The prompt for today (which you can read here) was to write a sijo, a traditional Korean poetic form. It has three lines of 14-16 syllables, and you can read much more about it here.

I heard this afternoon that an old friend has just died. I haven’t seen him for many years, but he was a huge part of my twenties, being one of my first husband’s very best mates. He was the sweetest, gentlest and funniest man, and I’ll never forget him, or the side-splitting fits of completely uncontrollable laughter he caused me so many times through those years.

Here is my attempt at a sijo. I scribbled it down after a walk today in my local wood (where I saw a butterfly) before I got this sad news. Wherever it came from, it seems to fit my mood now, in an odd sort of a way.

 

In the Woods

First warm day; my coat too thick, feeling slightly deranged by heat.

A Brimstone: the butterfly scuppers at me through fine spring air.

Hand rises; to grab its green flight? To catch its heart? To catch mine?