Mortar & Pestle Poetry Project
Beyond Haiku and into dreaming
I am a poet. It’s hard to recall when I chose poetry or when poetry chose me. I wrote my first haiku at 4. I scribbled my name in a book of Kahlil Gibran’s poetry around 9 and that was just the beginning. Hafiz. Rumi. Oliver. Rilke. Angelou. Walker. To me, everything is poetry and we are all poets. The universe speaks in verse. I am a listener. I pay attention to the hummingbird and the hawk, the Southern Pine and the Angel Oak. Word weaving is my jam. To connect to others is a combination of two melodies collectively creating art. Art is breath! Art is everything from the mundane to the sacred, the silly to the oceanic. The rivers of us flow towards liberation and expand like galaxies. Harmony is this composer’s intention as the sun illuminates the Eastern sky. And dogs because they are evidence of divine love. I write to connect, to explore, to alchemize, to celebrate, to experience joy, to feel it all. I write to navigate the chasms of ache and suffering and give voice to the mystical and dance this wild dervish life.
Haiku #1 Botany I
Butterfly bush sing
Roots rumble through onyx soil
Spring tremors bloom Violet early
Haiku #2
Sanskrit "mrnati" - to crush, to bruise.[6] (Wikipedia)
Clay in your open palms
Soft spheres of earth like marbles
Weave silk threads each day
Sit in the dark dream
Open palms supine
Lips wet with ink sing
Equinox moon glows
Merlin giggles alchemy
Morter and Pestle hum
Mrnati: Sanskrit
To crush, to bruise now
Rice free of brown husks feed us
2/25/2025
Calligraphy
When I was about 5, first grade, a Calligraphy artist visited our public school with her bottles of black ink and Calligraphy pens. I was mesmerized. It wasn’t until later after school that I was told that Calligraphy is actually a Persian art form. I felt captivated by a part of not only myself but my ancestors.
My Mom ever supportive of my artsy self even then took me to an art supply store and I bought a pen set.
Haiku #3 Ink
The smell of ink like
possibility in black
My liquid eyes weep
A gentle large palm
holds out her papyrus skin
And high fives me hello
We smile with pen nibs
Soft aerogrammes come by post
Tender words remain
Credit: Constellations
Haiku #4 Dogs
Descendants of wolves
Basset ears like rose petals
Lift your snouts and sing out loud
Daphne and Cookie
Bring tender tears to my eyes
Sisters sing harmony here
Dream sea seekers dream
Howl at the crescent moon glow
Galaxies of you
Haiku #5 Fruit
Grandmother Lola’s
Bountiful fuzzy Peach tree
Orchards of sweet fruit
Look up at blue sky
Patch together memories
Weave threads into verse
Go barefoot with care
Hold the tender blossoms again
Spring is here early
Haiku #6. Trifles and Margaritas
Angel Food Cake cubes
Sunny vanilla pudding
Strawberries sliced thin
Magical whipped cream
As sweet as white clouds of sky
Even blue hearts mend
Bloom pink peony
Open your petals in song
Welcome the Mystery
Haiku #7
Little raindrop weep
mellow marble stretch your limbs
Dance is harmony
Blue penguin sing out
Read verse everyday
Talk to three doves
Eat dark chocolate
Bake yummy treats like breadsticks
Keep going, lighthouse
The sails of your heart
Billowing open like clouds
Welcome, tender one
Haiku #8
Soft pastels like song
ROYGBIV on her lips smile
Be a rainbow of now
Clouds filled with water
Open waterfalls of heaven
Geckos green delight
Rosebuds bloom Crimson
Lemon yellow citrus Sun
Turtle Doves weave Peace
Carbonated Moon
Slice of Crescent glows Eastward
Rivers flow seabound
Haiku #9
Stamp Collecting and Aerogrammes
Sky blue Aerogrammes
Farsi like winged symbols
Letters from Shiraz
Dreams of Lemon trees
Poems by Hafez are Sacred
Grandmother’s belly so soft
Decipher ghazals
Sing Mohammed’s melody
Fatemeh is free
Study Farsi verse
SOUL garden seeds in black soil
Chai in gold glass cups
Warm winds of sea tides
Wrap the yellow sun ‘round us
Shine harmony shine
Haiku #10
for the people of Ukraine and Gaza
Botany II
Yellow Sunflower
How does democracy bloom?
A woman’s voice awakens
Zelenskyy speaks wings
Fierce freedom fighter
Climbs Carpathian
Black Sea and red Borscht
Sweet beets pureed with wheat bread
Tender cabbage steams
How do we plant peace?
One seed at a time, tender.
Raindrops fall like tears
Unfinished words still
Surface of blown glass
Molten sand shifts worlds
Hold my hand, soft bee
Fear not wild winds Bellflower
Sit here with me star
Put down your flags of war beats
Walk barefoot in the clouds
Poetry like wild foxes
Gather us around
Bonfires warm night skies
Cosmic guides Be Love
Cosmic guides, beloved
Haiku #11
Bleeding Heart blooms bright
Tides of moons like ocean waves
Green Moss under foot
Acorns in your palm
Seeds of sapling Angel Oaks
Eyes upward blue sky
Waterfalls sing splash
Quartet of hummingbirds vibe
Dissonant Wild Geese
Metronome keeps time
Currents of inky black pens
Write layers of scores
Edible flowers
Pressed in a bound thesaurus
Mineral oil and silk
These marvels of light
Palms open and soul supine
Tender is your way
Fear not, Turtle Dove
Essence of lavender oil
Lapis stone of verse
Pockets of poems
Fill days with wild nights
Origami cranes fly
Poetry of mystic hums
Iridescent wings time lapse
Hummingbird do stay
Stay with me Lapis
Hold my hand, tender
Paw in paw soft now
Gather wild grasses
Bend with the Pine trees
Sway with wind like Waltz
Salvia Salsa dances
Sound-waves sea of aqua blue
Be harmony Be
All of these are so beautiful, Constellations ❤️
Verse to make you dream and hunger for a better world but also for dark chocolate, black ink, a trifle and the optimism of sunflowers. So beautiful. Thank you!