A Sense of Place: MEADOW/FIELD – sight
A Sense of Place
In his essay ‘So:ba’, given at the International Haiku Conference (SUNY Plattsburgh, NY, 2008) and published serially in Frogpond, Jim Kacian discusses the concept of ba:
“If you look up ba in any Japanese-English Dictionary you’ll find it means “place” or “site” or “occasion”. And these are all true in the most general sense—ba is a pointer to a kind of awareness that something of importance is happening in time and space.”
So here we are…
In the following weeks we will get back to haiku basics and explore specific locations with an emphasis on the senses, and with the intention of improving our own haiku practice. Ideally, participants will select an actual location that they can visit, or a location from memory that they have visited in the past. Failing that, we always have our imaginations – and you’re invited to join in the fun! Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence. I will select from these for the column, and add commentary.
next week’s theme: MEADOW/FIELD – hearing
Listen to the sounds of this meadow or field – preferably the same one you have already had a look at – but, failing that, hear a memory or imagine the music or the noise…
I look forward to reading your submissions.
A Sense of Place: MEADOW/FIELD – sight
Shadows and wildflowers are the sub-themes this week…
open grassland
clouds intersperse
grazing sheepAdjei Agyei-Baah
Kumasi, Ghana
How often do we see animal shapes in the clouds – in this poem the clouds and the sheep and the shadows weave together across a vast vista…
wildflower meadow
the mix of colors
on my paletteDebbi Antebi
Ideally, in one form of haiku at least, a juxtaposition of two separate images is required, and what a wonderful picture this poem paints – again, by giving the reader only the barest of details…
scorched field not a blade in sight
Helen Buckingham
Here, once again, the poem with the fewest words somehow contains a number of interpretations – scorched by drought? by fire? a blade of grass or the blade of a combine?
flunking
the field sobriety test –
poppy seed bagelMichael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA
A timely piece, as the process of legalizing marijuana continues in Canada, not to mention an unexpected take on the theme…
Here are the rest of my selections for this week:
meadow breeze…
a dandelion flirts
with a daisyAdrian Bouter
mountain meadow…
with the evening breeze,
purple lupine waveAl Gallia
Lafayette, Louisiana USA
haymaking
the meadow packed
with blue skyAlan Summers
Wiltshire, England
fireworks –
rainbow splashes
in the meadowAlessandra Delle Fratte
dusk
the stillness of horses
in the fieldandrew shimield
hay meadow
children return home
flower by flowerAndy McLellan
picnic on the grass –
in childhood memories
my somersaultsAngela Giordano
early morning –
slowly in the grass
the first shadowsAngiola Inglese
following
the wind’s footsteps
autumn meadowAnn K. Schwader
Westminster, CO
waving grass –
the lonesomeness
of the autumn windAnna Maria Domburg-Sancristoforo
rice field
one shade darker
after today’s toilAnthony Rabang
paddy sowing –
a farmer’s first step
into sunrisearvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India
sun slant
across the meadow –
goldenrodBarbara Kaufmann
NY
nightwatch
blooming for the joy of it
moonflowersBarbara Tate
Winchester, TN
match day
a group of grazing birds
fly from the ballBlessed Ayeyame
Ughelli, Nigeria
across the meadow
in synchronized flight –
two goldfinchesBob Whitmire
Round Pond, Maine
land of Oz
miles and miles
of golden cornfieldsBona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA
cows in sight
field
of brownC. A. Harper (age 6)
(snowy field)
broad side of a barn
(snowy field)C.R. Harper
Mt. Rainier
carefully gathering a crown
of wildflowersCarmen Sterba
the meadow
taken by sunflowers
and daffodilsCarol Raisfeld
fields of Normandy
uncle left a leg
over thereCharles Harmon
