Sunday, June 14, 2009

One Single Impression -- Walls

This deceptively simply prompt caused me to think quite a bit. Below are three small haiku variations on a common theme:

firelight flickers
casting warm and strange shadows
on sheltering walls.

****
stone, adobe, log
protecting fragile humans
on the hearth within.

****
safety of a wall
against his back, a hunter
waits for break of dawn.

©sgreerpitt
June 14, 2009

At first I thought about walls as barriers to be overcome, about the ways in which we wall ourselves off, and shut our selves down. I thought about the breaking down of walls. One of my favorite lines from American poetry is the first line of Frost's Mending Wall: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall..." But then I thought about why walls exist, about the purposes they serve, about the safety they provide humans from our earliest existence on this planet. I thought about warmth, comfort -- welcome walls.

12 comments:

gautami tripathy said...

Walls have many connotations. It is for us see which one. Like all the haiku.

filigreed walls

Jim said...

Sue, you broodly covered the bases in your discussion. Then you settled down on the good the walls can do for us personally.
I too like your haiku, I like the first the best. Most anytime we can have warm and firelight in the same breath our/my nature nods in agreement.
..

Rinkly Rimes said...

Lovely haiku, each one painting a 'protective' picture.

anthonynorth said...

Yes, walls have many uses and many intrusions upon the psyche - for good and bad.

Pam said...

I particularly like the last poem. There is something wonderful about a wall against your back.

Deborah Godin said...

Enjoyed your thoughts and poems on walls. Frost is a favorite of mine, and I love his lines about walls and fences, too.

SandyCarlson said...

Walls can be our friends, too. Thanks for sharing your perspective.

Tammie Lee said...

Each poem is a wonderful peak into walls in our lives~

Tumblewords: said...

A thoughtful look at the prompt - I enjoyed these.

Quiet Paths said...

I do like the way you took this prompt. The haiku verses are just lovely. I really nodded my head at these.

zoya gautam said...

.. full of insight .nicely phrased ..

gabrielle said...

I am not a hunter but appreciate the safety of the wall.