by Kelly

Nala always barks

but today she howled…howled…howled–

huskie loneliness

by Kelly

afternoon school bus

makes a stop on every block –

practice in patience

by Alison

A neighbor tells me,

“Be sure to wear red or orange -

It’s hunting season.”

by Alison

this open meadow,

this country house, this child with

a television

by Alison

a small tray of squash

by the side of the dirt road -

vegetables for sale

by Kelly

kids are back at school

and my daily walks have turned

quiet, yellow, crisp

by Kelly

Way, way back at the beginning of this haiku year, I lived in a house and Alison lived in a condo.

And that’s how we thought our lives would continue. Neither one of us envisioned our living situations would change in the coming 12 months, but –

But life has a way of ignoring your plans, which is exactly what happened to Alison. In January she had no idea that by August she would be a homeowner.

However, now that she is, I remembered this cute little book I bought several months ago called Homeowner Haiku by Jerry Ratch and Sherry Karver.

The book is filled with haiku that share the excitement of shopping for a house, the anxiety of placing an offer, the irritations of home-improvement projects and the creeping guilt that comes from ignoring the lawn for too long.

For example, I identified with this haiku from the book:

The weeds quietly

speak to me even though I

choose to ignore them

Oops. Did I just reveal an embarrassing truth about my garden? Oh well. I might as well come clean. There are weeds growing amongst my hostas that scare me. I just can’t bring myself to go out there and pull them. I have other things to do, I reason, much more important things to do — like reading haiku about ignoring weeds.

But the book did get me thinking about my house, the hopes, the joys and the annoyances that go along with homeownership. With that in mind, I came up with my very own homeowner haiku:

crystals and wind chimes

will fix our broken feng shui –

we wake up hopeful

And now, with that said, I’m packing up this book and shipping it off to Alison with my best wishes for her happy homeownership!

by Alison

ours is the lawn that’s

tufty green with patches of

poisonous mushrooms

by Alison

Where are my neighbors?

They drive by so quickly it’s

hard to say hello.

by Kelly

pee here pee there pee

on each blade, pole, stick and stone –

his reserves impress