A Sense of Place: MOUNTAIN – touch

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3. Each week, I am transported and delighted! Thank you, kj munro, for curating this amazing blog and for including my work.

4. Large number of poems on sense of place, many are nice but has the list of poems ended or still some to come like on Kanchenjungha?

   1. thanks for your interest – I am not familiar with the reference, but on this blog there is a new collection on a new theme each week – the next post will go up on Wednesday… details at the top of the post… hope this helps! kj

5. Just returned from a trip, and have had a chance to touch base with a wonderful collection. Thanks for including one of mine in this stalwart bunch.

   1. thanks for this, Nancy!

6. Alan, why don’t you lead a haiku workshop in Torquay – like a week-long haikupalooza on the British Riviera. I, for one, would love a good excuse for a pilgrimage to the land that gave us Basil Fawlty.

   1. wonderful idea Jennifer!

      1. Hi Marietta, and KJ,
         .
         Well I did a mini-workshop with Lynne Jambor (with Jacquie Pearce) a couple of days ago in Bath. 🙂 We certainly have a lot of Canadians and Americans popping over, so why not Aussies too! 🙂
         .
         We are going to be launching some special haiku events, and would love to include seaside resorts too. 🙂

         1. This is Jennifer writing – another American, alas – not Marietta. I’ll keep my eyes open for a Torquay haiku adventure. Just imagine – literary enlightenment AND a suntan all in one trip!

            1. Gosh, how did I make that mistake Jennifer! Apologies!
               .
               Well, we have had a flurry of US visitors to Bath and/or London, with just one more this September, as Hamilton is far cheaper in London than New York for them. 🙂
               .
               .
               We are based in the South West of England, and if you are heading that way let us know! 🙂

      2. Thank you, Kathy.

7. Alan, thanks for the clip of Fawlty Towers. The window scene is priceless… a heard of wildebeests…

   1. Have you ever heard of a herd of wildebeest, or heard someone speak Wildebeest as it was the only common language between a meeting of individuals from different tribes of Masai warriors with a welsh film-maker in the middle of the Serengeti? 🙂
      .
      Yes, there are still funny hotels and the like around the world.

      1. You make me laugh, Alan. I just see now my typo. And if I had seen it after it was sent, I don’t bother to send a correction message as, in today’s world, with auto-correct and such – – it happens…
         .
         There once was a wildebeest named Wilma,
         who had a twin sister named Selma.
         The two of them ran
         a deli in Japan
         specializing in gator bologna
         .

         1. Yep, I’m a bit of a wordster and love typos, they can often improve a haiku as well.
            .
            Karen’s wildebeest haiku, and yes she can really speak it as a language, as can most Masai too, might appear finally in print, as I love the poem so much, and ask her to not only read it, but speak a little of their lingo.

8. Thank you Kathy for having one of my haiku this week! Many accolades on these wonderful haiku which really do call out for rereading.

   1. thanks for submitting, Sari!

9. went through the poems again and enjoyed them as much, if not more, as the first time.
   thanks, Kathy, for all the good work to produce our weekly fix of haiku 🙂

   1. thanks so much for your kind words!

10. Roberta Beary’s haiku:

    mountain guide
    exploring
    my waterfall

    reminds me of T.S. Eliot’s THE WASTELAND
    “In the mountains, there you feel free.”

    1. yes, Roberta consistently produces strong / poignant haiku

       1. thanks for sharing this, Judith & Polona!

11. Another wonderful selection to savour! Thank you, KJ, for including mine!

    1. thanks so much for submitting!

12. Haha, I think I mean ‘sensory’!

    1. or did you…??

13. Thank you, KJ, for including my poem. It’s lovely to see here the wide variety of ways we have been touched by mountains.

    1. thanks for sharing this, Judt!

14. What fun! I think we all reached a peak this time! 😁 Thank you to Kathy and fellow poets for an amazing sensual mountain journey.

    1. thanks for this, Marietta!

15. Thanks for choosing one of my poems, Kathy. It’s a pleasure to read the poems each week. I did enjoy Judt Shrode’s poem. And those comments! Thanks, Alan. They make me want to read each poem again.

