On Friday, I left home at 5:00 a.m., drove to Houston,
did a full day's school visit and drove home again. 
It was not the most haiku-ish day, if you know what I mean. 
Which is why my piece for that day is about … coffee.

Haiku 27
4/27/2012

First sip burns bitter
and still I take another.
Black sky grows milky.

And then it was the weekend.
I just love weekends.
And spring break.
And summer break.
I would rather have my kids knocking around here a bit than rushing off every morning like the world's a'fire.

Haiku 28
4/28/2012

A bare foot dangles,
feather duvets swell, settle.
Who says it's morning?

Haiku 29
4/29/2012

girl with basketball
dad with good time on his hands
unbeatable team

And today?
Today is Monday, in case you hadn't heard….

Haiku 30
4/30/2012

like swimming cross-wise
each stroke long, effortful
until I give in

Haiku 26
4/26/2012

Each turn of the wheel
spokes fly and land, fly and land.
Am I bird or boot?

Dreams are weird sometimes.

Haiku 25
4/25/2012

The fan churns the air
Imagine sleeping outdoors,
birds on your pillow

Oh, blow me down. 
We have had a true braided-string of crazy at our house this past week.
Some biggish hurdles, some little Murphy's Law-type stuff.
But all put together in one big pile, sheesh, it was enough to make me a little dizzy.

So, one casualty has been my blogged haikus. 
Partly because we were down a computer (that was one of the Murphy's Law-type issues) and partly because I just could not make the time to make it happen.

BUT. The good news???
I still wrote a haiku each and every day in the notebook next to my bed and I'm going to post them all now.
And I have high, high hopes that this next week will go as planned, one haiku at a time.

Haiku 18
4/18/2012

Conjugating verbs
Thinning out the garden plot
What goes next to what?

Haiku 19
4/19/2012

Running in the dark
Each step is an act of faith
The trail trips me up

Haiku 20
4/20/2012

12-day old baby
downy head against my neck
fixes everything

Haiku 21
4/21/2012

Is this a cliche:
"a tulip like a girl's skirt"
even if it's true?

Haiku 22
4/22/2012

Most things are better
in a boat, on the water
Spider thinks so, too

Haiku 23
4/23/2012

Cat in the garden
The wind shakes the old oak clean
Cat in the catkins

Haiku 24
4/24/2012

Wind chimes, crisp blue sky — 
Is there a wrong side of bed?
The squirrel still complains.

Haiku 17
4/17/2012

springtime on the porch
each strand of wind like a string
sweetheart with guitar

Haiku 16
4/16/2012

bare branch without blooms
my ring is at the jeweler's
and I miss it so

For days now,
our Tall One's been suffering through
a late season flu.

I'm aching for her…

Haiku 15
4/15/2012

her fever rages
each soft cheek a burning bush
cool cloth can't slake fire

Today I read to 40-some kids in a grocery store in San Antonio, with a lovely mom-blogger next to me reading the same books in Spanish, and everyone happily munching on Cheerios the whole time.

You probably know already that the good folks at General Mills pair up with the good folks at First Book every year to get millions of books out to millions of kids via their breakfast cereal boxes. And I did say millions. Wow. This is the 10th year of the really smart and generous Spoonful of Stories campaign, and I am so honored to have been a part of it twice — with All the World and Noodle & Lou. 

It is powerful recognition that books feed children and help build whole and healthy people. What's not to love?

Haiku 14
4/14/2012

kids like little birds
choosing each O carefully,
making nests of books

We were lucky enough to be invited to the most lovely, organic, outdoor Passover Seder on Friday night. Lucky especially since we're not at all Jewish.

But these friends take their generosity seriously, so there we were — sitting at one of four long tables — a peach tree heavy with fruit on one side — a buffet laden with love on the other — and scripts.

We read around and around the tables — those who know Hebrew and those who don't, the young and the old, the shy and the dramatic. The words were punctuated by song — from gospel to reggae — all live — and sips of wine and bits of matzah along the way.

Haiku 13
4/13/2012

egg, wine, bitter greens
we are the mixed multitudes,
we have time to rise

Haiku 12
4/12/2012

Bagpipes wavering
right outside our class tonight
Focus flits and shifts