Manila
(1)
Bill striding the dark
narrow streets to our hotel
suitcase on shoulder
(2)
empty restaurant
waiters flocked – oops, the prices!
we stood, bowed, smiled, left
3)
moonlight
one-room huts on stilts
over water
22/2/22
Cairo
(1)
1965
they met tourist as brother –
three young men, strangers
(2)
belly dancer
not young but skilled –
deeply revered
23/2/22
Note: Tales told by my late ex-husband, Bill, after his visit to Cairo as a young man.
New Delhi
(1)
hours between planes
hours between planes
didn’t leave the airport –
city scary vast
(2)
in transit at night
in transit at night
afraid to miss connection –
wakeful on hard seats
24/2/22
Havana
COVID: last minute
they cancelled the trip – whew!
could have got stuck there
25/2/22
Hong Kong
(1)
the politics now –
who didn’t
see it coming?
(2)
so glad
you left and came back here
to live
26/2/22
Copenhagen
gazing out to sea
little mermaid (and
girl from Tassie?)
27/2/22
Note: Denmark's Princess Mary came from the island of Tasmania. So did I – so I know that, no matter how much one chooses to live elsewhere, one can occasionally gaze in that direction with a touch of nostalgia.
Kyiv
(1)
I wonder
what it looked like before
it got so famous
(2)
these images
forever sad Kyiv
in my mind now
27/2/22
Murwillumbah, NSW, Australia
(1)
dawn’s rays touch first
the warrior’s nose-tip:
our old mountain
(2)
river town
near sea and mountains —
cross the bridge
(3)
let’s
get the celebrities
out of here
(4)
flood levee breached
CBD under water —
stay out of town
Notes:
(1) Mt Warning aka Wollumbin is the first place in Australia the morning sun touches. Many of us think the outline of the mountain looks like the sleeping face of a giant warrior.
(2) The town is entered by a bridge over the river.
(3) (a) ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’ is filmed nearby.
(b) We’re sick of actual celebrities making homes in the area and pushing up prices for everyone else.
(4) Heavy rain, flooding and power outage last few days, culminating today. I’m high, safe and stocked with food; many others not.
(1) Mt Warning aka Wollumbin is the first place in Australia the morning sun touches. Many of us think the outline of the mountain looks like the sleeping face of a giant warrior.
(2) The town is entered by a bridge over the river.
(3) (a) ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’ is filmed nearby.
(b) We’re sick of actual celebrities making homes in the area and pushing up prices for everyone else.
(4) Heavy rain, flooding and power outage last few days, culminating today. I’m high, safe and stocked with food; many others not.
28/2/22
One more Murwillumbah haiku:
after the day
of terrible floods —
late night bird song
after the day
of terrible floods —
late night bird song
Later 28/2/22
15/4/22, nearly two months later, I'm sharing this lot with Poets and Storytellers United via Friday Writings #22. I'm not using the Friday Writings prompt this time – though it's a very good prompt. Perhaps I'll come back to it some other time. (I'm a bit busy with other writings just now.)
I really liked the third for Manila, I can see it so clearly—peaceful. The same goes about the second one for Cairo, I definitely understand the reverence. And the first one for Murwillumbah, NSW, Australia is just glorious! It left me smiling.
ReplyDeleteI am glad the birds are singing.
At the time, I didn't see peace in those huts, but stark poverty. But you might be right; I recall a young woman in one, sitting in meditation.
DeleteI love the travel haiku... love how they evoke a sense of nostalgia and desire to go into the unknown. I think one of my future projects will be a haiku travelogue... where to begin?
ReplyDeleteThe one about the belly dancer made me think of my dance teacher and how her enthusiasm and skill win so many people over even though she is older. I had to laugh at the restaurant one as my husband and I did the same thing once.
ReplyDeleteOh that's wonderful, that you did that too! We didn't even have any discussion, just looked at each other and then acted as one.
DeleteA stepping stone of many journeys. Snippets like polaroid's. I see it as a poetic travelogue for passing down.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting idea!
DeleteEasily absorbed into the secobd haiku. What with the prices rising in our supermarkets and eateries.
ReplyDeleteHave a Happy Easter
Much💜love
Wishing you a Happy Easter too.
DeleteLots of nice experiences. We saw the belly dancers in Cario, nice. I had a student who belly danced, her mom did it professionally.
ReplyDeleteWe also have traveled a lot, all 50 U.S. states and at least 74 countries.
Thank you for peaking in. Today's NaPoWriMo exercise was of something that we didn't have any interest in (not dislikes, just no interest. I chose saving and playing with paper dolls.
..
Two of my friends have belly-danced professionally. One was also a teacher and I tried to learn, but it's really difficult.
DeleteYou have travelled a lot more than I have! But I have been all over Australia, and to nine other countries.
What a haiku travelogue! I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you did!
DeleteBeautiful narration in few words. You have captured its essence, Rosemary.Nice.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteWonderful images, like little travel postcards.
ReplyDeleteI smile at the empty restaurant, and feel sad for Hong Kong.
And Kyiv, all I see now are scenes of destruction. I hope the country will rise free, and fast from the ashes.
Ah, such a terrible situation there! Who knows how it will all turn out?
DeleteIt's nice to see pieces of the world from someone else's eyes. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!
DeleteNice words.
ReplyDeleteCould imagine the places- like homes on stilts in moonlit nights.
I like the bird's songs after the floods.
"As long as there's hope, there's life."
I'm glad you enjoyed them.
DeleteOH MY! How absolutely wonderful, each of them. Havana my favorite!! In 1959 as the revolution was beginning, my family landed there, armed military at the airport, we stayed one week, a perfect week ... happy to escape.
ReplyDeleteWow, Helen, what an experience!
DeleteMy son was very keen to see the place when it finally opened up to tourists again – but then COVID happened, people began to realise the dangers of travelling, and at the last minute he and his partner decided not to go. A very wise decision: so many Australians were stuck in overseas countries for many months. And I would have been stuck in Melbourne rather than where I prefer to live, as I was going to go and keep my grand-daughter company in her parents' absence. I don't know if my son will ever fulfil his dream of seeing Cuba. Since then he and his family have all had COVID just from living in Melbourne – but it was the milder Omicron variant.
I think all these moments and impressions ought to be in a book. Just Lovely
ReplyDeleteThank you. I might just do that!
Delete