    1. Great! 🙂
       .
       Sometimes it’s all too easy to quick-read and move on, but these poems here, all of them, are certainly well worth another visit, and off and on through the rest of the year.

    2. thanks for sharing this, Corine, & for your comments, as always, Alan!

16. Kathy, thank-you thank-you for publishing mine !!

    1. thank you for submitting, Valentina!

17. …and thanks, Katherine, for including mine in this wonderful selection which includes many of my favs in the Sense of place series yet.

    1. thanks for this Michael!

18. Thank you KJ again! A pleasure to read these ku and I look forward to each new surprise every Wednesday!! Congrats to all

    1. thanks for this Margo!

19. I loved so many, but would like to highlight a few:
    mountain trail
    a flock of sheep
    touch one another by Mohammad Azim Khan

    holy mountain
    adding to the ecstasy
    a stone in his shoe by Mike Gallagher

    Thanks, Kathy, for including one of mine.

    1. thanks for submitting, Pat, & for sharing this!

20. Such a gorgeous selection of poems, well done to all of you 🙂
    *
    mountain time
    the found fossil
    my fingers stroke
    *
    Adrien Bouter
    *
    A wonderful moment. Found a small fossil on a mountain path that had been washed by rain, It looks like a part of a large daisy. A treasured possession.
    *
    mountain stream
    touching the coolness
    of moss and fern
    *
    Carol Raisfeld
    *
    Its the little things in life that can give the most pleasure. Lovely work.

    1. thanks for sharing this, carol!

21. Leaving mountains behind with all their facets expressed in these poems, I was particularly moved by the following two:
    .
    wrapping a scarf around the mountain’s soul :: twilight

    Réka Nyitrai
    .
    and
    .
    Appalachians…
    feeling something deeper
    than the need for coal

    Laurie Greer
    Washington, D.C.
    .
    Who’s to say that mountains do not have a soul when they’re so revered the world over? Yet I’ve seen whole mountains eaten away by dynamite and bulldozer, altering the landscape forever, leaving nothing behind but wasteland and ugliness, and wonder at man’s legacy.
    .
    Thank you, Kathy, for including one of my poems.

    1. thanks so much for sharing this, Ingrid!

22. Another great collections of mountain ku… Thanks KJ for compiling all these great pieces.

    1. thanks for this, Linda!

23. Thanks for another lovely set, Katherine, and for including me in it. I particularly enjoyed Alessandra’s velvet touch!

    1. thanks for sharing this, Helen!

24. Touching the Wilderness
    .
    .
    Touch of course can be as much about how the wilderness physically touches us, as much as we might trail our fingers, drag our feet, push through Sleeping Beauty overgrowth, as I’ve done. 🙂
    .
    .
    Too many to mention, here are just a few of the wonderful verses.
    .
    .

    Evocative lines, aided and abetted by alliteration, this is a wonderful example of a circular haiku where the first line can be repeated after the third line, and on into a loop.
    .
    .

    mountain time
    the found fossil
    my fingers stroke
    .
    Adrian Bouter
    .
    .
     
    Great opening line followed by wonderful following lines, so many of us can relate.
    .
    .

    straining for a finger-hold
    my cheek
    against the mountain
    .
    andrew shimield
     .
    .
    That stunning last line! It makes me read the haiku again to even more fully appreciate it.
    .
    .
    mountain face
    my fingers grasp
    the depth of stone
    .
    Andy McLellan
     .
    .

    far from home
    carved in a mountain –
    this foxhole
    .
    Bob Whitmire
    Round Pond, Maine
    .
    .
    As Bob had military service, the foxhole has double meanings. If anyone doesn’t know what it is like in a foxhole, watch the episode of Band of Brothers when they are in a winter forest during the Battle of the Bulge. I’m reminded of Michael McClintock’s famous haiku that may or may not be about a cat, or a G.I.
    .
    .

