Dawn Beauty – Sunshine Lane

Starting My Day|A Hay(na)ku|NaPoWriMo Day 27

Sunrise
is purple
and gold now.

I
need to
write and pray.

This
is how
I start days.

I
pray you
peace and love.

And today’s prompt – optional, as always — comes to us from Vince Gotera. It’s the hay(na)ku). Created by the poet Eileen Tabios and named by Vince, the hay(na)ku is a variant on the haiku. A hay(na)ku consists of a three-line stanza, where the first line has one word, the second line has two words, and the third line has three words. You can write just one, or chain several together into a longer poem. For example, you could write a hay(na)ku sonnet, like the one that Vince himself wrote back during NaPoWriMo 2012!

An interesting form I had not heard of before. I love short form poems, like the haiku and now the hay(na)ku. They require me to condense my thoughts and feelings and I really like it because what comes out is often more meaningful than a poem or essay with too many words. Less is more, to me, for certain!

Peace and love, Elaine

In Dawn’s Early Light–NaPoWriMo for Monday

Awake at 3:15 in the morning again.
My dog, Buddy, and I have getting
out of the bed quietly down to a fine art.
We don’t want to wake my husband.
I wouldn’t want anyone else to be
awakened at this early hour, even
my worst enemy, much less my husband,
whom I actually like as well as love.

After leaving the bedroom, Buddy
and I are on automatic pilot.
I pad to the restroom, wash my hands,
put on my bathrobe, and then pad
down the hall to the kitchen where
I let Buddy out the back patio door
while I start making my first cup of coffee.
I thank the Keurig coffee maker for existing.

I let Buddy back in from the deep dark,
give him a treat, pick up my coffee cup,
and then into the living room we go.
He settles in the middle of the floor,
staring at his treat as though it is planning a
great escape just to vex him.
I turn on my lamp by hitting it’s button on
the floor with my foot.
Gentle light pools around my chair.
I sink down into my chair,
take a sip of coffee, pray,
and then pick up my iPad so I can
read a while and then write a while,
if my writing muse has awakened, that is.

I once thought my dad was insane to
arise at 4:00 every morning and could
no more understand why he did it than
he could understand why I slept until 7:00
every morning when I had to be at work at 8:00,
getting my sons ready for school and there
before work.

I understand him now when he said,
“I get up at 4:00 because I wake up at 4:00
and know I’m not going to be able to go back to sleep.”
It must be an age related, inherited trait.

Finally at 6:00 AM, my sweet husband
arises sleepily, and goes through much
the same routine I did earlier.

After his cup of coffee is ready and
we kiss good morning,
I realize that dawn is peeking
through the curtains that cover
the east side patio doors.
I go to the backyard to watch
the sun come up.

I love watching the sun arise
so quietly.

In the dawn’s early light I realize,
I’ve been up for over three hours and,
suddenly I’m very, very sleepy.

Sunday Sunrise

The leafless trees across the way,
are stark abstracts against the
dawn of day.

The little squirrel who slumbers
in a crook amidst the limbs,
awakes exactly when
the sun ray’s fingers
gently fall upon him.

He stretches and he runs a bit,
back and forth along the limb.
Who knew that squirrels
were joggers too,
who run each dawning
of the day?

There are few birds to herald
the rising of the sun,
the morning has a muted silence,
as Sunday is begun.

It’s the perfect time for prayer,
or meditation if you wish,
a time to thank the Father
for sunrises such as this,
a time to sip one some coffee
and enjoy the sun’s first kiss.