Poetry – Tranature

Haiku: Pond Meditation

view of a small pond flanked by trees leaning across the water

these memories
leaning across the pond
in the leaves

We’re delighted that this haiku is featured in Haiku Dialogue – Willow and Intro to Poet’s Choice, Troutswirl, The Haiku Foundation Blog, 31 July 2019. A very big thank you to Kathy Munro for putting this edition together.

Wishing you all a wonderful Tuesday,

with love from Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Settings: f/2.8 – 1/40 s – ISO 200, f/4 – 1/60 s – ISO 200 and f/3.4 – 1/200 s – ISO 400.

Sunday Stills: The Essence of Zen

Word of the Day Challenge: Gesture

Tanka: Mountain Frog

a golden striped frog sitting between stones, grass and wildflowers

side by side
letting each other be
the frog and I
his eyes a lake of gold
high up in the mountains

Wishing you all a wonderful Tuesday,

with love from Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/125 s – ISO 100 and f/2.8 – 1/320 s – ISO 100.

Sunday Stills: Close Up

Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Spacious

Haiku: Loch Broom

a small yacht anchored behind two old fishing boats in Loch Broom

side by side
anchor balls and fishing boats
a glimpse of the west

two old fishing boats anchored among leisure boats and rowing boats by Ullapool

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,

with love from Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Camera: Canon Powershot SX60 HS, Settings: f/5.6 – 1/1000 s – ISO 160, f/5 – 1/1000 s – ISO 100 and f/5.6 – 1/320 s – ISO 100.

Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #58: Something Old, New, Borrowed and Blue

Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Intrepid

Word of the Day Challenge: Glimpse

Haibun: A Day for Peace

In the city of seven rivers, doves are released into the sky as a symbol for peace. We remember how more than one hundred and forty thousand people lost their lives. Every year on 6th August, we remember.

The main river that feeds the others springs from the Chugoku mountains. The water is crystal clear and full of nutrients. There are crabs on the mud flats at low tide, cormorants fishing. In the middle of one of the rivers sits an island where herons nest. A survivor tells us, he loves to come here and watch the birds, fill his heart with hope for the future.

from the sky
on Hiroshima Day
a white feather

Wishing you all a peaceful day and our thoughts are with our friends in Hiroshima.

With love from Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/3.5 – 1/250 s – ISO 100, f/3.5 – 1/125 s – ISO 100 and f/3.5 – 1/160 s – ISO 100.

dVerse Poets Haibun Monday: Hiroshima Day 2019 – A Reflection on Peace

Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: Overhead

Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Intent

Haibun: Moving Earth

Knockan Crag Nature Reserve

Top half of the Puzzle Wall at Knockan Crag, Sutherland

The Puzzle Wall at Knockan Crag shows traces of tropical marine creatures in the bottom layers below a layer of lime-rich mud. Above rests an even older layer, nearly half a billion years old. Scotland was part of the same continent as North America back then. The closing of a huge ocean led to a collision of two continents and the force of this collision thrust up these older rocks to make them top of the pile. This at least, is the theory. Touching part of the puzzle with my hands brings up a tingling sensation.

layer upon layer
how the earth moves
truth’s her art

the trail at Knockan Crag with history depicted on painted stones

The clouds bring light relief from the blazing Summer sun. Along the trail we’re invited to take one hundred million year steps and follow Scotland as it drifts across the planet. Six hundred million years ago, Scotland is near the South Pole. Five hundred million years ago, Scotland is part of North America. Three hundred million years ago, Scotland is near the equator. We’ve seen the evidence of this in the beautiful rocks at Cove Bay, the sandstone reminding us the area was once a hot and arid desert.

rolling ball
a sculpture on the hill
mirrors our world

a close up shot of the Globe sculpture at Knockan Crag

Moss is growing between the slate on Joe Smith’s beautiful Globe. Ferns and heather release delicate scents in the breeze. The lochs are glittering below when we look back and see how far we’ve already traveled on this journey. Before we leave, my hand hovers above the Pipe Rock in the Puzzle and its gentle pulse. It makes me wonder what landscape we’ve come from, what landscape we’ll return to.

one by one
stags run down the mountain
into cooler seas

view west from Knockan Crag with the Globe sculpture in the foreground

You can see more photographs and another haibun from Knockan Crag in Deep Time on our sister blog Whippet Wisdom.

Wishing you all a beautiful Wednesday,

with love from Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: Sculpture

Twiglet #136: Truth is Art

dVerse Poetics: Movement

Haiku: Summer Cygnets

nurturing
stillness of summer
a swan’s love

a three week old cygnet pulling up an underwater plant with his beak

gentle breeze
pulling up pond weed
the cygnet grows

two three week old cygnets beside their mother, water splashing between them

two cygnets
between them the water
flies away

a three week old cygnet with water droplets on her beak and crown and downy feathers

At the woodland pond, there are only three cygnets left.

They’ve grown a lot since we last saw them and are now pulling the smaller pond weeds up by themselves.

Sitting on the bank and watching them for a while, it was lovely to see them already develop their own, unique personalities.

Wishing you all a peaceful Sunday,

with love from Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Settings: f/4 – 1/400 s – ISO 100, f/4 – 1/320 s – ISO 100, f/4, 1/640 s – ISO 160 and f/5.6 – 1/640 s – ISO 200.

Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #51: Unique

Word of the Day Challenge: Nurture

Sunday Stills: Stillness of Summer

Haibun: Fragrant Breeze

Assynt

We’re taking our time travelling the single track with here and there a passing place, used by many as a place to pause. People pause to take a photograph of highland cattle, their long horns glistening in the sun. Or photographs of ewes with lambs in tow, a fresh dot of red paint between their shoulders.

I pause to look at Canisp and Suilven. Towering above the landscape in the way only mountains do, they speak to me in the way only mountains can. In a soft and familiar voice they urge me to stay a little longer.

fragrant breeze
gorse blooms between the rocks
that call us home

Views of mountains Canisp and Suilven from the Stoer road with gorse in bloom

With love from Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/4 – 1/1250 s – ISO 160 and f/8 – 1/640 s – ISO 160.

Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #49: Favorite Things

Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: Road

Frank J Tassone’s Weekly Haikai Challenge: Fragrant Breeze

dVerse Poets: Open Link Night #246