I pulled back the curtains and a frosty glistening wonderous sight met my eyes. There was no time for breakfast!
A quick espresso was sunk whilst I wrestled with thick socks, all the layers and a fruitless search for my favourite gloves.
The icy morning air made my front teeth hurt and my lungs yearned for more capacity. The feel of the air quite literally took my breath away, as I made the steady climb up to the gallops not far from my house. High on a hill I turned a full 360 and took time to take in every glorious delight before me.
As the grass crunched under the weight of my walking boots as I made for old tyres tracks now glazed over and with icy delight I stomped through the crispy layer to the water beneath. My heart swelled like a kid on Christmas day seeing their pile of presents for the first time, and the most enormous smile exploded across my face.
As a nature lover who sees the wide outdoors as her neverending playground, my eyes darted from the clear cyan blue sky, to the dusky pink clouds, to the crows dancing on crystalline branches and then gazed at my elongated shadow extending my form across the frozen field.
All at once my synapses started firing and the haiku chorus began in my head. Counting out on my gloved fingers I tried to match my words to the seventeen syllables of a haiku. I wanted to capture the moments my eyes were taking in. “Swarovski crystals” was too many syllables! What other way was there to describe the glistening, shining ice formations that were hanging from the hawthorn.
A lone bird of prey hovered high and as I watched the wings vibrate I stood motionless, my soul was caressed by the image that I would not have witnessed if I had stayed deep under my duvet.
Inspired by everything in front of my eyes I took photographs of whitened kale fields, of desicated leaves and the rising sun through the trees.
And then, depositing my phone in my pocket I stood present, allowing the images from Mother Nature to roll through me like a never ending movie. I quietened my brain, I switched off the haiku chorus and the searching for appropriate words and just breathed in the calm stillness of the landscape.
What a joy!
Back home, I’m watching blue tits squabble for room on the bird feeder and I’ve have flattened the grass where I have spread mealworms for my local robin red breast. My knees are wrapped in a throw, as my fingers type and I try to recall the haiku inspirations of this this morning. They don’t come, but they will. The power of nature to inspire when you least expect it is one of its wonders.
And that is why a haiku a day keeps the doctor away – they are inspired by nature. Every minute that you are immersed in our natural world or taking in the wonder of wildlife you are filling up your stores. You are creating a repository of finite moments that have the power to lift you, even when you are in the depths of your darkest mood.
So set foot outside or even from the comfort of your living room window you can watch the birds dart about, see the clouds collide and the rain drops splash on the tarmac. You now know that with a pen in your hand, and the ability to count seventeen syllables, a haiku could be born at any moment!
Photo by Margaret Polinder on Unsplash
A haiku inspired by an evening Autumn walk
In a wispy breeze
poppies smiled as daisies danced
under pearlescent sky
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