Five Haiku: Song of Home
Morning sways in sun
Rush of air flexing branches
Wings gliding through gold
Leaves shimmering green
Bright hum of mowers buzzing
Gentle whir of cars
Windchimes dance and ding
Chirp of sunlight cicadas
Croak of moonlight frogs
This is how it feels
To be awake, be alive
This is breathing blue
This is how it feels
To be hopeful, to be home
This is tenderness
Copyright @Stacie Eirich October 6, 2023
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The poem above was originally written as free verses in April 2023, while my child and I were home between radiation and chemo treatments. Later, I revised the verses into haiku. They represent the sensuality of sound and light in our Louisiana home. They are what I felt then and now, upon coming home to this space after long periods of being away.
We are slowly getting back to the people, places and things we love. One of those things is reading, and I am happy to share a book review with you: Disappearing Earth by Julia Philips. A bit different from my usual format, in this short video review I read aloud my written review, which I completed for our library’s book club in October 2022.
Here’s what I’m currently reading: The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. I’ll have a new video review with more “off the cuff” discussion of it coming in November 2023 on my YouTube Channel.
I may also revisit, review and discuss our library club’s November 2022 pick, which was Sankofa by Chibundo Onuzo.
It is with tenderness that my family steps into this next chapter in our lives, into a month that so upended our lives last year. This year, as I watch the leaves on the trees begin to fall and feel the wind change — I am writing my way through, and meeting each next day with as much grace as can be mustered.
Thank you for visiting my blog, for supporting my family through this past year of turmoil — and for helping me keep creativity alive. I am grateful that you are here, reading and listening.
I’m thankful to have had poems published in literary journals and magazines in the past months. Here are some you can read free online:
While Sitting Outside on my Lunch Break on a Tuesday & Motions of Tenderness,
Inlandia, Librarians & Libraries Issue, Volume 14, Summer 2023.
Blossoms, Susurrus Magazine, Issue 7, Summer 2023.
Blues City Bus, Paper Dragon, Volume 5, July 2023.
Winter, Words & Whispers, June 1, 2023.
Hope like Sunlight, The Bluebird Word, May 18, 2023.
Below is Baba Yetu, a song that was a space of joy through grief to me, that I was able to rehearse and record with The Stay at Home Choir from St. Jude in early spring. Watch from a mobile device and have fun moving the screen for a 360 degree experience as you listen and dance along!
In hope, verses & song,
Stacie
*Post Script* My child is a patient at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. If you’d like to follow our journey to a cure, visit: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hopeforsadie