Ripples

November 3, 2015November 3, 2015 / helenmidgley

My 1st attempt at Haibun Monday for dVerse. This weeks prompt uses ‘View of the Church of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole’ by Vincent van Gogh as inspiration.

Reflected at the water’s edge are all those long forgotten yesterdays. Those fields of green and fertile soil, where we sowed our hopes on fallowed earth. I can still hear laughter floating on the breeze like a melancholy lullaby sweeping gently across the rooftops and I smell the yards of white linen still billowing in the courtyard, scents of lavender and lemon that tease the noon day sun into surrender.

Until once more the silence comes and I sit awhile and watch.

I dip my fingers in the water and see the ripples widen, see the earth turn cobalt blue and the trees succumb to bronze. I sit and watch the water flow and I wonder where those green fields went, those hopes that never grew. Perhaps a different palette could have changed tomorrow’s view.

Time is a river,

Each life a single ripple,

Paint your palette well.

12 thoughts on “Ripples”

Helen, this is just beautiful. I’m so happy you come to visit, love the contrasts between the two parts of the prose.. and in that contrast is an almost zen-like wisdom.

Haibun Monday is a monthly event… and we will wary the inspiration.

You paint so very well with words… What a peaceful scene.

Congrats on your first haibun Helen ~

The prose is serene with the scents of lavender and lemon ~ You paint this palette richly with colors ~
The haiku is stunning with the first line of time is a river ~

Thanks for participating in our Haibun Monday ~

That prose is very vivid.. the scents of lemon and lavender feel very real around the billowing linen.

This is stunning and thoughtful thanks to the abundant sensory details and the reflection in the haiku. So glad to see you at dVerse.

Impressive haibun…love the vivid colors and scents you paint with your words!

I cannot believe this is your first haibun! just stunning, you have such a way with words that I could feel, hear and smell especially the laundry image…oh my, sweet memories of my childhood, ” I smell the yards of white linen still billowing in the courtyard, scents of lavender and lemon that tease the noon day sun into surrender” and your haiku breathes such serenity…rivers have been such a part of me. Awesome, Helen!

Nature.. a beauty
of subsistence for
human to live..
a wafer
of bread
in grain a
cup of
hands
for water..
where intermittent
gratification rules
and sugars
and fats
never
course
blood free..

Beauty becomes
work
for life..:)

A beautiful haibun, filled with images that evoke all the senses. Loved the yards of linen and the scents of lemon and lavender on the breeze, and loved your line “each life a single ripple.”

Excellent first haibun – congratulations! I love the feel, smell, colours, sounds of the Provence which you evoke in your prose, especially ‘I smell the yards of white linen still billowing in the courtyard’. All very sensory – and then that deeply philosophical final haiku. Great sense of balance and even more of a reminder to be mindful of every day.