Coming Together
jigsaw puzzle
five hundred fifty
pieces of interlocking
moments together
—dotty seiter
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~3 x 3″; watercolor and ink on paper
mood-mini
2026
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About poem and art:
• I set the intention before joining my siblings for Sisterfest26 to compose a haiku each day. “jigsaw puzzle” was one of those haiku and, as ever, presented the engaging challenge of encapsulating a multifaceted experience in just 17 syllables.
• Magic Eye began as a wash of watercolor, soft hues moving and blending. After the paint dried, I returned to the mood-mini-in-progress and turned it in all directions until a tiny circle of pale color caught my eye. Then the magic happened. Seeing a naturescape, I grabbed my ink pen and it all came together.
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17 responses to “Coming Together”
I thought of you often as my sisters and I made this year’s jigsaw puzzle during Sisterest26! I am not a regular puzzler, as you are, but I do enjoy the tradition of making one together with my sisters each year. It makes for a fun anchor for many a conversation that takes place over the course of our days together. This year’s puzzlemaking was especially enjoyable because the place that presented itself for the making was an upstairs room in a turrent looking directly out at Long Island Sound. The puzzle and the interlocking pieces of our being together just begged to be put to a poem.
Short answer to your question: A classic haiku is a three-line poem containing exactly 17 syllables, following a 5-7-5 structure. It typically captures a fleeting moment or an image of nature.
I most often opt for the 17 syllables and the 5-7-5 structure, but am often flexible regarding topic (see haiku conversation above in the comments from/to my daughter Meg!).
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Yes…I certainly can relate to gathering with sisters and puzzles. What a splendid to put one together! When I worked with troubled teens….we often had our best conversations over puzzles. They didn’t need to make eye contact…and silence was OK because were engaged with the puzzle.
Thanks for the haiku tutorial….maybe I’ll give it a whirl sometime.
Yes to the many gifts of putting puzzles together.
—–
You’ve already written your first haiku:
Full-on hot, humid
summer here in Maine. I treat
these days like snow days.Liked by 1 person
Beautiful poem, has so many meanings. You and your intimacy with the puzzle, or with another and the puzzle, or as stated above with the puzzle and all your sisters! Love the combination of love and intimacy!
I love how your landscape doesn’t shout “I am a landscape”. A subtle approach. Beautiful blues set the mood
I must investigate the haiku format, so much meaning in so few words/syllables.
Carol, love that you found multiple layers of meaning in the haiku, and shared them here! Terrific! I’m quite taken with your sense of the combination of love and intimacy.
Thank you for the observation that my landscape doesn’t shout “I am a landscape.” I had great fun playing first with the wet flow of colors and later with the markimaking in Magic Eye.
Let me know if you investigate the haiku form. I find the limits of the form stimulating, engaging, and happily challenging.
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Lola, yes! The intricacy and yet simplicity—thank you for naming that! You’ve got me thinking of the 356 collective details of the five lives of the “Hatch girls” juxtaposed against our being together for a few days, with all the pieces of us fitting together simply into an interconnected picture puzzle : )
With that moon shining down on the landscape of us!
xoxo
Sheila, thanks for your comments—sweet to know that you have received the interlocking moments and the engaging calm soothingness of these pieces.
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