Gold & Ripe [Haiku]

Posted on January 27, 2023 by B Gourley

ripe grain turns gold,
the year has matured like a
person going gray

Buckwheat [Haiku]

Posted on June 3, 2022 by B Gourley

blossoming buckwheat
pretends to be a path
behind the ripe rice

Harvest Mind [Common Meter]

Posted on March 30, 2022 by B Gourley

The heavy heads of lolling grain 
were shifting in the breeze.
A harvester did chomp it down,
reaping before the freeze.

Now we'll stare at the naked field,
feeling something 's been lost,
seeing nothing but stalk stubble -
stiffened and white with frost.

What's culled from the harvest mind
when all the fields are cleared,
and dancing plants of robust grain
are newly disappeared?

DAILY PHOTO: Basket and Grain Drying in a “Town Square”

Posted on February 26, 2018 by B Gourley

Taken in May of 2017 in Khonoma Village

Wealthy villagers in Nagaland earn merit by constructing circular stages like this one on which festival activities can be conducted. (Or, during non-festival times, grain can be put out to dry as per this photo.) I put “Town Square” in quotes because they are neither square in shape nor are they solitary centrally-located public spaces. Rather there can be several of them– as there are in Khonoma, a village near Kohima — at various locations in and around the village. The little cubic pillars are seats, some of which may be assigned to prominent individuals and others are open seating.

The basket put upside-down on the pillar is typical of the region, and is worn with the band across one’s forehead.

The building in the back is also a public building constructed by a prominent villager.