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

NaHaiWriMo 2026 Week 3 Geological / Terrain

 

15. ABYSS

always

alongside the climb

the drop

*

the edge –

is this dizziness

terror, or lure?

16. CANYON

Kings Canyon –

deep narrow walls 

frame the sky

*

among stones

on the canyon floor

tiny plants

*

exploring ‘canyon’ –

I decide not to go deep

into metaphor

17. CRATER

abyss, canyon 

deep holes in the earth –

and now crater

*

quiet crater –

this ancient caldera

overgrown

*

18. FJORD

fjord photos –

deep blue cold to long for 

in this heat wave

*

19. DUNE

new and strange 

those books at first –

too soon too much

*

little kids 

rolling down the sandhills

over and over

*

back from the edge

a hollow in the dunes –

you and me

20. BASALT

Google explains:

fine-grained igneous rock

dense, dark-coloured

*

I live (in or on)

this ancient caldera –

its basalt floor 

*

I walk around

on the same dark rock

that lines the ocean

21. MARSH

don't play there

said parents: danger –

we sneaked out

NaHaiWriMo 2026 Week 2 Atmosphere / Elements

 

8. ZEPHYR

trembling leaves –

gentle breeze or, yes

a lorikeet!

9. LAVA

I love to see

(on screen) fiery boulders

erupting

*

a spill of red

down the mountain-side

settling to black

10. FOG

the morning fog

rolls back along the ground –

old memories

11.LIGHTNING

his new book –

illuminating

and fiery

*

filling the sky 

sudden burst of light –

shocking

*

watching the storm

breathless on the front step

the cats and I

12. ICICLE

a cold childhood –

that splinter of ice

in my heart

13. EMBERS

that night we sang

the fire burnt down to embers

then you were gone

*

family nights

roasting chestnuts

in the coals 

*

nights with Grandpa

letting the fire burn low —

all his stories

14. DRIZZLE

in thunder

and pelting rain, I pray

for a drizzle