A Sense of Place: HIKING TRAIL – sight

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1. wild raspberries
   flies buzzing around
   the bear scat
   .
   Paul MacNeil, Ocala, Florida

   1. Hi Paul,
      If you are interested in submitting, please use the Contact Form (& the deadline each week is midnight Sunday Pacific time)…
      thanks, kj

      1. I am sorry. Not new to THF, but new to this part of the site.
         Thank you for helping … – Paul

         1. no worries!

   2. Hi Paul,
      .
      Curious, was the temperature too cold for any detection of smell? Or is scat not strong with most animals unless a day’s freshness?
      .
      .
      wild raspberries
      flies buzzing around
      the bear scat
      .
      Paul MacNeil, Ocala, Florida
      .
      .
      Although I see you have Florida as the place and even January is warm (61F). 🙂
      .
      I think I might have come across otter scat, not sure, but we got rid of our bears a very long time ago alas in Blighty.
      .
      I wrote something called “The olfactory factory”
      https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2018/10/03/a-sense-of-place-meadow-field-smell/#comment-85563
      .
      .
      Love the consonance and alliteration making the imagery even more multi-sensual! 🙂

      1. I much appreciate your comments, Alan. I’ve told this story before but not published it or even sketched a haiku . . .

         It was a memorable experience from some time ago, sigh. Best attempt at timing was late summer even early September. 3 of us were climbing a very steep woods trail in Northern Maine. In the US, raspberries are a _summer fruit_ in the wild [bloom in late spring – maybe a bit later on a mountainside]. It was a very clear, cool, and windy day. On the front side of Barren Mountain the sluiceway trail rises about 2400 feet from a lake. Partway up, we came upon a large pile of loose nearly liquid scat in the middle of the trail, and I knew it was from a bear — and it was still steaming so I guess it was a cool day. And from the seeds that the bear had been eating raspberries. To answer your question, I did not smell it but some flies evidently did. We did then decide to let the unseen bear climb on ahead and sat on some rocks and waited a while to increase the distance. Maine and indeed all the way to Florida has the species: black bear. Up to 400 or so pounds, very strong and fast. Best to steer clear. Out West they coexist with brown or ‘grizzly’ bears. At a distance, I saw one once in Wyoming. Much larger, but they are all dangerous, yet omnivorous. I’ve seen black bears occasionally, from a boat and car. In the woods I’ve seen their tracks and scat other times, but NOT often I’m glad to say. Never face to face. Footprint looks amazingly like a human’s. Except, that is, for the claw marks.

         We do seem to have more animal species than are now left in Britain. Some are endemic to this hemisphere, others to regions. Hey Alan, polar bears abandoned you thousands of years ago as the ice receded. We lost the mastodons … Ha! Black bears persist … very adaptive and fortunately very shy. None of the bears are endangered species. From swamp to desert to Alaska.

         1. Thank you so much for the background! 🙂
            .
            We are allegedly into the sixth major mass extinction event, and unlikely to protect our fellow animal cousins, or fellow mammals at least. Bears have long been persecuted in European countries. So the idea of bears blowing a raspberry at humans, an unintentional extra potential interpretation, is rather apt. Is there life on Mars, or Earth, two big questions.
            .
            .
            wild raspberries
            flies buzzing around
            the bear scat
            .
            Paul MacNeil, Ocala, Florida
            .
            .
            I’m enjoying this haiku all the more now, and it’s great to have such an in-depth backstory. I hope other readers catch this as it’s a golden nugget!

2. Wonderful poem, Barbara Kaufmann!

   changing leaves –
   my hiking pace slows
   to a walk

   Here in Ohio I am constantly slowing down while driving to gaze at the changes in fall foliage. And, sometimes stopping and pulling out my cell phone camera. Your image reminds me of a previously submitted poem, but not the one accepted by kj, related to Place-Meadow-Sight: scuffing stops/at the clearing/nature center night walk. Nature invites us to slow down and sometimes stop in order to marvel at its majesty! Thanks, Barbara, one again for your moving image! Ron

   1. thanks for sharing this, Ron!

   2. So glad you enjoyed this one Ron. I ,too, find the ‘perfect’ photo every few feet and that has always been the case. Now that I am slowing down for other reasons, my photography habit gives me the perfect excuse to take the slower pace. I imagine you have similar trees and colors in Ohio to ours. They can be jaw dropping!