    A deft touch of craft using ‘actually’ that adds and doesn’t take away from the haiku:
    .
    .

    her tears
    when we reach the summit
    actually raindrops
    .
    Christina Sng
     .
    .

    I love the 2nd and 3rd lines as I can really feel that stumble! The use of I in lowercase makes an interesting extra visual to go with the sensation of stumbling over those small stones.
    .
    .

    mountain erosion
    i stumble over
    the pebbles
    .
    Hifsa Ashraf
    Pakistan
      
    .
    .
    Sometimes haiku hardly need anything, but those extra pair of socks. The whole haiku word by word and line by line is utterly simple but full of depth at the same time, and a joy to read out loud:
    .
    .
    autumn trail hike –
    an extra pair of socks
    in my pocket
    .
    John S Green
     .
    .
    Wonderful poem from worrystone all the way up to mt. fuji! So much feels said without ‘telling’:
    .
    .
     
    worrystone
    a little piece
    of mt fuji
    .
    Kath Abela Wilson
    Pasadena, California
     .
    .
    A pun regarding the name of the place, but suggesting the spiritualness of water:
    .
    .

    Bridal Falls
    my face wet
    behind the “veil”
    .
    Margaret Walker
    Lincoln, NE, USA
     
    .
    .

    Love the simple but tactile opening line, and that great second line followed by a wonderful line that it’s all stuck to our fingers, readers included:
    .
    .

     
    sap residue
    I bring the mountain home
    stuck to my fingers
    .
    Margo Williams
    Stayton, OR USA
     

    .
    .
    The signs for those of us who are not visual but blind or partially sighted add another texture all over again. They are often comforting to those of us with eyesight.
    .
    .
     
    at the summit
    the height in braille
    a little higher
    .
    Mark Gilbert
    UK
     
    .
    .
    The famous mountain, and the famous pen named after it, but here, out of the vastness of the mountain, is a keepsake of a pebble, all white. I hope not too many take the mountain down pebble by pebble though! 🙂
    .
    .

     
    white pebble
    I find a keepsake
    of Mont Blanc
    .
    Michael Smeer
    Haarlemmermeer, The Netherlands
     

    .
    .

    The method of suffering for our good, whether by religion or some other challenge, is an interesting one. Wonderfully evocative:
    .
    .

    holy mountain
    adding to the ecstasy
    a stone in his shoe
    .
    Mike Gallagher
    Ireland
    .
    .
    A wonderful last line that makes me read the haiku all over again just for the sheer pleasure of its magic:
     
    mountain trail
    a flock of sheep
    touch one another
    .
    Mohammad Azim Khan
    Pakistan
     
    .
    .

    From a wonderful opening line, to the middle line, all brought together by the last line. Just like Mohammad’s verse, but finely crafted haiku avoid the Western surprise line effect and give us something far deeper. Philip’s haiku feels very much like the zoka of a hokku:
    .
    .
     
    mountain fever
    brushing leafmold
    off mushroom caps
    .
    Philip Whitley
    South Carolina, USA

    .
    .
    The alliteration in the first line literally gives me the sensation of that sunshine bouncing of a slope. I love that middle line too! From one magical line to another we end with ‘touched by frost’ which makes me read the haiku all over again for its sheer embracingness of nature and poetry:
    .
    .
     
    sunlit slope…
    the glow of larches
    touched by frost
    .
    Polona Oblak
    Ljubljana, Slovenia
     
    .
    .
    Ah, new boots not really broken in, if at all, and already I am filled with trepidation and past memories! 🙂 I love that those blisters arrive at the peak with Pris, within the poem, not with the awful memory of badly blistered feet in old fashioned military poke boots:
    .
    .

    new hiking boots
    blisters arrive at the peak
    with me
    .
    Pris Campbell
     
    .
    .

