A new feature of The Haiku Foundation coming soon: Haiku for Parkinson’s!
Haiku for Parkinson’s is a feature of The Haiku Foundation, introducing haiku as a tool in the Parkinson’s toolbox, helping negotiate the challenges of the disease and improve quality of life. And, introducing Parkinson’s Disease (PD) to people living with haiku.
The first post will appear on Sunday 12/17/2023 and every few weeks thereafter.
lazy Sunday
waiting for the wind
to die down
soothing vista... how to be together how to be apart
In Frogpond 46.3, Autumn 2023
in the news the tangy taste of the nightshade
foghorn... ships passing in the night
I walked on the Millennium Bridge the day it was opened, when it was gently but alarmingly swaying, and after its repairs, when it was steadied! Over the years, I enjoyed crossing the #Thames from St. Paul’s to #Tate Modern in all weathers. So many years later, the Bridge is still steady, while now it is I who needs support.
matching outfits… entry points to the ABC of life
Happy to see that my poem was included in The Haiku Foundation Volunteer Anthology 2023 ‘The high lonesome.’ Thanks to jim kacian and Julie Kelsey for selecting the poem.
secrets of a life lived underground… harvest day
Honored to see my haiga collaboration with Kuniharu Shimizu (2011) translated into Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock and into Greek by Sarah Thilykou. An honor. And a lovely surprise. Thank you, Gabriel Rosenstock and Sarah Thilykou!
since you left your hat is worn by snowmen ó d'imigh tú bíonn do hatasa á chaitheamh ag fir shneachta αφότου έφυγες οι χιονάνθρωποι φορούν το καπέλο σου
This morning, changing hats, I read a post in The Culturium, in which Kon Markogiannis and Gabriel Rosenstock offer a wonderful collaboration of image and word on the fragility of life, with haiku in English, Gaelic, as well as modern Greek translations by Sarah Thilykou: Angelic Flights. Breathtakingly beautiful!
chicory blooming the courage to be more
Happy to see my haibun “Sky Ponds-Himmelsweicher” appear in Contemporary Haibun Online 19.2
I found out about the bomb craters in the Augsburg city forest during a walk with my Parkinson’s walking group. Marvelous recovery of a wounded landscape, and people. And apt for our own situation of struggling with progressive disease.
The Siebentischwald, on the edge of Augsburg, acts as the lung of the city. Lush green vegetation crisscrossed by water channels and dotted by silent ponds makes this forest the life force of Augsburg. It turns out it is also the repository of an interesting piece of the city’s history: the forest floor bearing the scars of thousands of bombs that were dropped on it towards the end of World War II.
On my morning walk with my Parkinson’s group, in this peaceful, green oasis, pierced by high-pitched peacock cries from the adjacent Zoo, I come across oval ponds and other depressions filled with vegetation. I am told they are Bombenkrater, the remnants of craters formed by aerial bombing.
The proximity to the munitions manufacturer Messerschmitt meant that bombs often landed in the forest. However, the massive bombing raid in February 1944 literally dug up the forest floor, leaving numerous wounds on the landscape. In recent years, a public charity transformed some of these craters into ponds brimming with life.
cool forest shade. . .
lingering by the sky ponds
heat from the past
reflecting on the sky's glorious depths... sweet chicory
flying horse the merry-go-round of childhood
June 29, 2023 (Mainichi Japan)
they take you for granted ... dandelions
Happy to have this haiku selected by Dhugal J. Lindsay for The Mainichi newspaper. It appeared on Japan’s Daily on the 29th of June 2023.
treasure hunt… reaching deep into the soil for potatoes
solstice hike... looking for portals to other worlds
curing its perfect head of garlic
Do You Haiga?
Then this is for you! Jim Kacian, The Haiku Foundation Founder and President, and its Haiga Gallery Curator, invites submissions.
“The Haiku Foundation is accepting submissions for the THF Haiga Galleries. If you’ve been creating haiga for a while and are looking for a place to exhibit, have a look at what our space looks like https://thehaikufoundation.org/haiga-galleries/. If you like what you see, you’ll find contact information there. Maybe you could be the next THF Haiga Gallery Featured Artist!”
blue iris this longing for color
A Cluster of Lights is here!
This beautiful anthology is now out in the world! Celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the brilliant project ’52 / 250 -A Year of Flash,’ 52 writers (including yours truly), respond to their previous work with new creations.
Congratulations and many thanks to Michelle Elvy, John Wentworth Chapin, and all contributors!
The link at the publisher’s site is here: https://pureslush.com/…/anthologie…/a-cluster-of-lights/
• paperback – https://bit.ly/PB-CLUSTER
• ePub – https://bit.ly/ePubCluster
• Kindle – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C56JGVJ9/
For a ‘taste of a Cluster of Lights’, click below:
Negative Ions, my haiku sequence, and contribution to International Haiku Poetry Day (IHPD) on The Haiku Foundation YouTube channel:
On this World Parkinson’s Day, aiming to foster awareness of the disease, let us remember that we have tools available to help improve psychological well-being and support quality of life. For me, exercising my brain and body, is vital.
Haiku poetry – by virtue of its brevity, simplicity, concentration on the moment, connectedness, and power to encapsulate experience – has proved to be a powerful tool for the challenges of PD. https://tinyurl.com/3vt3b5yv On the physical side, table tennis is my pillar of support http://shorturl.at/giow4
I am happy to be included in the REFLECT and Intriguerium 3 exhibition at Creek Creative Studios, Faversham, England, curated by Robert Lamoon. Two of my tiny haibun, as two objects, are to be found in tiny boxes made by the curator!
One of the haibun, Who is, was inspired by a story I read in the news: the calcified remains of an unborn fetus were found accidentally during a scan for a totally unrelated health problem. The fetus had rested inside its mother’s body for over thirty years…
Who is
Lithopedion. The calcified remains. Bonded. Forever. The grief of the unborn, the consolation of eternity.
stone baby the weight of forever
Are you in the area? The exhibition is on till the 16th of April!
