Poetry Friday--Akemishite Omedetou Gozaimasu!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

Akemishite Omedetou Gozaimasu is roughly equivalent to "Happy New Year" in Japanese. This is the second year I've participated in a nengajyou, that is, a New Year's card exchange, with haiku poets. Participants from all over the world send holiday greetings to fellow haiku enthusiasts. I sent the above card to the United States, Canada, and six other countries. (I could have sent to more, but I ran out of cards!)

I wrote about the nengajyou (I've also seen it spelled nengajo) last year, so, if you're interested in learning more, click here. Here's a blog posting from Kimono Reincarnate that has some samples of typical nengajyou cards.

2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. I have a grandbunny named Miles, who lives with my son and his wife. I took the photo of Miles in January in anticipation of participating in the nengajyo again this year.

In case you can't read it, here's the haiku that appears on the card:

new year's day
the scent of christmas tree
still on the rabbit's breath

Miles loves chewing on the Christmas tree, and it sure does give him piney-fresh breath!

2012 will be the Year of the Dragon. I don't have any dragons in my family, so I'll have to come up with something besides a photo for next year! (Don't suggest a dragon costume for one of my two cats--I could end up as cat food if I tried to put something on either one's head!)

Poetry, poetry, and more poetry should be one resolution on everyone's list for 2011. Head over to Carol's Corner to get a head start!

Celebrate responsibly! See you next year!

Look for Me

Look for me on Lynne Marie's blog this week. Lynne Marie is the creator of My Word Playground: The Writing, Reading & Inspiration Blog. She has graciously allowed me to pontificate about the benefits of the natural world, and she promotes Run, Turkey, Run! and all of my writing projects.

A little aside: Lynne and I have known each other virtually for years! It's certainly gratifying to see the way we've grown professionally since those early days. I remember reading a piece about the Scottish Highland cow known as a coo. I believe it was written by Lynne. It must have been pretty good since I remember it after about a dozen years! Here's a photo, in case you're not familiar with the coo:



Photo by Alan Weir

Haiku Sticky #77

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

Happy Haiga Day!--Christmas Edition

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Image courtesy Library of Congress.

This haiga is also being posted on Lunch Break, where Gillena Cox is celebrating the "Twelve Days of Christmas." Stop by.

My Christmas wish for you is a day filled with good times, good food, and good memories!

Poetry Friday--"Shoplifting Poetry"

Today I've picked a poem from a book published more than 30 years ago. The book is entitled, The Ardis Anthology of New American Poetry. Although the poems can no longer be considered new, they still feel fresh. This one I found so delightful, I wanted to share it with you as a holiday gift:

Shoplifting Poetry
      by Martin Steingesser

We're in the bookstore stealing poems,
lifting the best lines--
You cop one from Williams,
I stick my hand into Pound.
No one's looking...
I throw you a line from The Cantos--
It disappears in your ear like spaghetti.
We stuff ourselves with Crane,
cummings, Lowell, Voznesensky--
Neruda, Rilke, Yeats!
The goods dissolve in our brain.
Now we move from the shelves with caution.
The cashier's watching. Can she tell?
Fat! We've overeaten.
You giggle. End-rhymes leak at your lips like bubbles.
I clap a hand on your mouth.
You are holding my ears
as we fall out the door.

      ©1977, Martin Steingesser, all rights reserved

What an idea! Youthfully exuberant criminality, yet completely victimless! Great fun!

Many thanks to Martin Steingesser for permission to post his poem.

Visit Mary Lee at A Year of Reading for this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up.

Have a great Christmas if you celebrate it, and have a great weekend if you don't!

Image courtesy Library of Congress.

Haiku Sticky #76

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Image courtesy Library of Congress.

I love this photo labeled "Advertisement for Pictorial Toy Catalogue No. 2." It's from 1887! Not a battery operated toy in the bunch!

Poetry Friday--"Long in the Tooth"

Confession time: I challenged myself to write a poem a day for 2010 (I'm mostly talking about haiku and other short, short non-rhyming poems). I had done it in 2009 and thought that I might be able to do it again. The first nine months of the year went fine, but in October, things fell apart. Since October, I have gaps totaling about two weeks. I'll never be able to fill in the calendar, so, I'm officially declaring the challenge ended--dead.

Here's a poem from the second week in October. I can't remember what led me to write it, after all, it was two whole months ago, and when one is aging, the memory is the first thing to go...

The poem may have been the result of an online challenge, perhaps one from The Miss Rumphius Effect? Truthfully, I have no clue, but, I think the title is a commentary on my present state.

LONG IN THE TOOTH

Gums receding,
the teeth become
vulnerable--
as brittle as old
glass. What
passes through
the lips must
be tepid.

Anything too
hot, anything
too cold, and
the teeth may shatter.
Shards projected
outward. Shards
projected inward.
Words can kill.

Time to head over to The Poem Farm where Amy is our Poetry Friday Round-Up hostess this week.

Photo by Todd Stadler

Haiku Sticky #75

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Image courtesy Library of Congress.

Poetry Friday--Newly Released

The latest issues of The Heron's Nest, Notes from the Gean, and haijinx are now available online.

At The Heron's Nest, Volume XII, Number 4: December, 2010, I have a haiku here.

I hit the jackpot with Notes from the Gean, Vol. 2, Issue 3 - December 2010, where I have haiku, tanka, and haiga! Make sure you check out the haiga, they look really AWESOME, if I do say so myself!

And, after a long delay, haijinx III:1 (December 2010) is out. The journal ceased publication in 2003 and was supposed to be back this past summer. Better a little late than never! I have two haiga in this issue. The first one is a photo of the baby woodchucks that lived, for a time, in my backyard. The other, uses a Japanese print from the Library of Congress collection.

I was commenting to a friend the other day that I think I can finally say I'm a poet! Those words still ring a false note, though--I think I'm my own worst enemy.

Here's an original tanka that kind of sums it up:

words don't match
the pictures in her head--
she contemplates
her newly published work
and wishes for a do-over

Thank you, dear reader, for indulging me today!

Jama is hosting the Poetry Friday Round-Up at Alphabet Soup. Be prepared for some mouth-watering poetry!

Haiku Sticky #74

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Image courtesy Library of Congress.

Poetry Friday--"Dust of Snow"

Once again, I turn to Robert Frost, the ultimate New England poet:

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

I have a thing for crows. I love their presence. Upstanding. Sober. Determined.

A crow is not afraid to speak his mind and will give you a piece of it if you venture where he doesn't think you should be. The crow in the picture accompanying this has his eye on me, and you, and don't you forget it!

Like Frost, a crow can always save some part of my day.

Head over to The Miss Rumphius Effect where Tricia will be your guide to this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up.

Image courtesy Library of Congress