Here is my poem of the week for September 27, 2024. I wrote three sonnets and four of these sets of seven haiku that I call hai-nets, but was a hard week for me personally. I led a memorial service for a 65 year old woman I dearly loved who had many things she still wanted to do.

Some of my poems were about it being too late, and most of them reflected not only grief but stress and lack of sleep–I was also trying to get my winter firewood work done. Then the long stretch of dry weather ended with two days of rain, and this hai-net came out of it.

The loosely related haiku are about many things, but one theme is that it’s not too late. As I say on the video, though, as of November 6th it WILL be too late for what may be the most important world event in our lifetimes, so please do not let yourself wake up that morning feeling sick that you didn’t do all you could.

Please use your voice, and please send the biggest donation you’ve ever made to support the youth and BIPOC grassroots groups that are fighting for their lives in swing states right now, going door to door. They are way underfunded, and they could make all the difference. Here’s how to support them: https://movement.vote/

The text of the poem is below the video:

first fall rain brings 
joy
eases drought eases hard work
invites needed naps

no frost yet 
so rain
keeps late garden growth going
tomatoes beans blooms

fall rain 
feels better
when the wood is in the shed
than when it is not

growth comes to the 
old
monk who uses rainy days 
for meditation

shelter from cold rain
fire to cook and sit beside
candles 
need the dark

welcome 
rock bottom
that hardest pain where we land
in that darkest fall

welcome cold hard dark
welcome this late chance to grow
joy 
it’s not too late

9/25/24