Let's Talk with Terry Ambrose

Happy Fourth of July Week! It’s hard to believe another Independence Day is done. The fireworks, barbecues, and picnics of the day are all now just Instagram moments. For us here in San Diego, July 4^th also means something else, it marks the beginning of the end of the gray season. And the end of the gray season means we might actually get to witness an actual sunrise. (My heart be still!)

While everyone else in the country has been reveling in spring, we San Diegans have been trudging through a long string of cloudy days that began in April and has dragged on for more than three months, The photo on the left shows our morning on July 1. Ugh. Right? True, we had a couple of brief interludes when nature teased us with a sunrise or two.

Check out the photo on the right. It was taken a few years ago from the same spot as the one on the left. Alas, those interludes quickly gave way to the same-old same-old. The gray season is so regular that a clever San Diego National Weather Service meteorologist tweeted the following for International Haiku Poetry Day on April 17.

“For #InternationalHaikuPoetryDay , we humbly present to you, a haiku

Oh sun, where are thee?

Graypril, May Gray, June Gloom… ugh

Gray clouds, BE GONE (please).” 

I get it, NWS guy, I’m ready for this to end, too. After all, July is Grilling Month, Ice Cream Month, and Picnic Month. It’s also the time of year when I can go out to our back patio with my cup of coffee and watch the sunrise. Oh wait, that means we’d actually have to have one, doesn’t it? I’m not giving up. I’m out there each morning. Watching. Waiting. The truth is I could sit and watch the sky change colors every day, mesmerized until the sun finally emerged.

And so, with the goal of helping San Diego (finally) see something other than a grayrise, I present my own haiku. I’ve never done one of these before, so it will probably make any experts shudder. Even so, we’re desperate here and need some relief!

Reds, golds, blues, nay gray

Mauve and silver, even white

A new day’s delight.

I’d love to know what you think of my haiku. Did it bring you a little joy? Make you scream because I committed a haiku faux pas? Or maybe you’ve got one of your own? Sound off, and let’s talk (and let’s get that sunrise thing going on!).

While you’re here, check out our July giveaway. One person wins two books! Maggie Toussaint (w/a Valona Jones) is giving away her SNUFFED OUT in hardcover, while Diane AS Stuckart (w/a Anna Gerard) is giving away a mass market copy of PEACH CLOBBERED. Click HERE to go to the contest page.

Want to know more about cozy mystery author Terry Ambrose? Visit his WEBSITE