Poetry Corner: Regional Reading – The Midwest, Dramatic Weather

POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading

– 08/23/17

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

Our two poets today write haiku that capture the spacious canvas of the Midwest, Doris Lynch, who has lived in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Alaska, California, and Indonesia says: “One thing that the Midwest has that tops these other regions is dramatic weather. Our thunderstorms bring earth-shaking thunder, vivid lightning strikes, and towering stacks of fast-moving cumuli. Just before rain hits, the clouds turn the deep blue of a skin bruise. Most summer nights I walk our dog, Mr. Darcy. Sometimes we’re lucky and a storm has past, but the clouds remain: our pink and gold mountains, our grey and black cityscapes against the sky”.

This is the thirteenth in our series of Regional Reading haiku Poetry Corners featuring haiku poets who will be visiting Santa Fe, New Mexico in September for Haiku North America 2017*. Our corners develop from the themes highlighted by their poems and concerns.

~ Kathabela

The Midwest 1 (Photo – Greg Fischer).​

Doris Lynch

firefly meadow
the three-legged lab
begins to dance

widower
one street over
tree frog’s lament

field sparrow
proposes over and over
lingering dusk

blue heron
leans over to fish
splintering light

Doris says: “South-central Indiana has a plethora of forests: state forests and parks. Hills you can hike, like the wonderfully named Scarce a’ Fat Trail in Yellowwood State Forest. In peak autumn, when the maples turn red; the sycamores, yellow; and the oaks, orange, rounding a curve on a bike, you feel stunned by nature’s beauty. It reminds you how ephemeral it all is: growth, life, the passing of days”.

wind roars
through the beech leaves
crack of ice

the endless reach
for perfection
picking mulberries

Doris Lynch lives in Bloomington, Indiana where she works as a community engagement librarian. She loves hiking and visiting our beautiful national parks. She also writes “longer” poetry and fiction.

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The Midwest 2 (Photo – Greg Fischer).​

Jari Thymian

We will also recognize Jari Thymian. Last week, she gave us glowing haiku about the southwest where she and her husband presently work. But Jari grew up on a dairy farm close to the Minnesota-South Dakota border and has a special love for the Midwest lakes in the area she called home before she and her husband bought their RV, sold most of their possessions to explore and preserve cultures of many regions by volunteering in State and National parks. Hence her second appearance in our Poetry Corner. The stunning photos are by her husband Greg Fischer​.

sagging barn
two vultures
replace the weathervane

wheat harvest
chaff cloaks
the wind

late summer dusk
feeling
the cornfields cool​

September
new books, fresh floor wax
the rattle of dry cornstalks

Jari Thymian says: “The Midwestern lakes and land were the first imprints in my memory. There I caught insects for my 4-H collection and rode bicycle. I still long for the country school where I fell in love with reading”.

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> Photos by Greg-Fischer.

*The Regional Reading will be performed live at the conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in September, 2017, led by Kathabela Wilson. The dramatic presentation will be accompanied by Rick Wilson on flutes of the various regions. Poets from Australia, India, Canada, United States, and many other regions will be presenting. Look for their haiku in future Poetry Corners. Anyone can​ register for the conference and send their haiku to Scott Wiggerman for the anthology.

> You may also want to check:

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (12)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (11)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (10)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (9)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (8)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (7)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (6)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (5)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (4)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (3)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (2)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (1)