Heart Breaths

     Grateful that 11 of my haiku are included in Heart Breaths: Book of Contemporary Haiku. Available to purchase here .

cloud break . . .
a fledgling peeks out
of a cracked shell

***

spring dawn . . .
a baby robin's trill
warms the sunlight


***

tumbling leaves . . .
I drift where grief
takes me today

***

tracing the cracks
on his leather chair . . .
death anniversary

***

this feeling of knowing
you were already gone . . .
murmur of stars


***

spring buds
his pinky finger
slips into mine

***

banjo strings
the night he plucks
the stars

***

fall morning
a lily laps up
a ray of sunshine

***

sunlight slides
from the mountain top . . .
a seagull's call

***

winter dawn
the cry of a hawk
piercing the fog

***

empty sea . . .
in a fisherman's boat
a bucketful of stars

 

World Haiku Association (137th Haiga Contest)

 

 

World Haiku Association 

(137th Haiga Contest, December 2015)

 

Spring Beginnings

 

Inspired by Rick Daddario's 30 Days of Haiga - 

September 22nd prompt: autumn/spring beginnings

and September Heights P#181 - 

prompt: birth

Related posts:

* Autumn Equinox - September 21st haiga

* Evening Glory - September 20th haiga

* Prickly Heat- September 18th haiga

* Moonlit Meadow - September 17th haiga

* Ring on Her Finger - September 14th haiga

* Blue Moon - September 1st haiga

Update: 

Shared with Free Haiga on Facebook - Sept. 25, 2012

Beatles Song

     August 27 NaHaiWrimo prompt is "Beatles song", provided by Johannes S. H. Berg. I enjoyed this prompt very much because as I was writing my haiku, I was listening to the Fab Four on PBS. I also realized any song of the Beatles has a line which can be created into a haiku. So, for the first time, I posted three haiku.
  

strawberry fields
her lipstick marks 
on a love letter

(Strawberry Fields Forever)


first kiss
fragrant meadows 
of dawn

(Till There Was You)


autumn moon
speaking words of wisdom
let it be

(Let It Be)

      Comments on my haiku may be found here. Click this for more information on the 31 Different NaHaiWriMo Prompters in August 2012.

1st International Kukai - 9th place tie

spring dawn . . .

nestling on bare branches

a sparrow's song

 

 

1st International Kukai

Prompt: sparrow

spring dawn . . .

nestling on bare branches

a sparrow's song

all this stirring in my heart

I find your hand in mine

Kathy Uyen Nguyen

Thank you, my dear friend, for this lovely collaborative tanka.

Favorite Haiku of the Month

     If you'd ask me who's my number one contemporary poet, I'd quickly say it's the multi-awarded Chen-ou Liu of Ontario, Canada. It's remarkable that English isn't his first language and yet he has managed to be a great prolific English writer. He's not only excellent in writing haiku, but also in writing other forms of Japanese poetry like tanka and haibun.

     I discovered his haiku in 2010, when I shared the same issue with him in Berry Blue Haiku. I was a frustrated newbie that year, managing to write only one decent publishable haiku, but at the same time I was an eager reader, full of admiration for Chen-ou's remarkable talent.

    These two captivating haiku below were among the June 2010 Haiku Picks of Berry Blue Haiku.

butterflies

wing over cherry petals—  

shadows embracing

on maple leaves

glittering raindrops gather—  

floating worlds

    Since I had resumed writing haiku in the second half of 2011, I've been coming across Chen-ou's works. I have so many favorites, but I'm sharing some of the ones which have garnered him high praises and awards.

spicy chicken...

this impulse to ask

if she's married

                                  Editor's Choice Senryu (Modern Haiku, 43:1 February 2012)

a deceased friend

taps me on my shoulder--

plum blossoms falling

                                  Grand Prize Poem of the Year 2011 ( Heron's Nest)

attic window--                                                    

a few moonlit shadows                                       

come and go 

                               2nd Prize (The Klostar Ivanic Haiku Contest 2011)      

                

moonlit branches . . .

glazed with autumn rain

droplets of me 

                              Commendation (The Klostar Ivanic Haiku Contest 2011)

her face

in my whisky

the moon floats

                             Grand Prix (The Klostar Ivanic Haiku Contest 2010)

             

cherry petals

falling on cherry petals...

I dust your photo

                             Sakura Award (Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival 2010)

    Included in my list of favorites is this unforgettable haiku sequence published in Frogpond 34:1, 2011.

     A Life in Four Seasons

I write her

one poem every day

spring dewdrops

a butterfly

tattoed on her buttock

summer heat

autumn dawn

before the mirror I count

gray hairs

snow on snow

thoughts of her emerge

one at a time

     Most of his published haiku are highly evocative. As Neal Whitman has said, he has "the gift of tugging at our hearts." If you like to read more of his haiku, go to Poetry in the Moment. You'll be able to see where to purchase his books. One of them is Following the Moon to the Maple Land, the first prize winner of the Spring Haiku Pix Chapbook 2011. On the cover of his chapbook is a photo that I had taken. Can you imagine how thrilled I was when the editor of Haiku Pix requested my photo for Chen-ou's chapbook?

     For some unexplainable reason, I don't have a free copy of this, but thanks to Chen-ou because pretty soon I'll be getting my own copy. I'll be reading on my couch, following the moon to the maple land.