Tag: Seattle

Seattle’s Grown, As Have I

Carl Setzer3 Comments
Photo by Eric Hammett on Pexels.com

Ok, this is not a haiku nor a poem. I hope you can forgive the deviation from my norm. Today I read a piece by Seattle writer Angela Garbes. It resonated deeply with me, so I wanted to share with you, my friends.

Published in the Seattle Met, “As Seattle Grew, I grew Up” mirrors my own experience. I, too, spent my ‘feral 20s’ wandering Capitol Hill, where I lived the better part of 10 years of my life. Seeking the urban as a cyclist seeking a car-free life, and the vibrancy I imagined coming with concrete. Years making mostly minimum wage, yet able to survive. Gentrification just starting to squeeze. I being able to rise up the wage rungs quickly enough to stay above the flood waters of economic calamity.

My revisits come filled with memories. Oh, “this was here”, and “that was there”. Then “what WAS here”? Memories combine with memory’s absence; strange feelings, ones that I’m not quite used to.

“Cities are meant to change”. Seattle’s changed, quite a bit. Driving home how time has passed, how much older I’ve become. Things I’m not quite ready to accept, so they keep rearing up. Such is the way of things I guess.

Well, I’ll finish with a haiku: it’s what my soul wants.

these old concrete walks
echoing my youth’s footsteps
urban memories

Haiku, Monday Morning, April 27, 2020

Carl Setzer

This bouquet of spring

A celebration of life

Sunlight through the trees

Can you believe that this is the last Monday in April? May first is Friday! I noticed that the cherry blossoms are already starting to be shed, the last trees now filled with blossoms. Spring now fully present, at least in Seattle. 

I hope this finds you safe and well. 

Tonight’s Haiku: April 26, 2020

Carl Setzer

as night has fallen

the cool rain starts falling

trees move in the breeze

A reasonably pleasant spring day, high clouds and lacking in rain. Perhaps a bit muggy as the air was still. As the sun set, the breeze picked up. Once night fell. The rain started. Now, this is Seattle. So, not a downpour, but the well known Seattle drip.

I remained indoors most of the day. Got out for a roughly one hour walk, then grabbed dinner at the nearby 5 Guys. And then back to quarantine.

How’s it going where you are?