How do I keep my mental health from crashing to the floor in the second year of the pandemic?

I look to my sister’s dog for comfort…He understands the ways of the universe better than I do.

Here’s a haiku celebrating Coco, the Cool Cocker Spaniel!

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Cloudy spring morning

Contagion casts a pall…

let sleeping dogs lie…

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Isn’t that wise of Coco? What you can’t control, why not just sleep it off? Not easy, though…

Still, this too shall pass!

There is nothing more heartening for a writer than readers who take the trouble to write reivews.

“You can kill a book quicker by your silence than by a bad review.”
― EA Bucchianeri

Even though it is almost summer, and even though (or especially because) we’re [still] in the middle of yet another surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s something about the idea of spring that rejuvenates the spirit.

Languid sunrise

bedewed foliage offers

vapory homage

Skipping on new grass

signs of spring draw weary eyes

bare soles imbibe hope

How are you coping, folks? Where do you find what you need to keep calm in these difficult times?

Last night was a noisy one with thunder roaring overhead and strong winds rattling the windows and doors. It rained mightily, but then, like all storms, this one too passed…

Keen slivers of silver

slice the moonless summer night

rain pounds parched skin

I wrote a Haiku today in response to a #vss365 prompt and posted it on twitter before I remembered that I had pledged to include anatomical elements in each Haiku. Obviously, then, I felt compelled to modify it.

I’m posting the original one here and also the modified one. Have a look…

*vss365 (very short story, one for every day of the year)

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The original verse:

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Iridescent paint

Nature’s sublime canvas glows

Murky air plays foul

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The modified Haiku:

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Iridescent paint

Nature’s canvas enthralls

The heart yearns afresh

What do you think? Which one works for you?