New Blog: Selected Poems

Please visit my new site featuring some of my long-form lyric and narrative poetry.

through me the reedy night harmonica

DailyHaiga, July 09

Heat

It’s a still night, TV off, crickets, grandkids out of my hair, dog’s passed out. The third bourbon kicks in. I work the mood for memories… all the false starts… false mates… steamy years of cultivated urbanity… that small jazz club on 4th Street… packed with Saturday-nighters, where I’m grooving and flirting, until the jukebox dies and the musicians step up to the platform, lead off with Lazy Bird; as the audience goes silent, sweating and riveted to each note; as the gleam of the saxophone fills the air with a pulsing mystery, and my love of jazz and crowded rooms expands, holds me there for that one-hour set; as the night waits outside to fold me back into the dark wings of the city.

I sit a while. The ice melts in my glass. I study the flea-bitten arm of the recliner, rise and pick a paperback from the pile on the floor, coyotes howling in the canyon near the small desert town I have come to.

reading Issa
I mark my place
with a dollar bill

Contemporary Haibun Online, 5:2, June 09

nu ku for January

ROSEBUDS

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The back trellis is covered with hot pink bloom and the neighbor’s tabby has nested in the garden shed. I’m listening to the hammer of water pipes, a hollow ring filling the galvanized tub, when my grandfather backs in through the screen door. His tall rubber boots leave tracks on the laundry linoleum. There’s the smell of a gunnysack, and another smell I can’t identify – something bitter, something wet.

cherry popsicle
the ice-cream man shorts
my change

Contemporary Haibun Online, 5:2, June 09

first rose...

the neighbor's garden hat
ladybug red

.......................................................................Daily Haiga, Oct 2009

Jane Reichhold : Haiku of Master Basho

Higginson on the one-line haiku

From One-line Poems to One-line Haiku

A seminal essay from the late William J. Higginson on the 1-liner was published in SimplyHaiku, Fall 2004. He defines four basic types, the latter being more a failure than a class of the genre:

1. One-Stroke Haiku. Those that seem to drive the reader instantly from one end to the other, without a pause for reflection or even noticing the grammar involved.
   
2. Classical-Style One-Line Haiku. Those that have a classic haiku rhythm, dividing easily into three phrases, often with the middle one longer, as do traditional Japanese and three-line haiku in other languages, but which may benefit from being read all at once—as the authors apparently intend. I consider these borderline cases between one-stroke haiku and the following group, but notice that the classical style allows for more play with the internal rhythms of a haiku than may usually be found in a three-line poem.
   
3. Multiple-Meaning One-Line Haiku. Those that may have a classic haiku rhythm, but which also offer the reader a number of syntactic elements, allowing for different interpretations of the poem according to how the reader decides to follow the poem's movement.
   
4. Multi-Line Haiku Written on One Line. Those that include a marked stop or pause, and which therefore are not true one-line haiku in my sense of the term. They usually include extra space between two or more sections, or punctuation marking a grammatical shift, or some other substitute for a line-break.
   

6 One-Line Haiku

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through me the reedy night harmonica
.................................  Roadrunner, VIII:3, Aug 2008

within the stone the sandstorm
.................................  Roadrunner, VIII:3, Aug 2008

purple milking the space between sea urchin spines

......  ...........................Roadrunner, IX:1, Feb 2009

mockingbird an octave shy of the moon
..................................Roadrunner, IX:2, May 2009

stardust the whole desert wanting
..................................Roadrunner, IX:2, May 2009

maybe it’s just me but with a sky this blue...
...................................Roadrunner, IX:2, May 2009

Happy New Year to All My Poetry Friends!

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May the new year bring you peace,
joy and compassion!

SALZBURG

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Twilight shadows fill the room, but I stay seated at the writing desk, lights off. My fountain pen runs dry, and I merge with the sounds of early evening: the rasp of the green grocer's shutter chain, the dopplered crescendo-decrescendo of a minibus full of schoolgirls, an iPod leaking one ear-bud of Die Zauberflote. . . an hour slips by.

off-and-on drizzle
the doves on my windowsill
preen one another

I'm late. In the lift to the lobby, the ticket in my pocket feels brittle, remote. I follow my feet through the old center of the city. . . down the damp corridors of patience, along the boulevards of longing and abundance, through the night's high colonnaded arias. . . until, soundlessly, I enter that cathedral of solitary oneness, in love with the dreaming world that rolls toward me like a golden ball.

after Mozart
the rhythm of motorbikes
on wet cobblestones.

Contemporary Haibun Online: 5:1, March, 2009

New HaigaOnline is up!

This is one of the best issues HO has published IMO. The Contemporary Haiga collection on the theme of domestic animals goes far beyond cute puppies and kittens. Hats off to Linda Papanicalou for her skillful editing.

