Daily Double Haiku: May 25, 2022

an abyss 

at the end no matter

 

the yoga hours

 

by Alegria Imperial (Canada)

Kingfisherjournal, #1, June 2020

Daily Double Haiku: May 25, 2022

abandoned house

Jesus watches over

empty bottles

by Joanne van Helvoort (The Netherlands)

Prune Juice, October 2019

New Book Just Released!

Hello Readers!

Cotton Moon,  a collection of haiku and senryu, has just been published by Barrie Levine (USA), a contributor to this blog. Please read below for a sampling of the author’s poetry, along with credits of their original publication.

You may contact  Levine at essexarrow@aol.com for more information about her book. (This title is available through Amazon.)

hanging the wall calendar

we adopt

twelve new cats

 

failed haiku, December 2020

 

 

 

spring thaw . . .

the glint of coins

I lost in winter

 

artofhaiku.org, March 2021

 

 

 

 

mom’s fine china

the gold rim

of an eclipse

 

Cold Moon Journal, December 2021

 

 

 

 

box seat

at the theater

I am Juliet

 

Stardust Haiku Journal, February 2020

 

Daily Double Haiku: May 24, 2022

swish of the whisk

green foam clings

to Mum’s tea bowl

by Lillian Nakamura Maguire (Canada) 

Haiku Canada Members’ Anthology, 2018 

Daily Double Haiku: May 24, 2022

train station . . .

 

morning commuters rush

 

ahead of their feet

 

by Harvey Jenkins (Canada)

Daily Double Haiku: May 23, 2022

cackling in the fireplace–

the invitation to

my ex’s wedding

 

by John J. Dunphy (USA)

Prune Juice, November 2016

Daily Double Haiku: May 23, 2022

in high-heels

after her dog after a man

parking lot brawl

by Chen-ou Liu (Canada)

No More Excuses: Do a Reading of Your Work!

This just in–another photo taken at Madame ZuZu’s in Highland Park, IL from last weekend. Courtesy of Jennifer Dotson and Mary Beth Bretzlauf of Highland Park Poetry, the event’s sponsor.

All you need is a voice, and people will come to hear you. It’s just as simple as that.

Daily Double Haiku: May 22, 2022

up in the attic

crawling through

my childhood

 

by Clive Bennett (UK)

Wales Haiku Journal,  Summer 2021

Daily Double Haiku: May 22, 2022

kindred spirits–

meeting one

I bolt

 

by Ruth Holzer (USA)

Don’t Hide in the Shadows

I hope all of you are getting out and reading your work in front of live audiences. It doesn’t matter where you live. I guarantee, there is an appreciative audience there.  Don’t hide in the shadows! Meet your readers and prospective readers. Start by reading at open mics. Poetry and short stories work well at open mics. When people get to know you, they’ll ask you to perform solo at a reading. This is a particularly good activity if you’ve got a book to peddle.

 

Last weekend, at Madame ZuZu’s Café and Emporium in Highland Park, IL, (suburban Chicago), I  was honored in  “A Salute to Haiku.”  I spoke about haiku and senryu before doing a reading of my haiku/senryu and other forms of poetry I write.

 

Madame ZuZu’s is a funky place with retro décor. I always like meeting the public in popular gatherings. We had a good crowd in a huge event room with a stage.

 

The event was sponsored by Highland Park Poetry, founded by Jennifer Dotson in 2007, and  organized by Mary Beth Bretzlauf and her team. Mary Beth was the emcee who invited me to be a guest reader. I’m grateful to  people such as Jennifer and Mary Beth who work tirelessly at promoting poetry, despite having full-time day jobs. With all the work they do to promote poetry, they really have two full-time jobs. (Jennifer and Mary Beth even took photos of the event.)

 

I read from my two latest poetry books, “Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All,” and “Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing.” (If you haven’t heard of these two books after all my publicizing of them on this blog, you’ve probably been reading my blog in your sleep!)  You can scroll down to the end of this post to read a few of the poems I read.

 

Although this is hard for people who know me to believe, I grew up a wallflower, until I realized in my 20s, that being a wallflower doesn’t get you very far. I admit this now to give hope to those of you who shy away from speaking or doing anything  in public where you are the focus.

 

The only way to change is to force yourself to. I know that after you do, you’ll start enjoying being out in public.

 

I did a book signing of my two poetry books after my reading, and was heartened to even meet  poets in my own neighboring town that I’ve communicated with by email, but never had the pleasure of meeting in person before the event.

 

Out of gratitude for the support of many of you last week, I’m extending the discounts of my books that I offered at the event.

