journey's end (haiga)

What a beautiful prompt we have at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai,  Ghost Writer #26 with  Jen from Blog it or Lose it.  An avide writer, reader, poet and explorer of history and nature’s beauty.  If you visit her blog, you will come to understand this. 

Jen has introduced us to an American poet Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) she is known for many works of literature incuding Sonnets to Duse, Helen of Tory and Other Poems, Rivers to the Sea, Flame and Shaddows and Love Songs.  Jen says that Teasdale is probably bst known for three poems:  “Like Barley Bending”, “I shall Not Care”, and “Leaves”. 

 

Our inspiration today is to read this poem and share what it means to you:

 

Leaves (1917)  

 ONE by one, like leaves from a tree,

 All my faiths have forsaken me;

 But the stars above my head

 Burn in white and delicate red,

 And beneath my feet the earth

 Brings the sturdy grass to birth.

 I who was content to be

 But a silken-singing tree,

 But a rustle of delight

 In the wistful heart of night,

 I have lost the leaves that knew

 Touch of rain and weight of dew.

 Blinded by a leafy crown

 I looked neither up nor down -

 But the little leaves that die

 Have left me room to see the sky;

 Now for the first time I know

 Stars above and earth below.   

© Sara Teasdale

 

On my way to work yesterday I had extra time and took photos in the local park near the office. So what a delight to read this prompt today! This poem has several meanings to me and reading it a few times, I am sharing one interpretation.



(c) C.L.R.'14



 

journey's end

 

lavish leaves  

standing proudly

shading golden star

 

filled with amour-propre

confident with purpose

 

lost, in  foliage

missing meaning

only filtered light

 

trapped in splendid hues

meeting life’s trimester 

 

reds, ambers, yellows

swollen ego still persists

 filtered light

 

embracing nature’s third act

winds strip every vanity

© C.L.R. '14

 

shedding one by one

looking up to heaven,

journey’s end... alight.

 

© Tournesol '14

 

 

Posted by Cheryl-Lynn Roberts, 2014/09/23