
curing its perfect head of garlic

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:
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!

evening walk … the forgiving scent of starflowers

How to live well with Parkinson’s Disease? What helps me: Haiku for #Parkinsons and #tabletennis!
I have haiku in my Parkinson’s toolbox! Poetry, exercise grounding the senses, living in the moment. And I am sharpening my table tennis skills, as it has been found to help with the disease.
For all things haiku, including advice for absolute beginners, check out The Haiku Foundation https://thehaikufoundation.org/
For haiku for Parkinson’s see Parkinson’s Life, the magazine of Parkinson’s Europe, https://parkinsonslife.eu/the-aim-of-the-haiku-poet-is-to-capture-the-essence-of-a-moment/
More information about table tennis for Parkinson’s on Facebook and website https://www.pingpongparkinson.de/
Live well and prosper! Or as I am increasingly learning, “bleib’ am Ball”!

Alpine views … filling the heart with space

FROM THE BOOK OF LIFE
A time will come in your life when you too will feel like a prisoner. It may be love keeping you boxed in or hate sucking out the air around you. It may be illness clipping your wings, or simply the weight of years … no matter.
Bach cantatas... unpicking stitches from the kneeler

deep waters the dreamer’s eyes twitch beneath her eyelids

the spring air studded with blooms… morning grace

Shelling a nuclear plant is never a good idea.
Zaporizhzhia—
now you see us
now you don’t
.
In The Other Bunny, March 6, 2023

forgiving mists my stash of wool for rainy days

The Brecon Beacons, Wales

Valentine’s Day under blue skies fields edged in red

I just received Tim Roberts’s wonderful book, “Busted: Reflections on Police Life” published by Red Moon Press. Congratulations Tim!
A poignant, powerful, and at the same time sensitive rendering in haiku of police life that shocks, informs, disturbs, engages, and changes the reader. Alan Summers sums it up: “….beyond bravery…”
Honored to have contributed the Introduction to this book. As Robert Epstein writes in his Foreword: “Prepare to be arrested by Tim Roberts’s bold, graphic, and gut-wrenching haiku memoir”! Indeed!


failing light a pair of swans glide on the silence
Thrilled and honored to have been given the opportunity to speak about haiku and Parkinson’s Disease in an interview for Parkinson’s Life, the magazine of Parkinson’s Europe. See here
Grateful also to Northern California Haiku Society’s Dave Russo for his post on my interview and latest work. See here
The three micro-haibun from the series-in-progress The Censored Poems

The very antithesis of cherry blossom. On the one hand and on the other. And in between
breathing the torpid air of the mausoleum morels, porcini, chanterelles
*
Play if you must. Laugh till you cry. But life is serious. The road is hard, paved with hunger, illness, war. Greed and envy. They will haunt you. Pick apples if you must. Oranges, figs. It won’t make any difference.
Hosannah! at the nudist beach my sunglasses
*
Now that that illness accosted me and I stood up to it, I feel entitled to a few wisdoms.
minding the gap the chilling beauty of angels
Happy New Year 2023! And happy news! Issue 16 of MacQueen’s Quinterly is out!

Filled with excellent work by fellow poets, it makes for a great read! I am particularly chuffed to have 3 of my micro-haibun included from “Censored Poems,” a series in progress. My heartfelt thanks to Clare MacQueen for giving them a home.
*
before Zoom meet— I pluck my chin hair

A big thank you to the Editors Alan Summers & Pippa Philips for featuring my senryu.
Congratulations to all featured poets.
Delighted to see that my article “Parkinson’s Toolbox: The Case for Haiku” is now included in the online resources of Parkinson’s Europe, the umbrella organization for PD societies.
The project titled “Parkinson’s and Creativity” aims “to create an online library of scientific papers, relevant articles, and videos with the aim of sharing knowledge of the latest scientific discoveries and mysteries of Parkinson’s creativity.” Check it out here
https://www.parkinsonseurope.org/get-involved/parkinson-s-creativity/parkinsons-and-creativity/


new snow... the sound only silence makes
Wonderful! Pairing Maria Pierides’s painting with my haiku for a haiga that appeared at the Scriabin 150 Festival! Haiku read by Zoe Grant!
A big thank you to Sherry Grant and congratulations on a fantastic event!
Zoe Grant Reading Musical Haiku (14) from scriabin150 on Vimeo.
cold dawn… trees dressed in moonlight

Honored to see my haiku featured in “open sky: SAMVAAD,” of Trivenihaikai India! Many thanks to feature hosts Sanjuktaa Asopa and Vandana Parashar for selecting it. It is from 2014, shared third-place winner in the Kusamakura haiku competition.
wild stream my thoughts etc.

The hosts invite comments here. The third line seems to be….unusual!
Pleased to see Robert Epstein’s anthology is out! “The Haiku Way to Healing: Illness, Injury and Pain” is a significant contribution to haiku literature, a testament to the power of this very short form of poetry to express and share even the most painful of moments.

Honored that my work is included in this collection.
Here is one of my poems from page 207, initially part of a haibun published in “Contemporary Haibun Online” 17.1, and recently included in my juxtaEIGHT article ‘Parkinson’s Toolbox: The Case for Haiku’ (pp.37-61)
dyskinesia… how tall grass sways
