On darkness and light

A perfected world without evil would be a beautiful place! Unfortunately, our world is not that world. Ours is a place of duality: dark and light, evil and good.

But since the darkness of our world cannot be simply wished away, can we at least make use of it to better see the light that exists, too?

“S is for . . . smoke“, published in Lost Paper, 6/26/21: a mini-memoir that seeks to shed light on this question. ;- )

Haiku about childhood memories

Planters Peanuts

and motorized rolling chairs . . .

boardwalk memories

arts & crafts

with mom . . .

making memories

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Published in Brass Bell: A Haiku Journal (http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com/2021/07/childhood-memories.html), 7/1/21.

New scrolls in the fairy houses

Last year, the mother / daughter duo Maternal Mitochondria created an installation of up-cycled metal fairy houses at the Santa Fe Skies RV Park. Inside each miniature dwelling was a little fairy poem on a beautifully wrought scroll that visitors could take out and read.

The installation was a success! In fact, people liked interacting with it so much that they left little tokens of their own: pebbles, pennies, painted rocks, and bits of their own art projects.

This year I was invited to provide the poems for the scrolls — an opportunity for which I’m very grateful, both as a poet and an advocate for poetry in public places.

The Cantina, day and night. Photo courtesy of Maternal Mitochondria.

Cantina poems on suminagashi paper.
Photo courtesy of Maternal Mitochondria.

The Mushroom, day and night. Photo courtesy of Maternal Mitochondria.

Mushroom poems on suminagashi paper.
Photo courtesy of Maternal Mitochondria.

The Cabin.
Photo courtesy of Maternal Mitochondria.

Cabin poems on suminagashi paper.
Photo courtesy of Maternal Mitochondria.

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For information on the creative duo Maternal Mitochondria: maternalmitochondria.com/about/.

For information about Santa Fe Skies RV Park: santafeskiesrvpark.com/about/.

For information on the art of suminagashi: maternalmitochondria.com/2018/09/26/what-is-suminagashi/.

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Juneteenth

Juneteenth . . .

I free myself

from illusions

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“This is no country for old fish.”

It’s a parody of William Butler Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium”.

It’s a homage to a mixed-media painting by Lorette C. Luzajic.

It’s “Swimming to Byzantium“, published in MacQueen’s Quinterly, 6/12/21.

Bill Waters ~~ Haiku: it’s more than only haiku. ;- )

A little spring nonsense

Little by little, “small” has become “the next big thing”. :- D

To bring popular old poems into line with this passion for the petite, I recast Lewis Carroll’s 28-line nonsense poem “Jabberwocky” into a quatrain.

“Jabberwocky, Summarized”: you can now read in ten seconds what otherwise would have taken you an entire minute. (You’re welcome. LOL!- )

Haiku about sounds or silences

and then the sound

of an ice cream truck—

I pat my pockets

low battery —

trying to silence

the wrong smoke alarm

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Published in Brass Bell: A Haiku Journal (https://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com/2021/06/sound-no-sound.html), 6/1/21.

Edible haiku

summer woods . . .

beneath the leaf mold

mushrooms

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wabi? sabi?

I scratch my head

and eat some wasabi

Wabi and sabi — the bittersweet beauties of imperfection and impermanence — are fundamental Japanese aesthetics that figure prominently in haiku. I can never remember which is which, though, so I’m forever looking them up. LOL!

(For a more nuanced look at wabi and sabi — because it’s more subtle and complex than the simplistic definition I offer above — see my post The Wabi-Sabi Aesthetic.  ;- )

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Published in Brass Bell: A Haiku Journal (http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com/2021/05/edible-haiku.html), 5/1/21.

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This and that

By Bill Waters (poem) and Robin White (photo)

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Published in DailyHaiga (http://www.dailyhaiga.org/haiga-archives/2899/-first-workday-by-bill-waters-usa), 4/19/21.

About Robin White:
—> http://haiku.mannlib.cornell.edu/category/author/robin-white/page/3/

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Haiku poetry day 2021

April 17th was National Haiku Poetry Day! (There’s a day for everything, right?)

 

As a part of the day’s celebratory events, The Haiku Foundation presented its 7th-annual HaikuLife Haiku Film Festival, which included four of my under-a-minute video poems.

 

You can find all 51 films from the 2021 festival here:

 

https://thehaikufoundation.org/haikulife-the-haiku-foundation-video-project/haikulife-2021/

 

Mine appear toward the bottom under the section titled “Video Haiga” and include “Urban Canyon”, “Time and Clouds”, “Icicles”, and “Ghosts in Your Eyes”.  :- )

 

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