A brief introduction to haiku, haikai, and haiga — Image by Salih Altuntaş from Pixabay in the hush charcoal kindling cracks hearth of hearts © 2023 selmamartin.com *Haiku, haikai If you’ve ever heard of Matsuo Bashō, you know he was the greatest figure active in Japanese haikai during the latter half of the seventeenth century. Bashō made his life’s work the…

A Haiga. You haven’t seen this one before, and neither have I — you regale me pomp after lulling me all night good morning, snowfall © selmamartin.com Akemashite Omedetto Gozaimasu: Happy New Year *bowing* Hello, dear friends. Are you just waking up to the New Year? Isn’t it something? New and pristine like newly fallen snow. At least, that’s what it feels like…

#WritingPrompt: talk about something without naming it and set your senses free — Sitting beauties like hookah-smoking caterpillars — all! Those used to be crème de la crème the most prized find when you scoop one up you’re valued as The It: bric-a-brac Soon you absorb into that, party like that, your veneer reeks of that and you find yourself requiring things and skills classic of that —…

The Kwansaba is the perfect poetry form as it celebrates the family with praise and blessings. Won’t you write one too? — We’re on the last days of the year, friends. What are your feelings as yet another year ends? Happy it’s over? Good grrr riddance? Or was this your year, and ready to welcome the next? Well, whichever it is, I’m hoping that family played a crucial role in this year…

A sonnet: In the Christmas story, hay will do for the king of all men as emptied of self, knees & heads, we bend — Hay? Surely not common hay, as they told Of rare commingling of beauty and truth. Who would believe such verse then and henceforth? Design* of God’s uncomplicated lewth. From far off, they traveled, braving the cold, Followed a star. …

Koharu: Little Spring — dancing in my mouth a candy drop — tastes like spring lighthearted, floral I forget myself and pop another — two little springs © 2022 selmamartin.com *Tanka What I know about Tanka A Tanka will consist of 5 lines written in the first-person point of view from the poet’s perspective. When writing a Tanka, the…

How fast the months pass and how distinct each one — how slow, how fast months pass hardly time for more than dalliances when at each stop by chance we crown each queen-in-transience how fast extroverted year enfeebles with echos of last dance embolden for tomorrow’s yeses, she wheedles for next month’s crowning to hearten © 2022 selmamartin.com Quadrille Defined in a Quadrille Your word count…

Spreading Christmas love in quotes of mirth and encouragement I hold dear on the season of giving and gratitude — ’Tis The Season for recollecting, reflecting on, and recycling with those we love — treasured memories we carry in our hearts about ‘things’ that speak to us. For someone like me, who grew up with minimal material possessions and for who ‘the smell of apples’ brings memories of Christmas any…

I cannot climb that Flamboyant no more, but in a dream-incited return trip in the 80s, I’m as agile as ever — “Yes way,” she mouthed, cracking her knuckles and smiling at the sound– the first cicadas of the morn, with lovely promises ever: another day of sun. She drew close to her Flamboyant, and in the tune of Mother-May-I, rata-ta-tapped on the trunk with glee like she used to– like they all do– before climbing…