 

Special Discounts for My Books Extended

 

If you purchase one copy of “Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All” or one copy of “Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing” directly from me, you’ll receive free shipping via USPS with your signed copy, plus a $2 discount off of each title. A savings of $6 with free postage and the book discount. Each reference book retails for $19.95, so your grand total per book is $17.95. (USA residents).

 

Canadians, please inquire about your discount.

 

As an added bonus: I’ll provide an edit or revision of one poem of any form that a purchaser has written, so that it’s publishable to appear on this blog.

 

You may contact me directly at c-books@hotmail.com with questions and for ordering information.

 

Below are just a few of the best reviews of my two books.

 

Thanks to all who’ve taken the time to read my books and to comment! It’s much appreciated. And thank you for reading this blog.

 

 

Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All (232 pages)

 

Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All is the book that launched thousands of haiku poets and haiku teachers!

 

An altogether brilliant work that must be read by anyone with so much as a passing interest in haiku. Charlotte Digregorio has penned a masterpiece! She has written the definitive guide to one of poetry’s most fascinating genres. This work belongs on the bookshelf of any poet who is serious about writing the kind of haiku that editors want to publish.

 

-–John J. Dunphy, Author and Poet, Touching Each Tree

 

This book is overall the best one out there on the subject. The amount of information is extraordinary and exceeds that found in any other book. In particular, the commentaries on selected poems are very good, intelligent, and sensitive, and really place keys into the hands of readers for unlocking the mysteries and joys of haiku literature–from its roots in Japan to its present robust evolution in English and other languages.

 

-–Michael McClintock, Award-Winning Author/Editor of Haiku & Tanka Books

Former President of The Tanka Society of America

 

If a book about haiku inspires the reader to create haiku, then Charlotte Digregorio’s Haiku and Senryu guide has done its job bountifully. Digregorio calls this “A Simple Guide for All” and she isn’t kidding. Her basic instruction simplifies the process of writing haiku without sacrificing the beauty and the pleasure that are essential. The examples of well-known haikuists shimmer with perfection! If you are interested in pursuing this lovely, subtle art form, THIS is the guide you need. Fantastic guide! I can’t believe how much I learned.

 

-–Robin Stratton, Editor, Boston Literary Magazine

 

Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All is exactly what it says it is: a way into the reading, writing and publishing of the world’s favorite genre. Premised on the idea that one doesn’t need to be a professional poet to enjoy it, Haiku and Senryu will inform you on why poets and non-poets alike love the genre; how to read them for maximum enjoyment; where they came from; how to organize them; and how to get them into print and other people’s heads. Whether a newbie or a seasoned veteran, you’re sure to come away with a deeper appreciation of the genre. And it’s also a considerable anthology of some of the best English-language haiku to be found.

 

–The Haiku Foundation

 

A strong overview of haiku. A wealth of material on how to introduce and teach haiku to children, college students, and interested adults. For busy teachers the material will make it easier to provide guidance to their students. Any teacher would be thrilled for the helpful guidance, examples, and tools for presenting the form to the next generation. The pain and work involved in creating one’s own lesson plans is gone with the author’s well-honed presentations.

 

The bibliography also contains a wealth of material. Buy a copy for teachers, students, or interested poets and just tell them to read it. This volume will not steer them wrong, and gives any reader something with meat to hang their hat on while they discover or further explore haiku. It will remain on my shelf.

 

–Mike Rehling, Book Reviewer, United Haiku and Tanka Society

 

 

Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing (236 pages) 

 

Benjamin Franklin Awards (2021): Independent Book Publishers Association

 

 Comments from Judge #1:

 

Life in all its aspects flows through Charlotte Digregorio’s buoyant poetry collection. For its healing and inspirational qualities, this is a book to keep and reread frequently. It inspires enhanced living and writing. Excellent!

 

 Comments from Judge #2 

 

This book is a very easy and pleasurable read.  I read every poem with delight in about six days. (236 pages). There are lines in the poetry that if they were fireworks would light up the night sky. This book is that good. The introduction is a marvelous bit of writing, explaining the author’s view on poetry, and about the title’s meaning. All through the book, when each new section is about to unfold, there is a prose explanation of what one is about to encounter. These preludes to the sections are one of the best features of the book.

 

Charlotte Digregorio’s indefatigable writing packs a strong poetic punch. This award-winning poet has the courage to face the truth about love, loss, aging, birth, death, and the upside down nature of life–the full catastrophe. Expect to be challenged and invigorated. Without question, Digregorio is a beneficial presence in this world, and I have a high regard for her fresh and poignant poems.