    The folklore of dealing with nettle stings always worked for me, as they do in this subtle but deftly crafted haiku:
    .
    .

    after the sting
    of a mountain nettle
    dock leaves
    .
    Rachel Sutcliffe
    .
    .
    Here we have a little mystery, from a mountain ridge, the touch of a ‘herbal bunch’ or bunch of herbs, is undoing her spell. Is this a legendary personification of a mountain, or a wise woman who succombed to the mountain? Mystical and tactile at the same time, creating an extra magic:
    .
    .
     
    mountain ridge
    touch of herbal bunch
    undoing her spell
    .
    Radhamani Sarma
     .
    .
    A stinging tactile sensation not from the piercing wind but the cold slick touch of legal papers announcing the end of a union between two people:
    .
    .
    searching mountain wind
    a courier delivers home
    divorce papers
    .
    Radostina Dragostinova
    Bulgaria
     

    .
    .
    The double colon first started by Timothy Russell and years later by Grant Savage, and then Kala Ramesh, is ably used to great effect here:
    .
    .
     
    wrapping a scarf around the mountain’s soul :: twilight
    .
    Réka Nyitrai
     
    .
    .
    I wasn’t sure if the double spacing was intentional to go along with a potential double-meaning in the verse. The verse is both disturbing, as I hope I’ve misread it, yet perhaps it’s a genuine and consentual bonding with the mountain in so many and perhaps unexpected ways:
    .
    .

    mountain guide
    exploring
    my waterfall
    .
    Roberta Beary
    County Mayo Ireland
    .
    .
    The detour, swiss alps, crisp wind, and all from a train. I remember my own train trip through France and Italy, snow and mountains, and not a Poiret in sight:
    .
    .
     
    swiss alps detour –
    gusts of crisp wind
    from passing trains
    .
    robyn brooks
    usa
     
    .
    .
    Having seen tens of thousands of fruit bats against a blood red sky, over Ipswich, Queensland, I can try to imagine this wonderful image too! The wings scuffing the moon is how I saw the flying foxes that night, and this deftly captures how they scrape, scuff, and almost bounce off the moon:
    .
    .
    mountain peak
    the wings of a fruit bat
    scuffing the moon
    .
    Ron C. Moss
    Tasmania, Australia
     .
    .
    Great and unusual first line! The fact that the mountainside is our bare feet is brilliantly stunning too:
    .
    .

     
    octaves climb
    the mountainside
    my bare feet
    .
    Sandi Pray
     
    .
    .
    I love the opening line that deepens with that phrase of “I touch my father’s face” is beautifully wonderful:
    .
    .

    craggy mountains
    I touch
    my father’s face
    .
    Sanjuktaa Asopa
     
    .
    .
    Ah, that timing or blissful ignorance, brings that stinging slap back to me all over again:
    .
    .

     
    freshly broken trail
    the sting of a pine bough
    you let go too soon
    .
    Tim Heaney
    Atlanta, Ga
    .
    .
    Enjoy all the verses I have not included, and how they have approached the sense of touch in their own unique ways.
     

    1. Loved reading your comments, Alan! Thanks for including mine.

       1. No worries, loved it!

    2. Dear esteemed poet,
       Warm greetings! Reading over and again and again

       all the haiku selected and comments you have made. Thanks for including mine, humbled.

       1. You do have a lovely touch with your poems in Sense of Place. 🙂

          1. Dear esteemed poet,
             It is all due to your Best wishes. Many thanks.

             with regards
             S.Radhamani

    3. Always a pleasure to read your comments, Alan, we learn so much, thank you.

       1. My pleasure, and look forward to seeing you in person next month! 🙂

          1. Thanks Alan. I too am looking forward to meeting you both.

    4. Alan
       Thank you for your comments I loved reading them. After hiking with my family recently I had the pleasure of washing off sap for a few days off of my children’s hands. What a glorious memory to put into words.

       1. It was a great haiku as well as a great example to read for this week’s theme!
          .
          The wilderness certainly got on well with your children! 🙂

    5. a great selection with enlightening comments.
       thanks for highlighting mine 🙂

       1. The first line:
          .
          .
          sunlit slope…
          .
          .
          Is beautiful, but the phrase really blew me away!
          .
          .

          the glow of larches
          touched by frost
          .
          .
          Gorgeous!

          1. though larches are conifers they are deciduous and, especially in the mountains, turn from green to yellow to golden brown before dropping their needles. when the low autumn sun lights the slopes it does look like magic!

