Saturday Haiku: Winter Blue Sky

 bare oak branches sway
under a blue winter sky
remnants of a nest

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Photo by Charles Kinnaird

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Saturday Haiku: Wintertime

 the still of winter
brings all the town together
to keep life kindled

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Image: Winter Landscape with Skaters (1608) at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
Artist: Hendrick Avercamp
Medium: Oil on oak 

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Saturday Haiku: Cold Winter Days

on cold winter days

a soft light and a warm hearth

bring peace to the world

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Photo by Bill Munson: a view of downtown Franklin, TN taken from the Public Square (found on Facebook)


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Saturday Haiku: Snowdrift

 

digging out
in dead of winter
snow abounds

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Image: "Happy Holidays" (This image was used on the back of the album, "A Swingin' Christmas" featuring Tony Bennett and various vocal artists)

Artist; Tony Bennett (Antony Benedetto)*

*Last August, the legendary Tony Bennett announced his retirement from performing at the age of 95. His career has spanned eight decades. Famous for his singing career, he has also had a passion for painting. Today's post is part of a series of haiku inspired by Mr. Bennett's artwork (when he paints, he uses his given name, Antony Benedetto).

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Saturday Haiku: Snowfall in Central Park

 some trees dance
where snow has fallen
winds whisper

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Image: "Snowfall in Central Park"

Artist; Tony Bennett (Antony Benedetto)*

*Last August, the legendary Tony Bennett announced his retirement from performing at the age of 95. His career has spanned eight decades. Famous for his singing career, he has also had a passion for painting. Today's post is part of a series of haiku inspired by Mr. Bennett's artwork (when he paints, he uses his given name, Antony Benedetto).

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Saturday Haiku: Snow Day

 

a silence of snow
embraces the countryside
in nature’s respite

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Image: "Winter in Clio"
Artist; Tony Bennett (Antony Benedetto)*

*Last August, the legendary Tony Bennett announced his retirement from performing at the age of 95. His career has spanned eight decades. Famous for his singing career, he has also had a passion for painting. Today's post is part of a series of haiku inspired by Mr. Bennett's artwork (when he paints, he uses his given name, Antony Benedetto).

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Saturday Haiku: Winter Snows

 

 as snows softly fall
a barn filled with hope and hay
stands on frozen ground

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Photo: "An old barn on U.S. Hwy. 11 near Springville Alabama"  by Joe Songer

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Poems for Winter Days

As we come out from under our historic winter storm, here are two winter poems read by Alabama Poet Laureate, Jennifer Horne in this week's reading for her Midweek Poetry Break.

"I grew up thinking of Edsel Ford (no relation to the automotive Fords) as an Arkansas poet, known and much admired by my poet mother, but I recently learned he was born and spent the first two years of his life in Eva, Alabama, in Morgan County (about 30 miles due west of Guntersville, as the crow flies). For the Mid-Week Poetry Break, here are two poems by Edsel Ford, on the theme of winter." ~ Jennifer Horne, @ALPoetLaureate

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Saturday Haiku: Cardinal in Winter

some find their way by

migration and some live by

steadfast endurance

 

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Photo: Male Cardinal in Winter 

Credit: Sherry Leikin

Courtesy of Pixabay



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Saturday Haiku: Sleet

 

winter winds blowing
sleet gathers in the woodland
the nuthatch still sings

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Image: Euasian nuthatch in sleet
(Shutterstock photo)

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Saturday Haiku: Rain

Since the proper haiku is set in nature and speaks to the season, I have written many with rain as a subject. here is one from February of 2015.

cold and wet

on pre-Easter ground

raindrops fall

                 ~ CK

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Photo by Dorann Weber
Gettty Images photo


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Saturday Haiku: Winter Day

a low-hanging sun

casts long shadows in the snow

a stillness of trees

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Photo: "Winter Solstice" from The Old Farmers Almanac



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Saturday Haiku: Winter Snows

snows settle

on the mountainside

quiet days

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Image: "new hampshire: winter"
Artist: e.e. cummings
Medium: Oil on cardboard



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Saturday Haiku: Dismal Day

on a dismal day

before the springtime breezes

comes winter’s last breath

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Photo: Blue tit in winter sitting on ivy branch that is covered with hoarfrost

Credit:Oksana Schmid (Getty Images)

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Saturday Haiku: Fenceline

snow-capped fence

marking boundaries

winds ignore

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Photo: Fenceline in Warrior, Alabama
By Dennis L. Gamble
Found at Beautiful Places in the South



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Finding Christmas

I enjoy the Christmas season and when I discovered the liturgical season of Advent as an adult, that sacred time of waiting gave the season even more meaning for me. At the same time, I realize that there are many who have difficulty participating in the festive season. Some have painful memories from the past; some have been hardened by life and cannot make their way back to hope. Others have either lost faith, were nurtured in a different faith, or were raised without a strong faith tradition.