 

–Robert Epstein, Psychotherapist & Author, Healing into Haiku: On Illness and Pain

 

Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing comes in a year when healing is in even greater demand than usual. In this book, we not only get a well-written poetry collection that promotes healing, but a how-to guide for writing poetry that aids healing. As I read it, I often paused to implement Digregorio’s suggestions, jotting down poems of my own, and filled several pages. The author is particularly well known as an authority on the Japanese forms of haiku and senryu, and many of the poems in this book follow them. Others are in free verse and a dozen other forms. The collection is structured into sections containing poems about various subjects you can consider writing about. Each section is introduced by a page of prose that includes the author’s sage comments on why the subject is relevant and how the poems influence healing. The poems and writing advice are clear, accessible, and beautifully lyrical. Her point is: look, you can do this.  I highly recommend this book.

 

–Richard Allen Taylor, Author of Armed and Luminous

Book Reviewer, The Main Street Rag

 

I highly, highly recommend this book! I read a lot of how-to-write poetry books, but this is unique because it shows would-be poets like me the “why” of writing poems. For those who want to write the best poetry we are capable of, this collection encourages us to look for and create beauty, strength, and healing. Many times during the reading of this book, I put it down and wrote a few lines of my own. I read several of her poems out loud, luxuriating in the evocative language and the emotional effect it had on me. Her haiku is particularly inspiring and she is a master at it.  I love this book. It’s not just a collection of poems, but thoughtful essays about how poetry can heal. There are a lot of lines I would like to quote (or pretend I came up with).  I love the imagery.

 

–Robin Stratton, Editor, Boston Literary Magazine

 

This book is different from any poetry book I have reviewed before. We need this book! Who among us has not needed healing? Who among us has not spent time in the cave of despair? Who among us has not needed an outlet for anger or loss? This is great poetry, mature craftsmanship, written in an accessible style for all to savor. It’s easy to apply these poems to daily life. A professional observer, Digregorio sees and feels everything more deeply. She reveals her sensitivity to the human condition. The volume contains something for everyone: from compact oriental forms, to superbly-crafted sonnets, to the little known etheree, to fun forms such as acrostics and limericks, free verse and more.

 

Exhaustive Appendices: More than a collection of poetry, the author offers practical, hands-on support for beginning and experienced writers.  As poets, we also need to promote and sell our poetry, our books, and the author helps get us off the sidelines and into the promotional game. Treasures to be unearthed include multiple lists of publications that publish poetry; ideas for general print/broadcast media that feature poets; and ideas on types of associations, organizations, and businesses that promote poets through awards, interviews, readings, speaking venues, workshops engagements, and exhibitions of their work. This book has given me a real education.

 

–Michael Escoubas, Editor, Quill and Parchment

 

The bumper sticker on my car reads: “Nature: Cheaper than Therapy.” As an adjunct to nature’s treatment plan, I would prescribe Charlotte Digregorio’s  Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing. Her imagistic poems wind through diverse relational and emotional terrain, and never lose touch with the natural healing qualities of acceptance, wonder, gratitude, and harmony.

 

–Mike Stinson, Psychotherapist, Poet & Author, extra innings

 

What a treasure and a wonder from a mightily accomplished author. I always turn to this book with anticipation and peace in my heart, looking forward to the author’s life insights. A ponderous book. I am giving it the daily reading that the inspiring poems call out for, a page or two a day with meditative thought for the author’s many layered gifts of creativity. I love the titles of the multi-themed chapters. I am delving into this clear pond of healing, the book’s healing messages.

 

–Donna Bauerly, Professor Emeritus

Loras College

 

 

Note: Charlotte Digregorio is a retired Writing and Foreign Language Professor, winner of 66 poetry awards, and a four-time nominee for Pushcart Prizes. She has more than 800 poems in print and writes 14 poetic forms. “Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing,” a reference book, will inspire you to write many forms of poetry. Among them: cinquain, etheree, acrostic, sonnet, free verse, limerick, and the Japanese forms of tanka, haibun, haiku and senryu sequences.  Digregorio has organized poetry conferences throughout the country, and speaks and gives workshops at national conferences. Her popular solo exhibits of healing poetry are featured at libraries, corporate buildings, hospitals, galleries, and park districts, among other venues.

