Poets Salon: Hope and Birds

POETS SALON

– 1/30/19

Birds on the beach (Photo – Marta Chociłowska).

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

Our Salon is inspired today by Emily Dickinson’s beautiful “Hope is the thing with feathers.” Many times on my walks I’ve found a feather. Each one is memorable and feels significant and uplifting. I particularly remember once on an escalator I saw a feather traveling up just ahead of me. It looked familiar, like one I had lost perhaps a year before! I picked it up and took it home.

waking up happy
the purple feathered bird
in my dream

~ Kathabela

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Duck (Photo – Frank Williams).

Brendon Kent

Imagine a world without hope. Many tragedies around the world are happening right now, natural and man-made. So many humans are suffering unfathomable hardships…yet these are the places we find the most hope, among the children of these tragedies and the parents driven to be refugees crossing perilous oceans. We find hope among the housebound, the many among us with varying grades of disability. Hope to humans is like zoka is to nature, its driving force. I believe as long as I can walk among the trees and hear the birds, I’ll have hope!

a row of starlings
Hope, a 4-letter word carrying a multitude of expectations… Is it better to hope small or to aim higher at the bigger picture? Might we miss something dreaming big?

in and out
of the snail’s horns
a spring day

a row of starlings have gathered on the neighbour’s roof antenna, morning mist still rising off the back fence engulfing the ghosts of who they were. A dog’s barking starts another and another and…
I shuffle myself into the only patch of morning sun on the far corner of my decking, as I do every morning to hear the birdsong.

first village bells…
the bell ringer’s son
nearly gets it right

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Hope and Birds (Photo – Marta Chociłowska).

Marta Chociłowska

crane dances
in front of our house
mist rises

daybreak
on the sky’s pinkness
birds sharpen

Once upon a time…
In the mid-fifties, during communism time in my country, I went for holidays by the sea with my dad. One day walking along the beach we are halted by a high barbed wire fence. I want get to the other side, but my father stops me. He looks at the birds flying over the fence and says – remember, that freedom is not about doing what you want, but about feeling at home in the world.
Today I walk alone on the same beach with no fences, thinking about my father, freedom and hope.

slice of bread
in step with me
a seagull

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Pigeons snow (Photo – Frank Williams)

Frank Williams

I have lived and worked most of my life, although now retired, in London, therefore my haiku very much reflect an urban environment of which birds are very much a part. Sparrows are charming birds that symbolize hope and courage that transfers to humans when moving about the urban environment, though sadly this once common bird is on the decline in many areas. For a Christian, the dove is a sign of hope and the descent of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the dove is a symbol in many religions and peace groups. Finally, and I quote, “When All is Lost, Hope Remains”.

tree in twilight
ghost wagtails streaming
into their roost

snow-covered ground
a blur of pigeons squabble
over a few crumbs

Swan and cygnets (Photo – Frank Williams).

Hope and Birds: Quotes and Credits

Brendon Kent lives in the small countryside village of Botley (circa 890AD) within Southampton, England. He has been writing short form poetry for many years and is published in most leading journals worldwide. Brendon is a member of the British Haiku Society, the World Haiku Association and he’s the Head Teacher online for international haiku at Haiku University (Tokyo). He has recently released a collection of haiku, senryu, tanka titled ‘moon on water’ by Alba Publishing June 2018.

Marta Chociłowska lives in Warsaw. She’s a cat lover and a cyclist. Co-author of many domestic and foreign haiku anthologies, winner and judge of domestic and international haiku contests. She has publications in international haiga and haiku journals. She’s also the author of “Seasons in Polish kigo”, member of the founding committee of Polish Haiku Association and president of this association, and editor of the Almanac “Migratory Birds”.

Frank Williams lives in London, UK. He says: “I discovered haiku via a small book, entitled The Haiku Hundred (Iron Press 1992/94&96) and joined ‘The British Haiku Society’ in 1996. Ever since then, I have been fascinated by these small poems. I believe that haiku are small windows on the Universe; vignettes that reveal themselves through an emotional and intuitive response to the heart. It’s always fascinated me that a poem so short can encompass the universe or what is on the head of a pin. I’m currently the Membership Secretary for The ‘British Haiku Society’ and an active member of ‘The London Haiku Group. ‘
Each one of these books I have published mark a milestone on my haiku journey: Bumping along (Hub Editions – 2001); Triptych – (Hub Editions – 2005); Rush Hour Over – (Hub Editions – 2008); Relocation Day – 2009; Faraway Hills – 2010; Timeless – 2012; Small Bursts of Colour – 2013; A New World Mirrored – 2015; Uncomplicated – 2016 & A Million Sundrops – 2017.

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♣ We welcome and encourage your response, especially in the form of a short poem, by leaving a comment below.