Los Angeles, California, USA
autumn fields
crystal blue lake reflects
blazing maple treesChristina Chin
tall grasses
two fawns play
hide and seekChristina Sng
my mother stitches
a meadow full of flowers
memoriesChristine Eales
UK
mired in mud
I eye the distance
to the farmhouseClaire Vogel Camargo
dissolving
in a sea of golden rod
the ancient barnCraig Kittner
Wilmington, NC
the field of gold
a girl and her kite
are shadowsDanijela Grbelja
Croatia, Sibenik
summer holiday
lazing in fields
stacks of straw balesDavid Gale
Gloucester, UK
high winds
geese side-slip toward
the stubble fieldDebbie Strange
non-native grasses
the savannah sparrow
claims a fence postDeborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California
marine layers
fields of snake grass whipping
in the windDevin Harrison
moonlit meadow
a group of white-tailed deer
graze quietlydianne moritz
sunflowers field
the sunlight
in my eyesEufemia Griffo
harvested fields
I follow
the white butterflyEva Limbach
across the meadow
quaking aspen flutter –
autumn moonriseGary Evans
barn swallows
flit above
the rye fieldsGiedra Kregzdys
Woodhaven, NY
Po valley –
above the tall corn
a gloomy skyGiovanna Restuccia
Italy
first to cross
the fields of night
steady red beacon of MarsGreer Woodward
Waimea, HI
muddy field
the itinerary
of the cowsGuliz Mutlu
autumn meadow
all the colors
of my lonelinessHifsa Ashraf
Pakistan
a fallow field –
wild flowers free
to bloomIngrid Baluchi
Macedonia
dusky meadow
above the silence
stars bloomIsabel Caves
Auckland, New Zealand
spring snow
on stone walled fields
one corner turns greenJoanne van Helvoort
thunderstorm –
the lady bug back flips
off a blade of grassJohn S Green
littering
the entire meadow
daisiesJohn Hawkhead
unmowed meadow
wild flowers
at lastJudith Hishikawa
Morning dew –
the wild flowers trail
red and violetJulia Guzmán
favorite flower
her field self-seeded
with forget-me-notsKath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California
golden poppies
carpet California’s
meadowsKathleen Mazurowski
last year’s wildfires
the field now overgrown
with flame flowers(California’s state flower, the golden poppy, is also known as a flame flower)
Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles, CA
reaching their prime –
sunflowers
over my headLaurie Greer
Washington, DC
a crowd gathering
to view the eclipse
Sheep MeadowLori Zajkowski
New York City
hill field…
the combed land
for new sowingcampo in collina … la terra pettinata / per nuova semina
Lucia Cardillo
midsummer meadow
I look up from my picnic
to cowsLucy Whitehead
Essex, UK
prairie sunrise
fog drifts on grey wings
a hunting harrierm. shane pruett
oregon, usa
train commute –
heads crane
to view the meadowMadhuri Pillai
wildflower meadow
rainbow
underfootMargaret Walker
Lincoln, NE, USA
mown field –
looking for fireflies
at first eveningMargherita Petriccione
wildflowers steaming
in the morning mist
a subtle hint of AutumnMargo Williams
Stayton, Oregon
Tuolumne Meadows
a mule doe’s ears point
in all directionsMarietta McGregor
Canberra, Australia
equinox
fields of gold
steal the sunMarilyn Ashbaugh
Edwardsburg, MI
the sun rises
the sun sets
chasing the tumbleweedMark Gilbert
UK
Wisconsin prairie –
waist-high waves
of wildflowersMary Ellen Gambutti
Sarasota, FL USA
Queen of the Prairie
I straighten her crown
of wildflowersMary Hanrahan
Open field –
only a few years ago
a sports arenamichael ceraolo
South Euclid, Ohio
yellow fields…
only the shadow of
a scarecrow’s hatMichael Smeer
Haarlemmermeer, The Netherlands
as if dawn
opens a thousand eyes…
wildflower fieldMichele L. Harvey
a red tractor
ever decreasing
the standing cropMike Gallagher
Kerry, Ireland
Fall River meadow
surrounded by snow-capped peaks
alpine flowers singMike Stinson
cool afternoon
a picnic mat
on the meadowMohammad Azim Khan
Pakistan
Late September –
clouds shadows running fast
on the plowed fieldsMonica Federico
tall grasses wave
