haiku hiatus (haikutus)

I have nothing to post, but since my poets seem to be growing tired of the haiku I will make another offering. I note that one reader suggested that we avoid the epic poem, but the sonnet, the sestina, the ode, free verse, and any other form you are interested in for your self-expression is available. Do you think you are ready to write the next stanza in sestina form?:

I pretend that it is a much deeper snow
So that walking on the mundane sidewalk
Is less a quickly cleared and salted town
And more a prairie pioneer trial
Instead of white gloves and a black coat
I am fighting the wind, headed for the barn

Anyway, it would be really sad if the poem never ends.

Thanksgiving Haiku

Uncooked pecan pie
gooey on the kitchen floor
spilling from the shell.

Tumbleweedy

I got these e-mailed to me at work today... these are pictures from the edge of town, but, alas, I can't tell you who took them.

Tilt-a-tumbling tumbleweed

Last night I think I ran over no less than 50 tumbleweeds on my way to and from the farm. It was hard during the daylight not to be distracted by the ones in the sandhills breaking free of the sagebrush and fence. The night drive was bad in a different way because there were critter-like bodies darting out in front me the whole drive home. Thank God deer don't role or there would have been no way to tell the difference. It would be kind of funny if ferrets climbed into the inside of the tumbleweed for a thrill ride. (Yes, supposedly ferrets aren't found in my county, but I saw a dead one last year near the county line, which isn't exactly evidence that they live in my county, but it does create the inference that there was one living recently). Maybe field mice would have an easier go of it. Tumbleweeds are the tilt-a-whirl at the rodent carnival. It explains how the tumbleweeds hang on to the fence and then seem to rock back and forth until they break free. The mice are on the inside of the tumbleweed and create the rocking motion with their weight which eventually rocks the tumbleweed off of the fence and into the open spaces of the highway where all the parties involved may or may not get hit by my car.

Blogger Extra

Jedediah Smith

As many of you are aware, I am in love with the redwood forest. Which is sort of like real romantic love because I say silly things like "I never thought I could feel this way about a forest" and "I never saw myself loving a forest because all of the other forests have disappointed me." When I visit Jeanette we go to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in Northern California. (The name (alas) makes me think of the Simpsons. ) As with all of my journeys to the Redwoods I discuss the visit a Judge here because he is also a fan. During our most recent "Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park" conversation, he disclosed some very interesting information about Jedediah, the forest's namesake. He actually passed away in Grant County and there is an historical marker at the side of the road. It sounds like a good Explorer Extra that I'll have to try.