When I was little, life seemed like one long summer day.

Elegy for Eunice

Most who might have mourned her
have followed or preceded her to dust.
Those few who still do,
think of her less often every year.
It is only in the fleeting moments
when beauty she might have appreciated
crosses our vision
or a song she once favored is heard
that a sweet pang of missing her
stabs into our busyness
and we remember
how she guided our footsteps,
taught us a gentle way with animals,
prodded us to attain more
and let us go.
This is an elegy to one we have forgotten
too easily and too soon.
One that calls her back to mind,
restores her to her rightful place.

The dVerse Poets prompt today is to write a haibun making use of mono no aware—the beauty of transience. My post is not a haibun, but I hope it meets the rest of the prompt. You can see how others responded to the prompt HERE.

Mono no aware is not simply a morbid attitude toward impermanence. Rather, it is accepting “the beauty of passing things.” As such, Mono no aware lies at the heart of Japanese poetry. Basho, the progenitor of the haibun, exemplifies mono no aware in an excerpt from his “Narrow Road to the Interior” that you can read on the dVerse Poets prompt above.