    6. Thanks Alan & KJ

       1. Thanks, all down to KJ, her lovely feature makes me want to respond! 🙂

    7. Thanks a lot, Alan , for commenting on my poem! Your wonderful comments make me see many other verses in a different light.

       1. Thanks Sanjuktaa, it was a really evocative haiku from you about mountains, the sensation of touch, and your father.

    8. Thanks, Alan! Little worse than wet socks . . . I keep a pair in the car for you never know when one might step in a large puddle. I also bring an extra pair of slippers when visiting friends for they often have a ‘shoes off’ policy, and then, again, my socks are in for it.

       1. Ah, the shoes off policy. 🙂 We often forget we’ve trailed our street or rambling shoes/boots through the detritus of dog or Friday night byproducts, that others might not want introduced to their carpet. 🙂
          .
          autumn trail hike –
          an extra pair of socks
          in my pocket
          .
          John S Green
          .
          Sensible to take the car back up socks on a ramble, hill or mountain climb. I remember my nephew trekking the Lake District and disappearing in a mud pocket. Thank goodness after the embarrassment he could laugh about it. Pretty cool for an 8 year old.
          .
          Wonderful haiku!
          .
          Say hi to Gary and ask him to join in with next week’s prompt!
          .
          Great seeing Jacquie Pearce and Lynne Jambor today, when are you popping over! 😉

          1. Do you mean to England? I would love to indeed. My father lived in Torquay, (is that how you spell it) the town where Faulty Towers—John Cleese—happened , on and off for a number of years… lovely place.

             1. I met Gary and his wife in Bath, England, where we had tea and cake at The Holburn Museum garden cafe, and yesterday chatted with Jacquie Pearce and Lynne Jambor, also having tea and cake there! 🙂
                .
                Yes, Torquay, and my sister-in-law lived there for a while. It’s Fawlty Towers, a play on faulty of course. 😉
                .
                I didn’t see anything while we stayed in places in Torquay that were like Fawlty Towers, but we’ve all stayed in places around the world like that from time to time. 🙂
                .

                This really made me laugh!
                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcliR8kAbzc
                .
                Torquay is lovely by the way, honest!

             2. Hello, Alan! I had been thinking of touching bases with you and saw John at our meeting last evening. You were quite the topic of conversation – all good! You’ve spurred me on to submit a haiku about meadows and I thank you for the nudge. John mentioned that he looks forward to each week’s prompt, so I’ve subscribed now as well.
                My best to you.

             3. Hi Gary! 🙂
                .
                I was meeting Jacquie Pearce, with Lynne Jambor, at Holburne Museum garden cafe, and said this was the birthplace of your wonderful story of bravery becoming haibun! 🙂
                .

                Gosh! I was “quite the topic of conversation”? But it was all good? 🙂
                .
                Yes, Kathy has created an amazing platform where we cannot forget to add something along with the visuals. The next prompt, deadline tonight, is a visual about meadows, but we shouldn’t forget we can add another of our senses. I’m lucky, we have a meadow, which hopefully isn’t under threat, as we have a massive development on scrubland next to it which was home to birds and wonderful insects.
                .
                Kathy’s feature every week has been really useful in so many ways!
                .
                October 7th I’ll be going through different meadows as I lead a Forage for Haiku Ginko!
                http://area17.blogspot.com/2018/08/workshop-alan-summers-foraging-for.html
                .
                We do have at least one American, maybe two or three, joining us, so feel free to pop over! 🙂

             4. Hi Alan,

                Yes, the comments were very positive! 🙂 Our group has grown nicely in the last few months. Victor Ortiz, Patrick Gallagher and Sheila Sondik have all joined and are invaluable additions.

                I’m glad you met with Jacquie Pearce in Bath. I had told her that you and I had met there. She was at Seabeck last year. We met just briefly; she was with the Canadian contingent – what a delightful group, from such a great country! They sang the Canadian national anthem for the group – it was quite spontaneous – and it was quite a hit. Ah… Canada. I shall be attending Seabeck next month and intend to touch base with her.

