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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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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National Poetry Month @ MCL

After a year’s delay due to COVID-19, ten of my micropoems have “blossomed” in the garden of the headquarters branch of New Jersey’s Mercer County Library System.

As local community members continue to look for novel things to do during the pandemic — and after? — maybe poem-spotting will become a “thing”! ;- )

Many thanks, MCL, for supporting public poetry! And a happy National Poetry Month to one and all!

The Mercer County Library headquarters branch, located in Lawrence, New Jersey. Photo by Bill Waters.

the hush / of an overcast day . . . / red tulips nodding
Photo courtesy of Nancy Waters.

periwinkle butterflies / carving the heavy perfume / of honeysuckle
Photo courtesy of Julia Cuddahy, MCL reference librarian.

Photo by Bill Waters.

book-lover’s bedtime — / I mark my place / with a smaller book
Photo courtesy of Julia Cuddahy, MCL reference librarian.

birds on a phone line / some this way / some that way
Photo courtesy of Nancy Waters.

hitchhiker: / this ladybug / on my hand
Photo courtesy of Nancy Waters.

Photo by Bill Waters.

Photo courtesy of Julia Cuddahy, MCL reference librarian.

Photo by Bill Waters.

Such a beautiful day for taking pictures! :- D
Photo courtesy of Nancy Waters.

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For more information about the Mercer County Library System: https://mcl.org/branches/lawrence

For more information about the Poetry in Public Places Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PoetryInPublicPlacesProject

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Haiku about things that make us happy

cloudburst!

running for shelter

laughing

 

out in the rain

that girl who twirls

her umbrella

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Published in Brass Bell: A Haiku Journal (http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com/2021/04/haiku-happiness.html), 4/1/21.

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Mutter of thunder

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

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Published in DailyHaiga (http://www.dailyhaiga.org/haiga-archives/2889/-mutter-of-thunder-by-bill-waters-usa), 3/30/21.

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

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