Going home

After the hike, leaving Fish Canyon Falls in Duarte, California.

National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month, April 2010

What a better way to celebrate the waning week of National Poetry Month than going out and communing with nature and writing poems inspired by the experience. That’s what a small group of So. Calif. haiku poets did today, April 24 when we took a haiku hike to Fish Canyon Falls in Duarte, California. While admiring the waterfalls, I asked a lady stranger sitting beside me, who dared her son to wade in the pool, to write a poem this being national poetry month. To my surprise, she did (of course after showing my haiku to her, and here is what she wrote:

the sound
of kids splashing
by the waterfull

- Sandy

Thanks Sandy even if we never cross our paths again.

Sister's death

spring cleanup
last letter of my sister
before her death

For my sister Ate Nena,
who passed away last year

Spring blues

Here is another example of sijo.
I'll be uploading some more from time to time.


I glimpsed the color of spring
as you leizurely sauntered in

the balmy breath of air
drove the winter chill and pall away

but you did not tarry long
and soon vanished out of my dream.


In my book, Rustle of bamboo leaves,
but originally published in World Haiku Review,
Vol. 1, Issue 2, August 2001.

Forbidden love

the entwined ivy
and blooming rose
reach for the sun
the entanglements
of forbidden love

Sketchbook, Vol. 4, No. 6,
November/December 2009

Widower's first date

widower’s first date
her aggressiveness
unsettles his driving
oh how he wishes
he’s ten years younger

Modern English Tanka
Vol. 3, No. 3, Spring 2009

Spring rain

spring rain
even Death Valley
is alive with flowers

Haiku Harvest, Vol. 6, No. 1
Spring/Summer 2006

Mexicali earthquake

the pool's water rocks
and rolls then overflows
at earthquake's call

We were starting to eat our Easter early dinner in my daughter's house when the rumblings started. Looking at the swimming pool outside, we watched with a bit of apprehension, the water of the swimming pool coming upwards towards the house. Nothing serious happened, however, as we rode the rolling wave for the longest time, which we all felt. We learned later that it was in a magnitude of 7.2 in Mexico near San Diego.

Easter Sunday