50 comes to a close…

…a haiku series from my last month as a first-year quinquagenarian.  Doctor Don BW profile left

As with many things in life, this just happened.

I had this grand vision of taking a month-long road trip the year I turned 50 and writing a book about the experience, including thoughts and observations on my life (and life in general) so far.

Well, as John Lennon sang–but didn’t originate–in “Beautiful Boy,” life “is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”  So, no trip and no book (yet).

One summer night, I woke up from a recliner nap and boom!  I got an idea.  No rhyme, no reason, it just came to me:  For my last month as a 50-year-old, I would write a haiku each night to capture the experience. 

As the Poetry Foundation reminds us, a haiku is “a Japanese verse form most often composed, in English versions, of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. A haiku often features an image, or a pair of images, meant to depict the essence of a specific moment in time” [my emphasis].

Each day or night of my last month as a 50-year-old, I wrote and posted a haiku.  By September 17, the end-result was a 31-haiku series.  At that time, I began a new year and chapter of what I call my “Age of Quinquagenarius.”


50 comes to a close…Haiku 1

50 comes to a close…Haiku 2

50 comes to a close…Haiku 3

50 comes to a close…Haiku 4

50 comes to a close…Haiku 5

50 comes to a close…Haiku 6

50 comes to a close…Haiku 7

50 comes to a close…Haiku 8

50 comes to a close…Haiku 9

50 comes to a close…Haiku 10

50 comes to a close…Haiku 11

50 comes to a close…Haiku 12

50 comes to a close…Haiku 13

50 comes to a close…Haiku 14

50 comes to a close…Haiku 15

50 comes to a close…Haiku 16

50 comes to a close…Haiku 17

50 comes to a close…Haiku 18

50 comes to a close…Haiku 19

50 comes to a close…Haiku 20

50 comes to a close…Haiku 21

50 comes to a close…Haiku 22

50 comes to a close…Haiku 23

50 comes to a close…Haiku 24

50 comes to a close…Haiku 25

50 comes to a close…Haiku 26

50 comes to a close…Haiku 27

50 comes to a close…Haiku 28

50 comes to a close…Haiku 29

50 comes to a close…Haiku 30

50 comes to a close…Haiku 31

50 has come to a close…the beginning of 51…

 

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