Poetic Shutterbug

Photos taken at the Botanical Gardens in San Francisco. This is a guest post by Taylor Graham who writes a "paradigm," which incorporates several different Japanese forms. I have to admit I never knew about this style. Thank you so much Taylor. GOLD HILL SEASONS How does water know? Spring is a mouth opening. What does the earth say? We carry our seeds of trees and plant ourselves in new soil. Crossing the dirt path, a black bear steers by star-drift and breeze off the hills. What is hunger, what is home to make the owl mourn? River sluices yesterdays. Her winter memories are a silken pouch of words. On the long-moon nights what sharpens the heart’s small knife? A dawn garden weeps with dew. In spring the river remembers its song from far upcountry, held fast in snow. Trees blossom out of their names, we shed our cocoons. The dark bird circles a golden hilltop – its shade crosses, passes. Gone.

Photo taken of Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong - March 2008 orange sunset a tequila sunrise at last call Haiku and Senryu are highly creative and unique forms of poetic verse. There is the standard and most widely known 5/7/5 form and then there is the traditional Japanese form which is a bit difficult for me to explain so I will ask you to read the guide here over at Shadow Poetry. I am still practicing writing Haiku and Senryu in the hopes that someday I will master the verse :) Haiku and Senryu for me is like painting a picture on canvas using words. It's fun and extremely challenging. Try it, it will broaden your horizons. Enjoy!