World in grief

To the victims of the natural calamities which hit the Philippines and other parts of the world, I offer my haiga above as I join the world in prayer and hope for a better tomorrow and return to normalcy. The artwork was done by Ashe Wood of England, my haiga collaborator and taken from my book, RUSTLE OF BAMBOO LEAVES. The one in the book, however, is in black and white which did not do enough justice to the intent and spirit of the poem and the art work.

coming home
the roar of a distant
waterfall

Mainichi (Japan) Daily News
October 10, 2009

I dread
the dark demons
that chase my dreams away
your touch is so real,
am I in love again?

I know now
why our embrace
was so tight
your last farewell
to fleeting life

shell gathering

On August 30, the Southern California Haiku Study Group (SCHSG), of which I am a member, held a reading of its 2009 Haiku Anthology at the Pacific Asia Museum, in Pasadena, California. Titled "shell gathering," I have five of my haiku included in the anthology.

Here is one of them:

hospice window
she gazes at the birds
flying to sunset

More information could be found in the SCHSG blogsite:
SCHSG BLOG

my neighbor mows
the grassy edges
of my unkempt lawn
in the shade I try to write
this friendship poem

Sketchbook: a Journal for Eastern and Western Short Forms,
Vol. 4, No. 4, July/August 2009