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A Sonnet Seeking the Stars & Haiku for a Sore Back

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A Sonnet Seeking the Stars & Haiku for a Sore Back

An Assortment of Poems

A. Christine Myers
Sep 12, 2022
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A Sonnet Seeking the Stars & Haiku for a Sore Back

achristinemyers.substack.com

This past week has been less than comfortable. It began with a three-day migraine, and just as that was resolving I managed to pull some muscles in my back. So I found myself in several days’ more severe pain.

How did I do it? Well. I was trying to pick up a small book from the floor, but I was holding a glass dish of pasta salad which I didn’t want to spill… I must have twisted rather oddly in the process! I did pick up the book, and I did not spill the salad, but it wasn’t worth the pain, I must say!

Here is my brief telling of the tale in two haiku stanzas.

Balancing a dish
of fresh-made pasta salad
while leaning to—ouch—

Back on my sore back.
How did picking up a book
become so hazardous?


As I needed to leave for a scheduled appointment, I spied a butterfly whose colours fascinated me. I expect it was actually a Sulphur, but the hues as I saw them were much cooler in tone. I paused my preparations and watched.

I'm in a hurry
so I watch a butterfly's
pistachio wings.


The nights are as beautiful as ever. Here is a sonnet about the moon, or rather about waiting as the stars change from summer to autumn.

Moon and Stars

A tuft of leaves stands up against the moon—
A large and ardent moon, September's own—
For season’s change is blazoned there, and soon
We will see colder stars: the Hunter’s zone
Replace the Scorpion’s tail where summer shone,
Moon after moon, so was the storied night
Still peopled every month. But now alone
I wait the seasons’ change. The moon's own flight
Beyond the leaves, in all its splendid light
Has fired the sky in silver. Stars are gone
Behind its shining—bright, so bright;
And I am here while stars are far and wan.
I wait my friends; I wait the Hunter’s rise
Beyond the moon of the September skies.


The Hillside Diary


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A Sonnet Seeking the Stars & Haiku for a Sore Back

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2 Comments
Arjan Tupan
Writes #trpplffct | fresh poetry & fri…
Sep 18, 2022

Oh wow, beautiful. The butterfly haiku has so much to tell in it. It's excellent. I hope your back is much better now. I think writing a poem about that must have helped with the healing. (And the learning to maybe next time not do that balancing of pasta salad and picking up of a book at the same time).

I also loved the sonnet. Made me realize there's a universe to learn about the universe for me. Hunters and tails of scorpions... I will need to read up on that.

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