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

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.)