A haiku (hopefully) sequence for the dverse prompt
blue
bold as brass echoes
with summer
swallows at sunset
flicker in elegant flight
winged evening dress
heat throbs
woodpecker-laughs while we bake
with tree envy
still hushed air
grasped in an iron fist
hot as a cat’s breath
too hot to sing
sparrowhawk ever ready
to pick a fight
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Jane Dougherty Writes 
I love that we wrote about the summer heat, smiles. I specially adore that image of swallows in their winged evening dress.
Thanks Grace. They hurtle about so importantly, chattering away, just like men hurrying to a celebrity dinner.
I adore the summer imagery here too; each word is delved with deliberate thought and I can feel such warmth from the details alone. If anything, this impacted me the most:
“still hushed air
grasped in an iron fist
hot as a cat’s breath…”
I have cats myself and they have horrible breath. This made me shudder because I’m just thinking of that, hahaha!
Excellent haiku sequence here. It’s so beautifully penned! I love your writing.
Thank you! Yes, I know what you mean about cat halitosis. Mine don’t smell yet, but they will 🙂
A beautiful Summer sequence Jane, I especially love the image of the swallows at sunset in ‘winged evening dress’ xxx
Thank you! The swallows seem to find their way up here by the evening, otherwise the call of the river is too strong. It must be seething with mosquitoes!
favorite lines:
“swallows at sunset
flicker in elegant flight”
Thanks Lisa. I wait for them. Sunset doesn’t seem complete without them
You’re welcome.
luv the different moods in this sequence
Much💖love
Thanks! Best 🙂
Ooooo Jane… Delicious!
Like melted ice cream 🙂
I can feel that seething heat dripping in this sequence! Brava!
Thanks Frank. It’s impossible to think about anything but the heat today!
“We’re having a heat wave”,Marilyn Monroe sang; even here in the NW, we have high 90’s. Your haikus simmer, stew, steam and hit every note of a poetic serenade.Your last haiku is my fave.
Thanks Glenn. Even the raptors are getting crabby.
So the sparrowhawk is still ready to fight. I imagine the cat could be goaded, too. But in the heat, maybe two-footed and four-footed creatures would just as soon melt–I mean, rest–on one spot.
You’d think so. I’ve noticed that the buzzards are the only raptor to be systematically attacked by other birds, even songbirds. Mostly the other raptors mind their own business, but not the sparrowhawks. They are the bird equivalent of terriers I suppose.
Lovely snippets of summer.
Thanks Bev 🙂
Such wonderful descriptions! I love the swallows in their winged evening dress and the hot cat’s breath. 😀
Thank you 🙂 Everything is too hot. Some of the birds are fighting it, but generally it’s quiet.
😀
enjoyed these summer natural characters
Thank you. Human summer activity isn’t generally very poetic.
The imagery of summer is amazing, also perfect sequence. Vivid and descriptive.
Thank you, Tanya. It’s hard to concentrate on much else at present.
Sounds like the heat is getting to everybody 😉
The wildlife knows to take things slower. A lesson we have yet to learn…
We tend to live in the heat of the moment and that can be destructive.
There’s a lot to be said for instinct 🙂
This has the languid feel of summer, except for the swallows, and even they seem ready to welcome the end of a hot summer day.
The swallows keep at it, which I understand, but they are noisy with it, which I don’t…
I like the way you give each creature a separate space, with a separate mood. I guess we all respond to heat differently.
We do, and it seems that the wildlife is no different 🙂
I enjoyed your haiku sequence and its title, Jane. The opening haiku is a real hook, with ‘blue’ standing alone and yet completely part of the alliterative simile, daring a bird or a cloud to disrupt the blueness. I love the way you make the heat more palpable, throbbing and ‘woodpecker-laughing’, and the image of sparrowhawks ‘ever ready to pick a fight’. I am so glad that the weather is cooler here and there are no overheated sparrowhawks about to pick fights. I think they must have all flown to Spain!
Thanks Kim. The birds go quiet in the heat mainly, but the buzzards have a knack for stirring it up. The other birds of prey keep out of it, but the sparrowhawks are always up for a fight.
It’s too hot to think about anything but…heat.
Wonderful seasonal haiku sequence. I loved this one…
still hushed air
grasped in an iron fist
hot as a cat’s breath
I hope not as stinky!! :>)
Our cats have quite sweet breath. It’s the dog whose breath smells like a two week-dead cod.
Ha Ha! It all depended what we fed our cat. We once had a cat that farted all the time. It was pretty bad at times!
One of the joys in store for us, I suppose 🙂
There’s an intense waiting to this weather. (K)
I feel lucky to be able to wait. People having to go to work in it must be in some state.
If they are going into an air conditioned office they might be happy.
If that’s the only reason, that is sad.
Much of office life is sad.
When you start to analyse the why of it all, what it’s for, what good does it do, you rapidly come up against a blank wall.
I did so much better work once I started freelancing and only went into offices to discuss the specific project I was working on. Some people thrive in that atmosphere though. My older daughter really misses it–they aren’t scheduled to start working at the office again until September. Of course she’s trying to work in a small apartment that’s not set up for it at all, and her work relies on other people. If they don’t give her what she needs she can’t just go to their desk and ask where it is, she has to wait (and wait, often) for them to get back to her.
It makes a big difference if you actually enjoy both the job and the contact with lots of people. She’s lucky. I’ve worked with a tiny handful of people I have actually liked, and had to work with and for a whole crowd I have disliked intensely, doing a useless sort of job anyway. Anyone who enjoys their work is in a sort of heaven.
I agree.
I loved this verse: “swallows at sunset, flicker in elegant flight, winged evening dress…” what a fabulous comparison. Brilliant. This one will stick with me. ❤
Thanks Colleen! I’m pleased you liked that one 🙂
My favorite. ❤