3. I’ve been following this blog for awhile now and enjoying the many verses posted in this section. Reading — and admiring the talent I see! — has been a challenge and inspiration to me. I appreciate the work you put into it Kathy, and thanks for choosing one of my verses to appear in this section.

   1. thanks again, Christine!

4. The rich dialogue and community that has developed here as a result of KJ’s wonderful work is nourishing and stunning. It is the kind of conversation and understandings, experimentation and curiosity we all wish for, thanks also for this to Alan Summers. The inspiration of these prompts and the vitality of all the poets’ work results I think in all of us using all our senses more in all situations as well as in our writing! What a wonderful experience. Greetings from Shanghai, China this place where we are for three weeks!

   1. thanks for your comments, Kath Abela! hoping to cultivate this dialogue, & bring it into the new year…

5. I’ve been reading the posts on this site for a long time and enjoying the verses chosen. Many times I’ve been amazed at what can be said in so few words!
   Now I’ve ventured to submit some verses. Thanks, Kathy, for choosing one. We all appreciate the time you put into this section. I’m finding it such a challenge for my own verse-crafting.

   1. Wonderful, Christine! Thanks for submitting!

6. Thank you Kathy for these hiking trail sights and for including one of mine. These weekly haiku have become a real treat to look forward to.

   1. thanks for this, Sari!

7. Thanks, dear KJ, for this wonderful selection.

   1. my pleasure, Tsanka!

8. A lovely image in this one –

   waterfall trail
   walking through
   rainbows

   Greer Woodward
   Waimea, HI

   1. thanks for sharing this, Valentina!

9. Thank you Kathy for your care in putting together this weekly collection, and thank you Alan and others for adding your thoughts. I am sure that we each feel we’ve reduced our vision to its minimum expression in our haiku, but Alan has managed to find that single, beautiful essence underlying the words. I’m inspired to be even more succinct!

   1. Yes, thanks to Kathy, otherwise I don’t know if we’d have such an exciting feature to wait for each week!!!!!!! 🙂
      .
      .

      Peggy,
      .
      You said:
      .
      ” I am sure that we each feel we’ve reduced our vision to its minimum expression in our haiku, but Alan has managed to find that single, beautiful essence underlying the words. I’m inspired to be even more succinct!”
      .
      .
      I must hasten to state that your haiku is already succinct and wonderful, and incredibly stunning!
      .
      .

      this blackened tree
      draped in snow
      a different path
      .
      Peggy Bilbro
      .
      .
      What I wanted to show is that it is both deserving of several reads, which reads beautifully not only from line one through to line three, but in reverse too! And more, try also reading the lines in different orders, including line three to line one to line two.
      .
      Try it readers!
      .
      .
      There is further magic within the lines, words, phrases, of Peggy’s haiku, that could be missed for the over-zealous in wanting to jump to the next haiku. Jump back!
      .
      As a great beer advert said once, slow down, enjoy the ingredients.
      .

      1. Alan,
         What a superb idea! I always play with the line order with my own work, but I’ve never purposely done that with someone else’s poetry. It really opened my eyes to Peggy’s work, which is very well done.
         Thank you.

         1. Thanks Gary, and yes Peggy’s haiku is superb! 🙂

         2. Thank you Gary for your kind words and taking time to play with my poem.

      2. Thank you Alan, for revisiting my poem. My thinking is often circular rather than linear, which can lead to multiple readings! 🙂 I also often find that my original word order seemed perfect when I wrote the haiku, but when someone else suggests a change in the order, I realize how much better that can be.

         1. It’s rarely easy to know our final poem. There’s about 2 or 3 poems I’m revising, one of which cracks Karen up even more, as it’s about her. 🙂

      3. Alan,

         Thank you for pointing out how beautifully this haiku reads in changing the line order! Wow!

         1. Thanks Margaret! 🙂
            .
            It’s certainly fascinating how many options we can have for a final haiku by moving around words, even from different lines to create new ones.