My hope is that everyone can find reason to celebrate the season and that we all can have hope for the days ahead. The following essay is one that was first posted in December of 2010. It was first written and presented at the request of Rev. Karen Matteson, a Unitarian Minister. She wanted me to take part in a Sunday morning service in preparation for Christmas. Many in that Unitarian congregation felt that it was very important to have a big Christmas Eve celebration. Others had a problem with Christmas because they came from different backgrounds, and most had a problem with affirming the divinity of Christ. The minister wanted to have a service to help bring everyone in to the celebration of the season while acknowledging the different places that many were coming from. "Finding Christmas" was my contribution to that service which I was honored to take part in.

   Finding Christmas: A Post-modern Christian Revisits an Ancient Holiday

by Charles Kinnaird

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me 

                                            there lay an invincible summer."

                                                   ~Albert Camus

In the Jesus story, the Gospel writer at one point has the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, asking the question, "What am I to do with Jesus?" It is fascinating to me that from that time until this, most of us in Western Civilization have had to ask that very question and in some way respond to the question. When I was in high school, there were two Broadway musicals, Godspell, and Jesus Christ, Superstar, that represented one way that my generation was responding to the question of what to do with Jesus. Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, Handel's Messiah, Zulu Zionism in South Africa, Base Communities in Latin America, and the Jesus Seminar in Santa Rosa, CA, represent a few of the many varied responses to the same question.

In my own journey, I am always re-evaluating and redefining. I took a computer course once where we were working with spreadsheets. I loved the visual effect of having the spreadsheet all laid out, then typing in another number and watching the whole screen change in response to the new data. A living philosophy has to be that way. When we are confronted with new information or new experiences, our perspective will change in some way. There may even be a shift in our world view.

The Risk of Incarnation

A few years ago, I was attending a Eucharistic service at an Episcopal Church (some traditions refer to it as Mass, or Holy Communion). It was at a time when I was re-assessing what the Christian myth meant to me, given my world view. It occurred to me that however the person of Jesus fits (or does not fit) into one's theology, the Jesus Story dramatically illustrates the risk of incarnation. It was an emotional moment and I immediately connected with that notion because I knew first-hand the risk of incarnation.

In my work as a registered nurse, I often have to ask patients to sign a consent form for the surgeon to operate. I always ask the patient "Has the doctor explained to you the risks and the benefits of this procedure?" If the patient answers affirmatively, then I know that he or she is ready to sign the consent form. That day during the Eucharist, I knew that as I drank from the cup, I was affirming my own participation in the risk of incarnation. Knowing the beauty of being alive, I was also fully aware of the risk.

Celebrating the Light

Christmas is about light and life. It is a celebration in the middle of winter that the light will come and the darkness will end. It is a celebration of the promise of new life beginning. We call it Christmas, a time when Christians celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus as the incarnation of God and a light to the world.

The celebration existed, however, long before the Christians took it over. Winter Solstice had long been a time to celebrate the dawn on the darkness of winter. It was a time to extol the evergreen that proclaimed the promise of life in the dead of winter.

Christmas for us can be a time to celebrate the joy and beauty of incarnation as we know it. If we have lived long enough, we understand the risk, but we also know from our collective experience that the darkness will end. We sense the persistent hope of new life. We know that life on this planet is worth the risk. We can use the Christmas season to acknowledge our own participation in the incarnation of Life.

Our light has come.

Our day has dawned.

We can joyfully celebrate

Life is up to something,

    and we are included!

Life is full of surprises,

    and we are a part of it!

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Saturday Haiku: Stillness

trees stand shadow-less

cold overcast winter day

the earth finds stillness

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Image: " Chicago, Trees in Snow," 1950, The Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Harry Callahan, American, 1912-1999
Medium: Photography - gelatin silver print



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Saturday Haiku: Trees in Winter

bare trees in winter

life’s symmetry remembered

cold wind embraces

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Image: Clump of Trees in Winter, 1976
Artist: Joichi Hoshi (Japanese, 1913–1979)
Medium: woodcut

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Saturday Haiku: Winter

quietly the land

with snow-laden trees awaits

the lone bird in flight

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Image: The Road in front of Saint-Siméon Farm in Winter, 1867
Artist: Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Public Domain, courtesy of I Require Art


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Saturday Haiku: Cold Winter

on cold winter days

a soft light and a warm hearth

bring peace to the world

________________________
Photo by Bill Munson: a view of downtown downtown Franklin, TN taken from the Public Square (found on Facebook)


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