 

Some of Charlotte Digregorio’s delightful senryu:

 

leaving the bank

with six figures

on the odometer

 

 

 

snowed in . . .

after the piña colada

dreaming in color

 

 

“Season’s Greetings” . . .

braggart’s annual letter

fuels the yule log

 

 

Some of Charlotte Digregorio’s  poignant haiku:

 

 

Mother’s Day . . .

wrapping the pink dress

for the funeral home

 

 

mother’s last breath . . .

my dog leaves us

alone

 

Charlotte Digregorio’s Tanka:

 

this summer evening

strolling neighborhood streets

i pick up my swollen feet

and run through the sprinklers

into my youth

 

 

Free Verse:

 

 

Another Draft

 

Forty-eighth or fiftieth?

I lose track again.

Scraps of scribbling

scattered, far-flung

behind the toaster

beneath the bedboard.

 

One moment, wordless,

next, wordful–

pummeled by an avalanche.

Buried under divisive devices

beneath the desk,

I choke on alliteration,

assonance, onomatopoeia,

hyperbole.

 

Creeping, crawling,

trolling, drawling,

hacking up restless syllables

parched to the tongue

too garbled to slide

onto smudged paper.

 

On my knees,

breath spent,

I open the window

for a few whiffs.

Through pine-scented sky,

hearing a warbler’s refrain,

I crumple and pitch

my stale gibberish.

 

 

Copyright 2022 by Charlotte Digregorio.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Double Haiku: May 21, 2022

letting the light in

 

the window by the door

 

where she waits

 

 

by Beverly Acuff Momoi (USA)

Blithe Spirit, 31:4, Fall-Winter 2021

Double Daily Haiku: May 21, 2022

up on the roof street dancing 

 

by Marilyn Ashbaugh (USA)

tsuri-doro, Issue #6, November/December 2021

Daily Double Haiku: May 20, 2022

 

39 years divorced

a loss so lost–

no loss 

 

 

 

by Mac Greene (USA)

Daily Double Haiku: May 20, 2022

mistaking

a lesson

for a mistake

 

 

by Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo (The Philippines)

Daily Double Haiku: May 19, 2022

becoming a widow . . .

 

now she knows

 

where her husband is

 

 

by Antonietta Losito (Italy)

10th Anniversary Edition, Issue  #27, March 2019 
Prune Juice: Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun, and Haiga

Daily Double Haiku: May 19, 2022

mega church

everyone sticks

to their guns

 

 

by Michael Henry Lee (USA)

Prune Juice, Issue 35, November 2021

Daily Double Haiku: May 18, 2022

early spring thaw . . .

fallen willow trunk

reflecting in the swamp

by Brendan Hewitt (Canada)

Daily Double Haiku: May 18, 2022

his old church

converted

to condos

 

 

 

son ancienne paroisse

l’église convertie
en condos

 

                                                                                                                                                              by Carole Daoust (Canada)

A Hundred Gourds, 3:1, December 2013

Daily Double Haiku: May 17, 2022

creature comforts . . .

his dog bed

shag-carpeted

 

 

by Emily Rademacher (USA)

Daily Double Haiku: May 17, 2022

my dreams . . .

rain washes away

the ashes

 

by Jennifer Isham (USA)

Daily Double Haiku: May 16, 2022

skinny dippers . . .

my embarrassment 

exposed

 

 

by Bryan Hansel (USA)

Daily Double Haiku: May 16, 2022

cool sand

under her feet . . . 

receding tide

 

by Joan Marie Roberts (Canada)

Second Place

Haiku Arbutus Contest, Summer 2021

 

Daily Double Haiku: May 15, 2022

man-made lake . . .

a turtle tangled

in plastic

by Jill Kessler (USA)

Daily Double Haiku: May 15, 2022

silence . . .

the river whispers

a hymn of rest

by Mariangela Canzi (Italy)

Daily Double Haiku: May 14, 2022

re-opening . . .

the server remembers

my standing order

 

by Barrie Levine (USA)

Prune Juice Journal, #35, November 2021

Daily Double Haiku: May 14, 2022

childhood trail . . .
whispering in the trees
the voices of old friends

 

by Corine Timmer (Portugal)

Blithe Spirit, Vol.  28, No. 2, May 2018

Daily Double Haiku: May 13, 2022

leaving the hospice
a flowering twig over
the walled garden

 

 

by Florin C. Ciobica (Romania)

Haiku Dialogue

The Haiku Foundation

Daily Double Haiku: May 13, 2022

estuary light

the treble clefs

of flamingos

by Debbie Strange (Canada)

Second Place

Third Maya Lyubenova Int’l Haiku Contest, 2022

Daily Double Haiku: May 12, 2022

 

first morning fog

a river unfurls

the heron’s wing

 

by Renée Owen (USA)

