Anne’s Zen Transformation Free Verse on Illness and Becoming Anne’s face, once sharp as the wind against January skin, has softened, a gentle moon swelling beneath the touch of medication. Her body rounds, moves differently in the world, each curve a quiet rebellion against past angularities, as if the cosmos itself has decided to cradle..
On love and death Haiga is a style of Japanese art that combines a haiku poem with a painting or drawing, often using calligraphy to integrate the text with the visual art. It’s a visual form of poetry that seeks to capture the essence of the poem through both words and imagery. I use Haiga to frame poetic..
Ikebana dreams My wife creates decorative arrangements that include miniature dried flowers. Recently, she learned that her art resembles Japanese Ikebana, an aesthetic of which she was previously unaware. Ikebana (literally “giving life to flowers”) is the Japanese art of flower arrangement, in which the arrangement brings nature and humanity closer together. The..
The Haiku and Haiga Chronicles: Exhaustion, Loss, and Prolonged Sorrow
Anne as an indomitable decorator: A feisty artist whom brain cancer can impede but never defeat Everybody who knows Anne knows that she’s a decorator; she calls herself the “Decorating Turkey.” Our sons have dubbed her “couth”; even the house in which we raised our rowdy boys in suburban Quebec City was “couth” and..
Basho in Bedlam and Being Unceremoniously Thrown Out Of Bed: An Excessively Precipitous Taper A victim of implacable, incurable brain cancer, of glioblastoma, my darling wife Anne has been subject to well-intentioned medical experimentation ever since was diagnosed and operated on just over two short months ago. It’s clear that her new “Annehood” has..
Taigu Ryokan was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and poet of the Edo period, known for his unconventional lifestyle and unadorned, deeply personal poetry. https://allpoetry.com/Taigu-Ryokan Haiku’s more visual cousin, the haiga, unites a haiku poem, written in calligraphy, with a simple painting. https://poets.org/text/haiga-haiku-calligraphy-and-painting In our new world of shared grief and absurd wonder..
An update on Anne’s suffering from radiation treatments and chemotherapy Like life itself A world of beauty, Ikebana floral art: Fleeting poetry. My wife Anne is afflicted with glioblastoma, an incurable form of brain cancer. Glioblastoma – Wikipedia https://www.braintumour.ca/fr/types_de_tumeurs_cerebrales/glioblastome/ Anne is currently suffering from severe nausea stemming from the intensive radiation treatments..
Haiku for a beloved friend on her birthday The fog of a dream: Desolation yields a shrine, Your steadfast friendship. A haiku is a type of Japanese poem that always uses the same number of syllables in a three-line format: the first line is five syllables the second line is seven syllables the..
Great Grey Owl Frowning: A Haiku poem for a dark night of the soul Stark, not debonair, This owl, a stern taskmaster, A conscience with wings. Great Grey Owl/ Chouette lapone photo credit Leigh Bateman Great Gray Owl Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology When the owl sings, the night..