International Women’s Haiku Festival: Haiku by Eufemia Griffo

~ Jennifer Hambrick

jared-eberhardt-the-sea-mexico

Photo: Jared Eberhardt/Creative Commons/Flickr

Eufemia Griffo writes a poignant haiku about mothers, daughters, and loss in today’s feature of the International Women’s Haiku Festival.

misty morning
mother doesn’t remember
the colour of the sea

(For my mother)

Maybe the mother in the poem doesn’t remember the color of the sea because she has been blind from an early age.  Or maybe her memory is being devoured by dementia.  Whatever the cause, forgetting the color of the sea is a loss with profound metaphorical resonance.  The poetic speaker experiences that loss as her own, perhaps through tears in her own “misty morning.”  Griffo’s haiku touches the wound that another person’s loss opens in us.

Eufemia Griffo is an Italian writer and poet in Milan, Italy. She has published books of poetry and fiction, including L’ereditá di Dracula (The Legacy of Dracula), which she co-authored with Davide Benincasa, and has won many awards for her writing.  She blogs at The River Still Flows.  Website: http://ilsussurrodellaluna.eu/.

Find more information about the International Women’s Haiku Festival and submit your work at this link.

5 thoughts on “International Women’s Haiku Festival: Haiku by Eufemia Griffo”

  1. Wonderful!

    I was reminded that the sea, and especially holiday places such as seaside resorts, beaches etc… are so vital, especially with our parents when they were both children, and then as young parents.

    Also reminded of this haiku, although quite different, both Eufemia’s haiku and that of Lynne Rees struck a chord with me:

    2nd With Words International Online Haiku Competition (2009)
    Joint 2nd Prize

    the sound of the sea
    speaking to my mother
    on her birthday

    Lynne Rees (b. Wales)
    Antibes, France

    http://www.withwords.org.uk/results.html#2009commentary

    re:

    misty morning
    mother doesn’t remember
    the colour of the sea

    Eufemia, the alliteration in your first two lines works magically with the diminishing power of memory as we get older: misty; morning; re[m]ember added to the hard assonance of ‘c’ in colour and the soft s of ‘sea’. So much to say in this beautifully crafted haiku. 🙂

    warm regards,

    Alan

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    1. Dear Alan
      It is a great honor  to read your comment. I want to thank for your kind words. They affect my feelings and my heart.
      This is the magic of haiku and poetry.
      For a long time I couldn’t write anything  about the disease (dementia) that hit my mom. I tried to do with poetry. It is a powerful medium and privileged.
      Sincere thanks Alan.
      All the best,
      Eufemia

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  3. Reblogged this on Il fiume scorre ancora and commented:
    Thrilled and overjoyed to read my haiku ” misty morning” on Inner Voices, the Jennifer Hambrick’s blog. This poem was selected of event ” The International Women’s Haiku Festival”.
    Sincere thanks to Jennifer Hambrick, it’s a great Honor to appear in her website.
    I wrote this
    haiku for my mother…
    Jennifer Hambrick is musician, Poet, Broadcaster, Voice Talent.

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