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August Haiku

tomatoes
tug the vine
waiting

a summer sunshower
harvesting rainbow chard

scrubbed beets
a sink full
of pink hands

a dog
     a splash
          swaying cattails

one more carrot
yanked from the garden
a car starting

August leaves
sag in the afternoon
I count days

(c) 2012 Elizabeth Ehrenfest Steinglass, all rights reserved

We were lucky enough to spend a few days in Vermont with dear friends. The highlight of our trip was harvesting vegetables from the garden–tomatoes, carrots, beets, broccoli, and rainbow chard. The kids especially loved pulling the carrots and beets from the dirt and scrubbing them in the sink. I wrote these haiku when we got home, savoring my memories of those days far from the city. They make quite a contrast to the haiku from June. The end of the summer is in the air. For more Poetry Friday go to Violet Nesdoly/poems.

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11 replies
  1. Katya
    Katya says:

    There’s nothing more wonderful than veggies fresh from the garden. August is magical that way.

    Are you counting the days left until school or first frost?

  5. Violet N.
    Violet N. says:

    Your poem takes me back to our garden on the farm. I can almost taste those carrots, fresh from the earth, cleaned on the row of carrot tops, tasting still a wee bit earthy.

    I especially like poem of the beets and the pink hands, and the poem about the carrots and car starting… yes, such an experience is always too short!

  6. Linda at teacherdance
    Linda at teacherdance says:

    I think I need to read you every day, Liz. You give us so much with so few words. It’s lovely to hear of a flourishing garden & pulling the fresh vegetables. My favorite is this: scrubbed beets/a sink full/of pink hands. Perhaps because I do love beets. We used to prepare them & use the water to dye some of our Easter eggs! Thanks for the nice vision of a garden.

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