I am deeply honored to be a featured artist in the 2009 Winter Solitude issue. One of the pieces is a collaboration with Canadian poet Laryalee Fraser, an eminent writer/artist of international renown. Indulge yourself with a visit to her personal haiga page: 
a leaf rustles.

http://haigaonline.com

rainy day jungle voice of the etch-a-sketch

HaigaOnLine, Summer, 2009

2009 Seabeck Haiku Retreat

Just back from the Seabeck Haiku Retreat -- and what a retreat it was. See for yourself:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMKA14Imqzw

PHOTOS by Deborah P. Kolodji:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkolodji/sets/72157622519709971/show/

moonflower kigo

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Surprise!

a moonflower fell -

midnight sound

.............. ......Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)

The moonflower, Ipomoea alba, is a kigo for late spring / early summer. Its large, fragrant, round blossoms are revealed after dusk in a dramatically rapid fashion, often seeming to almost spring open.

Related to the morning glory, it is native to tropical and sub-tropical regions of North and South America. The large 4-5 inch flowers range in color from white to pink, and are often cultivated as a garden ornamental. In regions like Florida, it can become an invasive twining pest, choking out other plants.

The pre-Colombian Mesoamericans civilizations used the high sulfur content of the moonflower plant to vulcanize latex from the Catilla elastica tree into rubber balls used in arena sports.

Here is a moon flower opening in real time, a mere 72 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV3uDDnt_14

Higginson on kigo and tradition

The rationale behind season words is tradition, not personal or local experience. It makes sense to add certain items to a season word list according to local custom, such as holidays, unique cultural features, and particular weather phenomena or creature-behaviors unique to a specific region, provided they are included at times when poets have in fact noticed them and writen about them. But this is not always the case for phenomena of more or less universal experience. ...

...The overriding factor here is that, unless one is in a very distinctly different climatic zone than mid-temperate central Japan, on which the Japanese saijiki is nominally based, and the phenomenon in question is already recorded in a common Japanese saijiki, then *millions of poets* already relate to it that way.

--William Higginson

from the World Kigo Database:
http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/2006/11/wind-chimes-fuurin.html

ANNOUNCEMENT

Shelby County, Iowa's first lesbian wedding:

Billie Dee and Kathleen Marie Mayne
exchanged vows of holy matrimony today,
Monday, June 15, 2009,
at the home of Kathleen's mother
attended by family, friends,
robins and scores of red squirrels.

Finally legal, after all these years!

summer dawn
even on my wedding day
writing haiku

blue or green

make up your mind

dragonfly

HaigaOnline 9:2, 2008 Autumn Ginko

new publications

Contemporary Haibun Online - two new haibun.

Haiga Online - eight new haiga:
http://haigaonline.com/issue10-1/contemporary/album/slides/06.html
http://haigaonline.com/issue10-1/contemporary/album/slides/09.html
http://haigaonline.com/issue10-1/workshop/album/slides/07.html
http://haigaonline.com/issue10-1/workshop/album/slides/08.html
http://haigaonline.com/issue10-1/workshop/album/slides/09.html
http://haigaonline.com/issue10-1/workshop/album/slides/10.html
http://haigaonline.com/issue10-1/workshop/album/slides/11.html
http://haigaonline.com/issue10-1/workshop/album/slides/12.html

Roadrunner - three new haiku.

BEATITUDE

I've just walked the dog in the rain. As I hang up her leash, they're running a clip on CNN of the Texas Pickaxe Murderer, her last ten minutes on Death Row. She is dressed in white, face radiant as she grips her Bible, crosses herself, and steps from the cell.

desert moon
a yield sign laced
with bullet holes

contemporary haibun online, 5:1, March, 2009

new webportal

www.onegoldearring.com

Visit my new Webportal: One Gold Earring

links to almost all my websites (yes, there are dozens of them)

garden haiga

fiddleheads unfurl in Paganini's garden silent rain

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Billie Dee is a featured artist at HaigaOnline, Autumn/Winter 2008

kigo: Southern California summer wildflowers

Deborah Kolodji: Bush Monkey Flower, Fish Canyon, 5/31/09

From Debbie Kolodji, near Los Angeles, over Memorial Day weekend:

As a kigo update, here is a list of the wildflowers in bloom yesterday on the Fish Canyon hike:

• California milkweed (just starting to bloom)
• clarkia
• wild mustard
• prickley pear cactus
• Our Lord's Candle (yucca)
• blue dicks (at end of bloom period - I saw only one plant blooming - in March when I did the hike, they were blooming everywhere)
• Indian pink
• goldenstar
• California buckwheat
• cliff aster
• golden yarrow
• wild morning glory
• sticky monkeyflower
• bush monkey flower
• elegant clarkia
• caterpiller phaelia
• Matilija poppy
• common sunflower
• western wallflower
• white yarrow
• California thistle
• California blackberry
• laurel sumac
• dodder
• Calfornia everlasting
• leafy daisy

Thank you Debbie!

