In and out

In and out
The waves go in and out
Licking the shore and reshuffling shells and stones
Rolling and crashing against one another
Doubts and a wrenched gut
Paranoia and sweat
A wave that comes in
But does not go out
A battle of rationality and emotion in the mind
Rolling and crashing against one another
In and out
You try to breathe in and out
Create the waves that move in rhythm
Waves that bring in the new
Waves that take away the old
In and out
In and out

Travel – a sijo

Breathtaking views, incredible stories, strangers to friends
In this vast world are new experiences at your fingertips
Everyone’s invited, gather round – say hello through a screen

I am late to the NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) party, but here is a sijo for day 20.

5 years later… hello world!

My last post was from November 2015. How things have developed since then. Between graduating from two universities, accompanied by two career changes, and the global pandemonium that is currently affecting all of us – a lot has changed.

It has taken me a while to gather the desire and motivation to read or write again after being stuck in textbooks and scientific papers during my most recent degree. Since my last post I have transitioned from professional ballet dancer, to brain scientist, to dance teacher and choreographer. I have updated my About page in case you were wondering how this happened.

This past year especially has been a lesson in patience and adaptability. It has been and is a waiting game for things to become normal, if that normal can even exist again. Nothing is guaranteed but change, and that has really affected the way I think about my life plans and goals. I have decided to restart publishing on this blog because 1) life is apparently too interesting to not document (in general, not during lockdown right now), 2) it gives me the selfish benefits of organizing and saving my thoughts, and 3) if by any chance my words here can add to someone’s life in any way, then why not! (And if not, then there is somehow a weird comfort in sending these words out into space anyway.)

And so, hello world!

Farewell (NaPoWriMo #30)

Source from Etsy via Pinterest - "Inspiring" by Debby Dunahy

Walking down a row of chairs
Reliving years of education
And growing up together
End of high school

Walking through a printed labyrinth
Praying together at its centre 
And the clock rings sunset
End of pilgrimage

Walking past a billowing curtain
Celebrating together with laughter
And photos and hugs
End of studio performance

Walking away from a special group
Wishing for each all the best
And lasting friendship
Start of the next chapter

—————————————-

I have met so many amazing people this summer, and have had to say goodbye to so many of them. It’s amazing how short a time it takes to bond and care for a group, and how quickly life moves on; leaving us to cherish memories and wonder when we will see each other again as everyone disperses down their own path. I almost wish in a way that social media didn’t make it so easy to “stay in touch” by interacting with likes and the  periodical profile stalkings when writing is so much more eloquent. I miss writing letters or emails, but networking is a lot more convenient through social media now. I feel very blessed to be a part of an awesome community through school, parish, and dance. Farewell reminds us to cherish every moment spent, and for that I am also grateful.

Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

PS: From the NaPoWrimo website:
“And now for our final (yet still optional!) prompt. Today, as befits the final poem of NaPoWriMo, I challenge you to write a poem of farewell. It doesn’t have to be goodbye forever — like I said, NaPoWriMo will be back again next year.”

(It only took me almost four months, but hey, 30 poems! NapoWriMo is finally completed by this deadline-challenged individual. Yay!)

Indulgence of Sadness (NaPoWriMo #28)

I feel a black burning hole sinking into my gut,
Its cursed heart growing beyond mine, beating silence into my mind.
Dreams haunted by the past ring with the laughter of time that races only with itself.
Swallowed by despair as soul is sucked into the air, is the feeling of a being
Who could have done but did not do.

—————————————-

Visa application + stupidity/inability to appropriately respond to unpredictable circumstances + horribly rude customer service = Stress and a whole lot of sorries.

How I even manage to write this lightheartedly I have no idea. This was a vent of my disgusting feelings at the moment. And I know NaPoWriMo was over a while ago…

Anyways, thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

Among the Stars (NaPoWriMo #27)

A snapchat sent to me by a friend in Denmark.

Pastel lines sprinkled on a street
Where wheels and stardust meet
Smear nebulae across asphalt galaxies:
The pathway of children’s suns.

——-—————–——————-

This is a poem written from a photograph. I got this image through the social media app “Snapchat” and saved it on my phone because I thought it was a captivating idea. 22 days until graduation! Feeling so nostalgic for the chalk driveway drawing days…

Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

Awake (NaPoWriMo #26)

Photo by Katie Howell on etsy

In a velvet sky the moon sends down its silver glow
Upon the throne between dusk and dawn.
But the sparkle of stars are eaten by a fluorescent yellow,
Brash against midnight; the lights are still on.
On the main road, cars roll in rumbles low and deep.
Human eyelids held open by machines that never sleep.

