NaHaiWtiMo 2026 Week 4 Celestial / Vastness

 

22. SOLSTICE

we witches

dance in circle –

the year turns

23. NEBULA

reading Just Kids …

contemplating coloured clouds

in outer space 

24. ECLIPSE

eclipse –

along with the dark

silence

25. ZENITH

the sun

at its height, and I

sinking

26. AURORA

cold childhood nights –

woken to see those flashes

of eerie green

(I grew up in Launceston, Tasmania, where the 

Aurora Australis was occasionally, though rarely, 

visible, and my parents insisted I must view it.)

27. TIDE

a sunny day –

on the outgoing tide

my friend’s ashes

28. HORIZON

far over the sea

or drawn close by the mountains –

the same horizon?

*

(1)

always

further to travel –

frustration!

(2)

still

further to travel –

such a comfort!

(3)

again

further to travel –

inspiring!

(I don’t mean for readers to choose a 

favourite of these. They are intended as a 

sequence: contradictory perhaps, yet all valid.)

*

moonlight on water 

bridging the horizon –

a beckoning path

More

 

sunlight

a little more

each day

as Spring begins

waking slowly

Written for the 'Tanka Poets On Site' facebook group (prompt: More).

Wing

gliding wing

swiftly across my sight

followed by 

a fragment of song –

Spring coming early

Written for facebook group Tanka Poets on Site, 

for 21 August 2025, prompt: Wing.

Cairn (NaHaiWriMo 2025, Day 20)

 

a cairn

to remember you –

no need

My response to the latest NaHaiWriMo prompt.

Peak (NaHaiWriMo 2025, Day 11)

 

so near

and yet so far

the next peak

My response to the latest NaHaiWriMo prompt.

Andes (NaHaiWriMo 2025, Day 10)

the Andes –

full-skirted

goddesses

*

never again

to see the Andes –

yet always

My response to the latest NaHaiWriMo prompt.

Ridge (NaHaiWriMo 2025, Day 7)

 

dragon outlined –

does it sometimes lift

and fly?

My response to the latest NaHaiWriMo prompt.

Summit (NaHaiWriMo 2025, Day 3)

never reached the top

of the local mountain –

access now barred

Andrew once did –

said his legs coming down

were jelly

My response to the latest NaHaiWriMo prompt.

Mountain (NaHaiWriMo 2025: Day 2)

 

childhood

ringed by mountains —

flatlands terrify

***

‘from whence

cometh my strength?’ —

the mountains 

***

my dad’s painting 

Mount Roland blue and craggy —

our favourite

***

in Peru

mountains are deities —

I lift up mine eyes

***

‘cloud catcher’

our local mountain 

caught me too

***

four years

under The Pinnacle —

guardian 

All photos mine.

My response to the latest NaHaiWriMo prompt.  Later: NaHaiWriMo was back in February, but I'm sharing this (in June) with Poets and Storytellers United, for Friday Writings #180: Stubborn About the Small Things.

Mountains are not small, LOL, but haiku are! Anyway, I'm stubborn in my love for mountains and my dislike of flat country. A friend who was brought up on the plains always loved flat country dearly; others have told me they feel 'hemmed in' when surrounded by mountains. But I grew up that way, and experience it as an opening up to the vastness above, and a reassurance of safety. I'm ecstatic to be living surrounded by mountains again in my old age.

(I'm also stubborn in the belief that 5-7-5 syllables is the least important rule of haiku – and in fact, for English-language haiku, is not a rule at all.)