Sagging gate

sagging gate,

its latch a strand

of honeysuckle

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Temple of dreams

temple of dreams . . .

bright lotuses

in the dark moat

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Blue-sky thinking!

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Haiku poetry day 2019

gusty!

scattered showers

of plum blossoms

 

Happy International Haiku Poetry Day, everyone!  :- D

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Reblogged: Why “Just write” isn’t exactly sophisticated advice, by Miriam Sagan

My “virtual guest-blogger” today is the wise and wonderful Miriam Sagan, who provides thoughtful insight into why “Just write!” — a common bit of writing advice — isn’t the universal writers’ panacea that many suppose it to be.  ;- )

Miriam's Well: Poetry, Land Art, and Beyond

Why “Just Write” Isn’t Exactly Sophisticated Advice

Although I’ve benefited from this advice—and no doubt given it—I’m starting to think it isn’t specific enough. And that’s because advice could be more tailored to who the writer is:

1. A professional or well-trained writer who feels “blocked.”
2. A person who has “always wanted” to be a writer.
3. Someone suffering from writing anxiety.

I have no idea how I learned to write. I can create a romantic version of my experience—dyslexic failing elementary school, strict but kind teacher, discovering poetry, etc. etc. But this may all be hindsight.

And so, “just write” may be good for the person who knows how to write but just can’t at the moment. This approach tends to the quick and spontaneous, to overriding self criticism, and to productivity. However, as a person who “wrote” at least three failed novels, I can say that filling…

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Final update: Postcards from the Edge 2019

A couple months ago I mentioned that Canadian artist Lorette C. Luzajic and I collaborated on an entry for the Postcards from the Edge art show, a fundraiser for an organization that helps artists with AIDS called Visual AIDS.

I’m happy to say that our postcard — one of more than 1,400 exhibited — was bought! Here is our piece, plus a few photos from the event, which was held in late February at Bortolami Gallery in Tribeca, NYC. :- )

Waiting to get in… Photo courtesy of Visual AIDS.

 

Enthusiasm was at a fever pitch! Photo courtesy of Visual AIDS.

 

Checking out the gallery space. Photo courtesy of Visual AIDS.

 

Searching for that perfect piece… Photo courtesy of Visual AIDS.

 

Paying out. Photo courtesy of Visual AIDS.

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Related posts:

–> Postcards from the Edge

–> Update: Postcards from the Edge

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Four Instagram photo-poems

Here is a small selection of haiku and senryu photo-poems from my Instagram account: two from my “typewriter series”, and two from my “handwriting series”.

I hope you enjoy them!  :- )

 

 

 

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More of my Instagram photo-poems can be found at www.instagram.com/billwaterspoet.

Oh, and regarding my poem “out on a limb”, I used a broken twig I found on the ground for that shot. I would never stick a thumbtack into a living tree.  ;- )

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Five poems

last in line
his son touches
the casket

our failing cat . . .
I pet him with both hands
as time grows short

frozen footprints
in dying light . . .
with his fingertips
the tracker traces
the contours

you had me
in the palm of your hand
and didn’t notice . . .
collateral damage
of adolescence

from below the horizon
the sun touches
her high-flying jet . . .
my eyes
touch it too

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Published in the University of Chicago’s Memoryhouse Magazine, issue 21, 3/2019. Theme: touch.

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This goldfinch

this goldfinch

perched on the edge

of spring

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Two on spring

freshly mown —

a whiff

of wild onion

 

stones in the road

their shadows

blacker than asphalt

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Published in Akitsu Quarterly: Spring 2019 (http://www.wildgraces.com/Akitsu-Quarterly.html), 2/2019.

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