Tag: Haiku

Spring Declaration

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the talented Marcie Flinchum Atkins on her blog. Thank you for hosting, Denise. I did not get to read posts this week and I apologize. I’m working on a poetry collection I had critiqued and now am revising. It isn’t easy, but I’m moving forward, where to, I’m not sure. I am thrilled that I signed up for the Highlights Poetry Palooza this November with Georgia Heard, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Irene Latham, and Charles Waters.

It’s warming, in the forties here in Syracuse today, The FORSYTHIAS are budding:

The DAFFODILS have arrived:

So I want to declare something. 

DECLARATION BASED ON THINGS SEEN

Forsythia buds
Patches of bright daffodils
I declare it spring! 

©Janice Scully 2025

I feel, like many, that I have so little control over life these days. So many things that I took for granted, maybe too much, are changing. So why not declare something? I do believe that nothing, at this moment, could possibly prove I’m wrong today when it comes to spring. It is definitely coming to Syracuse.

My husband and I look forward to attending a local political protest on 4/5. I’ve never in the past felt as if I was propelled to take a stand against anything, such as DOGE, quite like I do now. This feels urgent and it’s fueled by hope.

My OLW for 2025 is HOPE, and I’ve neglected the poor little word. So here is my first poem.

HOPE

Hope makes you sign up 
Paint a poster, demonstrate,
believe it matters.

© Janice Scully

Have a great weekend. Thank you for posting, Marcie! I look forward to reading posts this weekend.

A President Millard Fillmore Haiku

Welcome to Poetry Friday. This week hosted by teacher and poet Margaret Simon Here at Reflections on the Teche. Thank you, Margaret for hosting!

Ten years ago, I completed a haiku project about the American Presidents. I wrote a haiku or tanka about something specific about each life and a short factoid to fill in a fact or two. I thought I’d share what I wrote about Millard Fillmore, who was born in Upstate New York in a town called Moravia. There is a state park in Moravia named for him. You will find water falls, a swimming hole and walking trails.

Waterfall at Millard Fillmore State Park

Fillmore was President during the Compromise of 1850 which was an attempt to appease the South. Part of the agreement was to allow federal Marshalls to cross state lines to hunt down runaway enslaved people in the North and return them South.

We all know the Compromise of 1850 failed. The South could not be appeased, but the law was tested out:

In October 1851 the Marshalls came to Syracuse to capture a fugitive named Jerry. But famously, they failed miserably. The citizens in Syracuse, white and black, rescued him from jail and spirited him to nearby Canada in an event known as The Jerry Rescue. In the link you can see the sculpture dedicated to this event.

Here’s my haiku about President Fillmore, who is not on the top ten list.

Millard Fillmore


Hate was mounting—why
could you see only money
in a field of cotton?

#13 MILLARD FILLMORE (1850-1853) Mr. Fillmore, failed to see that slavery was immoral. In 1848, he was concerned only about the United States economy and cotton, which, at the time, depended on slaves.
___


This haiku seems relevant today, as everything has a price. The pesky needs of humanity inconveniently keep getting in the way of world peace, as Fillmore discovered.

Thank you, Margaret for hosting. I’ll be hosting next week. See you then.

Weathervane Seagulls

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the talented Denise Krebs HERE. Thank you, Denise, for hosting!

It has been a busy week. After struggling with a failing laptop, I finally replaced it. So it’s a thrill to transfer my writing to a new computer which actually inspired me to get to work on some revisions. I feel like I’m getting a new start! My non-fiction poetry collection about “Team Digestion” received some needed cutting and a rework of its story line. Now what will I share this week?

Here’s two photos and haiku:

Earlier this winter in California, I would use the seagulls on the beach to tell me which way the wind was blowing. It seems that gulls face into the wind so they can remain upright and not blow over. The wind was so strong it almost blew walkers over. I loved seeing them standing together, all in the same direction, like soldiers.

On a breezy day
Seagulls gather together
To brave the west wind

©Janice Scully 2025

Here’s another sighting. The beach was less crowded, but still, they all faced the wind. 