in the meadow
blue bird boxesNancy Brady
Huron, Ohio
harvested fields…
the shabby scarecrows
redundantNatalia Kuznetsova
Russia
sun on meadow –
glitter the dew
evaporatingNazarena Rampini
Italy
driving home…
every field
like our fieldNicholas Klacsanzky
wildflower meadow
the invisible life
of soil organismsOlivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland
hay fields
a silent nod
to the sunPat Davis
Pembroke, NH USA
winter drought –
trees’ tinfoil leaves glitter
in the paddocksPauline O’Carolan
bone sky
above harvested corn
long vees of geesePhilip Whitley
your death anniversary
deer in the corn stubblePolona Oblak
Ljubljana, Slovenia
yellow wildflowers how he describes his youth
Pris Campbell
open fields
so much
we don’t seeRachel Sutcliffe
field
her draft of poems
cow’s gazeRadhamani sarma
dandelions meadow
is she still looking
for a donorRadostina Dragostinova
Bulgaria
barbwire pasture
the gate left open
for a guestRandy Brooks
desert meadow
cactus and
creosoteRehn Kovacic
village green –
summer thistles
in hot windRéka Nyitrai
cornfield dare
the confusing maze
of childhoodRoberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland
old plantation –
fistfuls of wild violets
on fieldstonesrobyn brooks
usa
sunlit grasses
running through what’s left
of summerRon C. Moss
nature center
walking among native plants
a transplant(this poem was inspired by my stewardship as an Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist at the Cincinnati Nature Center, Milford, Ohio, USA)
Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH USA
on the green grass
the different colours
of the wild flowersRosa Maria Di Salvatore
abandoned field
more wildflowers
than i can nameRuth Powell
harvested field
the hay bales
of wishesSanjuktaa Asopa
in the hay meadow
my dad’s straw hat
moves straight across the horizonSari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA
clamped between field and clouds
dense fogSerhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, UA
sunrise
inside the crop circle
brock probes the earthsimonj
UK
sowing –
the birds on the arms
of the scarecrowSlobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia
green meadow
pruned grass behind
the cattle herdSrinivasa Rao Sambangi
Hyderabad, India
poppy field
tracing my way
back to childhoodStephen A. Peters
almost unseen
her hat
in the heatherSusan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA
June meadow –
the caress of the wind
among the poppiesTeresa Piras
posing for facebook
stilted kisses
among the sunflowersTia Haynes
Lakewood, Ohio, USA
sunflower bed
dreaming
about stardustTiffany Shaw-Diaz
Centerville, Ohio
cool shadows beckon
where the field meets the tree line
noon day sunTim Heaney
Atlanta, Ga.
morning moon…
sinking slowly into
the high grassTomislav Maretic
pink kite…
cosmos fields
in bloomTsanka Shishkova
snow-covered field…
horses with bent necks
grazingValentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA
countryside…
blue meets green
at the horizonVandana Parashar
in the meadow
swallows swoop up insects
behind a running dogVictor Ortiz
Bellingham, WA
on meadow grass
spills pearls –
the morning dewVishnu Kapoor
Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada and an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets. She recently co-edited an anthology of crime-themed haiku called Body of Evidence: a collection of killer ’ku.
This Post Has 79 Comments
Comments are closed.
Thanks a lot, Katherine, for selecting my haiku.
I really enjoyed the entire selection.
Particularly these ones:
Last year’s wildfires
the field now overgrown
with flame flowers
Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles, CA
In the hay meadow
my dad’s straw hat
moves straight across the horizon
Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA
thanks for sharing this, Monica!
I’m delighted and honoured that my meadow haiku was selected for Charlotte Digregorio’s Writer’s Blog!