            1. Thanks to Peggy, Alan, Gary & Margaret for sharing your comments here…

10. Kathy, thanks again for including me this week. Itya real thrill to be surrounded by such accomplished poets.

    1. It’s a real thrill Sigh

    2. Seems I can’t spell my own name, either. Back to first grade.

       1. Hi Bob,
          We should all go back to first grade now and then and see what we’ve left behind. 🙂

          1. Hi Alan,
             I’m reminded of Basho’s advice to someone wanting to know where to go in order to write better poetry – ‘go find a 3-foot child’. (Or words to that effect.)

             1. Well, as an occasional professional Mall Santa meeting humans from the age of one week old to several years old, you can always learn! 🙂

    3. thanks for submitting, Bob!

11. Many thanks today! First to KJ for selecting my haiku and making it one of this week’s featured poems. Next to Alan for looking at my images in a different way. Last, I’ve been thinking about Valentina’s piece all day. Utterly delightful! I’d love to come across a haiku in an unexpected place.

    And, as always, it’s remarkable to read everyone’s work and see how we agree or diverge on the week’s topic.
    Aloha,
    Greer

    1. Thanks Greer!
       .
       I’ve enjoyed highlighting aspects of our writing that we may not see but will effect at least some readers, and hopefully draw them back for a second, third, and many re-readings of our work over the years.

       1. And big thanks to KJ Munro for creating this whole enterprise where dialogue can happen around our haiku! 🙂

          1. Dear esteemed poet,
             Greetings! yes, another extension or innovative aspect of haiku,perhaps. Modern or post modern? Generally speaking.
             with regards
             S.Radhamani

             1. Dear S.Radhamani,
                .
                I think we are beyond modern or post-modern, just current and real, as haiku evades labels even if we don’t. 😉
                .
                Thank you so much for your comments and for saying:
                .
                “yes, another extension or innovative aspect of haiku, perhaps.”

          2. thanks Alan!

    2. Thank-you Greer for the compliment !

    3. thanks for submitting, & for sharing this, Greer!

12. Wow, another outstanding collection, Kathy, and then Alan’s outside corners completely make our words shift. I am glad to be a part of this. Thanks for allowing me/us to stretch my/our haiku wings.

    1. Thanks Nancy! 🙂
       .
       Yes, those ‘outside corners’ can reveal the power behind our words, and how they resonate, and how some readers might re-interpret our poems. I love people finding new meanings in my own work, whether intended or not on my part. 🙂

       1. Alan,

          Other people’s interpretations often provide insight we hadn’t considered. Or maybe it is just me. Of course, I write what I see/experience…and it may be superficial. Alas…

          Still you always see beyond the words, beyond the experience, and as a result make the words better, Alan.

          1. Hi Nancy!
             .
             You said:
             “Other people’s interpretations often provide insight we hadn’t considered.”
             .
             So true! 🙂
             .
             It’s like a photograph we’ve taken of a specific subject, and someone else will see something we didn’t intend to catch.
             .
             When I used to sell haiku fridge magnets and cards at Christmas markets it was fascinating what people said about the haiku. They never knew I was one of the poets, just a seller. It was all complimentary, and I wanted to take notes as they saw new things.
             .
             .
             You said:
             “Of course, I write what I see/experience…and it may be superficial. Alas…”
             .
             But haiku is about the superficial on a regular basis, that’s what we do, capture the smallnesses, the incidental, the mundane, and attempt to shine a light on them, against the glare of the bigger attention seeking objects and events swirling around that lone lost leaf!
             .

             she hikes
             the overlook trail
             the lotus in bloom
             .
             (Old Woman Creek in Huron, Ohio is one of two national estuary research centers on the Great Lakes; this creek meets Lake Erie)
             .
             Nancy Brady
             Huron, Ohio
             .
             Wonderful!!!
             .
             .
             You said:
             “Still you always see beyond the words, beyond the experience, and as a result make the words better, Alan.”
             .
             .
             I merely ask the reader who may or may not read once and move on, to stay a little and take a second read, and look ‘into’ and not just ‘over’ the words. I see the magic in your poem, and stayed. 🙂

    2. thanks so much, Nancy!

13. Thanks KJ. I did think Lucy Whitehead’s
    *
    the trail
    long closed to me
    travel wheelchair
    *
    does what I want haiku to do, or rather some of the things that haiku can do.

