Fortnightly Poem 7.B (Karen’s)

Because I’m about to run a workshop at a writer’s festival (Island Storytelling –Lamb Island, Queensland) my poems this week are a series of haiku poems on the elements and the seasons.

Haiku on the Elements/Seasons Unpublished

Earth

earth mother life source

slow bud- swell in the moist dark

fertility throbs

chickens the symbol

they scratch and shit, lay their eggs

nurture soil and us

Fire

turn of the season

fire and trees become our friends

start to stack firewood

smoke-waft smells sweet now

tamed in bonfires it comforts warms

wait until summer

Water

in la ninya’s thrall

full dams tanks wrong-green grass

dreading the brother

sick of all this rain

soggy boggy mould mildew

careful what you wish for

Air

frog’s skin absorbs air

canaries of thermal shafts

frogs now dying out

flutes oboes trumpets

homage to the gods of air

and didgeridoos

All…

bushfires floods earthquakes

mother earth is screaming now

when will we listen

Spring

wattle now dull brown

spring winds petal confetti

but air is kinder

Summer

earth now cries for damp

we long for all that cool rain

wind and fire threaten

Autumn

relish air’s warm breath

loving puddles even weeds

now sleep with cool nights

Winter

hard to leave warm bed

breath fog matches outdoor mist

but fire is our friend