Forest memories

· by · in haibun, haiku, poetry. ·

Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream
Khalil Gibran

The forest always talks to me, some days in whispered sweetness: how our first kiss tasted, how your hand felt around my neck, or how your hair smelt when you let it shower my face after we made love. Some days the wind screams between the forests trunks, their limbs are your arms waving and the air is filled with tears. But worst of all is when the forest’s words are silent, I always said to you that silence talks, that when you shut the doors, my inside screamed, and I know you understood.

When I return from my forest walk the mail has been delivered, I can see how the dust from the departing mailman’s car slowly settles. Like smoke of letters burned, like nostalgia buried in my wood. The postcard you have sent must have been delivered. Pencil scribbled smiles and words telling me: tomorrow you’ll be back. It was just a big mistake. I almost run to read your words. But just like yesterday the box is empty. I hope tomorrow that the trees will be kind to me.

under inkwash skies —
where autumn leaves are falling
a lonely magpie

Woman ink profile by Theophile Steinlen

Woman ink profile by Theophile Steinlen


Today at dVerse it’s our second haibun Monday. We are given two quotes by Khalil Gibran to choose from, and I have used one of them. The other is: Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity. Hope you will join us. The prompt is open a complete week.
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October 5, 2015

41 responses to “Forest memories”

  2. Lot of taught emotion in this Bjorn.
    Of longing, of memory, of loss – of hoping even still that perhaps
    one day she will return. I like how everything represents something else, a memory of your time with her. The smell of the hair, very nice.

  3. How beautiful, yet very sad with regret and anticipation. It feels like a love is slipping through your fingers but you’re desperate to hold on. Such an emotionally draining space to inhabit.

  4. This is beautiful, we picked different quotes but we seem to have gone with similar themes.
    I love the bit about her silence talking. I could almost feel the weight that, that sort of silence brings sitting on my skin.

  6. Ink washed skies is a truly beautiful description. The passion and melancholy intensity of your writing swept me away.

  7. A lonely magpie indeed. You deftly weaved nostalgia with a longing to either return to the way things were or to create new memories with the missing piece that the voice hopes will return soon. Vivid descriptions. I especially relate to the loneliness of actually having time to watch the dust settle.

  8. Oddly, I often find it is the closing haiku that holds the most meaning, that in its inimitable way, it says more than the hundreds of words that
    proceed it; heightening my interest in haiku. Terrific emotional haibun here; touching & rimmed with pathos & chaos.

  10. Bjorn, what a beautiful love poem. I loved reading this. And the haiku, so sad. Your talent exploded in this poem, both the story of yearning and the haiku are exquisite.

  11. I admire how the forest is given character, though the sadness is evident in the end ~ The imagery of the magpie in the haiku brought it home for me under the inkwash skies ~ A lovely haibun Bjorn ~

  12. “…the trees will be kind to me.”
    I am so moved by this piece, in a very deep part of myself. I recognize this feeling.

  16. I was really touched by this one. I read it first last night, and just re-read it now. It’s still fresh and alive, and heartbreaking.

  20. ‘..their limbs are your arms waving…” a very expressive visual, and you carry the whole mingling of beloved and forest, moment and beings in the moment, through to the end–there is very much a sense of a walk, a progression, physically as well. I even like the haiku–a form which is so often abused, but here shines at its most diamond brilliance.

  21. Nostalgic haibun, I can see how’s tomorrow brings the hope…Love ‘their limbs are your arms waving and the air is filled with tears.’ visual line, very sensual images and bright tone; also like ‘inkwash skies’ correlated with the picture.

  22. Oh, so beautiful and poignant, but never overly-sentimental. I love the imagery you used throughout of the the forest, the dust settling, the hair falling. And your ending was the perfect imprint to the words above, the perfect little picture to bring out all the same emotions.

  23. This is such a lovely example of the way you exercise your pen. The emotion lies at the surface and under the layers so much meaning prevails. Fantastic!

  27. A wonderful tale of this now lonesome and woeful bird. I wish they could have capacity for all the feelings that poetry has ascribed to them. Poor magpies the world around.
    ..

  30. Oh my…this leaves me so moved…tingles at the closing haiku…what an impacting haibun, Bjorn. Visual and the story-telling quality is pitch perfect. Thank you, for sharing and hosting. 🙂

  33. What a lovely haibun … the prose is so touching … the last lines and the empty mail box are heart rending … love how you worked the haiku .. it’s so very usual to read the haiku as a sort of summary of the prose .. this was exceptionally well done.

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