    1. I agree – a fantastic poem – thanks for sharing this, Mark!

14. very happy with the choice of my haiku Katherine and congratulations for this beautiful number

    1. thanks Angela!

15. thank you Kathy for sharing this awesome set of haiku!

    1. thanks for this, Hifsa!

16. kj–thank you for another terrific endeavor. Am looking forward to taking this ‘hike’ with everyone in the coming weeks. Congratulations & thank you all.

    1. my pleasure, Barbara!

17. Thanks Kathy for posting my haiku and for all your work

    1. thanks for this, Ian!

18. A Sense of Place: HIKING TRAIL – sight
    https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2018/10/24/a-sense-of-place-hiking-trail-sight/

    Other Worlds: “outside the corners of our eyes” –
    the in between of our lines of haiku©Alan Summers 2018
    .
    What is sight? For those of us who are ‘sighted’ how far do we see, and in how many dimensions?
    .
    Sound crazy? Well I devised Slip Realism which delves into lives and incidents on the ‘peripheral’, the world that exists mostly “outside the corners of our eyes.”
    .
    See how weaving in amongst your lines that another world might be revealed between the waking worlds we walk.
    .

    the top of the visible switchback
    Deborah P Kolodji
     .
     
    waterfall walking rainbows
    Greer Woodward
    Waimea, HI
     .
    the hillside cloud of goats
    Ingrid Baluchi
    Macedonia
     .
    climbing a blade of grass
    Réka Nyitrai
     .
    written on a rock
    Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
    Fairlawn, Ohio USA
    .

    mountain trail so I did
    Aalix Roake
    New Zealand
     .
    backpacks weighing shadows
    Adjei Agyei-Baah
    Kumasi, Ghana
     .
    desert man and vulture looks
    Adrian Bouter
     .
    falling leaves my childhood
    Alan Summers
    Lake District, Cumbria
     .
    feet in the birch
    holly berries
    Angela Giordano
     .

    chiaroscuro road and sky
    Angiola Inglese
     
    .
    a shadow glyph canyon
    Ann K. Schwader
    Westminster, CO
     .
    wandering the lake mirror
    anna maria domburg-sancristoforo
     .
    sunsets for my blind mother –
    arvinder kaur
    Chandigarh, India
     .
    changing leaves to a walk
    Barbara Kaufmann
    NY
     .
    finding ancient ones
    Barbara Tate
    Winchester, TN
     .
    hanging across the night sky dipper
    Bob Whitmire
    Round Pond, Maine
     .
    cobblestone handprint
    Bona M. Santos
    Los Angeles, CA
     .
    homeward stars
    C.R. Harper
     
    .
    my shadow a leech
    cezar ciobika
     .
    disappearing did the trail go?
    Charles Harmon
    Los Angeles, California, USA
     .
    children read paint on trees
    Christina Chin
    Kuching, Sarawak
     .

    seeing but sky
    Christina Sng
     .
    mist around the fawn
    Christine Goodnough
     .
    summer hike on the Big Sur two turkeys
    Claire Vogel Camargo
     .

    every stone and the flower
    Danijela Grbelja
    Croatia, Sibenik
     .
    under the bridge I’m walking over
    Devin Harrison
     .
    the trails a red fox darts
    dianne moritz
     .
    around the lake I’m a bridge
    Dubravka Šcukanec
    Zagreb, Croatia
     .
    kids compared to leaves
    Elisa Allo
    Zug, Switzerland
     .

    circling a red-tailed hawk
    Frank J. Tassone
     .
    the rainbow of the sherpa’s hat
    Giedra Kregzdys
    Woodhaven, NY
     .
    cricket steps
    Giovanna Restuccia
    Italy
     .
    night hiker’s moonstone
    Guliz Mutlu
     .
    in the mist ibex horns
    Hifsa Ashraf
    Pakistan
     .
    lost stories blood red
    Ian Ruitenberg
     .
    Pulpit falcons soar
    Judith Hishikawa
     .
    watching rock to rock mountain goat
    Kath Abela Wilson
    San Gabriel Mountains, California
     .
    the Hollywood sign stars
    Kimberly Esser
    Los Angeles, CA
     .
    Skyscraper Cumulonimbus
    Kimberly Spring
    Lakewood, Ohio
     .
    the map taking the heart
    Laurie Greer
    Washington DC
     .
    countryside of old cypress trees
    campagna Toscana … il profilo slanciato / di vecchi cipressi
    Lucia Cardillo
     .
    the hill path mandala
    Lucia Fontana
    Milan, Italy
     .
    closed travel wheelchair
    Lucy Whitehead
    Essex, UK
     .

