Summer 2013 Showcase

Reeds and Moon
© Jerry Dreesen

We’re at the nature center on a hot day in May.  Our boisterous group scrambles through tall grass and wildflowers to the frog pond.  A ridiculously narrow walkway curves around one side, right beside the water.  Our guide immediately tells us to sit down and listen.  She pulls armfuls of long-handled scoops and small flat pans out of a shed. Her instructions are simple: either sit cross-legged or lie on your stomach to scoop water from the pond, then put the water into your pan and look closely.  See what you can find.

One child refuses to sit down or even stay on the walkway.  He runs up the path and watches through the trees.  Another child just sits and stares at the huge bullfrog in the middle of the pond, wondering how long of a stick he needs to knock it off its log.  A few other boys decide it’s a lot more fun to stick their hands directly in the water and pull up muck from the bottom.  The rest of us plug happily along with our scoops, doing what we are expected to do.

Soon the complaints of heat and boredom turn into exclamations of wonder.  There are things in the water that we have never seen before – tiny, almost transparent beings.  Our guide tells us to think of a name for these new-found creatures.  We gather in a circle to share our pans of water, to help each other see what was hidden in the pond.  This child puts down the muck.  That child comes out of the trees.  They decide with loud voices to call the new creatures “ghost worms.”  Adults look at each other, whispering “Shouldn’t she teach them the real name?  How is this educational?”

In the end, she did teach us the real names, for those and all the other creatures we saw that day, but I don’t remember the scientific words.  I do remember the patience she had with us and the sheer joy of everyone in our group when we discovered something that had always been there – but we had never taken the time to look closely enough to see it.

And with that, I offer you the Summer 2013 Showcase.  I’d like to thank everyone who jumped in and made this a great experience for me, and I thank Marie for making this guest editorship possible.   So, go ahead — stick your hands in the water.   Let us know what you find.

Angie Werren
Guest Editor

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Carole Johnston

 

Dreaming
into the abyss
open window

 

day moon
in the garden
white roses

 

first
swallowtail
my daughter’s voice

 

sumi-e crows
rain the white sky
ink  trees

 

lilacs
scent of moonrise
I wait too long

 

fly way
monarch butterflies
orange crayon

 

moon rambling
through marigold alleys
she’s almost gone

Mountains
© Jerry Dreesen

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Mark E. Brager

earthshine . . .
in the pine’s shadow
a shadow

blue heron:
the weight of the sky
in your wings

morning mist . . .
the mountain slowly
rises

cracked sky . . .
the storm echoing
shades of white

hallowed ground
a brief silence then
cicadas

rainbow . . .
teach me the essence
of sky

floating down
stream the clouds weight
less

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James Rodriguez

rain shower
I put my morning tea
in the refrigerator

morning rain
hanging from the ancient apple tree
blue jeans

driving home
a ladybug clings to the windshield
at 65

morning sun
through the open window
doves cooing

gray day
that stiff line of-
marigolds

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Sondra Byrnes

 

her blind date–
not enough spice
in the ratatouille

 

wind slipping
through reeds
—shhhh

 

stepping stones
through the moss
—becoming smaller

 

moon through
the pines
—through me

 

the peony
i thought dead
—awakening

 

still night—
pine boughs waver
with each bird

Brown Mountain
© Jerry Dreesen

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Mark Holloway*

crows  //  hip hop from the mailman’s van 

 

too many thoughts all at once and the frantic wind chimes 

 

whatever life throws at me  //  appleblossom&hailstones 

 

after the rain  //  trees dripping with birdsong 

 

revealing each other  //  dust motes and a shaft of sunlight 

 

incoming tide  //  sunglint in the spin of the angler’s reel 

 

resolving itself around me shingle beach 

 

you remind me of someone i used to be  //  hillside stream 

*Due to the idiosyncrasies of WordPress, these offerings are not quite as originally presented by Mark. MM.

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Aubrie Cox 

 

saffron sun…
the geese split
into smaller V’s

 

first day of planting seed moon

 

summer solstice
the last
of the old curb

 

blue anemone…
tiny shadows between
the piano keys

 

river birch
a worm wriggles
out of my fingers

 

distant thunder
I take my pills
all at once

 

stepping out
into infinity—
the scent of pine

Shane 3
© Jerry Dreesen

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Notable publications received:

Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years
Jim Kacian, Philip Rowland, Allan Burns (editors)
2013, New York, W W Norton & Company, pp.439
ISBN 978-0-393-23947-8
Hardcover $23.95US
Reviewed here.

 

A New Resonance 8
Jim Kacian & Dee Evetts (editors)
2013, Winchester VA, Red Moon Press, pp.175
ISBN 978-1-946848-22-5
Paperback $17US
Reviewed here.

 

Don’t forget the latest issue of A Hundred Gourds.

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The next Showcase at the zen space will be Autumn 2013 which will be released, subject to karma, on 1^st October 2013.

Please note the copyright of all written work and images used in this showcase and elsewhere in the zen space is held by the creating artist/author, even where not explicitly stated, and may not be used elsewhere without permission.

Would anyone whose browser makes any part of this Showcase look peculiar please get in touch.

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