Happy Haiga Day!

Last month I participated in a Spark postcard exchange.  Usually I write a short poem, digitally illustrate it, and print off a 4x6" copy to send as my postcard.  I impose upon myself a theme that I use to get me going.  In October my head was completely taken up by the presidential election, so, I didn't write poems.  Instead, I borrowed the words of another poet, Carl Sandburg, to illustrate using photos and illustrations in the public domain.  Sandburg's Good Morning, America (1928) collection contained a numbered list of 38 definitions of poetry.  Here are three of the postcards that I created using Sandburg's definitions #2, 14, and 21:

 

 

Happy Haiga Day!

In a book from 1855 titled, The Witches' Dream Book and Fortune Teller, there is a list of common items or activities and interpretations of dreams containing said items or activities. I have used the interpretations for a series of cherita, which I'm calling my Dream project. Here's the fifth one, which was part of a Spark postcard exchange:

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

watch your step

how you tread determines
your tomorrow

you may dream of elves
but your future is not
their responsibility

Happy Haiga Day!

The fourth in the series of postcards from my Dream Project, cards created for Amy Souza's April Spark postcard exchange. The cherita was inspired by one of the topics found in a book of dream interpretation from the late 1800s.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

no dream prepares

a child for her first
encounter with a bee

diving into the heart
of a blossom only to reappear
dusted in yellow

Happy Haiga Day!

Another postcard from my Dream Project, cards created for Amy Souza's April Spark postcard exchange. I based the cherita on a topic found in a book of dream interpretation from the late 1800s.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

too many gone

never to return
with the geese

haunting calls
each spring carry
the memories

Happy Haiga Day!

Today I'm continuing with my Dream Project of cards created for Amy Souza's April Spark postcard exchange. It is also Mother's Day, so, I'm posting the least pandemic-related card in a nod to all the bright days gone by and the brighter days to come.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

on a sunny day

walk past a sparrow bush
and be enveloped by chirps

to dream of sparrows
would be your soul
acknowledging the gift

Happy Haiga Day!

Happy Haiga Day! is back after its month vacation during Ekphrastic April. During April, I also participated in a Spark postcard exchange. In the past we sent physical postcards to each other, but this time, and I'm sure for the next few rounds at least, we sent e-cards.

In a book from 1855 titled, The Witches' Dream Book and Fortune Teller, there is a list of common items or activities and interpretations of dreams containing said items or activities. I have used the interpretations for a series of cherita. The result is five cards, incorporating the cover of the book, an interpretation that inspired the card, a related image, and a cherita.

Today, and for the next four weeks, Happy Haiga Day! will present these "Dream Project" cards. I may create a few more after that, but, with life being so uncertain at this point, I won't guarantee the project will continue.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

2020 dream

the word jollity
brings a smile

the laughter will
come when we can
sit at one table again

Happy Haiga Day!

I participated in the latest Spark challenge as a writer. The poem below was my response to the work of a young artist. You can see the inspiration piece here.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

Smoke obscures the reality.

The illustration
of human creativity
and factual narrative
is released from its
paper and board covers
only to disperse,
as ash-–the end
product of
incomplete combustion.

When the smoke clears…

someone will recollect
the novels,
the narratives,
the poetry,
the music,
and publish them anew
for untried sycophants
to claim as
collateral damage.

Smoke will obscure the reality.

Happy Haiga Day!

I participated in another Spark postcard exchange created by Amy Souza (see label on right for more about Spark) during the month of January. I've been feeling a bit downhearted of late with the continuing decline of decency in this country, especially with regard to he whose-name-shall-not-be-mentioned, and his drink-the-Kool-Aid followers, so, I decided to create my postcards around the theme of laughter. I think it's the only thing that'll get us through 2020 and beyond.

There were 4 exchangees this time. I wrote haiku for three of the postcards, and a cherita for the fourth.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

waking to the sun
she laughs herself silly
over yesterday

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

grandpa laughs
at the little one's joke
...again and again

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Painting, "Katri Smiling," by Helene Schjerfbeck.

Text:

sisters in the tub
as many giggles as
soap bubbles

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

in black and white

they punctuate
their sentences with laughter

these BFFs
from a time before BFFs
were a "thing"

Happy Haiga Day!

The picture was created in response to a Spark challenge, and I added the haiku for today's haiga.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

the yearling's
capricious challenge
...daybreak

Happy Haiga Day!

Here are the other two postcards created for the April Spark postcard exchange; both are cherita poems.

Since it's been raining almost nonstop for the past month, I'm hoping we'll miss pine pollen coating everything. It'll be washed away before it can fly around.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Text:

spring in bloom

you can't blame the pine
for envying the flowers

she does her best to add to
the color medley by spreading
yellow pollen over all


The dandelions won't be in full force for a few weeks, and although they're weeds, they're a bright, cheery yellow.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Text:

spring dusk

one dandelion flower
remains open

the tickle of a warm
breeze invites self-indulgence
in the both of us

Happy Haiga Day!

