I am looking forward to chinese new year next month.
I have not written many haiku this month. Hugh Bygott is revising my book, Vancouver island Poetry. I have started writing a series of short stories about the blue-irised men i have met in my life. Hugh is editing the first one. I wrote 30 tanka last year and will write more this year and then will look for a publisher. I plan on going to the World Haiku Association conference in Tokyo in September. It will be good to met David at Ashai/International Tribune who has been publishing my haiku since 2000. My art greeting card project is doing well. So far Sandra Moorhouse-Good and i have printed 8 of her art and my haiku. I wrote 30 haiku for her paintings last March and we will print more of them soon. I need to do marketing for them now.
When i am in Japan i will look for a publisher for both of my haiku and tanka books and also the greeting cards.
We have had a few real wintery days here on the island and i have enjoyed them. I like the brish cold and clear days with sunshine. I can see the mountians of the Sunshine Coast from my windows.
Yesterday i went out with a new Dragon Boat team that i am thinking of joining. They are very professional and competitive and i will like the challenge. It was below zero and we were paddling through ice. I forgot my gloves and one finger was bleeding. I fell flat on my face getting out of the boat. The handle of my paddle came off too. What a great first impression i
made!!! The team is called BlueByu and was the top placed team last year.
I did a poetry reading last week of a few of my tanka. I have kept to the 5-7-5-7-7 formulae most of the time.
Here are a few:
Along the old path
to the winding blue river
yellow, pink, white flags
i hear your steps come close by
my heart starts to beat too fast
Fog-filled hills
mist rising here and there now
the sun can't get through them yet
my heart too is in hiding
in a deep quiet, lonely place
Cat at the window
sits looking dwon on ocean
rain streaks the view
fishing boats are returning
full of wild sockeye salmon
On this dark grey day
my thoughts wander to a pair
of blue irises
his eyes so dear to me now
that he is gone from my life
A bone scan today
on the way three birds on the
rose-scented old path
my hear is beating wildly
i am so afraid to know
Flying to your island
you say in your letter
how easy it would be
but i have my life here now
how do i leave this old one
Staring at the screen
waiting for you on MSN
you on your island
mine surrounded by cedars
as the eagle hovers
Along the old path
