Exhale

© Suzanne Miller

The mountains exhale.

Pools of mist ebb and flow among the trees, obscuring the path.  The air, thick with pine and green tea, awakens the senses and beckons toward enlightenment.  Every breath a renewal of spirit, a coaxing of the waters of life which glisten from gossamer designs.  Hands unseen paint ferns of frost upon nature’s canvas, the eternal persistence of night to create that which daily is lost.

Purification by ice.

The cold sun has lost its power.  Indigo hills float against the sky, seduced by freedom’s lure.  A single crane calls to a mate unseen, perhaps absent.  Symbols turned from their meaning, to mingle hope and sorrows in the warp of life.

Aloft on red pillars.

The temple stands at the gates of heaven.  Dharmic harmonies resonate from prayer wheels, turning turning turning: the spin of earth, the passage of seasons, foot following foot.  The journey undertaken is a sacrifice; a thousand steps ascend among the echos of chanting, the singing of bowls, which compel the traveler onward.  Until, at the end of the corridor, the curtains part, opening onto a balcony which stands upon the precipice of the world.

there at the summit
the universe is revealed
as breath is lost

Ligo Haibun Challenge

This week is the image week, and we have two pictures from Suzanne to choose from to use as inspiration from your haibun.

Suzanne says when she was a child her father called her a changeling for he could not understand her and feared she was a faerie child.
[…]
“All my life I have sought to look beneath the surface and to consider the deeper meaning of my experiences,” she says, “glimmers of understanding have emerged over time and I seek now to track them in art and writing.” – Suzanne

And while both pictures were absolutely beautiful and inspiring, the second immediately pulled me into it with whispered promises of a happy muse and a journey of changing.  This week, the description of the artist as much as the image itself helped inspire.

I guess I was supposed to weave a mini-ghazal into the piece this week.  …I didn’t.