NaHaiWriMo 2026 Week 1 Botanical / Growth

1. BLOSSOM

heat wave –

frogs yell in chorus

blossoms dry

2. EVERGREEN

comforting

sea of evergreen –

Australian bush

*

from the lookout

grey-green vista blends

hills and gullies

3. WILLOW

from a willow branch

enclosed in green curtains

the swing Dad made me

4. PETAL

remembering

my husband – a petal 

drops from the rose

5. ROOT

prompt: root –

my naughty Aussie mind

tries to think ‘plants’

*

that tree –

a weed not pulled up

by the roots

*

here in the tropics 

how I miss

the taste of parsnips

6. THORN

beneath

the fullest bloom

the thorn

*

a sideways push –

the rose thorn snaps off

instantly

*

my father’s roses –

thorns and aphids but

that scent!

*

My wish for you: while you smell the roses, may you navigate the thorns. (American sentence.)

7. SAPLING

thin sapling

clinging precarious

spider-web

January micro 2023: 7

my Tarot client

speaks of her widowhood

and I too weep

*

ten years 

since he died —

by now

memories are both 

grief and joy

January micro 2023:5

When I stroke behind her ears

as she settles to sleep,

I love even more than her purr

the ecstatic curl and flex

of one little paw.

*

Sunday breakfast treat —

café style raisin toast

two fat slices

*

I draw Queen of Swords 

the independent woman 

also the widow –

happy to think of Andrew

and what a good life we made

Jorell

this fairy

enchanted us —

inspiring

his only book

made in old age

 

now his daughter

makes a facebook page 

about her dad

that sweet, gifted man —

missing him (me too)

Note: If anyone's wondering, this paperback edition is long out of print. but the ebook remains available from Smashwords.

Suddenly the Jade Bush

Suddenly the jade bush

has bright, fleshy leaves.

Only the other day

it looked bedraggled.

I think of finding it a new pot.

The once-pretty green one it’s in

has several large gouges

around the rim –

where Andrew sat on it 

(better than landing on concrete!)
four years ago,

in one of his last falls.

#awakeaugust day 14

Sorrow / Joy

Cold night, and you

not here to warm me.

I give thanks:

tonight you are not

lying alone in a nursing home,

you are not in a hospital ward,

nor are you next to me

in pain and troubled sleep —

you are free!