Kristen Lindquist

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July 11: Haiku Workshop

Today I taught a day-long workshop on haiku at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. I was so grateful to have such a responsive group of students, open to paying attention, being creative, and sharing their poems. And we couldn't have asked for a better setting for a (partially) plein air class. The gardens are an endlessly inspiring landscape for the arts.
 
In the Five Senses Garden
 
A few of my in-the-moment jottings from our writing exercises out and about in the gardens:
 
(Five Senses Garden)
 
Stopping to touch
the black stone rabbit
warmed by sun.
 
Above the lily pond
black-and-white dragonflies
coordinate with her kimono.
 
Construction noise--
the dragonflies
go about their business.
 

(Children's Garden)
 
Rooted in mud
the yellow waterlily
seems to me perfect.
 
Junco visits our table
hoping for crumbs.
All I have are words.
 
Finding a small patch
of old-man's-whiskers
in the children's garden.
 
(Vayo Meditation Garden)
 
Purple love grass.
If only my life
could be so exciting.
 
Warbler still singing
in heat of the day.
Hay-scented ferns.
 
Alliums gone by