Acorn, 2021

Daily Double Haiku: May 12, 2022

girl with a red pail
running water over
her sandy dad

 

 

 

by Geoff Pope (USA)

Frogpond, Vol. 43:2, Spring/Summer 2020

Daily Double Haiku: May 11, 2022

braided stream . . . 

the book in my hands 

after the last page 

 

by Mary Stevens (USA)

Double Daily Haiku: May 11, 2022

first bite of mango

summer flowing down

my chin

by Rick Daddario (USA)

https://rickdaddario.com

Daily Double Haiku: May 10, 2022

falling chopstick

flying soya sauce . . .

no more sake

 

 

by Michael Canic (Canada)

Daily Double Haiku: May 10, 2022

small study
and books to read
days with longer light

 

by Ellen Grace Olinger (USA)

Akitsu Quarterly, Spring 2022

Daily Double Haiku: May 9, 2022

ancient pond

copper frogs 

chime in the wind

by Ryland Shengzhi Li (USA)

Daily Double Haiku: May 9, 2022

river sounds . . .

pausing on the footbridge

to listen

by Joanne Morcom (Canada)

 

Chicagoans: Meet Me on Saturday, May 14!

Charlotte Digregorio will be honored at Madame ZuZu’s Tea House in Highland Park, IL at 5 p.m., Saturday, May 14, sponsored by Highland Park Poetry.  An open mic will follow. (Madame ZuZu’s is located at 1876 First St. in Highland Park.) 

Charlotte will read selected haiku and other poems from her two books, “Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All” and “Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing.”  

“Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All” has been praised  as the “definitive” book for learning and practicing the art of these two short forms. It has launched thousands of haiku poets and haiku teachers.

“Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing,” a reference book, inspires you to write fourteen forms of poetry. Among them: cinquain, etheree, acrostic, sonnet, free verse, limerick, and various Japanese forms. 

Charlotte has organized poetry conferences throughout the country, and speaks and gives workshops at national conferences. She’s a retired Writing and Foreign Language Professor, winner of 66 poetry awards, and a four-time nominee for Pushcart Prizes. She has more than 800 poems in print.  Her popular solo exhibits of healing poetry/art are featured at libraries, corporate buildings, hospitals, galleries, and park districts, among several venues.

For more information about this event or about haiku and senryu, you may contact Charlotte
at c-books@hotmail.com.

Daily Double Haiku: May 8, 2022

sunlit tarn

 

a platypus dabbles

 

in snow gums

 

 

by Leanne Mumford (Australia)

Paper Wasp, 19:1, 2013

Daily Double Haiku: May 8, 2022

kindred spirits–

meeting one

I bolt

by Ruth Holzer (USA)

Daily Double Haiku: May 7, 2022

single branch ikebana . . .

shadows of furry catkins

on an empty wall

 

by Elena Malec (USA)

 

Daily Double Haiku: May 7, 2022

under stars our sleeping bags touching

by Joseph P. Wechselberger (USA)

Frogpond, 44:1, 2021

Daily Double Haiku: May 6, 2022

Scattering his ashes
the moon 
in bits and pieces

by Sylvia Forges-Ryan (USA)

Harold G. Henderson Award, First Prize, 1993

Daily Double Haiku: May 6, 2022

moongate
into the zen garden
tricycle wheel stuck

by Mary L. Leopkey (Canada)

Asahi Haikuist Network, April 1, 2022

Daily Double Haiku: May 5, 2022

day moon fading her blank stare

by Pris Campbell (USA)

Acorn, Fall Issue, 2016

Daily Double Haiku: May 5, 2022

submerged by pain

her silence pulls her down

into deep water

by Anne-Marie Labelle (Canada)

Calling All Senryuists!

Charlotte Digregorio seeks senryu submissions for The Daily Haiku on this blog, www.charlottedigregorio.wordpress.com. You may email her with just one of your best senryu at 

c-books@hotmail.com.

Previously-published is fine. Unpublished senryu may be edited/revised for clarity.

All are welcome to submit, especially those who’ve never appeared on this blog featuring writers from sixty-one countries.

Digregorio’s goal is to feature all active senryuists worldwide–beginners and experienced–who wish to appear. 

Deadline: May 15. 

Be A Skillful Poet!

Dear Readers and Followers:

I’m making a special offer to you.

If you purchase  “Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All” or  “Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing” directly from me, you’ll receive free shipping via USPS with your signed copy, plus a $2 discount off of each title. (A savings of $6 off of one book, and a $12 savings if you order  two books).  Each reference book retails for $19.95, so your grand total per book is $17.95. (USA residents).

