Rustle in the Breeze
A strong breeze brings to my ears the sound of a lawnmower two blocks away. Its dull drone is punctuated by the “Thud, Thud” of a sledgehammer slamming into my neighbor’s driveway retaining wall as a stone mason removes the last obstacle before him. Bags of cement sit beside a pallet of stone blocks waiting to take their place as a replacement for the long crumbling wall. A coworker starts the mixer to prepare the mortar, its low hum one more sound in a mechanical chorus. Water hisses as he sprays the inside of the hot metal drum. Sounds of nature are still evident to those who listen closely.
backlit green oak leaves
crowded with drying catkins
rustle in the breeze
This haibun is my response to Haibun Monday 4-26-21: The Present Moment,
the prompt from Frank Tassone at dVerse ~ Poets Pub, with the challenge
to write a haibun about the moment we are currently experiencing.
~ Day 26 ~
rivrvlogr 
Nice work, Ken. I could do without MOST of these…
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Thanks, Ron. I guess it’s the price we pay for our conveniences.
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Sounds as if you’re in for a bit of disturbance in your zone of peace. Sorry about that!
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Thanks, Beverly.
Actually, with temps in the 80s and my oak allergy in full bloom, I’ll have to accept the indoors this week. It only took five minutes to go out and get this picture of one of the 20 oaks around my house, but I paid the price – even with an antihistamine beforehand.
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‘Tis the season for construction (and destruction before it.) I hear chainsaws and gunshots too often out this way.
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With strong winds yesterday and today, some of the catkins are blowing off of the oaks. With any luck I’ll actually get to work in the yard next week – I have a severe oak allergy. One year, the pollen was so heavy that our deck was coated yellow.
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I remember you mentioning the severe oak allergy before. My ex-bf had terrible allergies to oak and many other things. I wonder if a (covid) mask could help you? Sabidil is a homeopathic remedy that he said helped him immensely.
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Ken, it’s so interesting to me that your prose and haiku seem so unrelated. Like two sides of the same coin. Loved this.
❤
David
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🙂 Thanks, David.
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Wonderful imagery, especially the sense of hearing!
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🙂 Thank you.
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Very beautiful imagery. I can imagine how difficult it would be to deal with that. All the constant noise and to barely hear nature? It’d drive me crazy, personally. But at least if you listen closer, it can still be heard as you say. That’s an upside to it; not every bit of noise can be drowned out after all. 🙂
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Thank you. I guess it’s the price we pay for convenience.
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You have certainly captured the sounds of the moment. Lawnmowers do seem to carry their sound quite a distance.
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That they do. And of course not all lawns are mowed at the same time.
Thank you.
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Seems like a day to go in the house and close everything up tight! That is a lot of distractions.
Great Haibun Ken.
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Thanks, Dwight.
As a matter of fact, oak allergies are keeping me inside. I paid dearly to go out to the front lawn for that photo.
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Wow that is too bad! Allergies can be a problem!
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The tearing down and the building up are often the ongoing background singers for the summer months. Not my favorite sounds to be sure. May you find peace in the sounds of nature where you can find them.
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Thanks, Ali. Just last week those leaves were buds and I could go out for a hike. Now, as the catkins dry out I’ll have to put that off for a week or so – sever oak allergies.
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So sorry.
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Heavy rains the past two days have put those catkins to the ground, so there’s hope.
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These are exactly the kind of neighborhood noises I hear every time I decide to practice yoga on the balcony!
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The hallmark of progress – annoying ourselves with the noises we make.
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I know this situation and you’ve captured the cacophony so well I felt my stomach churn, Ken! A few years ago, the holiday bungalow next door (of an elderly man who lived several hundred miles away) was knocked down and replaced by a huge red brick monstrosity. The noise was horrendous, for almost a year! I’m so happy that the only sounds this morning are leaves and breeze.
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The price of progress?
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Great descriptions, Ken. I particularly enjoyed the haiku with the backlit leaves and rustling.
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Thank you. I braved my allergies to take the photo, and the sunlight through the leaves was a reward, so it made it into the poem.
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Well worth it, I’d say. 🙂
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You hear a lawnmower; I smell freshly cut grass. We are all coming out of our protected selves, and into the open air. Living again. Breathing fresh air again. I doubt that I’ll ever see my surroundings the same again, much like your backlit leaves. A very thought provoking, and well written haibun, Ken.
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Thank you. 😀
We can’t escape the sounds, but fortunately we have the surrounding as compensation.
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I like the “mechanical chorus” reference. My cousin actually had a band that made “music” with various kitchen appliances.
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I’m drawing a blank here, but back when my son was in high school (2000 or so), there was a movie (or an act?) about percussion with non-traditional “instruments” – trash cans, brake drums, etc. He was in band & marching band, and they did a stage performance using the same “instruments.”
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I like the contrast between mechanical man-made noises in your prose to the nature references in your haiku.
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Thank you.
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Wow! The auditory components of your haibun are awesome, I hear everything in my mind. Well done, time for you to start your day??
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Thank you, Helen. That’s a wonderful compliment.
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I know this so well.. and now even more when working from home with every neighbor doing things to their house. All those sounds and more (I think you missed the chainsaw)
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lol
Actually, the chainsaw was me last week (although it’s an electric saw). My yard has more than 40 trees, and they’re always dropping branches. I pile them to the side, but at least once a year I have to cut the larger ones, then take all of it to the city’s yard waste site.
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You took me there Ken- wonderful!
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Thanks for coming along, Linda.
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Constructions noises are always annoying. And yet, the birds are still there, between. (K)
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Yes, between. A space that will always be theirs.
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Ken I was quite taken by the way you contrast the sounds of human industry with the fact that nature is there beyond it, and so agree.
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Thank you, Paul. If only we could keep them separate, but it’s nice to know those nature sounds are there.
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