                I’m so glad John recommended this forum to me – it seems like a great community. Sheila mentioned at our last meeting how reading haiku from other countries brings her hope for the world – I agree whole heartily.

                As for your October forage – Sally and I must miss this one, but we’ll both be thinking of you and Karen.

                Take care,

                Gary

             5. We met Jacquie and Lynne, and Jacquie’s daughter just by chance this morning! 🙂
                Karen and myself were on a train on its way to London, pausing at Didcot Parkway, and as I was helped a disabled woman off the train, they were walking along the platform. We had a very fast hellos and off we went, but with brilliant lovely smiles as memories.
                .
                We are planning a lot more events next year, so keep checking our website in the New Year! 🙂

    9. Thanks for the commentary, and for mentioning mine. It is indeed the kind of foxhole one would encounter in Band of Brothers.

       1. This is a commentary by a young guy which is fascinating about the real sites of Easy Company’s foxholes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xUhT5_ySQY
          .
          Just like when I visited Basho’s summer grasses site, it’s difficult to realise that long and bloody battles happened there.

          1. Why Bob’s haiku is doubly powerful:
             .
             .
             far from home
             carved in a mountain –
             this foxhole
             .
             Bob Whitmire
             Round Pond, Maine
             .
             Although these foxholes are in a forest, you can imagine how horrific the situation must be in any war front past and current:
             .
             foxholes: Battle of the Bulge-Siege of Bastogne, WWII
             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlWICO6Nrxc

             1. Fascinating. So bucolic now. At some point the US Army decided that the term foxhole was too poetic, and it started calling them ‘fighting positions’. That’s about as unpoetic a term as I’ve seen. During my tour in Vietnam, no one called our holes fighting positions. I doubt they call them that now. “Ain’t no atheists in fighting positions.” Seriously? 😉

             2. Hi Bob,
                .
                In all sorts of big things, and war is both a big thing, and often, behind the scenes, as much as business in its organisation and financing, and where unfortunately we get in house buzz words and phrases.
                .
                Okay, foxhole might seem an odd term as much as ‘fighting positions’ and after all isn’t anything frontline a fighting position. In fact wikipedia have a list of useful terms etc…
                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_fighting_position
                .
                I’ve only been shot at once, and it was a single shot, and probably a BB gun that just sounded like a Section 1 firearm, and also buzzed right past my ear, and gave me earache. How people managed hours on end sometimes is beyond me.
                .
                I remember a young woman telling me about a sniper sending rounds down on her as she ran through a ramshackle factory floor trying to help an international aid charity. It didn’t stop her then, and she went back, but it was a chilling account from her.
                .
                It’s why your haiku is so powerful as it uses that nature or poetic term of foxhole, and people of my age remember the WWII conflicts from our parents, and from TV documentaries, as well as movies and T V dramas. And it seems we never stopped being at war as WWII seemed to be only a catalyst for the horrors we bestow on other countries. And usually from politicians who have never served in the armed forces, and the same going for too many businessmen too.

    10. Alan – & everyone – thank you so much – this thread is amazing! Wonderful to hear about tea & cake with Jacquie & Lynne (my fellow-Canadians!)… & if you visit the Yukon before I get to England, please do take off your shoes! (I think people do that here because for most of the year we are wearing felt pack boots that are covered with snow!)

        1. It is amusing that it might only occur to us to remove our ‘shoes’ if they caked in snow, of whatever colour, when we enter someone’s home. Our new place has no carpet on the street level floor though, so all good, and there will be receptacles for snow shovels instead of umbrellas!
           .
           Jacquie and Lynne were not only wonderful company, but incredible company! When Karen had to go to see about her faulty MacBook, I had further great chats, and a walk through the gardens of the Holburne Museum (Bath, U.K.) and then down to the famous weir in town. 🙂

           1. so glad to hear – they are having a wonderful time!

    11. Alan –
        Many thanks for your comments on my poem😊

        1. Loved those passing trains, they can really kick up a strong wind!

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