Category Archives: Blog

Blog, Festival of the Trees

My trees

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peach tree
Peach Tree

Suzi Smith, of Spirit Whispers, hosting this month’s Festival of the Trees, asks  us to think of trees which make us tick, inspire us, which get the metaphors flowing. Well, there is no question, for me there are three trees: the lemon, the fig and the olive. (earlier posts here and here). I wrote a novel with the lemon tree in the title as well as in the centre of the main character’s home; a poem about olive trees, which won second prize in the inaugural edition of Big Pond Rumours Poetry Competition, 2007, and, well, the fig tree features in the novel too.

But there are others, of course, there are others. I have a peach tree in my garden, resting against the wall of the house; two pear and three apple trees; a plum tree, various conifers, and a yew, in addition to my three lieblings! If you knew the size of my garden, you would understand that fitting so many trees in such a small space is no mean feat – but I simply enjoy having trees in my garden: sitting under them, watching them grow, flower, and prepare for winter, harvesting their fruit…

So we established I love trees. But is there one in particular? Thinking about it for the last week, wondering which one is really the most and absolute favorite of mine,  I finally came to a decision. I made a choice. My favorite is, breath deeply, yes, it is the Tree of Life. The tree of all trees, the tree that contains all of my trees and all trees and beings and life, in a nutshell. Or is it the other way round? Is it the case that each tree contains in itself the Tree of Life, and all that it represents? I’ll let you decide.

 

Yggdrasil

 

Today, Arbor Day in some parts of the world, I’d like to share a few pictures of my trees and a few of my tree-inspired haiku and micro-poems:

trap door
the scent of lemon blossom
carried by the wind

tree of life
an olive branch was never
enough

in the garden
a bush warbler serenades
plum tree blooms

against the fence
a forgotten willow broom
buds

Domesday Tweet

The last fruit from the Tree of Life
picked, weighed and DNAed,
graced Kew Garden’s Eden Landscape.

[In escarp March 26, 2010]

 

More tree pictures in my Scrapbook here

 

 

 

 

Blog, Haiku

Haiku #8 April 2011

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for the journey —
a sprig of thyme
between his teeth

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This haiku refers to the custom of placing thyme on or inside the coffin. It is supposed to give courage to the departed and facilitate the journey to the other world. See Wikipedia here.

Of course, thyme,  being an aromatic herb with antiseptic properties, has a variety of culinary and medicinal uses: For instance it is a major ingredient in mouthwash! I mainly cook fish with it!

(Prompted NaHaiWriMo extension April 2011)

Blog, Haiku

Invisible coat 7 April 2011

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Cuento Magazine
CuentoMag Cuento Magazine
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for sale/ invisible coat/ dry clean only
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This poem was published 6 April 2011 by Cuento Magazine.
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It attempts to cross genres… does it remind you of’ ‘For sale: baby shoes, … .’  But then that was a short story. Or does it associate more with sci-fi cloaking devices? Fairy tales? And so it goes… play with it!
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Blog, Haiku

haiku #6 April 2011

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fairytale —
one thousand and one nights
breathe in this haiku
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The Arabian nights, the original collection of stories with roots in ancient and medieval times, originate from all over the Middle East and further. The basic story-telling frame involves Scheherazade telling a story a night to Shahryar the King who, disappointed in love, executes a succession of his brides after their first night together. In an attempt to keep herself alive, Sheherazade begins a tale without finishing it, so that the King, enthralled, spares her life in order to hear the rest of the story. If this rings a bell with writers who have been told to make their stories exciting to survive/avoid rejection, then so be it. In the end, we all have to survive to tell the tale.

In addition to the fairy tale, one other association is to Ai Weiwei’s 2007 exhibition in Kassel, Germany, named “Fairytale.” Ai Weiewei exhibited 1001 antique Chinese chairs, on which 1001 volunteers from China sat, and a structure made of 1001 antique Chinese doors salvaged from Ming and Qing Dynasty houses that had been built-over in times of rapid development. As he is reportedly held by police at present, I hope he finds enough tales to tell his captors.

This haiku was written in response to a prompt set by Melissa Allen during the April extension of NaHaiWriMo.