the cod are gone ...
long ago, young folk
moved to the city

The photograph in this haiga was taken in Red Cliffe, Newfoundland & Labrador, on June 21, 2012.  The  haiku is based, in part, on the song "Make and Break Harbour" by Stan Rogers and is intended as an homage to Mr. Rogers, to Newfoundland's outports, and to the people who lived in the outports.  

Here are some of the lines of Mr. Rogers' song:  "And the young folk don't stay with the fisherman's ways / Long ago they all moved to the cities." And the chorus: "In Make and Break Harbour the boats are so few / Too many are holed up and rotten. / Most houses stand empty old nets hung to dry / Are blown away lost and forgotten." Stan Rogers can be heard singing it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E2DFa18kYI

school bus
mission boat
log scaler ...
hauled up and rotting


For the Norbur Sea. She was our boat for several happy years on the B.C. coast. We sold her, very cheap, to a young couple we hoped would fix her up and keep her running. The last I saw of her was in a news photo illustrating the closure of the last Vancouver shipyard.

With a bow to Stan Rogers for the last line, which he wrote in his song "Make and Break Harbour":

"In Make and Break Harbour the boats are so few
Too many are hauled up and rotten.
Most houses stand empty old nets hung to dry
Are blown away lost and forgotten."
 

Posted to NaHaiWriMo 8/17/2012.  Prompt was boats.