    I walk my memory lane
    Madhuri Pillai
     .
    the dark forest from a leaf
    Marcyn Del Clements
    Claremont, California, USA
     .
    swamp the log eyes open
    Margaret  Walker
    Lincoln, NE, USA
     .
    the deer makes room
    Margo Williams
    Stayton, Oregon
     .
    rocky poising of a rattler
    Marilyn Appl Walker
     .
    back on the chosen path
    Mark Gilbert
     .
    moon dust of Buzz Aldrin
    mark rosenholz
    Albany, NY
     .
    autumn becomes a toad
    Martha Magenta
    England, UK
     .

    unculverted creek
    michael ceraolo
    South Euclid, Ohio
     .
    breath with what I see
    Michael Henry Lee
     .
    empty beer can in uncharted territory
    Michael H. Lester
    Los Angeles CA USA
     .
    turning colors of a fawn
    Michael Smeer
    Haarlemmermeer, The Netherlands
    .
    raised at the end nude beach
    Michele L. Harvey
     .
    Mountain boat well off track
    Mike Gallagher
    Achill Island, Ireland
     .
    the hermitage and crickets
    Monica Federico
     .

    the overlook trail in bloom
    Nancy Brady
    Huron, Ohio
     .
    fairy woods see it in dreams
    Natalia Kuznetsova
    Russia
     .
    the flight of yellow-billed choughs
    Olivier Schopfer
    Geneva, Switzerland
     .
    the old hike alone
    Pat Davis
    Pembroke, NH   USA
     .
    draped in snow a different path
    Peggy Bilbro
     .

    hiking with hummingbirds
    Philip Whitley
    SC, USA
     .
    autumn beeches lose sense of time
    Polona Oblak
    Ljubljana, Slovenia
     .
    hikers with tree roots
    Pris Campbell
     .

    the tree stump with time
    Rachel Sutcliffe
     .
    two eyes are not enough
    Radhamani sarma
    Chennai
     .
    trail new friendship
    Radostina Dragostinova
    Bulgaria
     
    .
    the cactus differently
    Rehn Kovacic
    .
    one billowing shirt at dusk
    robyn brooks
    usa
     .
    the stars too soon my journey
    Ron C. Moss
    Tasmania, Australia
     .
    speech saved for the bald faced peak
    ron scully
     .
    leaves drift into lookout
    Ronald K. Craig
    Batavia, Ohio, USA
     .
    river trail with an owl
    Sandi Pray
     .
    girls and boys each other
    Sari Grandstaff
    Saugerties, NY
     .

    the grass in all
    Serhiy Shpychenko
    Kyiv, UA
     .
    road the hollow hole
    simonj
    UK
     .
    helplessly looking
    Slobodan Pupovac
    Zagreb, Croatia
     .
    the long queue left alone
    Srinivasa Rao Sambangi
    Hyderabad, India
    .
    no cats only mosquitoes
    Stephen A. Peters
     .

    sunning the rock baby lizard
    Susan Rogers
    Los Angeles, CA, USA
     .
    the world inside eyes
    Teresa Piras
    .

    every step the trail
    Tim Heaney
    Atlanta, Ga.
     .
    the autumn forest in my hair
    Tsanka Shishkova
     .
    lost footprints
    Vani Sathyanarayan
     .
    my boots glacial grooves
    Victor Ortiz
    Bellingham, WA
     .
    pilgrims in each advancing step
    Vishnu Kapoor
     .
    hike of an eagle’s  nest
    Willie Bongcaron
    .
    Other Worlds: “outside the corners of our eyes” –
    the in between of our lines of haiku©Alan Summers 2018

    1. Thank you, Alan. Once again you have made a phenomenal effort to add more perspective on how our words can be perceived. I don’t know where you get the time to be so thorough and thoughtful!

