January 15,2014

copyright 2015, Joy Acey

Colorful carp swim
in the pond racing, dashing
with no place to go

copyright 2015, Joy Acey

These fish were swimming in the pond at Yu Yuan Garden in Shanghai, China.
They are reminding me that I don't need to rush.  All week I've been giving myself a hard time about not being up to date on the poems for my blog.  For me, I'm adding stress to my life that doesn't need to be there.  I will get caught up, but right now I have an assignment that I need to complete on a deadline.  It involves reading student manuscripts and it is something I enjoy doing.  So, if you will just be patient, everything will eventually get done. 
Thank you for your understanding. 

January 12, 2015

copyright 2015, Joy Acey

copyright 2015, Joy Acey

haiku

Great Wall of China
laid brick, by brick, by brick
so many people

copyright 2015, Joy Acey

  

January 10, 2015

Drinking real China tea
from little porcelain cups
learning Mandarin

     When I visit foreign countries I like to pick up a few of the words in the language of that country.  When I visited Kenya, I was quite pleased with my ability to pick up Swahili and all the Kenyans were very helpful with supplying new words for me.  Not so in China.  For some reason I had a terrible time getting my tongue around their vowels.  And if I'd try a word in Chinese, the person I would be talking to would immediately respond in English. For some reason I had a much harder time with Chinese.  Maybe it was all those vowel combinations having a different sound, or perhaps the x sounding like an s, or the z sounding like ds.  But the zh sounds like dge as in hedge.  See what I mean?  Next time I go to China, I'm going to invest in a language program before I go.  So all I learned was xiexie for thank you and nihao for hello.  I think Disney needs to do a movie about a Chinese animated character using lots of Chinese words, maybe that way I'd learn more words.  Hey, it worked for my learning African words. Jumbo, akumba metata.

January 9, 2015

I got back from a week's trip to China and I'm way behind in my work.  Did you know that China controls their internet so there isn't Google, Facebook, or Blogspot?  So I couldn't post while I was there.
I did write my poem-a-day, I just couldn't post it.  I'll try to catch up.  Mostly I wrote haiku because like Basho, I found it was easy to work out poems in my head while I was walking visiting the sights and then write the poem down in the evening when I got back to my hotel room.
So here is the haiku for January 9, 2015

Seventeen hours
Over date line and time zones
Disorienting

   I enjoyed the word play on this poem since I was travelling to the Orient.  Now that I'm home, my body still hasn't adjusted to the time change and sitting on an airplane for 14 hours straight is tough. 

HAIKU

Red pussy willows
bursting from a crystal vase
Chinese fireworks


     I'm having technical problems with my server and so my posting is going to be messed up for a week.  Please be patient and I'll explain it all next Tuesday.
In the meantime, I was in a garden today and my host explained the garden had been designed to include all the natural elements.  Water in the form of ponds and small waterfalls, rocks used to form a dragon wall and walking paths, wood for trees, and sky to let the sunshine in.  Do you have a favorite garden you like to spend time in?  If you could design your own garden,  what would you include?  Can you write a garden poem today?  Oh, I'm thinking about making mine a fairy garden.  do have fun writing a poem today.

Linked Haiku

Golden brown turkey
on Grandma's shining china--
family gives thanks

Grandpa is missing
his spirit is with us all
giving his blessing


     Have you ever tried writing linked haiku?  You can write a verse and another and put them together to tell a story, or you can write with friends.  You write a verse and then a friend can write a haiku to go with your verse.  Have fun trying to write linked haiku today.