1st Black Cat

black cat at sunset
stretches in wide strides across
the road that leads home


This isn't the poem I intended to write for the first Sabbath in October, but if I read the rules of the October Game correctly, the first black cat of the month must be represented in the game of the day that it is seen. I suppose I could've written a Sabbath poem that included a black cat somehow, but it's been a long day. I was up at 6:00 this morning and at church for band practice by 7:45. We played the 8:45 service, and then I taught Sunday School. After that, I left to pick up my granddaughter to bring her home for a few days, so I've been driving almost half the time I've been awake today.

So, most likely, even without the spotting of the black cat, a haiku is about all I was going to be able to muster today anyway. The haiku is a Japanese poetic form consisting of only three lines--the first made up of five syllables, the second of seven and the third of five. It's goal is not so much to make rational sense but rather to place an image in the reader's mind.

I think it probable that the haiku form will appear a lot in this October Game.