       1. Thanks Pat! 🙂
          .
          I am incredibly busy, and our home is another step closer to being something special for haiku.
          .
          I’m fascinated by the words within our lines, taken away from our logical “positioning”.

    2. thank you Alan for this valuable feedback! 🙂

       1. Thanks Hifsa, those ‘outside corners’ can really show what extra things we capture in our words.

    3. Thanks Alan for your point of view, a new reading of the selection! Very interesting !
       Thanks Kathy for the opportunity

       1. Thank you, ‘outside corners’ is certainly an interesting way of looking at our verses, and what has been caught in between our words.

    4. Alan,
       Thank you for pointing that there is a world “outside the corners of our eyes.” And including a snippet of my poem. Much appreciated.

       Rehn

       1. Thanks Rehn! 🙂
          .
          Yes, snippets can sometimes show that we indeed have extra layers in our words that we might not be aware of, but can still effect our readers in a good and extra way.

    5. Again Alan a different perspective that broadens my knowledge base. Thank you and thank you KJ for once again meticulously choosing haiku that are a joy to read. It is a forum I learn from and am happy to have one of my poems chosen! Congrats to all.

       1. Thanks Margo! 🙂
          .
          It’s always fascinating to see the words in between the words, and can be a useful tool in itself, and certainly shows that we offer the reader far more than we realise, which is good! 🙂

    6. Fascinating. On first reading ‘closed travel wheelchair’ didn’t resonate. But then I realised that of course the wheelchair folds up, so you do ‘close’ it when it’s not in use. And the irony of the ‘travel wheelchair’ (or at least the folding kind) is that it is totally useless for most terrains, except pavements. So the world itself closes down in many ways. Of course, some people are not even able to use a wheelchair, so ‘closed travel wheelchair’ also includes other levels of disability.

       Thank you for finding the time to comment in this way. It’s very interesting being shown other layers in one’s own writing!

       1. I remember a great guy from Cornwall who couldn’t walk without a wheelchair, yet he helped the youngsters in his area, was a businessman travelling to Birmingham, in a sports car, was a DJ at night, and had a glamourous adoring highly intelligent blonde girlfriend. He never griped but inspired, even when the airlines messed him about over his wheelchair batteries. We never saw the wheelchair first, but gosh way back then, so little of our society was helpful, yet he helped hundreds of able-bodied people all the time.
          .
          As you know, I showed Karen in a mobility scooter at her blog, on Twitter, so I know how harsh society can be, but it’s slowly getting better, but more to do! 🙂
          .
          .
          the trail
          long closed to me
          travel wheelchair
          .
          Lucy Whitehead
          Essex, UK

          1. Alan and Lucy –

             This “travel wheelchair” haiku hit me right away! I have ME and am considering getting a folding power chair that will go in the trunk of the car. This may have convinced me.

             A different kind of “the power of words”.

             Thank you Lucy for the haiku and Alan for again pointing out those lines – and Karen’s use of a mobility scooter.

             1. Thanks Margaret,
                I’m glad Lucy’s haiku has resonated with so many people for various reasons. Thankfully the U.K. is getting a little better for British citizens and international visitors who use wheelchairs, walking aids, or mobility transport.

             2. Hi Margaret,
                They are handy and of course can give one a lot more freedom than one would have trying to walk when that is limited. Maybe there are ones that are suited to more heavy terrain too, I don’t know.

                Alan,
                That guy from Cornwall sounds amazing. I think I also had in mind that while some ‘trails’ become ‘closed’ because of illness (literally and figuratively), others open up. I wouldn’t have started writing, for example, if I hadn’t got ill.

             3. Hi Lucy,
                .
                That guy from Cornwall was amazing, and had so much charisma, and was open to learning, and from that, I felt I learnt too. Lost touch sadly, but I bet he’s still a wonderful force to be reckoned with, as that community really needed him, and he looked after them.
                .
                Certainly illness can get people writing, and I’m amazed how much good haiku does for people with chronic conditions in lots of unexpected ways.

