Saturday 22 July 2023

Haiku for the Longest Day of the Year by Adele Ogiér Jones

 



Haiku for the longest day of the year


 

Think on this long day

of a river streaming bold

forgetting hurdles

as dark fades early

on year’s longest summer day

even if sun fails

to announce the start

of another song cycle,

the second half year

whether longest night

down south, or longest day here

this midyear solstice.

 

What stories remain

from daydreams of yesterday

or old dreams last night

as midsummer gives

cheerfulness to the dancing

hope as sun rises

streaming between stones

breaking through bush canopy

in woods where birds call

waking dull sleepers

announcing there’s time enough

to change the story.

 

Time to form history

worth remembering, recording

worth telling anew

on another long

day, in the next hemisphere

new ways of being

new models for growth

where people and planet share

the same space in life

decades worth counting

each solstice recording

decision for change.

 

So, the longest day

in one sphere. confirms enough

to war’s pollution

while the longest night

in another, rejects constant

mining emptiness,

wake up this morning

after the long night or short,

greet day with a song

a tune new or old

with a lilt to lift spirits

on this special day.

 

 

Greet today’s stranger

seek an answer in return

if day remains short

for life has it

that one celebrates long day

while the twin sees short

days which we name here

having other titles far

beyond our vision.

 

Why not seek agreement

on land’s space and usefulness,

our environment

calling agreement

the way forward for all, with

long, firm solutions.






Adele Ogiér Jones - The poetry of Adele Ogiér Jones is published in journals and anthologies. As well as chapbooks, she has five full collections of poetry, the latest Following Rivers in Trees (Ginninderra Press, 2022). Poems in tanka form appear in Poetry for the Planet (Litoria Press, 2021). Here, for Lothlorien Poetry Journal, she presents haiku for the 2023 summer solstice.

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