Visit Debbie Kolodji's Fickr site for more photos.

Earth Day haiga

I have a new haiga in the Spring Gallery at HaigaOnline: Earth Day 2009.

autumn shore

finding the perfect worry stone

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Billie Dee is a featured artist at HaigaOnline, Autumn/Winter 2008

May kigo list for Southern California

courtesy of the Southern California Haiku Study Group

The Season

end of spring

spring morning

spring rain
spring storm
spring wind
crisp morning
gray May


Mountains, Fields and Ocean

fresh grass
spring fields
green hills
wildflower fields
trail work
thickened bermuda grass


Flowers and Plants

spent lilacs
first cherries
poppies
mustard
periwinkles
jacaranda blossoms
green fig leaves
bougainvillea
onion lily spikes
star jasmine perfume
roses
succulent blooms
budding gardenia
green hydrangea panicles
spiky shoots of ornamental ginger
late blooming wisteria
aloe vera spikes
cymbidium orchids finish blooming
new stems
buddingCanary Island date palms – fruiting stems
staking tomatoes
lettuce bolting (also cabbage, broccoli)
asparagus shoots


Sky and Heavens

flower moon
warm spring breeze
morning fog
spring sky
spring constellations
changing skies


Birds and Animals

palm rats (newborns squealing)
cut-worms
snails
lady bugs
sparrows
dogs have stopped shedding
baby ground squirrels
baby Island Foxes
chirping baby birds
crows eating baby birds
baby rabbits
baby opossums
turkey vulture nests
Nuthatch nests


Human Affairs

Mother’s Day
Renaissance Faire
Memorial Day
Cinco de Mayo
midseason baseball
French Open
shorts
spring dresses
sandals
wedding invitations
graduations
allergy season
wind chimes
kites
baby strollers
IRS refunds

winter dawn

gray hair tangled on the pillow

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Billie Dee is a featured artist at HaigaOnline, Autumn/Winter 2008

Rengay in Frogpond, winter 2009

The Waitress Sings

Billie Dee & Deborah P. Kolodji

outside the café
winter jacarandas
winter sky

the scarf Mother made me
last Christmas

tattered cookbook
a buttered thumbprint
on the biscuit page

autographs
old photographs framed
on the wall

bacon pops
in the black iron skillet

fresh crumbs
the waitress sings
as we drink coffee

Frogpond 32.1, 2009

Dedicated to my dear friend
Judy-the-Beauty Forman,
who owns and sings
at the Big Kitchen,
San Diego, California, USA.

Best comfort-food in town
(any town!) served by community
activist and State of California
Woman of the Year, 2005.

The Rengay Form

The rengay is to renga (and other collaborative verse) as the nosegay is to a large wreath of flowers - small, intimate, accessible, and typically lighthearted and joyous.
--Michael Dylan Welch

The North American rengay was invented in 1992 by Garry Gay (ren-Gay). Unlike renga, there are only a few rules:

1. six haiku verses written by two or more poets;
2. verses alternate between 3-lines and 2-lines;
3. each verse should be an independent haiku (including the 2-line verses), though this is the least stringent requirement;
4. a theme should be followed, but without the tight link and shift patterns in traditional renga.

• 2 person pattern:
  3 lines, poet A
  2 lines, poet B
  3 lines, poet A
  3 lines, poet B
  2 lines, poet A
  3 lines, poet B
  
• 3 person pattern:
  3 lines, poet A
  2 lines, poet B
  3 lines, poet C
  2 lines, poet A
  3 lines, poet B
  2 lines, poet C
  
• Recently, 6-person rengay have appeared in such journals as Sketchbook.
  

From conversations with Garry, I know that once having given birth to this new genre he is happy enough to watch its form evolve and become enriched by the imaginations of those who have taken it up. From his perspective, the two incontrovertible “rules” of rengay are (1) more than one participant, and (2) adherence to a theme. -- Carolyn Hall, Frogpond, 2007

Links:
http://www.nc-haiku.org/pdf/RengayWriting.pdf http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/rengay.htm

Be sure to visit Garry Gay's website of photo haiga: The Long Way Home

desert bloom

moolinght perfumes the garden

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Billie Dee is a featured artist at HaigaOnline, Autumn/Winter 2008

two 1-liners

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through me the reedy night harmonica

within the stone the sand storm

Roadrunner, August 2008

painter/poet Michele Harvey's website

Be sure to visit Michele Harvey's newly updated website. Not only is she an accomplished poet, but a well-known landscape painter, with work currently showing in NYC and Provincetown, Mass. The subtlety and grace of these mystic images reveal another level of her finely tuned poetic mind.

