Category Archives: Blog

A Cluster of Lights

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:

https://bit.ly/Clustertaste

World Parkinson’s Day

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

In REFLECT, at Creek Creative Studios

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!

REFLECT

Parkinson’s Life feature

I am honored to be included in this Parkinson’s Life feature celebrating World Poetry Day!

In “Poems reflecting life with Parkinson’s Disease,” Sarah McGrath writes:

“How can poetry help to raise awareness of Parkinson’s? In light of World Poetry Day on 21 March, we look back at five interviews with writers who have picked up their pens to share their perspectives on the condition.”

Thank you, Sarah McGrath, indeed, haiku is in my PD toolbox supporting my well-being and helping me to live well with Parkinson’s.

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month

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”!

Parkinson's Awareness Month

Apathy

APATHY

The Luitpold Bridge in Munich is closed. Climate activists have glued themselves to the road disrupting traffic. They are not afraid of a jail sentence, they say. Part of me yearns to be there with them. Making statements, taking action. Instead, I follow signs for an alternative route, like so many ahead of me, and so many behind. Our long, slow-moving queue snakes around our principles.

on the radio…
instructions for instant
gratification

In The Other Bunny 27 Feb 2023

Busted! By Tim Roberts

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!

Tim Roberts

Interview, Parkinson’s Life

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 3 micro-haibun in MacQueen’s Quinterly

The three micro-haibun from the series-in-progress The Censored Poems

Bone Broth

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

*

Off Time

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

*

Wabi-sabi

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 

Parkinson’s Toolbox in the online resources of Parkinson’s Europe

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/