Seagull weathervanes
—today facing down
a stinging east wind

© Janice Scully 2025

I can’t let my mourning for the loss of respect and decency in our country take the joy from my life. There is no time for that. I am so grateful for my little grandson, Tommy, now already 2 months old and growing bigger every day! I look at a picture that comes every day and feel such joy and hope.

Have a great weekend!

Welcoming a New Baby

I have been away from Poetry Friday since August and am delighted to be posting again. I was worried I’d be too rusty or my website wouldn’t know me. But now as I write, it seems like I never left.

My little grandson was born in a big rush two days before Christmas, eight weeks early, miles away in California and the sea.

So my husband Bart and I left snowy New York

for chilly northern California.

In the December Christmas Poetry Swap organized by Tabetha Yeatts, I received this lovely poem written by Tabatha. She knew I was awaiting my first grandchild.

EMERGENCE
      for Janice by Tabatha Yeatts

A New Baby,
like a sky vibrant
with the northern lights,

draws us together 
where we gaze 
exhilarated

upon this gift--
The world,
Illuminated.

I love “like a sky vibrant.” Every child is so different and each “illuminates” the world in a new way.

But now, on January 31st, Tommy Bartholomew has been with us a month. He was born quite early, and we were so worried! But thankfully, he is fine, and will be able to leave the hospital soon.

I wrote this in response to Tabatha’s poem:

FOR TOMMY B. 

we will watch; 
wait each day
as this new star
marks his path.

Will we understand
what he brings 
from so far away?

We will make sure he knows
he is part of a family
and we have been waiting
breathlessly to meet him
 
in our world of oceans,
rocks, and endless sky.


©Janice Scully 2025


POETRY SISTERS prompt:

Tricia, one of the POETRY SISTERS suggested we write a tanka followed by a haiku in response to it. It was written in honor of the doctors and nurses in the N.I.C.U at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. It was a wonderfully supportive place, kind and professional.

THE N.I.C.U. December 23, 2024

in between two worlds
a tiny boy, eyes still shut,
cannot leave here yet.
kind nurses swaddle and feed,
keep him warm and safe.


sudden arrival!
doctors hustled late at night,
work that never ends.

© Janice Scully 2025

I’ve anticipated claiming a new little word this year and I think it has to be HOPE. Hope for all babies, all families, hope for our country. I’ll see what I can come up with. Happy Belated New Year, everyone!

Summer Swap Coneflowers and Flutter Flags

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Rose HERE. Thank you, Rose for hosting.

This week I received a few art treasures in the mail from Jone MacCulloch. It is part of a summer swap organized by Tabatha Yeatts. Thank you Tabatha!

Jone Macculloch is a multitalented artist and poet. I received the notecard, seen at the top of the above photo, with the following haiku inside:


  flutter flags
 raven merriment 
   summer days

© Jone MacCulloch

On her watercolor painting of coneflowers were two more haiku:

coneflowers
pollinators buzz,
dart carefree

© Jone MacCulloch

summer phlox
dances in the garden with 
pink echinacea

© Jone MacCulloch

More of Jone’s coneflowers and poetry

coneflowers
pollinators buzz,
dart carefree
summer phlox
dances in the garden with
pink echinacea

© jone rush macculloch 2024

Jone’s gift delighted me. It just so happens that here in upstate New York, today two of my last cornflowers were screaming for attention in my small garden.

So here’s a poem for Jone:

LATE AUGUST BLOOMS 
(In response to Jone Macculloch's coneflowers)  


The last coneflowers,

like snare drums 

at the end of a parade,


remind me that it's not

the end of summer,

no, not so fast,


not until 

their rat-tat-tat 

has passed.  


© Janice Scully 2024



Thank you Rose for hosting! Have a great weekend.

The Last Few Haiku Celebrating National Poetry Month

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by children’s author and awesome nature photographer Buffy Silverman Here. Thank you, Buffy, for hosting!

