One of the biggest shifts I’m experiencing as a result of writing my collection of haiku poetry is in the nature of my attention. At the beginning of this adventure series, I was waiting for something from the outside, something from nature, to grab my attention ~ and then I’d write a haiku about that. But now it’s beginning to change, and I really noticed it today. Today, my attention was geared towards the outside world, like a highly sensitive radar. I’m not waiting to have my attention grabbed : I am actively attending to the natural world.

Today, it felt like my senses couldn’t get enough of what was going on around me. As I drove my son to school, I began noticing the differences in the trees : some are yielding to Autumn far more quickly than others. It’s even possible to notice the very gradual swallowing up of a tree by the new season, day by day.

On the way back from school, I stopped to admire a rowan tree (also known as mountain ash). These trees are in full berry now. As the other trees begin to fade, this tree is coming into its prime.

A little bit of treelore research revealed some fascinating facts about the rowan. The rowan (derived from the the Scottish Gaelic word rudha-an, meaning “the red one”) is considered to be a sacred tree and is associated with the Celtic goddess Brighid (patroness of the the arts, smithing, healing, weaving and spinning).

In Scotland and Ireland, spinning wheels and spindles are traditionally made out of rowan wood. Discovering this made me smile : here I am, writing a collection of poetry about the turn of the season,  and I’m being gifted the experience of a tree which is associated with spinning!

Whilst the rowan can grow anywhere, it is often found  in mountainous areas. For this reason is sometimes called “The Lady Of The Mountain.”

Bearing all this in mind, and acknowledging my direct experience with the local tree this morning, I’ve written a haiku that attempts to capture the full essence of this majestic tree.

You can read today’s haiku here , and I read it out loud in today’s video-blog.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT