Happy Holidays

One week ago, I attended an aboriginal workshop to learn how to make a dreamcatcher.   After I finished weaving the centre (it took about 15 minutes), the teacher tied a rose cedar bark in the centre then wrapped the circle in cedar branches.  To my surprise and delight, we got to decorate the dreamcatcher and turn it into a beautiful holiday wreath.

I’ve always wanted to make a dreamcatcher.  During the workshop, the instructor corrected me when I called it a “dreamweaver”. It did feel like I was weaving a childhood dream.

dreamcatcher      my dream of making one

Happy Holidays!

Snow-filled bucket snowman

snow-filled bucket      snowman

(JT)

Unfinished haiku

Unable to figure out the last step of an origami, I sit there, frustrated.

I unfold the paper and start over. Soon, I’m blocked again.

I flatten the paper on the table. The creases mark the battle. I sit still, imagining the finished origami (a tato box).

So close, and yet unable to finish.

It’s frustrating. Just like an unfinished haiku.

Every once in a while you get a flash of genius, a haiku that simply comes to you, but by the time you write it down, you forget the last line or a word. And the haiku is unfinished, imperfect.

You know the answer, it was given to you a moment ago. Now, the missing word is this big gap in the middle of the poem, staring you in the face.

And, just like a used origami paper, the haiku cannot be reused or repaired. It can only be trashed or recycled.

   ancient warriors’ dreams   wander    in the recycling bin  (JT)

(Inspired by

The summer’s grass!
all that’s left
of ancient warriors’ dreams.

and

Sick on my journey,
only my dreams will wander
these desolate moors

by Matsuo Basho)

PS Check out the comments below to see what this blog post would look like as a haibun (proposed by Angelee Deodhar) or poem (proposed by Michael Dylan Welch).

Alien : a screenplay that reads like a haiku

The screenplay for the movie ”Alien” is famous in the movie business for its short lines that read like haiku… or scfifaiku (science-fiction haiku). I borrowed the screenplay once from Praxis Centre for Screenwriters. Here are extracts:

 

ALIEN

by Walter Hill

and David Giler

Based on screenplay

by

Dan O’Bannon

Story by

Dan O’Bannon and Ronad Shusette

REVISED FINAL

JUNE 1978

(page 1)

INT. CORRIDOR TO HYPERSLEEP VAULT

Lights come on.

Seven gowns hang from the curved wall.

Vault door opens.

(page 2, a space tanka)

INT. GALLEY

Kane plugs in a Silex.

Lights a cigarette.

Coughs.

Grinds some coffee beans.

Runs some water through.

(page 2)

INT. HYPERSLEEP VAULT

Another lid pops open.

A young woman sits up.

(page 2)

INT. GALLEY

(Coffee) Pot now half-full.

Kane watches it drip.

Inhales the fragrance.