April was a postcard exchange month for the Spark community. I had to create original postcards to send to four individuals using the general topic of spring. The first two are early signs of spring--crocus and forsythia. The second two occur slightly later in the season. Today I'll post the early spring ones, both of which are small poems.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Text:

New England Gardens in Spring

Her six-month lease is up.
Granite and gneiss is the trash
she leaves behind as Winter
reluctantly vacates the premises.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Text:

Spring Impossibility

Getting an accurate count
of rabbit kits gamboling...
in
out
under
a forsythia bush.

Happy Haiga Day!

This one I wrote, but decided against using, in the recent Spark 40 challenge in which I partnered with Janet Buell.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

"You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there."
1 Kings 17:4

a believer, or a fool

trusts that a raven
would feed him

not many of us would
travel great distances
without packing snacks

Happy Haiga Day!

Another cherita eliminated from my Spark response piece to Janet Buell's "Ravens in Snow."

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

the power of poetry

who can hear "raven"
without hearing Poe?

forevermore
the avian victim of
well-crafted words

Happy Haiga Day!

My friend Janet Buell and I were partners in the 40th Spark challenge, which wrapped up on Friday. Janet took on the artist role, while I was the writer. You can see the inspiration piece Janet sent to me, "Ravens in Snow," and my response to it, here. The poem I sent to Janet, and her response to it can be found here.

I wrote a number of different poems over the ten days of the challenge and picked three to submit as my response. The following is a haiku that I didn't use. I paired it with a Japanese print from the late 1800s. The print is one of my all time favorite works of art! (I took the liberty of adding the iridescence.) You can find it here. I have several other cherita poems that didn't make the cut for the response, but which I will use for Happy Haiga Days in the future.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

raven in snow
iridescence refashioned
by the sun

Poetry Friday--Spark 39

The latest Spark challenge ended last Friday. Up until recently, I've participated as an "artist," but this time round, of the people signing up for the challenge, more were artists than writers, so, I agreed to partner as a writer.

My partner is artist, Mary Hill, and the piece she sent to me is mixed media. I received permission from Mary to post her pieces. Thank you, Mary!

Here is the inspiration piece, "Purple and Gold Landscape 2":

© Mary Hill, all rights reserved.

When I received the file by email, the fires in California were still blazing and in the news, so my mind went immediately to that. The National Climate Assessment was issued a day or two after I received my inspiration piece, and that, too, factored into my response:

Paradise, 2018: a pair of cherita

"It will take a while. But it will get better. It always does." Eyewitness to the Camp Fire, California, November 2018

if we squint we see

the flames of a wild
fire as an aura--

a god's adoring smile
a land and people blessed
a tempering of our souls

optical delusions

radiance mistaken for
divinity still blinds

with eyes nearly closed we
can only blame ourselves
for descending into darkness

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

I sent Mary a cherita from my files as an inspiration piece:

packing to go

no room in
the cardboard boxes

what remains to pack
needs only the space
between her ears

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Here's Mary's delightful response, "Done with moving: Relaxing":

© Mary Hill, all rights reserved.

Consider taking part in the next quarterly Spark round--I know many Poetry Friday peeps are writers or illustrators.

Elizabeth Steinglass is hosting today's Poetry Friday Round-Up. Be sure to stop by!

Poetry Friday--"In the Wood"

Two weeks ago was the conclusion to Spark #38. This round, I didn't take part as an "artist." It was requested that I fill a role as "writer"--not too much of a stretch!

For an inspiration piece, I sent my Spark partner a short poem from my files, and he sent me a photo of a 3-dimensional piece he created titled, "Galileo" as my inspiration (see it here).

Immediately, upon viewing "Galileo," I thought of shelf fungi and that's what I began with. If you aren't familiar with shelf fungi (also called shelf mushrooms or brackets), here are a few photos from my files, all taken in NH or MA.

I had a fourth one that I've used for this post. I combined it with my response to "Galileo," a poem titled "In the Wood," simply because illustrating poems is my favorite thing to do!

Click on the image to enlarge for easier reading. © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

In the Wood

Diseased and dying
it leans southward
ruffled with brackets
laced with molds.

What was once vitally
green now has a
vividly colorful life
of another kind.

Hollows hold newly
birthed chipmunks.
Bats beneath loosened
bark roost by day.

Processes of propagation
and elimination
attract multitudes
of creatures to this oak.

Creepy-crawlies
continuously consume.
Jack o' lantern
mushrooms illume by night.

Finally, wee fairy folk
move in to provide
make-believe for those
who eschew reality.


I think perhaps the six stanzas are a bit much and I should have confined myself to shelf fungi and fairies. I will probably rewrite it as a haiku or cherita!

