Sunlight’s magnet pulls
our clothes off as if metal.
Skin burned in toaster.
Our beach blankets lie
close enough to cool wet sand
to feel the wind’s chill.
All-sized birds sunbathe;
regardless, clothing optional –
tan lines or no?
Surf’s constant shushing
is sunbather’s lullaby —
soft blanket’s cradle.
Sunscreen is poison;
sunlight prevents chicken pox –
depends on which news.
Summer sunshine sprouts
beach bathers like mushrooms sprout
after a thunderstorm.
Chèvrefeuille is the host of Mindlovemisery Menagerie’s Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille, who says:
This week I love to challenge you to create haiku or haibun (maximum 100 words incl. poems) about “SUN BATHING”.
Linking this to dVerse Open Link Night
Tao Talk 
You covered so many aspects of sunbathing – so beautifully.
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Reena thanks 🙂
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sunbathing is good for our bones.
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I believe I’ve read that we absorb Vitamin D directly through our skin, which is what I think you are talking about?
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Moderation. The news can spin all it wants. I’ve been a lobster once and that was enough. Sun is good, lengthy exposure is not.
I like the last haiku 😉 When we went to the beach – I stayed under the boardwalk when I wasn’t in the water or limited strolls. Everyone needs to know what they can handle. Vitamin D is what is good for us – but too much can also cause health issues, thus; Moderation.
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Yes and thanks, Jules 🙂
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I like that phrase, “sunbather’s lullaby”.
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Thanks, Jim. The sound of water acts like a lullaby for me at the lake.
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This stole my heart. I especially loved the part about birds of all sizes ❤
The sun just feels SO good on the bod!
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Lael, so happy you enjoyed them. Yes, it does!
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I appreciate the sun ! 🙂
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The sunbathing has so many sweet moments… yet as all good things we need to drink the sun in moderation,
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How do you explain your picture? A Lost Weekend at the Beach? (hoping you get that oblique reference). Just a gentle ribbing 😉
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I used to sunbathe to the max, loved all the sensual points you touched on; but in 1977, while working as an actor in Australia, I got a terrible sunburn. 40 years later a mole on my back became cancerous. We caught it in time, but my dermatologist said “Remember the sun is not your friend.”
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So glad they caught it in time. I appreciate your thoughts on the subject, thank you.
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I haven’t sunbathed since I was a teenager and even then only in the privacy of the back garden. Why do people do it?
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Jane you are regarding sunbathing from a clinical, detached perspective. You could dissect surfing or motorcycle riding or any other thrilling or sensual activity. Unless it was a rhetorical question; then — nevermind.
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It was a rhetorical question, but I really do think sunbathing is a bad idea. The number of cases of skin cancer here has soared over the last decade or so and it’s advised not to let children in hot sun at all unless they are covered up. Yes, we do get vitamin D from sunlight but you get enough of it staying fully (summer) dressed. It’s the thinning of the ozone layer letting in UV rays that’s the problem, and pale Celtic skin for many of us. Surfing and biking are one thing, but I don’t think you get much of an adrenalin rush lying on a beach thinking, any minute now I could get a cancer…. 🙂
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Msjadeli, your poem hits on so many levels, with me. Especially, the last stanza, as I visualize it, in my mind. Given the weather, so far, this summer in Toronto, the mushrooms are sprouting everywhere, on the city’s sandy beaches.
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LOL! Therisa, I’ve been out to your clothing optional beach on that island (Hanlon’s I think it’s called) back in 2001. Back then it was virtually deserted, but then it was October, so maybe that’s why.
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I love sunbathing 😀 and like Bjorn said we need to do things in moderation ❤️ Gorgeous write!
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❤ Thanks, Sanaa. I used to go all of the time when my kids were little but my kids are in their 30s now and I only go a couple of times a year now — and the beach is just a few miles away!
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particularly like that first one 🙂
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🙂 thanks
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This brought back fond memories of weekends spent surfing at the beach and not caring about wearing suntan lotion. We wore those tan lines like badges of honor. Lovely Jade!
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Thanks Linda. I love the idea of you out there surfing ❤
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Haha! There was a time.
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Oh yes, it feels so good to soak in the sunshine on a soft sandy beach…delightful, Lisa.
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Thanks Lynn 🙂
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Depends on which news – yes!!
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From now on I go with moderation in all things and call it good 🙂
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Oh how lovely, a fitting tribute to summer. 🙂
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Thanks JP! I tried 🙂
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Now this makes me feel like I’m there. That lullaby from the surf is calling me…(K)
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Didn’t you write a poem about the singing of the surf? Or were you and I talking about it? Can’t remember but I think we were…
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I did. It does.
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🙂
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Wonderful! Wish I could join you. Your poem evoked the days I spent as a teenager at Lake Michigan, soaking in summer’s warmth.
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Thank you so much, Sarah. Glad you had the experience of it.
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Love the “depends on which news”. So true! In one report something will kill you, and in the next, the same thing will cure all your ills. Lol.
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Exactly, Bryan. At seeing this innumerable times, I said fuggit I will do as I please.
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Thanks for sharing this fine piece! See you in a couple weeks Lisa. In honor of Solli Raphael: A Smidgen of Thought
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Glad you liked the sunbathing series of haiku. Thanks for the link, Rob. My comment on it was a bit extreme, but it is the way I feel about the subject of your poem.
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I liked sunbathing when I was younger, but I have to say as a doc who has looked carefully at the evidence, it is not a good idea. This makes me sad, because I love being in the sun and at the beach. I have found wearing beach clothes designed for swim and venting and breathing but covering to be a good way to counter. I think sunscreen is overall safer than skin cancer risks. But the main purpose of a poem is not to debate clinical data… 😉
It is to live in a moment, and you have captured this moment and your outlook well. Luv ya Jade, luv the poem, I discourage sunbathing generally, but discourage staying locked indoors. But I encourage people everywhere to bathe in your poetry, it is good for the soul. 🙂
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Lona, is it ok to say I LOVE YOU! You are a wonderful diplomat and a wise human being. You, my dear, are good for the soul. ❤
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🙂
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Love the use of the haiku form here, suits the subject matter and the season!
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Thank you, Jim.
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Lovely summer vignettes here.
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Thank you, Imelda.
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Wow, each stanza is like a tasty poetic morsel. The third one made me smile, imagining those birds caught up in the decision of tan lines.
Sorry for this horribly late response.
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Mish thank you very much and so happy that they made you smile.
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