Lotus Love

Another haiku poet who I ran into at the Haiku North America Conference was Jessica Tremblay, a former Qubecer who now lives in Vancouver. Jessica is known for her haiku comic strip Vieil Etang, which you can look at on her website at http://vieiletang.site.voila.fr/. She also writes a blog called Tess in the West (tess-in-the-west.xanga.com).

I mentioned to Jessica about my own blog and she said that what she loved most about the Montreal Botanical Garden were the lotuses. She asked me to send her some photos, but I didn't get to the garden until early September and by then the lotuses were at the end of their bloom. But I did manage to get some photos and write a few poems.

So, this is for you, Jessica! Hopefully we will meet in the garden in person one day--either here or in one of the many gardens in Vancouver.

I'll start with a photo I took earlier in the summer.



lotus leaves
large
as umbrellas
I know where to come
on a rainy day



my mother
both strong
and beautiful
lotus flowers
on tall sturdy stems

my pen tumbles

into the lotus pond

no way

to take back

my words

patches of water

shining

in the lotus garden

in my life too

small pockets of light

I meditate

on a lotus flower--

the softness

of petals

protecting the seed

those unusual seed pods

of the lotus--

older women

have such

interesting faces