Yes! Well said. There’s magic for our souls in seasonal transitions. I feel this somehow lines up with the hero’s journey, but any concrete analogies escape me.
Letting go and accepting is the hardest lesson for me to learn. All I want to do is kick, scream, bite, and fight any way I can. But, I'm getting there.
It could be that we each feel the passing of time more acutely in fall- there's a lot of dying and ending going on around us. It does mirror our own personal endings that way. I am soon to be 65, that puts me well into the fall season of life. I no longer wish to kick, bite and fight. I am seeking a quality landing strip, no nasty bumps, good looking shoulders and a field at the end of the runway with very good grass.
These are wonderful! Thank you for sharing them. I can see the emotional journey with each poem. Thanks for reading and for your support of this project!
Sooo not just me?!? 😂 I did Q&A and wrote letters & emails from & for The Corporate office - now I keep missing Ed, ing, eses 😂 all kind of things - I swear they take these off!
A lot of emotions in autumn for me. Lost many family members & my best boy BOWIE - October & November are always hard. But then December comes. Not just the holidays- birthdays, anniversaries so happy times as well. Plus it is the end of a hard couple of months and we are closing out another year
I will write shortly - this is a great subject Jason!
Thanks for reading! Fall for me has many more contradictions than the other seasons. Lots of grief for me but also lots of celebrations and milestones.
This piece was just a total delight to read—love the exercise/prompt (and really appreciated seeing the ten haiku that YOU created along with your writing pages; will explore the book, too. Thank you Jason. ✨🌞🍂
These two are great! I love all of the wondering haiku you shared in your newsletter. Thanks for sharing them and for the shoutout. I'm lve helping people remember how fun poetry can be!
Brilliant, Jason, and we get loads of haiku, too! Nice.
First of all, I liked the main haiku. But the exercise seems a very valuable one. Take a word and write. What struck me as interesting is that you turned blessed into abundance. Is abundance always a blessing was the question that immediately popped up in my mind.
Also liked to see your notebook page and learn that it is wine-coloured. And that your new pen bleeds through the pages of said notebook. I like my fountain pens to write with in my notebook.
I agree than abundance is not the same as blessed, and over-abundance can definitely feel more like a burden. I was interested in diverting my default focus on lack to recast the way I was seeing things that week. Every time I do this exercise I always learn something surprising about what is lurking in my subconscious.
Fall is emotional because it’s often a permission to let things go, and a time to rest.
Yes! Well said. There’s magic for our souls in seasonal transitions. I feel this somehow lines up with the hero’s journey, but any concrete analogies escape me.
Think so as well. Accepting the falling away.
Letting go and accepting is the hardest lesson for me to learn. All I want to do is kick, scream, bite, and fight any way I can. But, I'm getting there.
It could be that we each feel the passing of time more acutely in fall- there's a lot of dying and ending going on around us. It does mirror our own personal endings that way. I am soon to be 65, that puts me well into the fall season of life. I no longer wish to kick, bite and fight. I am seeking a quality landing strip, no nasty bumps, good looking shoulders and a field at the end of the runway with very good grass.
You bring me joy. Just so you know.
Thank you! It's an honor to be of service like that.
What a perfect exercise, Jason, thank you! Choosing an emotional anchor word popped open a whole box of inspiration. I could have kept going all day.
Here are a few from my set of ten:
Nobody can see
this weird bird I’m drawing in
my private notebook
The house is empty!
Now I get to make up songs
on the piano.
enough time has passed;
we’ve forgotten key details:
rewatching Mad Men
A happy number
in our small checking account.
Food shopping is fun.
The birthday balloon
escaped up to the skylight.
The string came untied.
My parents are dead.
My childhood is long past now.
I’ll stop being mad.
New box of tea lights,
three hundred in the package.
Candles for autumn!
Sunday is open,
Saturday’s work got canceled.
Let’s think where to go.
These are wonderful! Thank you for sharing them. I can see the emotional journey with each poem. Thanks for reading and for your support of this project!
Aw, thanks, and my great pleasure!
You’re doing fine exactly as you are Justin.
Justin. I am an idiot. It’s official.
Ha! No worries. I’ve been called far worse.
Inspirational and educational.
Thanks!
I don’t always proof read (which is ironic since I used to do that as part of my job in my past life)
Sooo not just me?!? 😂 I did Q&A and wrote letters & emails from & for The Corporate office - now I keep missing Ed, ing, eses 😂 all kind of things - I swear they take these off!
A lot of emotions in autumn for me. Lost many family members & my best boy BOWIE - October & November are always hard. But then December comes. Not just the holidays- birthdays, anniversaries so happy times as well. Plus it is the end of a hard couple of months and we are closing out another year
I will write shortly - this is a great subject Jason!
Thanks for reading! Fall for me has many more contradictions than the other seasons. Lots of grief for me but also lots of celebrations and milestones.
I’m not sure if I have mentioned how wonderful I think your art work is and how it adds to your poetry.
Watercolor was the hardest for me. Oils, Acrylic, charcoal, but watercolor was either too thick or too thin! Beautiful touch!
Thank you! I appreciate hearing that.
A mystery, right???
oh, Jason, have you checked out Rite in the Rain paper? Might not bleed. I use it, very pleasant feel.
I haven’t. I’ll have to check it out.
This piece was just a total delight to read—love the exercise/prompt (and really appreciated seeing the ten haiku that YOU created along with your writing pages; will explore the book, too. Thank you Jason. ✨🌞🍂
Thanks! Her books are so incredible!
I am so angry
That I can't stay home today
Writing mad haikus!
That's great! 😂 Maybe the world woud be more peaceful if we all stayed home occasionally to write made haikus
a simple exercise
writing haiku about loss and death
tends the sullen muse.
Thank you, Jason, you are a healer in disguise.
Thanks Sue! I love your poem. It means a lot to me that my work is in any way useful.
Wonderful prompt, Jason. Thank you. And thanks to the rain, I have a little extra time today. Hoping to carve out some rain-inspired haiku. 🙏
Thanks, Justin! There's always time for haiku 🤣
I wrote a few haikus in my latest newsletter - thank you for reminding me of my love for them!
A favourite pair of haikus:
I wonder whether / the birds ever contemplate / their deepest longings
I wonder whether / the birds are just too busy / living to notice
These two are great! I love all of the wondering haiku you shared in your newsletter. Thanks for sharing them and for the shoutout. I'm lve helping people remember how fun poetry can be!
Brilliant, Jason, and we get loads of haiku, too! Nice.
First of all, I liked the main haiku. But the exercise seems a very valuable one. Take a word and write. What struck me as interesting is that you turned blessed into abundance. Is abundance always a blessing was the question that immediately popped up in my mind.
Also liked to see your notebook page and learn that it is wine-coloured. And that your new pen bleeds through the pages of said notebook. I like my fountain pens to write with in my notebook.
Thanks Arjan!
I agree than abundance is not the same as blessed, and over-abundance can definitely feel more like a burden. I was interested in diverting my default focus on lack to recast the way I was seeing things that week. Every time I do this exercise I always learn something surprising about what is lurking in my subconscious.