I was a little sad to end my National Poetry Month daily haiku project. It was fun sharing my photos and haiku on Facebook and it was indeed a hodgepodge of subjects. Here are the last few. 

SPRING COLOR

Have you seen the trees?
Overnight, long gray branches
speckled green with leaves!

CONTRAILS OVER SYRACUSE

Morning passengers
criss-cross the cool morning sky--
for lunch in New York?

JANUARY 2017

March on Washington--
women looked to the future
and saw the present

AFTER "FOG" BY CARL SANDBURG

"On little cat feet"
gray fog settled in;
slept the whole morning.

Thank you all so much for reading and commenting this month.

Poetry encourages us to look at the world through different glasses. My husband and I found these glasses below at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. They made the world look like multi-faceted cut diamond.

Have a great weekend! Be sure to check in with our host, Buffy Silverman, Here.

Week three National Poetry Month Haiku

Welcome to Poetry Friday. This week we are hosted by Heidi Mordhorst, Here. Thank you, Heidi, for hosting!

I’ve managed to write an haiku each day on Facebook most inspired by photos. Here’s a few more. 

April in Beijing
green leaves brighten cities--
spring crosses borders. 


POETRY PARTY

Calla Lilly bloom
starched and impeccably dressed--
the first to arrive. 

USED MEDICINALLY BY POET HORACE

Tree Mallow nectar
will lubricate your windpipe--
ancient health advice

mushrooms in pine mulch
glow white, silent and still
as they recycle.

WHY CLOUDS APPEAR WHITE

Water in droplets
scatters wavelengths equally
hiding Roy G. Biv

STROLL BY THE WATER?

Syracuse, New York
Erie Canal ran through it
before trains and cars.

I hope everyone is enjoying the celebration of poetry this April. Have a great weekend.

Haiku: National Poetry Month

Welcome to Poetry Friday! This week we are hosted by our friend, author, and poet Irene Latham HERE. Thank you, Irene!

I’ve been celebrating NPM by writing a haiku and sharing it on Facebook each day. I find an haiku a day doable and it also keeps me paying attention to the beauty I see around me every day. I also have found poems in my photo library and using them to inspire a poem. Here are my first four haiku..

April 1

With springtime comes mud,
clouds, rainstorms, even snow squalls.
But then . . . daffodils.

© Janice Scully 2024

April 2

AT THE SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDENS

From South Africa
proud and tall King Proteus
on an American tour.

© Janice Scully 2024

April 3

Penning a poem
on a rainy spring morning--
question: which is which?

© Janice Scully 2024

April 4

REFRACTION

White light is a mix
of many different colors--
and so, the rainbow.

© Janice Scully 2024

I look forward to the next line of the Progressive Poem, soon to be revealed by Irene Latham on her blog Live Your Poem . Thank you Margaret Simon for organizing it. It’s really fun to see the poem develop each day. Below is a list of poets to help you follow along during National Poetry Month. 

April 1 Patricia Franz at Reverie
April 2 Jone MacCulloch
April 3 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 4 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
April 5 Irene at Live Your Poem
April 6 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 7 Marcie Atkins
April 8 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God Forsaken Town
April 9 Karen Eastlund
April 10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 11 Buffy Silverman
April 12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 13 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 14 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
April 15 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
April 16 Sarah Grace Tuttle
April 17 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
April 18 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
April 20 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 21 Janet, hosted here at Reflections on the Teche
April 22 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 23 Tanita Davis at (fiction, instead of lies)
April 24 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
April 25 Joanne Emery at Word Dancer
April 26 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe
April 27 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
April 28 Dave at Leap of Dave
April 29 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 30 Michelle Kogan at More Art for All

How to Write a Peace Poem?

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Susan at Chicken Spaghetti Here. Thank you, Susan, for hosting!

Several things.

First of all, I received the proof pages of my poems from the diligent Carol Labuzzetta. She is composing an anthology of ekphrastic nature poems. I sent three photos and poem and was thrilled to see them dressed up and on the page! She improved on the clarity of my three photos and made my poems look good. I am so grateful.