Canadians, please inquire about your discount.

This offer ends May 31, 2022. Don’t delay!

As an added bonus: I’ll provide an edit or revision of a poem you’ve written

of any form, so that it’s publishable to appear on this blog.

You may contact me directly at c-books@hotmail.com with questions and for ordering information.

Below are some of the best reviews of these two books.

Thanks to all of you who’ve taken the time to read my books and to comment. It’s much appreciated. And thank you to all for reading this blog!

Keep writing . . .

Best Wishes,

Charlotte Digregorio

Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All (232 pages)

Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All is the book that launched thousands of haiku poets and haiku teachers!

An altogether brilliant work that must be read by anyone with so much as a passing interest in haiku. Charlotte Digregorio has penned a masterpiece! She has written the definitive guide to one of poetry’s most fascinating genres. This work belongs on the bookshelf of any poet who is serious about writing the kind of haiku that editors want to publish.

-–John J. Dunphy, Author and Poet, Touching Each Tree

This book is overall the best one out there on the subject. The amount of information is extraordinary and exceeds that found in any other book. In particular, the commentaries on selected poems are very good, intelligent, and sensitive, and really place keys into the hands of readers for unlocking the mysteries and joys of haiku literature–from its roots in Japan to its present robust evolution in English and other languages.

-–Michael McClintock, Award-Winning Author/Editor of Haiku & Tanka Books

Former President of The Tanka Society of America

If a book about haiku inspires the reader to create haiku, then Charlotte Digregorio’s Haiku and Senryu guide has done its job bountifully. Digregorio calls this “A Simple Guide for All” and she isn’t kidding. Her basic instruction simplifies the process of writing haiku without sacrificing the beauty and the pleasure that are essential. The examples of well-known haikuists shimmer with perfection! If you are interested in pursuing this lovely, subtle art form, THIS is the guide you need. Fantastic guide! I can’t believe how much I learned.

-–Robin Stratton, Editor, Boston Literary Magazine

Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All is exactly what it says it is: a way into the reading, writing and publishing of the world’s favorite genre. Premised on the idea that one doesn’t need to be a professional poet to enjoy it, Haiku and Senryu will inform you on why poets and non-poets alike love the genre; how to read them for maximum enjoyment; where they came from; how to organize them; and how to get them into print and other people’s heads. Whether a newbie or a seasoned veteran, you’re sure to come away with a deeper appreciation of the genre. And it’s also a considerable anthology of some of the best English-language haiku to be found.

–The Haiku Foundation

A strong overview of haiku. A wealth of material on how to introduce and teach haiku to children, college students, and interested adults. For busy teachers the material will make it easier to provide guidance to their students. Any teacher would be thrilled for the helpful guidance, examples, and tools for presenting the form to the next generation. The pain and work involved in creating one’s own lesson plans is gone with the author’s well-honed presentations.

The bibliography also contains a wealth of material. Buy a copy for teachers, students, or interested poets and just tell them to read it. This volume will not steer them wrong, and gives any reader something with meat to hang their hat on while they discover or further explore haiku. It will remain on my shelf.

–Mike Rehling, Book Reviewer, United Haiku and Tanka Society

 

Marvelous book! Marvelous insight. I truly enjoyed this book, being wonderfully surprised by the new information I didn’t know. The chapter on teaching haiku was especially great, since I’ve taught it, but by a different method. And, Charlotte Digregorio’s haiku often evoke a chuckle of wry recognition or stop you dead in your tracks from awe. She seems well acquainted with the quotidian’s variety of her days, from homeless folk, to nature’s evocation and to loss and sorrow.

-–Donna Bauerly, Professor Emeritus, Loras College

An energetic and comprehensive guide by a prolific writer and educator with insightful perspectives and a generous sampling of published haiku and senryu. This practical guide is delivered in a relaxed, conversational tone so that the lessons and examples are informative and easily accessible. Extensive appendices and bibliography.

–Frogpond, Journal of the Haiku Society of America

This book will hook the beginning reader and leave them wanting more. The book demystifies the genre. It offers haiku that are accessible and doable. The “Getting Published” section offers some good tips on submitting to and building a relationship with editors. The large reference section with bibliography of educational books, anthologies, collections, journals, and websites will be of great value to beginning readers.

