Seventeen

In New Jersey, 2021 was the Summer of Love — for the 17-year cicada. ;- )

My wife Nancy Fischer Waters and I collaborated on a prose / poem piece that captures a moment from that crazy-short time when the air was abuzz with cicadas. Talk about speed dating!

(The prose part is by Nancy. I supplied the title and the tiny poem at the end.)

Seventeen

I really love the 17-year cicadas. After living all but a few weeks of their lives underground, they emerge to fly around like crazy in their frenzied efforts to find a mate and lay the foundation for the next generation. They are a memorable sight, zipping through the air wherever you look!

Another memorable sight from the Brood X “invasion” of 2021 was me: a middle-aged woman screaming, wiggling, and swinging my purse in the Whole Foods parking lot in an effort to escape the attentions of a cicada that had singled me out to become its new best friend. (And yes, it did land in my hair!)

nothing to lose!
the way we danced
when we were 17

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Published in Drifting Sands Haibun (https://drifting-sands-haibun.org/09/2021/seventeen/), September 2021.

Haiku about numbers

6 p.m.

this morning’s tea

cold in the cup

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Published in Brass Bell: A Haiku Journal (http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com/2021/10/numbers.html), 10/1/21.

New haiku

watermelon sunset . . .

I spit a seed

into the sky

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Published in Brass Bell: A Haiku Journal (http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com/2021/09/new-haiku.html), 9/1/21.

Seedy dandelion

cracked curb

seedy dandelion

standing tall

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Published in Bottle Rockets, August 2021.

Haiku about family and friends

clutching the letter —

her dad lifts her up

to the mail slot

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Published in Brass Bell: A Haiku Journal (http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com/2021/08/family-friends.html), 7/1/21.

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

* * * *

“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. ;- )