Monday, January 7, 2019

The Launching




image from businessinsider.com


The Launching

“I have faith that God often uses our deepest
pain as the launching pad for our greatest
calling.”--Yolanda Hadid

January is two-faced, called Janus by the ancients,
which sounds like Janis, who was my girlfriend for
two months in second grade--coming and going,
arrival and departure; like Gemini, ying and yang,
sun and moon, duality and duplicity, point and rear
guard.

Launching a new year, rife with football and humus,
while still glancing back at the past year; the first
wake of an ocean voyage, watching the harbor
shrink, then disappear, as the flat gray horizon,
the massive dun maw of nothingness is yawning
across your bow.

February is your destination, with paper hearts,
sweet meats and question marks awaiting you.
You have taken this voyage many times before,
wherein you resolve to change up your routine
and make better choices. Good luck with that,
for the fleet of the world sails all around you, and
their terrible tillers are all turned to cross over
your charted course.

Winter’s upon us;
naked trees, leaden skies greet
silence without birds.



Glenn Buttkus

Haibun

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

15 comments:

Frank Hubeny said...

Nice comparison of January to what is to come: "February is your destination, with paper hearts,
sweet meats and question marks awaiting you."

Gina said...

i can relate to February as a destination, leaving two faced January, cold and unrelenting. love how you weaved in Janus and Gemini with their dual nature, indeed so confusing for us who live by logic.

tonispencer said...

Your haiku shows the loveliness of this often lonely season

Jade Li said...

Launching a new year, with February the destination is realistic. The barriers to resolutions is worded very well in continuation of the nautical theme.

Unknown said...

I had forgotten that January is two-faced. Boy am I feeling that. Love your practicality regarding resolutions.

indybev said...


I agree. January is all about surviving to February, and February is all about surviving until March ... and avoiding Facebook posts from traitor "snowbirds" who go south for the winter!!

rob kistner said...

Yo Glenn - love that second verse. Football and humus put a smile on my face. But the nautical metaphor of sailing away from the padt year into the new one struck realy vivid for me. The visual was rich and very engaging. Nice haibun my friend.

My Haibun resonated strongly of Oregon. It will always be the PacNW images that dominate my psyche, because I was in very good health for the 25 years I lived there, I fished, hiked, road-tripped, and generally immersed myself totally in Oregon. In the coast, the mountains, the high desert, the gorge - every natural aspects of the state, N to S, E to W. That is why the images of Oregon are technicolor for me.

The agricultural eden that is the Willamette Valey will always be for me - a miracle. 11,478 square miles of fertile, volcanic soil, bounded by the Coast Range to the west and the Cascade Range to the east. The valley is about 180 miles long and 100 miles wide, with the Willamette River system, and its tributaries, a network of life-giving water running the entire length. It is the reason the pioneers flocked to that area, createing the Oregon Trail.

In the 3 years we have lived with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson in Seattle, I have, most of that time, been in poor health - so I don't know Washington very well. Unfortunately with my age and health, I will never know Washington as intimately as I do Oregon. However, I think the Puget Sound region is simply spectacular. I am proud to call the entire Pacific Northwest my home, now for 30 years.

Margaret said...

...if we can only survive until February! Enjoyed this.

Grace said...

Our January here is the same, naked trees and leaden skies. And very very cold, below 0, yikes.

I am excited though for January as it is like a new canvas of possibilities. Hopefully by February I won't get disappointed yet, smiles.

Kim M. Russell said...

I love the chatty word association in the first paragraph, Glenn, which gives me an insight into your personality and life, as well as the list of contrasts which shifts us into the second paragraph with more word association! The extended sea voyage metaphor is deftly managed but I’m bemused by the juxtaposition of football and humus.

Kathy Reed said...

Sage writing by someone who has been around the block, seen a lot of the world, and knows there is no controlling the seasons. But then there is Monday Night football...and Thurs., Fri. Sat. Sun!😊

lynn__ said...

I really like your metaphor of January as a ship launching...and the barren silence in your haiku.

brudberg said...

January is all about survival.. and sometimes breaking resolution we've made when drunk on Champagne... but that takes a lifetime to learn.

purplepeninportland.com said...

"the massive dun maw of nothingness is yawning
across your bow."

What a perfect phrase for the season.

Nora said...

"terrible tillers all turned" is ringing in my ears. I want to dive into it, find out how those tillers work, how to turn them.