Summer in the South is both friend and foe alike
The sun kisses our skin and turns us bronze
It boils the air
And clings to us
The trees and bushes grow tangled
Gnats eat all that is moving alive
Flowers paint the ditches rainbow
And the roses bloom their hearts out
Hello!! I’ve been gone forever due to the idiocy of Comcast. They were supposed to cancel my neighbor’s service, but instead cancelled ours and it took a million forevers to get things worked out. Glad to be back!! I’ve missed everybody!!
xoxoAndrea
Imagine the blandest of grays
The darkest of blacks
And the starkest of whites
My world until you shed some light
You painted the grass a verdant green
And the cardinals a regal red
Richly gold became the sun
And the roses a delicate pink
You painted my world
The salty ocean became teal
So vibrant enough to feel
The earth once black
Now a chocolate-brown
The slow soft sunset
You spent so much time
Each orange flash
And the jagged streaks of pink
Sprinting across a palette of red
Still tinged by the day’s baby blue
My world is color because of you
Tall and strong
The stoic oak stands
Protecting all around him
Roots forcing through earth
Like wooden waves frozen by time
His branches are a city
For the small forest dwellers
Some distance from him in a clearing
Stands a willow
Who ripples with the wind
Forever in an effortless bend
Graceful as a ballerina
Who never had to practice
Was born with the mere essence
Of fluidity
No one lives in her slender branches
They are long like pale green hair
Admired and coveted
She is the epitome of ethereal
Fragile
Yet resilient
The oak and pine scoff
They stand tall
And they stand proud
Yet they will never have one thing sublime
A simple deception
The humble are often the strongest
I was swimming in open ocean
And quickly growing slow and weary
I saw a shadow swim out to me
And at first I could not see clearly
But soon the infamous visage was near
And he grinned and said “Come my dear, you’re safe with me,”
Now I was young but I was witty
And I told sly Death “Dear sir I am doing quite well.”
“Those yonder swells are just plain petite for I am a child of the sea,”
He chuckled a sound from his deep hollow chest and said
“Darling you swim the wrong way for land is east not west,”
Sly Death he tried to fool me
“Oh but Sir Death that overhanging star is where I head.”
“Under its light I swim to the north for it is there that lies the land”
” Now I’m really quite busy and I’d appreciate it if your words you canned”
His eyes then hardened like lava in water
And then I knew I had angered Death
So I hurried on into a large oncoming crest
“It’s a long way,” he said “To that little speck of dirt,”
“Now Death you have forgotten, I am a child of the sea,”
“And this final mile it has yet to even hurt
Death swam closer and at him I glared
My heart it fluttered and faintly scared
But my face was stoic and Death was not aware
I swam in silence and him in darkness
As the sun fired a bloody red
Death lagged behind as I grew closer to shore
The water was cold and I shivered to my very core
His voice was tender as he vengefully said
“Dear child you are weak please come ,”
“In my kingdom for you there lies a warm and downy bed,”
” No I will not. I am a child of the sea and you will not claim me,”
I was almost there but my lungs pleaded “Air!”
The water was inviting
The escape enticing
But Death did not have me
For I was and will forever be
A strong-willed child of the sea
It was a delicate sculpture of glass
Balanced precariously on a mountain top
Winds were soft
Barely keeping clouds aloft
And then one day
The sky turned gray
And wept out all the rain
A physical release of hidden pain
The torrent grew worse as the deadly hail came
And turned that delicate sculpture of glass
Into a million scintillating shards
That skidded of the mountainside
To lay upon the ground and bide
The chance to regain a love’s fragile pride
Sorry, I couldn't make the picture any bigger. The South is the farthest region down on the right, in dark green
I am from the south. Most days I am proud to be a southern belle, but sometimes I am not. Please do not think that these haiku are exact representations of the south. As a matter of fact, they represent the general stereotypes of the south. Many of my readers are not from the US, and I wanted to give them a taste of where I am from. The haiku below do not represent the entire, distinct culture down here. There are in between’s and also a great deal of cultural diversity.
The above picture shows vernacular regions, also called perceptual regions. Vernacular regions are not formal regions and exist only in our minds. A more global example would be the middle east. Other maps will show different shading and generally the southernmost part of Florida (my home, the little part jutting out at the bottom right) is not included. Remember, vernacular regions are what society makes of them
WHY I HATE IT
How big is your truck
How muddy are your old boots
How redneck are you
Do be god-fearing
Don’t accept progress and change
Stay stubborn as hell
Oh look, it’s a deer
Let me get my brand new gun
BAM! Look at that rack*
* refers to the size of a deer’s antlers
WHY I LOVE IT
Please come in and sit
Southern hospitality
Will never turn down
Condensation falls
Sliding down a tall clear glass
I love my sweet tea
Great big families
Always there, love and support
There no matter what
– This is a new form of Japanese poetry that I recently discovered. It is very similar to haiku, but has two more lines. The syllable scheme is 5, 7, 5, 7, 7. So, it essentially a haiku with two more seven syllable lines.
Trees have been laid bare
The world has shriveled up tight
Colors have faded
The light has succumbed to dark
Winter wraps us in its arms
Verse Not Prose 