a haiku
Father's Day
image by dsnake1
a haiku
missing dad -
sandpapering rust
off his old tool box.
20/06/2021
**********
the haiku is old but it is one of my favourites and i am posting it today.
I remember my dad as a stocky, muscular man, as he works in the construction industry as a carpenter and a foreman. I follow him for a couple of weeks working on a house for a wealthy pig farmer, and I know how tough the work can be. Yet his Chinese calligraphy is very elegant and beautiful, and bold. The people at the clan house would request him to write notices and wedding invitations.
He is a very quiet man, does not say much. When as a child, I got into scraps with other kids, he would just dress my wounds, and not ask anything. He is quite unfazed by anything, except when he once asked me what I was doing with a gang in Newton (I wasn't), and the news of Kennedy's assassination. He has passed on, at a relatively young age, and when I needed strength, I would think of him.
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021
a haiku
missing dad -
sandpapering rust
off his old tool box.
20/06/2021
**********
the haiku is old but it is one of my favourites and i am posting it today.
I remember my dad as a stocky, muscular man, as he works in the construction industry as a carpenter and a foreman. I follow him for a couple of weeks working on a house for a wealthy pig farmer, and I know how tough the work can be. Yet his Chinese calligraphy is very elegant and beautiful, and bold. The people at the clan house would request him to write notices and wedding invitations.
He is a very quiet man, does not say much. When as a child, I got into scraps with other kids, he would just dress my wounds, and not ask anything. He is quite unfazed by anything, except when he once asked me what I was doing with a gang in Newton (I wasn't), and the news of Kennedy's assassination. He has passed on, at a relatively young age, and when I needed strength, I would think of him.
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021
Labels: father, Father's Day, haiku, memories
posted by dsnake1 at 10:28 PM
14 Comments:
It's a wonderful haiku. Also I like your background note about your father, which brings him to life for me – in the unsaid almost as much as in what is said.
It is actually a haiku i have published before (and rejected by a couple of online journals).
There are so many things & moments i remembered about my father. The notes I wrote today are, well, enough to flesh him out.
In fact, i wrote this post just today, in a short while. I think i can work well under a tight deadline. :D
I love the haiku, the imagery sticks. The same goes for the note, it lingers... And I so love that when things get difficult, memories of your father are there to ease things up a bit.
Thanks, Magaly!
yes, we feel safe around him.
What a lovely tribute to your father!
That is a beautiful haiku. I get a sense of his quiet strength in those lines.
That tool box carries a lot of memories. Even my dad, not a handy man, had a big wooden toolbox. I think my brother has it.
I agree with Magaly. The image of the old toolbox is memorable.
Beverly,
Thank you! :)
Rommy,
Thank you! :)
Lisa,
most of us guys have a toolbox of some sort around, for the minor emergencies. :)
Thank you, Jenna! :)
It is little memories like this that we keep in our minds lonf after they have gone. Hopefully our children too will have recollections such as this.
Thank you, Robin.
Hopefully, they don't forget..
Sweet memories. I loved that he dressed your wounds without talk or lecture.
yes, that was quite a surprise.
Thank you, Colleen.
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