“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best,” and then he had to stop and think.
Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a
moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were,
but he didn’t know what it was called. – A.A. Milne
first snow –
that moment just before
Eating Honey
“This is Serious,” said Pooh. “I must have an Escape.”
So he took his largest pot of honey and escaped with it to a broad branch of his tree, well above the water, and then he climbed down again and escaped with another pot … and when the whole Escape was finished, there was Pooh sitting on his branch, dangling his legs, and there, beside him, were ten pots of honey….
twenty winters
still, the sting of her
hot pepper jelly
nahaiwrimo — jam
excerpt from “Winnie-the-Pooh,” “In Which Piglet is Entirely Surrounded by Water”
One fine winter’s day when Piglet was brushing away the snow in front of his house, he happened to look up, and there was Winnie-the-Pooh. Pooh was walking round and round in a circle, thinking of something else, and when Piglet called to him, he just went on walking.
“Hallo!” said Piglet, “what are you doing?”
“Hunting,” said Pooh.
“Hunting what?”
“Tracking something,” said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously.
“Tracking what?” said Piglet, coming closer.
“That’s just what I ask myself. I ask myself, What?”
frozen creek
I take the back road
home
nahaiwrimo — ice
excerpt from “Winnie-the-Pooh,” “In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle”
Piglet lay there, wondering what had happened. At first he thought that the whole world had blown up; and then he thought that perhaps only the Forest part of it had; and then he thought that perhaps only he had, and he was now alone in the moon or somewhere, and would never see Christopher Robin or Pooh or Eeyore again. And then he thought, “Well, even if I’m in the moon, I needn’t be face downwards all the time,” so he got cautiously up and looked about him.
He was still in the Forest!
cold winter day
I hear her voice in this
empty room
nahaiwrimo — grief
excerpt from “Winnie-the-Pooh,” “In Which Eeyore Has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents“
He trotted along happily, and by-and-by he crossed the
stream and came to the place where his friends-and-relations
lived. There seemed to be even more of them about than usual
this morning, and having nodded to a hedgehog or two, with whom
he was too busy to shake hands, and having said, “Good morning,
good morning,” importantly to some of the others, and “Ah,
there you are,” kindly, to the smaller ones, he waved a paw at
them over his shoulder, and was gone leaving such an air of
excitement and I-don’t-know-what behind him, that several
members of the Beetle family, including Henry Rush, made their
way at once to the Hundred Acre Wood and began climbing trees,
in the hope of getting to the top before it happened, whatever
it was, so that they might see it properly.
six more weeks —
he puts lettuce seedlings
in the cold frame
nahaiwrimo — frame
excerpt from The House at Pooh Corner,” “In which Rabbit has a busy day,
and we learn what Christopher Robin does in the mornings”
And as they walked Piglet said nothing, because he couldn’t think of anything,
and Pooh said nothing, because he was thinking of a poem.
And when he had thought of it he began:
What shall we do about poor little Tigger?
If he never eats nothing he’ll never get bigger.
He doesn’t like honey and haycorns and thistles
Because of the taste and because of the bristles.
And all the good things which an animal likes
Have the wrong sort of swallow or too many spikes.
“He’s quite big enough anyhow,” said Piglet.
“He isn’t really very big.”
“Well, he seems so.”
Pooh was thoughtful when he heard this, and then murmured to himself:
But whatever his weight in pounds, shillings, and ounces,
He always seems bigger because of his bounces.
“And that’s the whole poem,” he said. “Do you like it, Piglet?”
“All except the shillings,” said Piglet. “I don’t think they ought to be there.”
“They wanted to come in after the pounds,” explained Pooh, “so I let them.
It is the best way to write poetry, letting things come.”
scrambled —
why do I think you already
knew that?
nahaiwrimo — eggs
from “The House at Pooh Corner,” “In Which Tigger Comes to the Forest and Has Breakfast“
“I expect he’s just gone home,” said Christopher Robin to Rabbit.
“Did he say Good-bye-and-thank-you-for-a-nice-time?” said Rabbit.
“He’s only just said how-do-you-do,” said Christopher Robin.
“Ha!” said Rabbit. After thinking a little, he went on:
“Has he written a letter saying how much he enjoyed himself, and how sorry he had to go so suddenly?”
Christopher Robin didn’t think he had.
“Ha!” said Rabbit again, and looked very important.
“This is Serious. He is Lost. We must begin the Search at once.”
Christopher Robin, who was thinking of something else said: “Where’s Pooh?” — but Rabbit had gone. So he went into his house and drew a picture of Pooh going on a long walk at about seven o’clock in the morning. And then he climbed to the top of his tree and climbed down again, and then he wondered what Pooh was doing, and went across the Forest to see.
before the rain
she leaves without walking
the dog
nahaiwrimo — dog
from “The House at Pooh Corner,” “In which a search Is organdized, and Piglet nearly meets the Heffalump again”
So he bent down, put his head into the hole, and called out: “Is anybody at home?”
There was a sudden scuffling noise from inside the hole, and then silence.
“What I said was, ‘Is anybody at home?’” called out Pooh very loudly.
“No!” said a voice; and then added, “you needn’t shout so loud. I heard you quite well the first time.”
“Bother!” said Pooh. “Isn’t there anybody here at all?”
“Nobody.”
Winnie-the-Pooh took his head out of the hole, and thought for a little while, and he thought to himself,
“There must be somebody there, because somebody must have said ‘Nobody.’”
the birds are gone —
everywhere the stink
of catfish water
nahaiwrimo — catfish
excerpt from “Winnie-the-Pooh,” “In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets Into a Tight Place”
“Then he had an idea, and I think that for a Bear of Very Little Brain, it was a good idea. He said to himself: “If a bottle can float, then a jar can float, and if a jar floats, I can sit on the top of it, if it’s a very big jar.”
So he took his biggest jar, and corked it up. “All boats have to have a name,” he said, “so I shall call mine The Floating Bear.” And with these words he dropped his boat into the water and jumped in after it.”
this endless rain —
the creek floats by
in a bottle
nahaiwrimo — boat
excerpt from “Winnie-the-Pooh,”“In Which Piglet is Entirely Surrounded by Water”
I did my first pooh-ku in december, spurred by stella pierides’ prompt (pick a ku-ku from michael dylan welch’s essay on his site graceguts). I only did two, then the idea simmered in the back of my very cluttered brain until the lovely melissa allen included one in a recent haikuverse. because I am myself a bear of very little brain –or perhaps no brain at all– I’m going to combine the daily nahaiwrimo prompts for the official haiku writing month with a hopefully relevant excerpt from “winnie-the-pooh” by a.a. milne.
(posted here under pooh, nahaiwrimo and haibun, since I may put the excerpt first. the haiku alone will be on fb).
thanks for reading. I do appreciate it.
feathers 
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