–Paul Miller, Editor of Modern Haiku

I honor the work Charlotte Digregorio has done on behalf of English-language haiku in Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All. She has a gift for writing clearly, concentrating on what matters beyond passing controversy. As for her own fresh and gritty poems, Digregorio has the courage to face the truth of love, loss, aging, homelessness, birth/death and the upside down nature of life—the full catastrophe. Expect to be challenged and invigorated.

 

–Dr. Robert Epstein, Psychologist

Author, Checkout Time is Noon: Death Awareness Haiku

A couple of the many sterling qualities of Charlotte Digregorio’s haiku include perceptive observance of natural phenomena and penetrating insights into human nature, frequently with a delightful, wry humor in the latter category, along with deep compassion in others.

–Robert Spiess, Editor of Modern Haiku

Anyone can benefit from this book’s simple, clear advice. Digregorio offers time-tested, yet fresh and flexible pedagogy–actual lesson plans for those who wish to teach haiku. Intermediate and advanced practitioners will benefit from reminders of simple concepts long forgotten or never learned. We are given new ways to think about the poetry we read.

–Speed Bump Journal

 

Offers excellent advice on haiku writing It is a great book and has helped many of us in our haiku journey, and doubtless will for many years to come.

–Andy McLellan, Poet and Author, birth/stones: Selected Haiku and Haibun

 

 

Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing (236 pages) 

Note: Charlotte Digregorio is a retired Writing and Foreign Language Professor, winner of 66 poetry awards, and a four-time nominee for Pushcart Prizes. She has more than 800 poems in print and writes 14 poetic forms. “Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing,” a reference book, will inspire you to write many forms of poetry. Among them: cinquain, etheree, acrostic, sonnet, free verse, limerick, and the Japanese forms of tanka, haibun, haiku and senryu sequences.  Digregorio has organized poetry conferences throughout the country, and speaks and gives workshops at national conferences. Her popular solo exhibits of healing poetry are featured at libraries, corporate buildings, hospitals, galleries, and park districts, among other venues.

 

Benjamin Franklin Awards (2021): Independent Book Publishers Association

 Comments from Judge #1:

Life in all its aspects flows through Charlotte Digregorio’s buoyant poetry collection. For its healing and inspirational qualities, this is a book to keep and reread frequently. It inspires enhanced living and writing. Excellent!

 Comments from Judge #2 

This book is a very easy and pleasurable read.  I read every poem with delight in about six days. (236 pages). There are lines in the poetry that if they were fireworks would light up the night sky. This book is that good. The introduction is a marvelous bit of writing, explaining the author’s view on poetry, and about the title’s meaning. All through the book, when each new section is about to unfold, there is a prose explanation of what one is about to encounter. These preludes to the sections are one of the best features of the book.

Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing comes in a year when healing is in even greater demand than usual. In this book, we not only get a well-written poetry collection that promotes healing, but a how-to guide for writing poetry that aids healing. As I read it, I often paused to implement Digregorio’s suggestions, jotting down poems of my own, and filled several pages. The author is particularly well known as an authority on the Japanese forms of haiku and senryu, and many of the poems in this book follow them. Others are in free verse and a dozen other forms. The collection is structured into sections containing poems about various subjects you can consider writing about. Each section is introduced by a page of prose that includes the author’s sage comments on why the subject is relevant and how the poems influence healing. The poems and writing advice are clear, accessible, and beautifully lyrical. Her point is: look, you can do this.  I highly recommend this book.

–Richard Allen Taylor, Author of Armed and Luminous

Book Reviewer, The Main Street Rag

I highly, highly recommend this book! I read a lot of how-to-write poetry books, but this is unique because it shows would-be poets like me the “why” of writing poems. For those who want to write the best poetry we are capable of, this collection encourages us to look for and create beauty, strength, and healing. Many times during the reading of this book, I put it down and wrote a few lines of my own. I read several of her poems out loud, luxuriating in the evocative language and the emotional effect it had on me. Her haiku is particularly inspiring and she is a master at it.  I love this book. It’s not just a collection of poems, but thoughtful essays about how poetry can heal. There are a lot of lines I would like to quote (or pretend I came up with).  I love the imagery.

–Robin Stratton, Editor, Boston Literary Magazine

 

This book is different from any poetry book I have reviewed before. We need this book! Who among us has not needed healing? Who among us has not spent time in the cave of despair? Who among us has not needed an outlet for anger or loss? This is great poetry, mature craftsmanship, written in an accessible style for all to savor. It’s easy to apply these poems to daily life. A professional observer, Digregorio sees and feels everything more deeply. She reveals her sensitivity to the human condition. The volume contains something for everyone: from compact oriental forms, to superbly-crafted sonnets, to the little known etheree, to fun forms such as acrostics and limericks, free verse and more.

