An Amazing Illustration By Tré From Our New Book Moonscape Phase I

For a whole year my partner Tré and I wrote a book in haiku form about the phases of the moon and where we were individually and together on our journey during those moon phases. Then Tré took the haiku pairings we had created and drew an illustration for each one. Seventy separate illustrations. 

It only took Tré three months to do the illustrations, which is an incredible pace when you see how intricate and full of nuance they are. I remember how much fun it was as Tré unveiled each new illustration. 

Now after almost a whole year of editing our book is finished! Moonscape Haiku Phase I is the first of a trilogy of haiku books we will be doing together. Treescape and Dreamscape will be the second and third.

After the Solstice/The Longest Night is page 69 from that book.

The entire book is this incredibly lush and intricate, and the printer did an impeccable job of capturing the subtle gradients of Tré's shading. I've never been more fulfilled and excited to show others what we've been working on for over two years now. You can see the video about how Moonscape came to be and how it all turned out here at our Kickstarter. 

Order Moonscape

 

  

Pin It

I Haikued Today

I haikued today. 

Bad Luck Haiku

How many deft soles

Circumvented the stone that

Made my heel its home

Pin It

Zombie Logic Celebrates One Million Visitors With a New Haiku

I used to put a lot of effort into my My Space blog. Back then I wrote a lot about politics. And religion. The numbers were huge. If I didn't do something crazy like write about poetry. I had this Blogger blog, but I didn't use it. What could possibly go wrong with using My Space as your primary blog, right? Before that I did the unthinkable: I wrote with a pen and paper. But for the five years I used My Space as the single archive for most of my writing I never though to back up what I had written there. I think maybe that's one of the effects of the digital Universe: things don't seem as real or permanent. If you write something down on paper, you know that exists. They say nothing ever disappears on the internet. But it does. My Space did.

Fortunately, in 2011 I started using this as my main blog. And today we just got our one millionth hit. 

I've had so much fun sharing my poems here. The artwork Jenny and I create. Webcomics. My musings about fantasy football. Zombie movies. And I'm so happy to not be writing about religion or politics anymore. As the recent shutdown of the American government proves, there's not much to say. Writing about the lack of intelligence being displayed by people who have been entrusted with the well-being of the country is virtually pointless. Nobody on any side is even open to debate anymore. A haiku, on the other hand, can always break some new ground. Speaking of haikus, I wrote one earlier tonight. 

Mancave

carry the stones fate has
put in your sack proudly
they are all you own Pin It

The Haiku That Ate Cleveland

because you were young

and bad at it you will be

old and bad at it

Not sure if this is a haiku or not, just a crumb of a thing that came into my brain earlier. 

Pin It

If I Can't Reduce the Universe To Seventeen Syllables I Usually Give Up

For a couple of decades I wrote primarily in the confessional poetry style. It seemed like the easiest thing to do because the thing I knew best was myself, and they say you should always write about what you know. Then I got a whole bunch of experience working in seedy bars for over a decade and had a ton of stories to tell. So I did. I can look back at those poems and cringe. But one thing you always have to be willing to do as a writer is tell the truth.

Maybe.

I suppose you don't have to tell all the truth all the time.

Now in my forties the Objectivist, Imagist, and haiku poem have become my most common and comfortable forms. Whether I'm in the poem or not doesn't seem to matter anymore. I like that. Turns out there was a whole Universe outside of my own this whole time.

When I get an idea for a poem I start writing the words, and usually I start to wonder if I can reduce this image or emotion to 17 syllables. If I can, I do. If not I allow myself a few more syllables and try to write a short Imagist piece. If that fails, I allow myself even a few more words and make an Objectivist poem. If I can't do that I usually give up. 

Pin It

Two Bridges, One Haiku

I'm really fond of two very similar, yet completely different forms of poetry-  Haikus, and short, Imagist poems. Here are two examples from my own poetry. The first is a haiku, with a drawing by Jenny Mathews, and the second is a short Imagist poem which I set to a Tiny Drawing Jenny had already done. Please feel free to share these works if you like them. 

Bridge haiku.

Imagist poem.

Under the Bridge. 

Pin It

The Banyans of Li Po Lung Path Haiku

The Banyans of Li Po Lung Path Haiku

Li Po Lung Path, Hong Kong

Pin It

Bridge Haiku

 

they stole the bridge's

bones but it would not fall down

for it disbelieved

Pin It

Haiku

     Working in the haiku form is sobering. For reasons beyond the august tradition of the form. There's an implicit challenge to saying something in 17 syllables. 




Haiku


Winter, my love, does
Slowing the bear's mighty heart
Make you less lonely?




     I hope I have. Pin It