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web link:
https://charlottedigregorio.wordpress.com/2018/09/22/daily-haiku-sept-23-2018/
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The meadow haiku was actually written on my birthday for Kathy’s sense of place challenge, thank you for the fantastic sense of place series you have created here! 🙂
Wonderful news! It is so rewarding to hear about new work being written as a result of this feature… and even more so as it makes its way out into the world!
Congratulations, Alan!
Thanks to your nudging us not only to write haiku about sense of place, but to bring in various of the senses. I’ll definitely be including one or more in a special book I’m doing. 🙂
that’s fantastic, Alan!
Congratulations, Alan!
Oops. Quite a latecomer here. Thank you kjmunro for your comment on my haiku. It was a great delight to find my piece up there just like the sheep i found blending into the clouds.
my pleasure Adjei! thanks so much for your comments here, & for submitting!
I thought these two are stunning!
high winds
geese side-slip toward
the stubble field
Debbie Strange
first to cross
the fields of night
steady red beacon of Mars
Greer Woodward
thanks for sharing, Carmen!
Thanks Kj for this wonderful selection.It Is an honor to be part of It. Congratulations from Argentina to al the haijin.
my pleasure, Julia! thanks for this
Lovely selection, as ever.
My favourite this week:
—
as if dawn
opens a thousand eyes…
wildflower field
—
Michele L. Harvey
thanks so much for sharing this, Lisa!
Particularly glad to have this weekly comfort right now. Hurricane Florence put a hurting on us here in North Carolina. My eyes are heavy with sights of storm damage. Having ridden out this storm, I have renewed love for small, everyday joys.
Thank you kj for including me.
A few favorites for this week:
the sun rises
the sun sets
chasing the tumbleweed
Mark Gilbert
UK
cornfield dare
the confusing maze
of childhood
Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland
barbwire pasture
the gate left open
for a guest
Randy Brooks
poppy field
tracing my way
back to childhood
Stephen A. Peters
Simplicity and acute awareness of time’s passage.
Peace.
particularly good to hear from you Craig – thanks so much for sharing this, & know that many are thinking of you & your neighbours at this difficult time… stay safe
Thank you, dear KJ, for selecting another one of my poems. I have enjoyed the selection and am proud and excited to be a part of it.
thanks for sharing this, Tsanka! thanks for submitting!
Thank you much for including my meadow haiku among these, Kathy! And I love all the comments as well from everyone. They really encourage me to read deeper.
wonderful to hear this, Sari – & thanks for submitting!
Thank you KJ for including mine in your selection! Enjoyed reading each of them.
thanks for submitting, sanjuktaa!
I enjoyed reading this week’s selection and the comments. Wonderful!
thanks for sharing Corine!
Another good collection, thank you for selecting mine.
I really liked the haiku of the field in Normandy,
It made me think of the grass of Basho warriors
thanks so much for your comments, Angiola
Every week the commentary is so educational and motivational. Thanks to every poet and to Kathy and Alan for this opportunity to share. I am so honored to be included.
Thanks Pat and all the poets! 🙂
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It’s purely Kathy’s doing, I just get inspired to comment on what she has brought us.
Alan & Pat – thanks so much to you both for this!
Thanks for publishing mine Kathy! Really enjoyed the selection this week. Just wanted to add a reference for my haiku…it was written after William J Higginson’s well-known haiku ‘I look up/from writing/to daylight’ in Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years, Eds J Kacian et al. 2013, p43).
thanks for submitting, Lucy, & for adding this reference
Thank-you Kathy for publishing one of mine. I enjoyed this nice haiku from a six-year old child.
cows in sight
field
of brown
C. A. Harper (age 6)
wonderful! thanks for sharing this Valentina!
Alan, like the others, I agreed with your comments about the “scorched earth.”
Margaret Walker
Thanks Margaret!
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I guess both knowing Helen’s work in general really well, and the violent history of Britain I could see it might mean both weapons as well as farming implements. After all, some farming equipment was used in warfare where people didn’t have the money to purchase swords I guess.
