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Haiku Holiday Highlights

 



Have recently spent two weeks in Bali. It provided some respite from our Australian winter and afforded me the opportunuty to read, write and relax. We spent 10 days in tranquil Sanur and four days in the more highly populated area near Seminyak.  Spending time in a new or different location never fails to stimulate my thinking around writing. This time in Bali was no exception.

I had just started a new writer's notebook. This further heightened my writing urge. I was keen to capture ink and ideas.

 Here is a sampling of some of the short verse that emerged across those hungry pages during our vacation in the island of the Gods.














Sanur Haiku

 

Outrigger canoe

Glides easily through the waves

Painted hull shining.

 

Red kit dips and weaves

Its plastic frame whirring loudly

As it sky dances.

 

Tropical garden

Lush growth of leaves and flowers

Such fecundity.

 

The tide slinks away

Revealing the rocky reef

Marine life exposed.

 

Seagrass floats and flops

At the edge of the shoreline

Impeding swimmers.


Time For Tanka


Lone fisherwoman

Waist deep in gentle waves

Casts out with fresh hope

Her lime green conical hat

Constrasting the sea.



























 








It is once again- Poetry Friday! This week our host is Marcie Flinchum Atkins. Marcie's post this week is all about her preparations for her August poetry challenge to read a book a day from works of American Poet Laureates. A challening and exciting quest...

Comments

  1. Thank you for showing me Bali through your poems and photos. Lovely descriptions with boats, seagrass, flowers. What a lovely place for a holiday! Alan, this is Janice S posting. I couldn't get past Anonymous.

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    1. Thank you Janice. Your response is much appreciated. It is hard not to be inspired to write in such an ideal location.

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  2. Not only are you bringing me poetry but also beach envy this day, Alan. I appreciate the extra glimpses of your special trip, and love that fisherwoman and the snail that looks as if it's ready to skateboard (or surf). Happy times remembered.

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    1. The beach envy is an inevitable outcome of highlighting this glorious part of the world. Indeed, it is happy times remembered through poetry and pictures, Linda.

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  3. Your holidays in Bali are absolutely inspiring--you had my attention with that first beautiful photograph. And, yes to time for a tanka. What an array of lovely images from a beautiful place. Favorite line?
    "the tide slinks away" Wonderful!

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    1. So glad you enjoyed the shared aspects of my Bali holiday, Linda.

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  4. I must get to Bali someday - if only to be inspired by the images and words you have shared. I would likely have sat for hours happily watching the lone fisherwoman in her lime green hat.

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    1. Hope you get there too, Patriicia. I head a few American voices while I was there this time. The lone fisherwoman was mesmerizing. She was a study in patience. She cam back over several days.

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  5. Alan, I enjoyed reading your newest journal poems. I can imagine how Bali inspired your writing. All of the poems were little nuggets of joy and the doorway photo is really lonely without a poem. I hope you add one into your notebook with the image of the doorway.

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    1. Carol, my visits to Bali never fail to inspire my writing. The doorway may well prompt a notebook 'entry.' The doors of Bali are quite magnificent.

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  6. thank you for all this poetry goodness! and photos, too.

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    1. My pleasure, Rose. Fun and free verse in the sun...

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  7. Thanks for the visit to Bali through your photos and poems! I kept a cherita journal in June to document my travels. Each one holds a memory as distinct as a photo.

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    1. I like the idea of your cherita challenge Mary Lee. That might be a potential focus when I visit Bali next July.

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  8. Stunning images and beautiful poetic imagery!

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    1. Thank you for your response. It was a pleasure to be able to share all this with you.

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  9. Just amazing--the pictures and the poems! I went to high school in Malaysia and had lots of friends who grew up in Indonesia. Would definitely love to visit one day.

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    1. Thanks Marcie. Malaysia is so close. I hope you get to experience Bali soon.

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  10. I love how you captured images and experiences from your recent vacation in short poems, creating your very own poetic travelogue! I just got back from a quick trip to Canada and barely wrote! As I'm heading off on a new adventure later this week, I'm going to try to keep your example in mind. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  11. Gorgeous! The words that pop to me are so soothing, so tropical. I especially love the tanka as it gives me a completely different perspective. Such a slice of life you captured there.

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    1. Thank you Karen. Your observations are affirming.

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