Erin at The Water's Edge is playing Round-Up hostess this week. Do stop by!

Poetry Friday--Spark Postcard Exchange

July was another Spark postcard exchange. This time round, though, I didn't pick a summmer/nature theme to work from. Much of the early part of the summer was spent in outrage over a number of issues that affect the present and future of our country. I'm not one to shy away from politics in my poetry, but, if you prefer to stay away from the political, you'd best stop reading now and come back next week.

I picked the Statue of Liberty as my unifying theme and wrote and illustrated four postcards to send. The illustrations use photos and graphics in the public domain, and as you can tell, I have cropped, altered, and combined them for my purposes.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

changing conditions

it's not easy to continue
standing watch

her torch's light
scatters in the fog
her eyes no longer see

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

Why do we want these people from all these shithole countries here? We should have more people from places like Norway.

~ Donald J. Trump, January 11, 2018

Integument

Can he not see
the woman isn't
white, but green?

The copper mines
of Norway supplied
Lady Liberty's skin.

A veneer to protect
regulate and enable
a great Lady to feel.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

no safe harbor here

burgeoning lines
and chain link fences

zero tolerance means
we do no heavy lifting--
starting with lamps

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

Statue of Liberty

Her outer appearance
strong.
Her inner scaffolding
hidden.
Might it only take
one
insatiable rat to
gnaw
away her foundation?

Mary Lee at A Year of Reading will be hosting this week's Round-Up. She awaits your visit!

Poetry Friday--Spark Postcard Exchange

Four times a year I participate in a postcard exchange organized by Amy Souza of Spark. The latest exchange took place during the month of April. Each participant signs on to create an original piece of art on a postcard. Since I'm primarily a writer, I put together original short poems with illustrations.

There is never a theme assigned, however, I like working from a theme and generally assign one to myself. This past exchange I used "daisy" as my theme since the daisy, a universally recognized flower, is the official flower for April. I suppose I could have used the official gemstone, but that would be "diamond" and diamond is actually a turn-off as far as I'm concerned!

I did a minimum amount of research on daisies (not much more than Wikipedia and this article), but it was enough to get me started. The things that resonated with me I incorporated into the work, for instance, daisy is a symbol of innocence and purity.

I decided to write cherita since I believe I have finally found my true form. All the illustrations/photos are in the public domain and I altered and combined them.

Here are the three I sent out:

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

warmth of the sun

the day's eye
opens wide and bright

her innocence
merely a show
to seduce the bees

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

field of daisies

memories grow
less sharp with time

we forget that
the daisy was also known
as bone flower

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

Bellis perennis

we always look forward
to her return

each day of April
two or three minutes longer
but, so is the wait


Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales is hosting the Poetry Friday Round-Up today. As for me, I'm taking off to attend the first day of the Mass Poetry Festival in Salem! Yay!

Poetry Friday--Spark Postcards

Four times a year I take part in an original postcard exchange that has been organized by Amy Souza, the founder of Spark Art from Writing: Writing from Art. I had the month of January to create four postcards to send to people in Florida, New York, Oregon, and Virginia. To say that the winter here in New England has been a challenge is an understatement, so all my postcards had winter as their unifying theme.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Illustration from More about the Squirrels by Eleanor Tyrrell (1915).

Text:

January
squirrel--branch to branch
--tree to tree
creating snow flurries to
bring attention to the sun

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

record lows
the cat draped around
my neck

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

winter again
knitted scarf with the scent
of last year

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Illustration from Children of Winter by Maud Humphrey (1888) was altered by me.

Text:

winter lingers...
her mother gives up trying
to match mittens

Viait our friend, Sally Murphy, for this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up coming to us from the other side of the world.

Poetry Friday--Goodbye October

In a flash, October has come and gone. Before we move on into November, I wanted to share the postcards I sent to four people in Amy Souza's October Spark postcard challenge. (To learn more about Spark, click here.)

We were free to create an art postcard of our choosing. No topics were assigned, but, I like to work around a theme. I think I'd have to say that the results are all about ORANGE, although they began as an exploration of the topic of "pumpkins."

A tanka:

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

autumn...
at first light
a breakfast table
laid with a cloth of
orange polka dots

A haiku:

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

November 1
neighbor's compost heap
now with grins

A tanka:

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

grown to fulfil
its holiday destiny
pumpkin
alive tonight with the aid
of an artificial heart

This next haiku was inspired by a favorite old picture book, Mousekin's Golden House, by Edna Miller:

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

November 1
the field mouse's treat
a day late

I hope I haven't hurt anyone's eyes or sensibilities with all the orange! I can guarantee I will never use orange in quantities such as this ever again!

Head over to Teacher Dance where Linda is hosting the Round-Up this week. Linda had posted a photo on Facebook last week of a squirrel nibbling on a jack-o-lantern. Old pumpkins can provide a treat for many little creatures.