Daily Haibin, August 22nd – A Student

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Getting emails about the student discount card, and applying for student grants. It’s finally starting to sink in. For the coming year I’ll be a student of creative writing. The idea still blows my mind. Who? Me! That cant be true… Except it is.

I sent out my applications and text samples and in the end got accepted too so many of them I had to choose which ones I thought suited me best. It’s felt unreal and mind-boggling. And my inner critics and saboteurs have made everything they can to try to discount the significance of what that means. But my passion for writing shines brighter then them, and I’ll be damned if I ever again let then scare me into not attempting something I want very much.

It will mean less time for participating in writing prompts and blogging. Although I can’t see myself quit writing poetry as often as possible. I’ll keep you updated on what’s going on, and when time allows share what I learn and write.

Seeds sown long ago

At last gets sunlight to grow

Let’s see where they go

©RedCat

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Stockholm city library built in 1928.

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Read other Haibun’s written for the monthly dVerse prompt by me here.

Read other Daily Haibun’s here.

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Image credits:

First image: Photo by MChe Lee on Unsplash
Second image: Photo by Gunnar Ridderström on Unsplash
Third image: Photo by Roel Dierckens on Unsplash

Daily Haibun, August 10th – Creative Writing

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This week is start of term. Not for the kids, for me. During the spring I applied for a bunch of creative writing classes. Fearing I would be accepted to none. Turns out I got accepted to several. Enough that I had to choose.

After much thought and even more self-doubt. I decided on several and took the decision to take a year off work to focus fully on writing.

Feels like going on an adventure!

With fall comes endings

The seeds of new beginnings

A new journey starts

© RedCat

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Read other Haibun’s written for the monthly dVerse prompt by me here.

Read other Daily Haibun’s here.

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Daily Haibun, August 6th – Fall Cleaning

After a long summer it’s been seasonal cleaning time this week. Every nook and cranny wiped clean. Kids rooms rearranged. Old toys removed. Grow out of clothes given away. New or inherited bigger ones put in place.

The house is smelling clean. And I think I’ll treat myself to a glass of something good and some time lounging on the couch.

As the season go

Time to clean, give, throw and stow

Let the fall wind’s blow

© RedCat

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Read other Haibun’s written for the monthly dVerse prompt by me here.

Read other Daily Haibun’s here.

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Daily Haibun – August Days (2nd August)

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August days. Hot and humid. Smelling of bone dry grass. Crickets playing. Gusty winds whipping trees around. Thunder rumbles. Lighting crackles. Sheets of rain.

Storm passes. Mist rises in dance. Pink and gold dusk clouds. Moon rises in deep blue. Orion marches across the sky.

First stirring of fall

Last days of sweet summer warmth

Harvest and school start

© RedCat

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Today my Daily Haibun is written for Haibun Monday at dVerse.

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Read other Haibun’s written for the monthly dVerse prompt by me here.

Read other Daily Haibun’s here.

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Den blomstertid nu kommer – Saturday Song

Den blomstertid nu kommer, sung by Uppsala Mission Church Chamber Choir

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This weekend’s song is a Swedish hymn that for many years has signaled the start of summer for school children and their parents. One I heard people say they wished we had gotten to hear sung, as we once again had a school term end without parents in attendance due to the pandemic. 

Den blomstertid nu kommer (literally: Now the time of blossoming arrives) was first published in the 1695 Swedish Hymnal. And has been rewritten several times since. It is popular in both Sweden and Finland.

According to Wikipedia there is an English translation from 1978, but I fail to find the text online. Another text I should give time and thought  to translating. 

The first verse, where the Christian origin is not apparent, speaks of the time for flowers coming, the sweet summer approaching where grass and crops grow, the sun’s gentle and lively warmth reawakening the seemingly dead nature.

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Den blomstertid nu kommer

Verse 1-3 of 6
1937 Lyrics 

1.

Den blomstertid nu kommer
med lust och fägring stor.
Du nalkas, ljuva sommar,
då gräs och gröda gror.
Med blid och livlig värma
till allt som varit dött,
sig solens strålar närma,
och allt blir återfött.

2.

De fagra blomsterängar
och åkerns ädla säd,
de rika örtesängar
och lundens gröna träd,
de skola oss påminna
Guds godhets rikedom,
att vi den nåd besinna
som räcker året om.

3.

Man hörer fåglar sjunga
med mångahanda ljud,
skall icke då vår tunga
lovsäga Herren Gud?
Min själ, upphöj Guds ära,
stäm upp din glädjesång
till den som vill oss nära
och fröjda på en gång!

Wikisource

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Den blomstertid nu kommer, sung by Täby music classes

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Den blomstertid nu kommer, sung in Öjaby Church, Växjö parish, recorded by Stacke Media

Daily Haibun, June 10th – Last day of school

Photo by Drahomír Posteby-Mach on Unsplash

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Tomorrow is the last day of school. And the children are giddy with anticipation. Getting them to bed has been an unusual hard task. The fact that the sun is still streaming through the windows doesn’t help. “-But it’s not night yet!” Has been an argument since they were big enough to talk.

Running around today getting everything in order for tomorrow. I have remembered my own summer anticipation as a child. Dressing up in new summer clothes. Giving and getting bouquets of flowers. The seemingly eternal summer holiday before us.

Summertime is here
Bathing, reading, sleeping late
Lazy days are near

©RedCat

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In Sweden school has only two terms, an autumn and spring one. Leaving ten whole weeks for summer. I’ve been told more than once it harks back to when Sweden was still a country with mostly farmers. Meaning they needed the children as workers during the summer and the early harvest. Nowadays it mostly means parents with four weeks of summer leave have to figure out how to juggle work and kids. It also means “after school care” is available for most of the summer for those that need it. Still working from home due to the pandemic, we’ll have to juggle.

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Read other Haibun’s written for the monthly dVerse prompt by me here.

Read other Daily Haibun’s here.

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Photo by Malkarium on Unsplash

School in Decay

Photo by Jose Vega from Pexels

The school is in decay
There’s really nothing else to say

The ventilation has mold
The gym are frightfully cold

Most of the buildings are commended
Teachers and pupils into barracks hemmed

Plans for a new school still requires every permit
The whole school yard smell of sewage…
Yeah, shit!

©REDCAT

Photo by ramy Kabalan from Pexels

Written for tonight Poetics prompt at dVerse – Poetry as witness. And preferably something local.
So, I went very local, my kids school should have been teared down and rebuilt years ago. But City Hall can’t make any plans det gets approved…?

Teaching Questions

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

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Do you know how to teach?
Can you help a child her dreams reach?

Do you possess the skill?
To young minds with curiosity fill?

Do you remember how it were?
The world wonders to explore, no adult burdens to obscure?

Do you know how to sow?
Seeds of lifelong lust to know?

© REDCAT

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Right now me, and countless parents around the world face a reality in where to work at home (if we’re lucky) and simultaneously school our kids at home. Most of us having left that responsibility with educated professionals when the kids were barely toddlers.

I’ve felt very thankful these last two weeks, that I worked as a teacher a in my early twenties. That I have a some education in pedagogy.

I know that keeping an as-normal-as-possible routine is vital for most kids. So we’ve made a schedule. I focus extra on excursions in nature – we’ve searched for spring signs and dug a new canal from a big water puddle. On practical skills like baking bread and cooking food, areas where math and chemistry plays a big part. And also I’m lucky to have access to a big library of educational tv-shows courtesy of the state owned Utbildnings Radion.

I would assume you could find similar material done by the BBC, and other organizations, but right now I have no good English language links to share.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com