    7. Yes, truly a point for discussion.

    8. Dear esteemed poet,
       Greetings! Sat down to read and reread the selections, wondering
       how words-in between of our lines, take us further. Happy to be included in this choice.
       with regards
       S.Radhamani

    9. Thanks Alan. Amazing, you reveal us another world, beyond sight .

       1. Thank you! I loved wandering the lake mirror in your work!

    10. Alan,

        Thank you for seeing what I had not – Pulpit-falcons soar – ! There are indeed eagle pulpits in some churches, but yes, definitely a connection there. And I was trying to be strictly literal and in the moment……

        Judith Hishikawa

        1. Judith,
           .
           Wow!
           .
           .
           Pisgah’s Pulpit Rock images!!! 🙂
           https://www.google.com/search?q=Pisgah%E2%80%99s+Pulpit+Rock&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwif_ZzywKLeAhXpCcAKHSo8BaoQsAR6BAgFEAE&biw=1440&bih=767
           .
           .
           You said:
           .
           “And I was trying to be strictly literal and in the moment……”
           .
           I’m finding more and more we can do both, in that we can be literal, but parallel to that is the ‘other literal’ because when it comes to birds, as I’ve witnessed, there’s a lot more to them than we realise, a bit like humans. 🙂
           .
           .
           I’m thrilled that Kathy Munro has got so many Sense of Place haiku out of us, as we don’t see enough in the journals. I hope that changes.
           .
           .
           below Pisgah’s Pulpit Rock
           falcons soar
           Willoughby sparkles
           .
           Judith Hishikawa

           1. A favorite hike. And in the winter there are ice climbers up the slope.

              1. Gosh, and I bet my wife, pre-M.E., would have loved the challenge of both!

    11. Alan –

        This is fascinating! Yet another way to look at our words – and play with them.

        I can’t imagine the time it took for you to put this together but I thank you for this wonderful insight.

        You have mentioned several times that you are readying your house for haiku (or words to that effect) – can you explain?

        BTW – when does enrollment for your next on-line class begin?

        1. Hi Margaret! 🙂
           .
           Our house now has back a fully functioning downstairs ‘restroom’ meaning toilet and shower facilities. We are close to getting the adjacent guest bedroom ready too!
           .
           So presently we are ready to receive visitors who want to have a workshop, manuscript appraisal, or any other kind of feedback regarding haiku, haibun, and other related genres.
           .
           There will be other surprises happening, so our home will be a great place for haiku poets and those interested in learning, progressing, improving, or newly discovering haiku and its relations.
           .
           When I first posted a variation of what I’ve done here, it took a whole day!
           .
           Now it’s perhaps a couple of hours because I’ve done the legwork around this.
           .
           Karen is catching up, as every month we get busier doing up the house (new roof next week) and a special wildlife aspect that is being filmed. We definitely want to unroll our new courses, and I’m excited about them all, of course, and another new haiku course called The Sound of Haiku:
           https://www.callofthepage.org/learning/haiku-courses/
           .
           We love your emails, and suggestions, and we’ve had a few enquiries via our contact page and via our newsletter. So don’t hesitate to prompt us. 🙂

           1. what a thread! thanks to Alan for engaging so many people here – & thanks Pat, Hifsa, Giovanna, Rehn, Margo, Lucy, Margaret, Willie, S.Radhamani, Anna, & Judith for contributing here – this made my day!

19. Thanks Katherine for including my haiku in the column.
    Congratulations to all the authors, I really liked these verses

    bringing home
    the sunsets for my blind mother –
    mountain trail

    arvinder kaur
    Chandigarh, India

    1. thanks for sharing, Angiola!

20. Kathleen Mazurowski used the word ‘meditation’ last week to describe her appreciation of all these A Sense of Place poems — equally relevant to this week’s selection, which offers such a wide spectrum of observation, location and experience as well as the haiku form. How lucky are we to have such a forum!
    Thank you Kathy for highlighting mine among so many others to enjoy.

    1. thank you Ingrid!

21. Dear Kathy, Greetings! Delighted to see my haiku here in this wonderful blog. As often I feel,
    very eager to look forward to this blog of colorful writes. Wonder at the meticulous care
    into this .

    with regards
    S.Radhamani

    1. thanks for this, S.Radhamani!

22. Hi Kathy, it is such a pleasant surprise to see my haiku featured this week. Thank-you for the great deal of effort you put into this column every week. Congrats to all the poets !

    1. my pleasure, Valentina!

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