by Kelly

Before the cold snap

a pheasant ducks through the woods –

Thoughts of my grandpa.

Unusual warmth,

so the dogs and I press on –

Still, though, that pheasant…

Wild turkey, yes

fox, deer, coyotes I’ve seen

Pheasants? Not pheasants.

Grandpa hunted them.

Stuffed pheasants flew through his house –

Was that one a sign?

Almost to the door

when my dogs flush three pheasants

from beside the shed.

The dogs bark, the birds

stumble from the underbrush

dragging crumpled leaves.

I drop the leashes,

scream before I see the birds

fighting to escape

From inside me, a

wild, uncontrollable laugh

rushes forth — then tears.

Equally wild and

uncontrollably, I sob

there in the driveway.

Maybe they were just

pheasants, just birds. Or maybe

they were my grandpa.

by Kelly

What if we lived here?

Or here? I waste hours clicking

on houses, dreaming . . .

by Kelly

Superbowl Sunday —

Madonna so improves my

mood I watch the game.

by Alison

cold winds

and the Super Bowl -

we stay home and bake

by Kelly

last night’s fog freezes —

morning is a fairy land

of white, white, white, white

by Alison

Her sculptures

populate our house -

Soon, spring!.

This is a sculpture that Penny did a year ago. You can see that it includes: one package of paper towels, an assortment of blocks + one ring box. That is the ring box that once contained my engagement ring.

This is one of my favorites of Penny’s sculptures. She calls it “A Book Bridge” which she built by pulling Ben’s books off of his bookshelf. There is a certain amount of flexibility that is required with the creative spirit.

And this is a favorite “art actigity”, as Penny likes to call it. This project was created last year, after we explored our garden while taking clippings of new spring blossoms. So Penny is awaiting spring again!

I wanted to share these pictures to somehow document Penny’s creative spirit as well as the “look” of our house, which we try and make sure is conducive to art! All children love to make things and it’s wonderful to see Penny explore. And with two creative parents, we both understand what it means to her. The other day my husband threw a pile of laundry into our closet, unknowingly  knocking over one of Penny’s sculptures which was made of: a pole used for opening and closing the skylight, christmas stockings, ribbon and beautiful fabrics. Penny cried with the most heartbreaking tears at seeing the destruction of her sculpture. So Ben spent the next hour with her recreating her masterpiece. Because it meant so much to her and he remembered what it meant to him when he was a child!

.

by Kelly

waiting for news of

his promotion and our son –

we shiver in bed

by Alison

At night, in bed

we whisper of our daughter:

“She’s an artist…”

by Kelly

trying to fix it,

hubby breaks the microwave —

one more bill piles on

by Alison

bright moon

makes the woods seem

so familiar

Okay, so Kelly has convinced me. I am taking on the NaHaiWriMo challenge, too! And I’ve decided to add my own resolution along with it. For some time I’ve been interested in experimenting with the short form of haiku, also called “Modern Haiku” by some. I did some experimentation this past year but often return to 5-7-5 without truly getting comfortable with the shorter form. So that is my goal for this month - to experiment with short haiku, in various ways. Perhaps some of my short haiku will not have a break, such as the one that I wrote above. Or perhaps some of my short haiku will not even have three lines or a nature reference. But I’m hoping to get back into the spirit of haiku, which to me is an incredible connection with and awareness of a moment. So here we go! Kelly and I, back to haiku with NaHaiWriMo!