Today is Haibun Monday at dVerse Poets Pub and Frank Tassone has challenged us to write a Solstice haibun.
Summer Solstice Safari
It’s hard to believe solstice is this week. The longest day of a summer that’s turtling—pokes its head out early, then hides, emerges then hides again. For the event it is supposed to heat up, but then a twenty degree drop by Sunday. Yet, I’m ready for the days to start getting shorter.
They are tearing down my great aunt’s house next door. The machines crunch and tear and bang and beep. It’s constant, incessant, relentless. To soothe my nerves, I take my camera out to find the beauty, something interesting and intriguing in all the chaos. Patiently waiting for the machine to lift its bucket in an appealing way feels like being on a metal-monster safari, or a trip to Jurassic Park. I spy the long yellow neck like an enormous giraffe’s through my hedge, it’s head hidden in the last sections of house, biting and tearing, gnawing on the years of memories.
This is a summer of destruction, of change and transition. It is loud and isolating. I am learning to work without the silence I love to swim in. This is a solstice of transformation. I don’t know if they will move straight from destruction to construction. I don’t know if they will continue to put orange cones in my driveway as if they can invade and map out their place in my space. What would it cost them to give me information, let me know what to expect? But would that make anything any better? Knowing the trucks are coming, knowing the day will be full of nerve-grating noises, doesn’t change that I have to adapt.
This transformation
takes destruction and desire:
beautiful monsters
Experience Writing 
I felt every word of your haibun and this deconstruction you’re dealing with. These really spoke to me:
“biting and tearing, gnawing on the years of memories.”
“the silence I love to swim in”
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So glad you liked it.
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Yes, I love the serenity of silence, but your Haiku also shows beauty even in chaos
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Thank you.
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I absolutely felt as though I were there, right beside you with all the chaos and noise! A great haibun … great!!!
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Thank you.
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To have such neighbors must be nerve-wrecking…. not knowing what to expect (and for how long) makes planning so much harder.
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Agreed. I don’t know why a little communication is so hard for people.
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I feel for you. My neighbours were renovating their home and the noise nearly drove me crazy. I hope you can soothe your nerves soon. A very descriptive haibun…loved those beautiful monsters
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Thank you.
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The photographs really add to your haibun of Summer Solstice Safari – and destruction – Maria, and I love the way you describe this summer as ‘turtling’, and the machines as monsters from Jurassic Park. It’s so sad to see a person’s home and history demolished, especially when it’s someone you know. You reminded me of the time the bungalow next door was demolished and the owners built a massive red-brick monstrosity in its place. The noise of machines is indeed ‘constant, incessant, relentless’. Your haiku reminds us that we can see beauty in everything.
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I’m glad you liked it and can relate.
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A day of destruction. It is alway sad to see a house get torn down. I love your story and your attitude of still trying to find beauty in the machine that is doing the damage. Well done.
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Thank you.
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You are welcome.
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What a difficult time. It is horrible when construction/destruction disturbs our domestic routines. You describe it very well.
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Thank you.
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The downside of summer, indeed: more daylight hours for deconstruction! An eloquent write!
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Thank you. And thank you for the inspiring prompt.
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Your summer sounds like something super eventful despite the destruction of your great aunt’s house. It’s hard to adapt when you enjoy working in silence, but here’s to new beginnings until things settle.
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Cheers!
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“To soothe my nerves, I take my camera out to find the beauty, something interesting and intriguing in all the chaos.”
so well stated
much🤍love
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Thank you.
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