The Only Way
This life, spent for so long in one place, was not a life spent at a standstill. The directions taken may not have been direct, but they’ve brought me to where I am, today. The shortest route is not always the quickest.
Knowing the streets in the towns around me like the back of my hand meant never getting lost while making deliveries when, and where, they were needed. There is a comfort in knowing a place so well, but other elements in life have a way of interceding.
So it happened, that my last time behind the wheel of a truck was on the direct, cross-country route that brought me here, following my heart to a new home.
falling leaf
taken by the wind
shifting scenes
This ekphrastic haibun is my response to Haibun Monday: Meet Piet,
from Kim at dVerse Poets Pub, with the prompt to write a haibun
inspired by “Broadway Boogie Woogie” by Piet Mondrian.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons – “Broadway Boogie Woogie”, by Piet Mondrian
rivrvlogr 
New streets to learn! It can be a little scary starting over.
We are falling leaves… like dust in the wind!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That we are. Thank you, Dwight.
LikeLike
Nice work, tight haibun and great haiku. I wandered far from home for a decade and when I returned I found nothing but ghosts and new construction,
so 30 years ago I settled in 50miles south and created a new home.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sometimes life takes those unexpected turns.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wonderful perspective … shortest route not always quickest … some of our navigating around, even in well-known vicinities, serves to shape us for something elsewhere … shaping takes time!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Jazz. Yes, each turn adding something new to our perspective.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Life transitions have their own kind of story. I like the way your haiku ties back into the transition in your life.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Ali. I like to think we have more control than this haibun projects, but the unexpected certainly makes life interesting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So true. Embracing what shows up in our day can make it a more joyful ride.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You. Obviously negotiated the obstacles with successful result. Good haibun and succinct haiku
LikeLiked by 1 person
You. Obviously negotiated the obstacles with successful result. Good haibun and succinct haiku
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Beverly. 🙂
LikeLike
I enjoyed your ekphrastic haibun, Ken, and, although I have moved around a bit, I need the comfort of knowing streets like the back of my hand, which is how I feel about Norwich after 28 years. A new home and new streets to learn beckon to me too, one closer to my daughter and grandson. I love your haiku.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Kim. Comfort is hard to leave behind, but change can bring new comfort.
And thank you for the prompt. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kim, a book I love about what you say about the familiarity of place is, “Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World,” by Scott Sanders comes to mind. I bet you’d enjoy it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Lisa! I’ll look that one up.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sometimes we need to let ourselves get lost to allow ourselves to be found. (K)
LikeLiked by 2 people
That certainly was my experience. Thank you, Kerfe.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wonderful where those roads can take you…the haiku is fragile and lovely.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This road certainly was wonderful. Thank you, Lynn.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I forgot you were a truck driver and lived by grids like this one. Nice take on the prompt photo.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Lisa. Buffalo was the easternmost terminal for a mid-west regional trucking company based in Holland, Mi. The local delivery range reached past Rochester, almost to Syracuse, and from Lake Ontario down to Warren, PA. Some of our local drivers would put in up to 350 miles by the time they came back at the end of the day. I knew Buffalo (city & suburbs) pretty well, but I still had paper maps & a map book with me, every day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome. Interesting to know you’re route. Holland isn’t that far from here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I was young, my family would visit my aunt and uncle in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. In 2017, my wife and I went through Wisconsin, across and down Michigan to stay at a B&B in Presque Isle, MI – because there are lighthouses there, and our wedding earlier that year was at the Presque Isle lighthouse in Erie, PA. My wife fell in love with the state. We visited breweries on the way across to Holland (where we stayed the night) – Founders in Grand Rapids and New Holland in Holland.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a beautiful place, but too many damn crazy magas afoot these days.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know what you mean.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good point about the shortest routes not always being the quickest. Looking back I wish I knew the better routes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Frank. Those side trips can make life pretty interesting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the perspective here Ken.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Linda. We make the best with what we have, and sometimes that is exactly what we need.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, so true.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can really see how you would start filling a white map with bright new spots after the move.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like that thought. Thank you, Björn.
LikeLike
Okay….the prose and the sharing of this part of your life is very good….but I adore the haiku it leads to! The idea of the leaf, fallen from the tree….most often does not just drop like a brick. One downward trajectory although its destiny is to hit earth. If it’s just the slightly bit breezy, there is a journey (smoetimes haphazard, sometimes dizzying, etc) that it takes before it lands. LOVE that idea!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Lillian. Even as we have some say or power over the directions of our lives, the are always outside, or unexpected, influences.
LikeLike
I really enjoyed this ekphrastic haibun. The painting does look like it could be a map of a neighborhood.
I liked the tight, but descriptive prose of your literal and figurative life journey, and the exquisite verse–that falling leaf is so vivid, taken by the wind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Merril. The leaf in the wind seemed like a natural for outside influences on our lives.
LikeLiked by 1 person