scent of orange blossoms: haiku/senryu

this morning
weaving Chi in the garden
invisible ball in my hand
 
 
*
 
 
Halong Bay
battle distant memory
smoke from Gulf of Tonkin
 
 
*
 
 
did the atom
ever know its destiny
how our hands create?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A student asked me,
“Why do your people
believe in dragons?”
 
 
*
 
 
river birch –
undressing
in the wind
 
 
*
 
 
the solid bones of elk antlers
or branches of a limber pine –
memory
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
bobcat with mange
unwatered plants
also dying
 
 
*
 
 
mountain lion
her land, before ours
invasive plants
 
 
*
 
 
scent of orange blossoms –
memories of my late grandma
who planted this tree
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
yarrow seedlings
pop up a week later –
each moment a small beginning
 
 
*
 
 
stopped in my tracks
by a primrose blooming –
I, too, will overcome this
 
 
*
 
 
dinner
a bowl of rice and soy sauce
food to survive on
 
 
*
 
 
my heart
the Santa Ana winds today
branches fall to the ground
 

Copyright Credit: Teresa Mei Chuc, "scent of orange blossoms: haiku/senryu" from Invisible Light.  Copyright © 2018 by Teresa Mei Chuc.  Reprinted by permission of Many Voices Press.