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Helen’s wonderful collection Water on the Moon, for anyone who hasn’t got a copy, is available in print, or as a PDF: http://area17.blogspot.com/2010/06/water-on-moon-haiku-collection-by-helen.html
& thanks for promoting poetry, Alan!
thanks for sharing this Margaret!
@Alan Summers
your haiku speaks to me; thank you! it stands out among the many quality haiku / selected submissions.
best akways, Roberta
Thanks Roberta, that is very kind! 🙂
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I had a number of versions as I travelled with Karen, and she was very tough, and said only that version spoke to her. She can be really scary but is always right, when I dare show her any of my haiku drafts. 🙂
thanks for sharing this Roberta
Blown away by some of these ku! Love the vivid imagery. I am grateful to be included as well. Thank you KJ!
As I’ve said before, I couldn’t do it without you poets – thank you for submitting! & for your comments, Margo!
So happy to be included! Thanks, Kathy!
thanks for submitting, Mary!
Dear Kathy,
Greetings! Going through again a wonderful blog – all by gifted writers and your
careful choice- a pleasure. Gifted to be one among them selected here. Humbled.Many thanks
for this. Again going through all – wondering, how best I can improve.
with regards
S.Radhamani
thank you for your kind words!
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in the meadow
swallows swoop up insects
behind a running dog
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Victor Ortiz
Bellingham, WA
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Great to see more of the Bellingham poets here Victor!
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I’m reminded of Australian ‘Welcome Swallows’ dipping/scooping into road puddles and swimming pools too! 🙂
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I love this phrase!!!
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swallows swoop up insects
behind a running dog
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Full of action, and a great visual too! I’m also reminded of a River Kingfisher leaving the River Avon to fly literally under the nose of a dog (on a leash) in a park/field and by a small tree. I don’t think dog or humans saw this but me. 🙂
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Love your haiku!!!!
In Chinese culture, ‘running dog’ is an insult – see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_dog
What is an insult in one language is the reverse in another language and culture.
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e.g.
Native American Indians GUIDES & BRAVES lists ‘Running Dog’. And I published a haibun called Running Dog which was a part ekphrastic response to the famous Apple Chase artwork.
Yes, Victor is a wonderful addition to our Bellingham Haiku Group. We have initiated a monthly ginko to our meeting with Victor’s encouragement.
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I also loved Victor’s haiku—it is so visual—and I’ve been walking many dogs lately in ‘off leash’ parks where they can run creating mischief and opportunity.
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in the meadow
swallows swoop up insects
behind a running dog
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Victor Ortiz
Bellingham, WA
It does sound like a great haiku group! We don’t have as many haiku groups in the U.K. but I am getting mine and Karen’s house up enough for visitors who might write haiku as well. 🙂
Thank you Alan! I think the one I saw was a Barn Swallow out at Discovery Park in Seattle, WA. Always happy to learn the names of new birds like the Welcome Swallow in areas of the world that are new to me! And since I am new to Bellingham, I’m learning about so many birds in the PNW that are unfamiliar to me. Love that image of the River Kingfisher!
thanks Alan, Mark, John & Victor for your comments here!
HI Victor!
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Cool, Barn Swallows!
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Ah, yes, the River Kingfisher, no one would believe me, but I have witnessed birds do things that aren’t even caught on TV documentary filming. The same with Karen, a TV documentary film maker, she’s seen things in our new special back garden, that’s I’ve missed. 🙂
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In Sri Lanka, along the mangroves by the eco-lodge hotel complex, I saw almost every single kind of kingfisher, in a special tour for just myself and Karen. It was awesome to see a proliferation of kingfishers, both river and mountain ones.
This theme has prompted many elegant takes – thanks KJ for including mine (although not elegant)
I disagree!
