Morning's Stage

Haiku and image by Dan Hardison
Photo: Wilmington, North Carolina


World Haiku Association, Sep 2012

Wind and Sea

The old life-saving station had guarded the coastline rescuing those who failed to heed the warnings of the lights. Townspeople would walk the beach scavenging the shoreline to supplement their lives with pieces of shipwrecks scattered by wind and sea.

Today the old life-saving station is a tourist attraction and along the beach, there are sunbathers and surfers – vacationers seeking the pleasures of wind and sea.

time to sit a spell
in the beauty of the day
being old and wise


— Dan Hardison


Postcard: Provincetown, Massachusetts
(Unused - undivided back era, early 1900's)


Haibun, Sketchbook - Sep/Oct 2011

Low Tide

Cinquain and image by Dan Hardison
Photo: Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina


Cinquain, Sketchbook - Jul/Aug 2011

Grief

Butterfly Cinquain and image by Dan Hardison
Photo: Wilmington, North Carolina


Cinquain, Sketchbook - Jan/Feb 2012

Winter in July

It was during the last game of the fall soccer season that we met a fourteen-year-old girl named Sarah watching her friends play. Talking with Sarah off and on, we learned that she did not play sports – a bit clumsy, she loved music and was taking piano lessons, and her family was going to Disney World in a couple of weeks. She was pretty and bright, but also bubbly and polite.

sparkling in the light
like gems of russet and gold . . .
the frost covered leaves

While walking to the parking lot after the game, we learned that Sarah had an inoperable brain tumor. She had perhaps six-months to live. After that day, we occasionally heard updates on Sarah as her health declined. On July 2, Sarah died. I only met her the one time, yet the sorrow was great.

the last dream
interrupted on waking . . .
clouds drifting

In a poem by George W. Jones, he speaks of how our lives mirror the seasons. “Spring time is birth time, / the time of quickening / summer is the time of growth, / of fullness / autumn sees maturity, / ripeness, and passing / and winter is death.” His focus is on those of “venerable age” who have reached their winter years. So, what of those whose winter comes too soon?

day fades to darkness
through a rainbow of colors . . .
a prayer without words


— Dan Hardison


Photo by Dan Hardison
Wilmington, North Carolina


Haibun, Contemporary Haibun Online - July 2012, vol 8 no 2