Red numbers of a clock pierce through shadows to the brain,
Imprinted in half dreams floating between realities.
Furnace whispers are punctuated by distant whistles of a train,
And the fading wails of sirens rushing to their calamities.

In the big city, the night never comes.

—————————————
Started writing this one on a sleepless night. Sleep is always so much better in cottage country when you can’t see your hand in front of your face and it’s so quiet your ears start imagining the sound of air pressure. Technology has allowed humans to break the natural sleeping cycle and stay awake far beyond evolutionary bedtime. The prompt was for a shorter version of a classic form : the curtal sonnet. Hope you enjoyed.

Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

From the NaPoWriMo website:
The curtal sonnet is shorter than the normal, fourteen line sonnet. Instead it has a first stanza of six lines, followed by a second stanza of four, and then closes with a half-line. The form was invented in the 1800s by Gerard Manley Hopkins, who used it in his famous poem“Pied Beauty”.

What I saw in the rainforest (NaPoWriMo #25)

Found on Pinterest on the board "beautiful nature" by Sarah Ulhaas

In the greenest of jungles I saw a plethora of feathered, furry, scaly creatures,
With rainbow coloured, poison spewing, gravity defying features.

Almost magical stunts I saw when walking the rainforest without a rush.
Secret superpowers of every animal hidden within the brush.

Thin rays of sun stream through dense, entangled canopies shining tiny spotlights.
I saw flower faces unfurling and shiny beetles hooked in fights.

From the sky it is endless emerald framed by deep blue seas that glisten.
I saw a sea of bark and leaves, waves stretched over a nation whose voice is heard if you only listen.

And looking closely I saw little patches in nature’s elaborate quilts.
Edges of barren palm trees where the forest vines slowly wilt.

There are little surprises beneath the sand, under trees of coconut.
I saw the growth of ‘progress’, which I fear is anything but.

—————————————-
The prompt was to write with anaphora, a repeated phrase, in this case the simple “I saw.” Whenever I think about the damage that has been done to rainforests and that is still occurring today, I feel so ashamed of the human race. It is so sad to think of the diversity and history that we have lost in order to harvest some more oil or lumber or whatever to fuel our money – based society. I do think the mentality that progress is making more money is what is causing the sustainability dilemnas we are finding ourselves in. Anyway, I won’t write more on this here, but possibly in the future.

Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

Little Joey (NaPoWriMo #22)

Little Joey Jimble,
Lost his mother’s thimble.
His soldier was wearing it as a hat. 

Being a polite and sorry chap,
He found an acorn cap,
That fit to do the job, just like that.

—————————————-
My attempt at writing a nursery rhyme, as a poem for children. Growing up I loved reading Mother Goose, and still have songs in my head from an audio sing-along tape I listened to all the time. Sometimes they didn’t make much sense but the rhymes are charming and so are the names! And there’s something about thimbles that make them collectible, I never really use one, but the designs can be so creative. Acorn caps are very cute too, I mean look!

Found on nell-miniminis.blogspot.it

  Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

Bolong (NaPoWriMo #2)

The tofu man’s cart rattles along dimly lit roads,
Calling out to those in want of warm ginger soup.
He clatters a bell piercing through the song of crickets and toads.
In the shadows, a young lady emerges around the loop.
She smiles as he ladles a generous serving into a bowl,
And hands cupping the dish, lets the steam rise up into her face.
It might rain; there is a sound of plopping liquid as she gives it a taste.
Dropping a coin in his palm she hurries away, and to his horror he sees his soup trailing behind,
Through her back from a big gaping hole.

—————————————-
For a poem based on exotic mythology, I was inspired by a trickster spirit my mother told me about, in the form of a woman with a hole in her back. Bolong means hole in Indonesian, and I suppose it would be a fun (but scary for the victim obviously) prank to play on anything requiring the digestive passageway. I am behind on 30 poems for NaPoWriMo with 10 left to go, but congratulations to everyone who completed the challenge today! I will continue writing the prompts – there is lots of inspiration just not enough time – and hopefully this is not a total faux-pas.

Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead