whenever he reaches for it, it goes just beyond his reach. From this punishment Tantalus is familiar to us in the word tantalize.

The Rock of Ritual & Rote

21 Apr 2014 4 Comments

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, haiku, Poetry, Ritual Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Poetry, Ritual

Day 18 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is R

R is for the Rock of Ritual & Rote

with rote of ritual
rock bottom can become our
solid foundation

© Perle Champion

Ritual has many forms. Some as simple as making your morning coffee or tea; performing morning ablutions; etc.

I would add to those a few of my favorites – I’m sure you have more: desk journal coffee

Taking my early morning walk sans the distraction of headgear, so I can listen to my own thoughts and the sounds of nature around me.
Writing stream-of-consciousness by hand in my journal on my retur
n, before the noise of the day intrudes and crowds out my own internal voice.
Preparing food for the day whether breakfast, lunch or dinner. The cracking of an egg, butter on toast; the simple act of dicing carrots, celery, pickles for a tuna salad; julienning vegetables for a stir fry. All these rote preparations have a Zen affect when we pay attention.
Lighting candles on my small home altar.
Stroking my cat’s soft fur and relishing her soft purr as we settle on the couch with a good book and a glass of Pinot Noir.
Writing in my gratitude journal a list of at least 5 things I am grateful for before turning out the lights at night.

If we stop and pay attention to the small rote rituals of our day they can be that rock that anchors us after an otherwise stormy day.

What are some of yours?

Q Is for Quodlibet, Quibbles & Quarrels

19 Apr 2014 2 Comments

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, haiku, Poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Poetry

Day 17 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is Q

Q Is for Quodlibet, Quibbles & Quarrels

quodlibet quibbles
grow to quarrels when questioned
mules wearing blinders

© Perle Champion

Quodlibet is a disputation on a philosophical or theological point. These days few people or nation wine w globe s, for that matter, know how to have civilized discourse or debate on their preconceived ideals or the issues of the day.

Each person or nation stands firm, determined to convince the other at the outset that their belief is the only truth one and all others are wrong. There is rarely an open mind on either side. (Kierkegaard says it best; see quote below).

I no longer discuss, and rarely voice my beliefs to certain people, because it just isn’t worth my time. I most certainly don’t have the patience with someone that believes if they shout loud enough and drown out other viewpoints, then they win. I’m not sure what they think they win except to shut out any possibility of learning something new.

“The most terrible fight is not when there is one opinion against another, the most terrible is when two men say the same thing – and fight about the interpretation, and this interpretation involves a difference of quality.”

– Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Danish Philosopher. The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard: A selection, no 1057 (ed. And tr. By Alexander, 1938), 1850 entry.

P is for Praise of Penned Paeans

18 Apr 2014 1 Comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, haiku, Poetry, women's history Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Poetry, Women's History

Day 16 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is P

P is for Praise of Penned Paeans

praise for the paeans penned
by women through time gifting
us our history

Perusing the southern history room of Birmingham’s Linn Henley Library downtown is an experience that I savor.

The collection contains diaries, letters, photographs, financial records, news clippings, slave records and other materials documenting several generations of unembellished real life of the families that make these United States what they are today.

Much of the correspondence and journals were generated by the women of the family. It is here that we can fill in the blanks omitted as unimportant by the writers of our history books.

One quote that shines in my memory was from a young wife’s diary. Long before MLK was born, she wrote, “Free at last, free at last – thank god I’m free at last.” She wrote this on the day the first trolleys hit the streets of Birmingham. Now she could go about her errands without waiting for her husband to drive her. I kick myself daily for being in such a hurry that day that I did not write down her name or get a copy of the entry. Turns out the diaries were on lone by a family and had been returned. Hindsight.

Oddly Opalescent Opaleye

17 Apr 2014 1 Comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, Dragon, haiku, poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Dragon, Haiku, Poetry

Day 17 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is O

Oddly Opalescent Opaleye

opalescent eyes
reflect fresh blood stains upon
nature’s own buffet

So many of today’s myths were once legend, and I wonder if they have a basis in some ancient past. I wonder if real dragons once roamed the earth. Did the story of dragons begin with the sighting of dinosaurs? Did the story get passed down through oral history through the generations? We’ll never know for sure, but I choose to believe that in some way they once shared our earth.

The Opaleye is a medium-sized dragon, often weighing 2-3 tonnes. It was iridescent, pearly scales and pupil-less eyes that match, making it widely known as the most beautiful dragon around. It is not incredibly aggressive and produces a scarlet flame. Opaleyes prefer to eat sheep.* http://www.hp-lexicon.org/bestiary/dragons.html

N is for Nature’s Nascent Nacre

16 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging from A to Z, haiku, Poetry Tags: Blogging from A to Z, Haiku, Pearls, Poetry

Day 14 of Blogging from A to Z. Today’s letter is N

N is for Nature’s Nascent Nacre

nascent nacre balm
a creature’s comfort failing is
man’s unlikely gem

Nature’s Nascent Nacre, is a balm that provides some short-lived ease to the oyster while it lives. Unfortunately, as with many of nature’s wonders, man put a price on the unlikely gems, and killed to find their prize.

Now that pearls are farmed, it’s perhaps a bit more humane, than murdering thousands to find very few natural pearls, but not much. (see PETA excerpt below)

This from Peta:

Culturing involves surgically opening each oyster shell and inserting an irritant in the oyster. Freshwater pearls are cultured by inserting another oyster’s mantle tissue. Saltwater pearls have beads and another oyster’s mollusk tissue inserted. Fewer than half of the oysters may survive this process.

Cultivators further stress the oysters by suspending them in water in a cage, washing their shells, moving them around in different waters, and raising and lowering their cages to subject them to changing water temperatures.

After the pearls are extracted from the oysters, one-third of oysters are “recycled” and put through the culturing process again. The others are killed and discarded.

For those concerned about the environment, there is another reason to avoid pearls. Aquaculture has contributed to destruction of natural pearl oyster beds from pollution and overharvesting.

Of course, with so many modern pearl imitations, as well as other kinds of jewelry, it’s easy to do without pearls.