
{"id":12063,"date":"2010-08-20T13:16:57","date_gmt":"2010-08-20T21:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=12063"},"modified":"2010-08-20T13:16:57","modified_gmt":"2010-08-20T21:16:57","slug":"passage-of-time-with-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/08\/20\/passage-of-time-with-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Passage of time with words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Shawn Hoffman<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As children, including my own, are beginning their school-day schedules once again, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to take up a practice that I did for several weeks this summer while my son traveled Europe with backpack in tow \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the practice of writing a haiku once a day \u00e2\u20ac\u201c <\/p>\n<p>\t<em>Shift your weight and load<br \/>\n\tAs you seek understanding<br \/>\n\tBackpack as fulcrum<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Our 21-year-old son, John, traveled five countries in seven weeks for a unique summer experience. The impulse to write a haiku a day came from some need to discipline myself and examine my feelings along his journey. Anticipation, excitement, worry, gratitude \u00e2\u20ac\u201c emotions felt from that first day of kindergarten and even today as he begins his senior year of college. <\/p>\n<p>The trip to me was so symbolic of his journey, but my passage. Hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it been our job to give him the skills that he needs to move through life with a confidence that he is his own person? Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it my job to each day let go a little bit more until, like this summer, we let go and say goodbye almost completely. <\/p>\n<p>\t<em>Heart in transition<br \/>\n\tYour boundaries are the largest<br \/>\n\tThey could ever be \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n<p>My flowing passage as his mom takes beauty and courage that sometimes cannot be captured in the stillness of a photograph. The loosening of my tongue and my heart through placing simple words on a page allowed me to press out the moments of transition in our lives. <\/p>\n<p>To learn a bit about haiku, I went online and read several ways to discipline its form, but I simply chose one \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that of a line rhythm of 5,7,5 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the syllables on each line. Some days, I chose my own style, which I coined \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Folk Art Haiku,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when freedom was needed and my tongue could not be disciplined.<\/p>\n<p>\t<em>Poetry as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153folk art\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\n\tNow that resonates in my soul<br \/>\n\tWords should have a freedom<br \/>\n\tTo move on the page<br \/>\n\tOur lives unsettled<br \/>\n\tOften unpredictable<br \/>\n\tMoments of stillness we seek<br \/>\n\tWhen change is constant<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In my busy day of going to work, visiting my mom with Alzheimer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, trying to exercise and all the life challenges that so many of us have, I needed to allow words to become the compass for my direction each day.<\/p>\n<p><em>Enjoy life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s compass<br \/>\n\tA navigation palette<br \/>\n\tOf colors you choose<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The time of writing, usually in the morning but sometimes in the car or walking at the gym, became the pause of stillness to go into that part of myself that feels deeply about what it has meant to send my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bird from the nest\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c <\/p>\n<p>\t<em>Red bird on cedar<br \/>\n\tIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perch within our eyes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 grasp<br \/>\n\tWhat are you thinking?<br \/>\n\tthe \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shimmering verge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<br \/>\n\tOf the space between not filled<br \/>\n\tPossibility lies<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In the last weeks since he returned, I have realized that my passage with words those weeks served me in more ways than was their initial purpose. So as of today, I will take the practice and navigate with it once again. Sometimes it is a challenge in the demands of life to go to that part of oneself that feels deeply and say to it, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Open your truest voice because I care what you have to say\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the haiku practice offered my heart walking shoes to stay open and healthy on the path of what life offers in each moment \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it allowed my brain to visit the other hemisphere of creativity and flow, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve missed that journey these last weeks. The whole collection of my summer haikus is greater than each of its parts and has a shape all its own.<\/p>\n<p>\t<em>The shape still forming<br \/>\n\tOf the whole and its moments<br \/>\n\tParts support the sculpture<\/em><\/p>\n<p>My neighbor, Sarah, puts her last of three sons, my godson, on the kindergarten school bus this year. His first day of class is John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first day of his senior year. I am nearing the end of the passage that for Sarah is beginning. Our \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fulcrums,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d while in two different places, have a sort of delicate balance \u00e2\u20ac\u201c what a beautiful ride \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sarah this is for you \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<br \/>\n<em><br \/>\n\tOur shoes and hearts will<br \/>\nJourney to Nathan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bus and share<br \/>\n\tTears and mimosas!<br \/>\nAnd as John leaves our driveway for college \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<br \/>\n\tTracks of growing years<br \/>\n\tThrough right or left rear windows<br \/>\n\tViews from fresh lenses<br \/>\nAnd for myself filled with a compass of emotion for all families in this journey \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<br \/>\n(East): We greet our day<br \/>\n\t(North): With open hands to life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s force<br \/>\n \t(South):\t That shifts our children like the sand<br \/>\n\tand the seas<br \/>\n\t(West): Wild youths smiling in our salty hearts <\/em><\/p>\n<p>After all, it is their journey, but it is my passage \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p><em>Shawn Hoffman is a Carrboro resident.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As children, including my own, are beginning their school-day schedules once again, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to take up a practice that I did for several weeks this summer while my son traveled Europe with backpack in tow \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the practice of writing a haiku once a day \u00e2\u20ac\u201c <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12065,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12063\/revisions\/12065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}