I also received New Years postcards from Marcie and Linda M. this week. Marcie sent an amazing winter photo accompanied by a haiku. The postcard shines brighter than my photo of it. I love the idea of these red berries as frosted ornaments. 

    Overnight cold
  leafless bushes become
    frosted ornaments

Marcie Flinchum Atkins 2023

Linda sent this collage postcard with a wonky, sweet hand-fashioned paper clip attached, accompanied by a poem about peace:

Peace Four Ways 2024
by Linda Mitchell

How to write a peace poem
when our world knows only war?
Millions wander with no home
How to wrote a peace poem? 
as bomb-dropping drones
pollute our skies and more?
How to write a peace poem?
when our world knows only war? 

        Peace
     quiet covers
   this warring world
       we fight 
      ourselves

this peace at twilight
this refuge from day's worries
a breath for this world

                            In 2024, let
           us remake the world for peace
           Let us take a moment to begin
              again the notion that with
 a new year there's no war for you or me.

Since I received Linda’s poem, I watched the New Hampshire primary where the victor insulted his female opponent’s dress. Not fancy enough. He insulted her as a creepy predator would. I may not be a Republican, but she deserves respect and admiration for her talent and courage to run for president.

I saw on TV three young college women, voting for the first time in New Hampshire, declared they will vote against her and for a sexual predator. Really?

Here’s a response to Linda’s poem. 

HOW DO I WRITE A PEACE POEM?
(after a poem by Linda Mitchell)

when I live in a country
where voters would throw away freedom
for a strong man?

How do I write a peace poem
when America is lying on its side,
bleeding like an injured bear
and needs to stand strong
because the forest is on fire?

How do I write a peace poem
to inspire the world
to value and love
a whole future's-worth
of children? 

© Janice Scully 2024 (draft)

All I know is that I want my children and grandchildren to live in a free society like I did, where they can read what they want, say what they want and live in safety.

It’s a good time to remember George Washington. Several years ago I wrote a series of “Presidential Haiku and Tanka” about each American President. It still sits on my computer. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON

Indispensable! 
He patched together ragged,
hungry men, and won!
This clever man was a star. 
Crown and throne? Thank you, but no.

© Janice Scully 2022

Have a great weekend! I want to thank those who recommended the novel “Bright and Remarkable Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt.” I listened to it on audiobooks and loved the story. It’s really heart warming!

West Coast Wildlife, Three Haiku

Welcome to Poetry Friday! Bridget is hosting today and she invites us to a dance party, acknowledging that all of us need occasional respite from the troubles and worry in the world. Check out her happy post and video:

https://weewordsforweeones.blogspot.com

Thank you Bridget, for hosting! It has been a tough week with war a constant preoccupation.

I spent the last three weeks with my son and his wife in Pacifica, California, so have been away from Poetry Friday. But I’ve been gathering photos and thinking about posts. I look forward to catching up on the poetry goodness this week that I know is waiting.

While on the west coast, My husband and I walked the quiet beach nearby almost daily to check out the wild life. Western squirrels were a little different.

This little friend doesn’t live in trees like the squirrels in New York State do. They live in burrows and we saw them darting into cracks between the boulders by the ocean. Ground squirrels have a less fluffy tail and are known for their strong hind legs that allows them, like this squirrel, to keep a sharp lookout for predators. My husband, quick with his phone, was lucky to snap this. 

small furry ground squirrel
casting a lengthy shadow--
but ready to hide.

©Janice Scully 2023

Besides these numerous squirrels, we loved watching the gulls who were in turn watching the fishermen on the pier. 

gulls and fishermen 
watch the baited lines for tugs--
everyone hungry 

©Janice Scully 2023

Sunset in Pacifica

beaches at sunset--
shades of tan and gray blacken
as the sky ignites.

I hope everyone is well. My thoughts are with all those in danger in the Middle East and in Ukraine.