On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Munira
In the responses to my last (and first) On The Road post, a couple of people asked me to provide pictures of the same scene during all four seasons. So I looked through my photos and found I had shots of the creek near my home (Padden Creek) during each of the four seasons although they aren’t of the exact same place or from the exact same perspective. These are the first four photos in this batch.
The second four photos continue the theme of the seasons. Like most people, I am inspired by the changing of the seasons, the beautiful and sometimes melancholy reminder of the inescapable impermanence of life. I have been a writer much longer than I’ve been a photographer. For the last ten years or so, I’ve been writing haiku almost entirely. It’s rare that I actually write a haiku with a particular photo in mind, but since both the poems and the photos are inspired by the same images, they often go together perfectly so I’ve included a haiku with each photo. I have, of course, included the credits for the haiku that have already been published.
Summer
midsummer
even the water
looks thirsty
Autumn
falling flowing
leaf in the stream
one last ride
Winter
ice heavy—
branches
broken dreams
Spring
baby ducks—
I follow my creek
to the bay
Summer
This photo was taken in Quebec. It’s the view from the house – a typical early summer morning scene of mist rising over the garden.
morning mist
how thin the veil
between here and gone
Modern Haiku, 44:1, Winter/Spring 2013
Autumn
This photo was taken here in Bellingham on the street outside my apartment.
leaf on the road
colors fading to brown
so many the fallen
Winter
This photo was also taken in Quebec. It’s next door to the property I lived on. This is the only haiku in the batch that was actually inspired by this particular photo.
private property
clinging
to what’s already gone
Modern Haiku, Winter-Spring 2013
Spring
I took this photo from the train when we were going through the mountains of Montana. I was on my way back to Quebec from Washington state.
mist and sun—
dawn tracker
starting out lost
MagdaInBlack
These are lovely to wake up to. Thank you
sab
I have a creek in the back yard. Not so pretty, but it is why I bought the property. Working class neighborhood. Nobody else realized it is waterback property. Poison ivy keeps me and the creek apart. It is lovely. Running water, plus ducks and crawdads. And trees and flowers. Plus critters.
Raven
@sab: We have one but it’s nasty. The piped about 70 yards of it and filled over the top so the water people tell me it will never be clean.
Betty
Lovely photos and haikus.
HinTN
I live by one and it’s lovely. It issues from the mountain just back of the house and I can hear it with birdsong this morning after the storm.
The poetry made my morning. Many thanks!
eclare
Beautiful photos and poetry. The mist photo really stands out. Thank you, lovely to wake up to.
Albatrossity
Thank you. These are lovely!
mvr
Love the Montana photo!
sab:
Creeks *are* great. I was lucky enough to have one run through the neighborhood in a time when people were not so worried about lawsuits and with parents who let me run free without supervision at an early age. As an awkward kid who didn’t really socialize well, the creek was a great place to go to occupy myself with catching fish, crayfish and whatever in a butterfly net, build temporary rock structures in the water. Now we have a small creek running by our tiny cabin in the mountains and the very fact gives me some comfort even when I am in Nebraska far away. I miss water.
susanna
How fortunate you are to have a lovely creekside to stimulate and form the haiku writings, and doesn’t it feel good to hear soothing sounds of a water flow, any time.
Motivated Seller
Stunning photo of the summer pasture in Lac Brome. Is it possible to get a full resolution copy?
LivinginExile
Loved the haiku and the photos. Amazing!
arrieve
This was a lovely start to the day. That last photo of the sun shining through the mist makes me want to head to Montana immediately.
munira
@Motivated Seller: I could send you the photo by email.
munira
Thank you everyone. Yes, it’s wonderful to be so close to the creek. I had a creek on the property I lived on in Lac Brome and I was afraid I would miss it when I moved back to Bellingham. But now I have Padden Creek to walk by and sit by and yes, I love to listen to the sound of the water.
WaterGirl
@munira: If you want to send the photo to my nym at balloon-juice.com I can post that one on this thread, and then everyone can see it.
WaterGirl
@munira: What a lovely post. A couple of the haikus left me with tears streaming down my face.
morning mist
how thin the veil
between here and gone
and
private property
clinging
to what’s already gone
Munira
And, by the way, the second to last photo was not really taken in July, obviously. The date on my camera was wrong.
munira
@WaterGirl: Thank you so much. Yes, it’s that inescapable impermanence of life that gets me, too. Something I contemplate more and more the older I get.
WaterGirl
@Motivated Seller: I put a copy of that photo up top in the introduction.
Anyone can click on that and it opens the highest resolution version of the photo. Then you can save that to your desktop or whoever – assuming that’s okay with munira.
WaterGirl
Sadly, when photos are uploaded through the OTR form, there isn’t a link to the URL on Balloon Juice, so you can’t embiggen them.
Next time we make site changes, I will put that on the list, I’m hoping it will be possible to change the form to allow for that.
Munira
@WaterGirl: yes that’s fine. love to share them.
Motivated Seller
@WaterGirl: Great, thanks very much to you both.
J R in WV
Wonderful work, both the written art and the photos.
Thanks so much for sharing your work with us! I’m on my tablet in a waiting room, but will be back when we get home!
JanieM
Words and pictures — lovely and evocative.
Munira
@J R in WV: Thank you so much.
WaterGirl
I suppose it’s too much to ask everyone to submit haikus with their OTR posts? :-)
Munira
@WaterGirl: I’d go for that.
John S Green
Lovely photo haiga, Munira. It’s a pleasure to have you back in Bellingham. Do you walk along Padden Creek to Padden Lagoon? There is a Muscovy duck I stop by to see on my way to marine park and the Great Blue Heronry. Thanks!
munira
@John S Green: Yes, I have done that walk many times. About time now to go see the herons again.
John S Green
@munira: This is a big year for the herons. Well over 40 busy building and preparing nests. And the land was just officially protected!
munira
@John S Green: yay
Swampwoman
Munira, the photos and haiku are wonderful. So happy to have you back in Bellingham. Looking forward to more!