Haiku for Harris

01/20/2025

1/20/2025
Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Let’s plant trees today
to honor the heroes and
those to come after
the wheel turns again, who will
need and love the trees, and will

tell the stories of
these times, how we got through them,
how we breathed and pushed
with all our wisdom to birth
a world of beauty and peace.

01/18/2025

1/18/2025

Eight years ago, we marched for justice all across the globe and called it the Women’s March. Remember the pussycat hats? We marched again in 2020 and I wrote this:

If every woman
embodies her superpowers
today,
we’ll wake up in a
whole new world
tomorrow.

I didn’t imagine we’d be fighting this hard in 2025 to protect our nation and the world from tyranny, greed, and destruction. But here we are. And today is the PEOPLE’S MARCH all across this country.

Again, we march, filled
with dreams of all that we’ve lost,
determined to save
and protect the living Earth
and all that is good and just.

Last night, my wife and I experienced an evening of profound inspiration and revolutionary love at its finest: Holly Near, Ferron, and Dance Brigade in “A Woman’s Song for Peace.” Music that has been the soundtrack of our lives and a dance company that has moved us since the ‘80’s brought back a lifetime of memories, with tears, joy, hope, and a reminder that, as Holly Near said, we know how to do this. We’ve been here before. We know how to care for community, overcome hatred and oppression, and find ways to live and thrive. We will do it again—better, braver, stronger, wiser. May our love be revolutionary.

Ferron played a perfect anthem for these times (still, and again) live last night with an extraordinary dance by Dance Brigade: “It Won’t Take Long” from her Shadows on a Dime album, 1984. Link in comments to listen to the original recording. This song has been one of my deepest heartsongs for over 40 years. My favorite line: “And the artists will be there.”

01/02/2025

1/2/2025

For Jimmy Carter

If only we could
live like you (though few can), we
might build heaven here.

PC:
Jimmy Carter photo by Richard Avedon, , taken at the Democratic National Convention in 2004.
Background sky photo mine.

Note: I’m also including the haiku and post I made for President Carter’s 100th birthday in October, his signature in my copy of his poetry book, Always a Reckoning (which I found in a used bookstore that seemed to have no idea what a treasure they had in their stacks), and two Mike Luckovich cartoons that are just right.

Personal Reflections:

It has taken me four days since Jimmy Carter’s death to write about him. My sorrow and my gratitude for his life were both too vast to fit into words. When a great bodhisattva like Jimmy Carter departs this world, it feels as if the breath leaves the planet for a while and nothing will ever be the same.

It’s true, of course: nothing will ever be the same.

He said he wanted to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris for President and he did. For me, the grief at his departure flows into the enormous grief about the outcome of the election, where grief at RBG’s departure also still resides. (Jimmy Carter nominated RBG to the Supreme Court. And oh how things have changed in that Court since she’s been gone.)

I think of the truly great beings who have left this world and realize my grief for each of them becomes a longing for their presence that lives on in an ocean inside me. Thich Nhat Hanh, Maya Angelou, and Mary Oliver are there. My own personal beloveds are there too—my parents, all the animals who were bodhisattvas in my life, and many other beloved friends and family…

Eventually that longing also transforms into a determined longing to continue their legacies through my own life.

I think of Maya Angelou’s poem, “When Great Trees Fall,” and its closing lines:

“And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.”

I think of Thich Nhat Hanh saying many times, “A cloud never dies.” He spoke of clouds becoming snow, hail, or rain, which becomes our tea, which becomes part of us and everything we do and are, and also continues in many other new forms. “It is impossible for a cloud to pass from being into non-being,” he said, “and that is true with your beloved one.”

I think of all the foundations for peace and justice that Jimmy Carter laid through his life’s service, all the homes he built, all the great and small kindnesses he gave this world. He planted so many seeds of goodness that he can never die. We are called to continue to water and nourish those seeds and the great gardens and orchards and forests they grew into. We are called to continue to build more homes and be more kind and just and truthful. For Jimmy Carter. For the nation and the world he loved with his whole heart and all his life energy. Today and into the future.

Thank you, President Jimmy Carter, with all my heart. May we live up to and continue your extraordinary, beautiful, powerful legacy.

11/14/2024

11/14/2024

I decided to share this collection of haiku and tanka for healing and hope that I’ve written since the election. I would welcome yours too.

Right now it’s incredibly difficult to find the right words; they all feel insufficient. So many great, creative, wise people are writing great things. I was going to share some but decided to keep it simpler. I am simply offering what I have—one moment with each haiku, each sufficient for one deep breath.

11/11/2024

Today’s rain in dry California inspired today’s tanka.

Come, precious rain, and
wash away dread of all the
things that could go wrong.
Leave us emboldened with fierce
love and passion for justice.

11/08/2024

11/08/2024

11/7/2024

My beloved Haiku for Harris community,

THANK YOU. With all my heart, thank you. In the middle of my grieving, dread, anxiety, and bewilderment after the election, I have revisited every Haiku for Harris we created in this community. And oh my my, it is a glorious gathering of joy and beauty.

In 90 days, we created 222 haiku and 2 limericks representing 24 states plus the UK and two Canadian provinces. The represented states are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin. Wow!

I am so proud of what we did here. I hope you are too. Regardless of the heartbreaking outcome of the election, we accomplished our goal of adding buckets of joy to the great blue wave.

I’m considering compiling our haiku into a book to send to Madam VP Harris and Governor Walz to thank them. If you would like a copy (at cost), let me know. I’m not sure I’ll do this but if others are interested, I’m more likely to.

And we’re not done. The election is over and it did not go as we wanted. Our hearts are broken. But as Kamala Harris said, “This is not the time to throw up our hands. This is the time to roll up our sleeves.” There is so much work to do. And we must pace ourselves for the long haul.

I’m considering how Haiku for Harris can evolve to be of use and benefit as we move forward. If you want to participate in any way, please keep coming back, and message me with ideas.

In the meantime, I invite you to submit haiku for healing, grieving, hope, gratitude, sustenance, resuscitating joy, resuscitating our broken hearts, and working for liberty and justice for all. As a specific new focus becomes clear, I’ll let you know.

Thank you, again and again, for uplifting me and other readers. Thank you for your work for Kamala Harris’ and Tim Walz’ campaign. Thank you for your great hearts.

With great respect and love,
Melanie Phoenix
Haiku for Harris
💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊💙

11/07/2024

11/7/2024

Resuscitation

We grieve. We gather.
The rocky road is longer
than we expected.
Still, we will stay the course, and
take turns carrying burdens

so everyone can
rest with the deep earth. And heal.
We find reasons to
laugh. We resuscitate joy.
We sing and work hard. We love.

11/06/2024

11/6/2024

Thank you for being here. This is what I have to offer today. I’ll be back later.

Love,
Melanie Phoenix
For Haiku for Harris

11/05/2024

“We are finishing
this campaign as we started:
with optimism,
with energy, and with JOY.”
*Words of Kamala Harris*

(This is a tanka form, within the haiku genre but five lines with 5-7-5-7-7 syllables.)

11/05/2024

Election Day 2024

Breathe deep. Stay the course.
💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