a fitting farewell ~ haiku

March 18, 2019 / Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 11 Comments

a fitting farewell
her final post a whisper
keeper of secrets

Jennifer / jennifer kiley / jk (Marge) was The Secret Keeper. My interaction with The Secret Keeper was limited to her weekly writing challenge and her haiku review challenge, but through her blog I came to understand some of the challenges she faced in life.

Since you’re only seeing one side of a person through their blog, I recognize that connecting with someone in that way is a limited experience, but it’s still troubling to lose someone you may never have met. Through The Secret Keeper’s blog, her partner, Shawn MacKenzie, informed us of Marge’s last days of failing health (here) and of her final passing (here).

A regular feature for The Secret Keeper was quotes from The Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust, some of which are common to many of us as inner secrets. One of the earliest was:

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy;
they are the charming gardeners
who make our souls blossom” – Marcel Proust

And her last was:

“Pleasures are like photographs: in the presence of the person we love, we take only negatives, which we develop later, at home, when we have at our disposal once more our inner darkroom, the door of which it is strictly forbidden to open while others are present.” – Marcel Proust

This link will take you to her collection of Weekly Writing Prompts.

Here are her prompts for her Haiku Review Challenge.

When All Are Refugees

February 4, 2019 / Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 5 Comments

When All Are Refugees

Sails drop, worthless
in this gale. Safe harbor
nowhere in sight, we drift,
helpless against the rocks strewn
by our own master, the anchor chain
wrapped round our legs.

When times are so out of joint,
there is no inner peace,
and all are outsiders.

This is my response to The Secret Keeper’s Weekly Writing Prompt #178,
with the words rock, joint, inner, sight & sail.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons
Storm in the Sea, by Ludolf Bakhuizen

recurring dream

January 7, 2019January 7, 2019 / Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 17 Comments

recurring dream

lucid, this vision, my one
remaining connection

his face pale,
in shades of charcoal

fading, even as I wake
a blank page, waiting

for darkness to return,
the years erased

This is my response to The Secret Keeper’s Weekly Writing Prompt #175,
with the words charcoal, shade, pale, wake & lucid.

Image source: worthpoint.com
charcoal drawing by Vincent van Gogh
(edited here)

Afterimage

December 3, 2018January 7, 2019 / Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 11 Comments

Afterimage

Lightning strikes in the night,
and blankets pull tighter, wrapping a dream
of daylight, where fear is framed within
crisp shadows, with a clarity that remains
on waking and late into the day,
the threat of storm long forgotten, yet
the uneasiness easily remembered.

This is my response to The Secret Keeper’s Weekly Writing Prompt #170,
with the words late, storm, frame, strike & wrap.

Image source: pixabay.com – member/skeeze (edited here)

Confirmation

October 8, 2018October 8, 2018 / Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 9 Comments

Confirmation

Lock-step backwards
never looking forward.

The sound of privileged
denying privilege,

numbness imposed
without removing the pain

of a future no different
from the past.

This is my response to The Secret Keeper’s Weekly Writing Prompt #162, with the words lock, step, numb, past & sound.

Image source: J Scott Applewhite/Associated Press, via Vermont Public Radio

expressing regret

June 15, 2018 / Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 2 Comments

expressing regret
in acoustic reflection
from a weary soul

flood of emotions
precious words misspent
misunderstandings

burying the past
with blanket of emotions
and a heavy heart

This senryū trio is in response to Haiku Review Challenge – The Staves Winter Trees,
by The Secret Keeper.
The short film offered for review is an animated music video for “Winter Trees” by The Staves, produced by Karni and Saul, found on Vimeo.

false depth perception

May 11, 2018 / Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 3 Comments

false depth perception
annoyance on a grand scale
through land, sea, and sky

This senryū is in response to Haiku Review Challenge – Pujotellua, by The Secret Keeper.
The short film offered for review is Pujotellua by Kemialliset Ystävät, which is the official music video for a track from SIIPI IMPII, found on Vimeo.

infatuation

May 4, 2018May 4, 2018 / Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 8 Comments

infatuation
consolation through a lens
forbidden desire

This senryū is in response to Haiku Review Challenge – Carol by The Secret Keeper. The short film offered for review is Carol: The Voyeuristic Camera by Jacob T. Swinney, found on Vimeo. It conveys the sense of longing that is a product of forbidden love with scenes from the film Carol (official trailer here).

Image source: Fandango

fluid inversion

April 27, 2018 / Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 3 Comments

haunting melody
in alien atmospheres
fluid inversion

landscapes or moonscapes?
delusion by infusion
fluid deception

mystical displays
chromatic presentations
fluid immersion

This haiku triplet is in response to Haiku Review Challenge – Waterballet by The Secret Keeper. The short film offered for review is Waterballet – Barbapapa by Kamiel Rongen, found on Vimeo. A brief explanation of the process used to create the video can be found here.

Love Is Not a Game

April 16, 2018 / Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 11 Comments

Love Is Not a Game

Tell me this.
Don’t do that
Acting like a bureaucrat,
you cite each rule.
All this time I’ve been
a fool to play along,
as if you’d change
direction, rearrange
priorities. Put us first,
not you. But the view
from here is still
the same. It pains me
to say this, but I have nothing
left to prove. It’s my turn now,
for my last move
I quit your game.

The five word prompts for The Secret Keeper’s Weekly Writing Challenge # 137 are move, change, pain, turn, and view.

The optional prompt for Day 16 of National/Global Poetry Writing Month is to write a poem featuring the idea of playing and/or rules. (Of course, that’s my interpretation!)

Image source: pixabay.com

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