Worrying the Moon Into Being: A Haiku Challenge

At the first hint of dawn this morning, I glanced at the huge window where my orchids sit. They love the light from that window and are thriving. I’ve never had orchids rebloom after dropping their first blossoms…until now. I love them and photograph them endlessly, as if they are some beautiful sleeping children innocently calling for adoration.

What I saw this morning was a full moon, cradled in clouds, framed by orchid beauty. I bolted across the room, grabbed my phone to take a picture, and rushed back to the window. By that time, during a 5-second span, the fog had swallowed the moon. Surely it will reappear; I’ll wait.

So I waited. And I waited. The fog played with time, teasing me, showing me a glowing spot where the moon might shine through – there it is, it’s coming through! No, it did not. And the gray accumulated again to block the silvery circle.

I sat there for more than 30 minutes, posed, knowing I would have to strike quickly to conquer the rascal marine layer. Then I realized the moon likely had moved on. I rushed outside on the deck to see if I could locate where it might be in relation to where it was earlier. I felt this obsessive-compulsive determination to capture the moon, then I could force it into the composition with Photoshop, and make you see what a gorgeous photo it would have been.

I paced the deck. I stood longingly at the window, like a maritime widow watching for her sea-lost love. Then I accepted that my imagined perfect picture was not going to happen. This is the creative process. Sometimes we are gifted the split-second potential of glory. And sometimes it’s just out of reach. Just beyond our fingertips, an image or a word or a musical note that doesn’t come to us. It can be so disappointing.

Then again what seems like a failure, a lack, can be made into a stepping stone to something else. So my lack of a moon is now your challenge. I challenge you to write a haiku. Most of us are familiar with haiku form but just in case your skills are rusty, here’s a refresher.

Use this challenge as a writing prompt. Feel free to add your haiku in the comments or send it to me privately cynthia@unstuckcreative.com  I’ll print them and we can share them at our next meetup. I’m looking forward to reading them!

Update: Here is one sent by V – such beautiful visuals!

Wrestling with nature

The patient photographer

Daylight, orchid, moon

And here’s a lovely one from Maryann:

A plink I hear in the pond

Circles in my heart

Whirls of loneliness expand