This month Mary Lee had our Inklings challenge. She invited us to write a series of haiku about poetry without using the word poetry. I wish I’d had more time to linger with this prompt, but March holds madness not only for basketball players and their fans. This was my liberal translation of the prompt :).

Turn, Turn, Turn*

a rush of syllables
whispers in leaf-lush trees
songs on the breeze

a quickening
leaves and light, autumn-gilded
the haunting cry of geese

skies clear to moonlight 
snow cloaks each branch
all is aglow

a tree exhales—
feathered buds transform
blackbirds take flight

©Molly Hogan, draft
*title credit to Pete Seeger

We’re in the midst of a winter/spring storm as I write this post. School was cancelled today and has already been cancelled for tomorrow. With no power at home, we hear only the crackle of the fires in the wood stoves and a far off hum from neighbors’ generators. Every so often we’re startled by a crack and crash as tree limbs break under the weight of this heavy, wet snow. We’re thankful to be safe and warm.

shattering tree limbs
winter silence splinters
weathering the storm

If you’d like to see what the other Inklings did with this haiku challenge, click on the links below.

Linda Mitchell
Heidi Mordhorst
MaryLee Hahn
Catherine Flynn
Margaret Simon

The PF Roundup is hosted this week by Irene Latham at her blog, Live Your Poem. She’s got all sorts of exciting things to share! Be sure to swing by and check it out.