demarcation
between the lawn and fields
a fence line
dividing the tame from wild
my gold wedding band

cinquain after Rilke

Beast

That dream
where the panther
keeps pacing… and Rilke
won’t tell me which side of the bars
I’m on.

published in Amaze,: the Cinquain Journal, summer, 2007

The Panther
by Rainer Maria Rilke

His gaze has from the passing of the bars
grown so tired, that it holds nothing anymore.
It seems to him there are a thousand bars
and behind a thousand bars no world.

The supple pace of powerful soft strides,
turning in the very smallest circle,
is like a dance of strength around a center
in which a great will stands numbed.

Only sometimes the curtain of the pupils
soundlessly slides up --. Then an image enters,
glides through the limbs' taut stillness
dives to the heart and dies.

[Translated by Edward Snow]

.

hawaiian shirt

a glass-bottomed boat above

the dying reef

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Billie is featured in the Autumn 2008 ginko gallery at HaigaOnline

cinquain

Bitterroot

Twilight’s
long-shadowed pines…
now the grasshoppers rest
breathing damp river breeze, come the
crickets.

4 season Japanese saijiki

The SHIKI IE Haiku Salon (from Japan):

a fairly extensive list of traditional kigo, organized by season and type of reference. Includes Japanese terms.

The most useful kigo resources I've come across are:

World Kigo Database
World Kigo Parking Lot (Yahoo email group)

both courtesy of Gabi Greve.

haiga

.

loosening

the sash of her robe

fragrant dawn

.

HaigaOnline, Summer 2008

SoCalHaiku Study Group March Kigo List

March Kigo List

for the Southern California Region

The Season

spring
early spring
Daylight Savings Time
spring rain
spring wind
warmer days

Sky and Heavens

worm moon
spring sky
vernal equinox

Mountains, Fields and Ocean

snow run-off
spring fields
green hills
wildflower fields

Flowers and Plants

cherry blossom
apricot blossom
camellias
daffodils, jonquils
Dutch iris
spring wildflowers
ceanothus/California lilac
California poppy
jade plant
teddy bear cholla
octotillo
paint brush
bladderpod
Joshua tree

Birds and Animals

lizards
coyote pups
wren song
breeding plumage
nesting birds:
barn swallow
American robin
green heron
wren
song sparrow
American coot
black Phoebe
California towhee
wrentit
raven
scrub jay

Human Affairs

spring cleaning
college acceptance/rejection letters
spring break
city election
St. Patrick's Day – green beer, shamrocks
St. Joseph's
Day – St. Joseph's Table
Lent
Purim
Chinese lantern festival

courtesy of Deborah Kolodgi and the Southern California Haiku Study Group

1000-Armed Kannon

at the temple of the 1000-armed Kannon..... 2 pickpockets

Billie is featured in the Autumn 2008 ginko gallery at HaigaOnline

Here is a fascinating video of a Kannon dance. Although the video quality is poor, it's a highly polished, surreal production.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKslrx8nVRY

2008 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival

I've won the Sakura Award with this haiku:

cherry blossom . . .
trembling with the weight
of its bee

summer tattoo

summer vacation
shopping for my first tattoo
I choose Kandinsky

haiku published in 2007 Yuki Teikei Anthology

Young Leaves is the Yuki Teikei website

.

I plan to get my first tattoo on my 80th birthday. This one:

.

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Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VIII, 1923

April kigo for Southern California

From the Southern California Haiku Study Group

The Season

spring
spring rain
spring storm
spring wind
warmer days

Sky and Heavens

pink moon
spring sky
spring constellations: Virgo, Leo, Ursa Major

Mountains, Fields and Ocean

snow run-off
spring fields
green hills
wildflower fields
trail work

Flowers and Plants

Easter Lilies
wisteria
young leaves
cherry blossoms
crab apple
blossoms
Our Lord's Candle
sky lupine
red bud
trumpet tree

Birds and Animals

swallows
baby rabbits
deer fawn
harbor seal pups
rattlesnakes
nesting birds:
Western gulls
terns
white-throated swift
grebes
wood ducks
California
quail
woodpeckers

Human Affairs

shorts
spring
dresses
spring break
planting
vegetables
Easter
Festival of Books
National Poetry Month
baseball season starts
vacation plans

Thank you Debbie!

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational 2007

Yipee! I've won an honorable mention, my first haiku prize.


hide and seek--
cherry petals frosting
their shoulders