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Tumbleweed is iconic, it takes me back to many an afternoon of watching my earliest Western movies in black & white back to back as a child! 🙂
I particularly liked the bold double meaning in line 3 of Charles Harmon’s poignant ‘fields of Normandy’, as well as Giovanna Restuccia’s possibly profound ‘Po Valley’, and Radostina Dragostinova’s moving ‘dandelions meadow’. And these weren’t even the elegant ones ….
I think elegant is over-rated. 🙂
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On the other hand, these are elegantly executed haiku in their own way.
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Always amazes me that there are at least 400 different types of dandelion.
Agreed. I don’t think haiku have to be beautiful or elegant.
thanks, as always, for submitting, Mark!
Thanks for another great set, Katherine, and for picking mine out again to comment upon.
Alan – your final interpretation is right on the money.
Hi Helen,
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I was hoping I was wrong, as in looking up scorched earth policies, we really copied the Roman Republic etc… and did horrible things to both the Irish and those in South Africa, to name but two nations.
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An intriguing one line haiku:
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scorched field not a blade in sight
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Helen Buckingham
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May I include it in my monoku feature?
http://area17.blogspot.com/2016/12/travelling-single-line-of-haiku-one.html
Yes, you’re welcome, Alan!
Cool! I’ll post it later this evening, thank you! 🙂
Scorched earth is now up!
http://area17.blogspot.com/2016/12/travelling-single-line-of-haiku-one.html
Yes, I felt you may have been saying that unfortunately we can achieve much more havoc nowadays without the use of shiny blades … but it also applies to modern agricultural practices ….
& thanks for your comments Mark & Alan!
thanks for submitting Helen!
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scorched field not a blade in sight
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Helen Buckingham
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Having lived in Australia, in the Queensland state, the verse could be about backburning by agriculatural practice; or carelessness or arson.
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But with “not a blade in sight”, and the author living in Britain, I thought of the Medieval Ages where off and on for decades there was constant warfare, with each other and with others, with sword, spear, arrow, and scorched earth policy, a trick learnt from the Romans and those before them too:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth
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I don’t know of the author’s intent, only that for me, there is a chilling pun that there are no blades of grass and also no blade type weapons, as the destruction to land and people has been fully accomplished.
Love your take (explanation) on this, Alan. The scorched earth policy is still used today…past and present colliding in an excellent ‘ku.
Thanks, Kathy, for another thought-provoking collection. I appreciate being a part of this column.
Nancy Brady
thanks for this, Nancy
Dear esteemed poet,
Warm greetings!
“scorched field not a blade in sight” reading over and again and again and your subsequent
comments:
“don’t know of the author’s intent, only that for me, there is a chilling pun that there are no blades of grass and also no blade type weapons, as the destruction to land and people has been fully accomplished”.
here is my opinion, almost similar.
Long ago, while travelling by train within India, a similar scene of all burnt out crops,nothing but black embers,in unfenced land ,cattle and sheep wandering nearby. Upon curiosity, my
co passenger from a typical hamlet ,clarified,that due to aridity,when rains fail, people run amuck and burn all the dried ones- another way of giving vent to their anger- a form of sabotage. Literal scorched field , both– propitiation to gods praying for rains and destroying
all extreme steps- what to do.
Dear Radhamani sarma,
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That is shocking!
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If the majority of people on this planet simply worked together, there would be plenty of water and food, and shelter, and safety, from the corporations and politicians who manipulate us mercilessly.
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Thank you for your comment, we are such a contradictory human race alas.
Such a wonderful array of poems, congratulations to you all. A marvellous selection, Kathy.
*
What a brilliant comments about the scorched earth, Alan.
I certainly agree with your above comment.
thanks for this carol
I agree, Alan – what an amazing thread of comments here – I am impressed with all the places that just one little gem of a poem can take us… & every week there are so many gems!
thanks, kj
thanks so much for sharing this Radhamani sarma
Dear Kathy,
it is my pleasure and privilege, Really this blog is taking us far beyond our
reach! Amazing.
with regards
S.Radhamani