the snow owl —
old hands drop the tea cup
for the first time
Published by
Aalix Roake
Aalix Roake is American-born, but makes her home in New Zealand. She writes haiku, senryu, tanka as well as mainstream and genre poetry such as science fiction. Her work has appeared in Modern Haiku, Chrysanthemum, Kokako, Diogen, A Hundred Gourds, Astropoetica, Star*Line, Shot Glass Journal, the Fib Review and Blackmail Press. Anthologies include 100 Tanka by 100 Poets, New Zealand Poetry Society 2012 and 2013 and the World Haiku Association: A Vast Sky(upcoming). She won First Place in Shiki Kukai November 2013, Honorable Mention and Commendation in the Klostar Ivanic Haiku Competition in 2013 and 2014 respectively, World Haiku Review Shintai and Vanguard Haiku of Merit for Spring 2014 as well as honors in other international contests. View all posts by Aalix Roake
Dear Aalix,
Just beautiful. . . your poem says so much!
– kala
Worth every re-read, thank you!
Have you managed to travel down to Katikati to see The Haiku Pathway set up by Cath Mair and local council? It’s a bit of a trek but well worth it if you include a bit of sightseeing at Katikati (one vast fabulous art town) and Rotorua.
Love the snow owl and the first time, because it’s such a sight, not because of failing sight. Wonderful!
i enjoyed to read your good haiku!
Wonderful! I also visited Blackmail Press. Loved your painting and your poems.
very good haiku… appealing and interesting work…
Such pathos in “for the first time.”
dawn’s mockingbird
without a song, dusk
dawn’s mockingbird
without a song, dusk
Your ku is beautiful Bob.
It wrings the heart for sure
– kala
Very nice.
Your delightful ku expresses exactly how I felt when I saw a Snowy Owl not far from our house here in Northern Michigan a few years ago. (It’s called Snowy Owl in the bird guide.)
Aalix . . . what a beautiful and poignant poem. It says so much in so few words. I t made me want to cry. I live in a lovely retirement community where one does see the first signs often. Thank you for expressing it as tellingly as you did.
Judith
so true kala, as aalix so comely expressed, everything has a time and place; even it’s ebb.
these faint evenings, coming seemingly faster, ever closer, lately within a foot or two, i dare not extend my hand.
having heard the(this) mockingbird’s song, borne on many cool dawns, when might i hear it, if ever again…