Exhaustive Appendices: More than a collection of poetry, the author offers practical, hands-on support for beginning and experienced writers.  As poets, we also need to promote and sell our poetry, our books, and the author helps get us off the sidelines and into the promotional game. Treasures to be unearthed include multiple lists of publications that publish poetry; ideas for general print/broadcast media that feature poets; and ideas on types of associations, organizations, and businesses that promote poets through awards, interviews, readings, speaking venues, workshops engagements, and exhibitions of their work. This book has given me a real education.

–Michael Escoubas, Editor, Quill and Parchment

Digregorio’s  poetry is healing, gets you through tough times, and saves lives. This book is one answer to the Coronavirus. In spending time reading it, we find an encouraging and peaceful way to live. Nuanced by childhood memories of oceans and jagged monoliths, of black bear and elk, she shares through reflection and meditation, poems with a spaciousness that speak of acceptance and gratitude for what is. She is like the sculptor in one of her poems, “creating equilibrium and harmony.” She reaches out and invites the reader to join her in solitude, share thoughts, and observations. Ultimately, there is a sense of community, of knowing we aren’t alone. There’s an exuberance of life here that cannot help but touch you. It is a book you can go back to time and time again.

–Mary Jo Balistreri, Poet and Author, Still

 

Fascinating tome–the perfect fit for this time in history. Soothing and peaceful. The author balances different poetic forms that contribute to a melodic, musical timbre. I marked many pages as my favorite poems–far too many to list here. Gorgeous words describing the natural world and her insightful memories in the “Nostalgia” section. Her poems wend their way through the maze of life events and experiences, healing in their warm, lyrical beauty.

–The Rockford Review, Sally Hewitt, Editor

 

The bumper sticker on my car reads: “Nature: Cheaper than Therapy.” As an adjunct to nature’s treatment plan, I would prescribe Charlotte Digregorio’s  Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing. Her imagistic poems wind through diverse relational and emotional terrain, and never lose touch with the natural healing qualities of acceptance, wonder, gratitude, and harmony.

–Mike Stinson, Psychotherapist, Poet & Author, extra innings

  

What a treasure. A ponderous book. I am giving it the daily reading that the inspiring poems call out for, a page or two a day with meditative thought for the author’s many layered gifts of creativity. I love the titles of the multi-themed chapters. I am delving into this clear pond of healing, the book’s healing messages.

–Donna Bauerly, Professor Emeritus, Loras College

 

 

An affecting collection. Charlotte Digregorio finds lyricism in solitude, finds reason to celebrate and transform into art the trifles in our gritty lives. These are poems of great skill, poems with a generous heart by a writer who cherishes the luminous particulars of every moment.

–Marsh Muirhead, Poet and Author of last night of the carnival

Award-winning poet Charlotte Digregorio offers readers an array of poems that delve deeply into the external, her Midwest surroundings, and the internal, the nature of her creativity. Digregorio’s delectable collection is one to be savored again and again.

–Roberta Beary, Poet and Author of The Unworn Necklace

 

The poems of Charlotte Digregorio possess a clarity of vision one seldom finds in contemporary verse. The images she creates are vibrant and alive. We Baby Boomers identify with her all too well.

–John J. Dunphy, Poet and Author of Touching Each Tree

We are blessed with this work! This is a comforting, much appreciated companion in these difficult times. The book responds to so many of the themes and issues that are central to my life experience. It sustains, and I am thankful.  I hope this book makes its way to many people in these sad times. It provides shade from the glare of events.

–David Eyre, Educator and Author, the nothing that is

Charlotte Digregorio has the all-too-uncommon ability to put the reader in the poet’s place. One does not read, so much as experience her poems. Closing my eyes, many of these poems could have been memories from my own past. These very personal poems become personal to the reader. The poet uses words as her brush, and all senses are stimulated.

–Ignatius Fay, Poet and Co-Author of Breccia

 

This is a self-help book that is the pathway to finding peace. The author’s healing poems speak to us and are especially timely during the Covid crisis.

–Winnetka-Kenilworth Living magazine (Illinois)

This elegantly designed book offers readers an eclectic mix of poetry styles to suit any and every mood. Here, you may find your senses soothed, or stimulated by the natural world. There, you might find yourself immersed in memories, or daydreams about the future. This writer has walked in our shoes, and her words entice us to take the first steps along the poetic path to healing.

–Debbie Strange, Poet and Author of The Language of Loss

 

 

Charlotte Digregorio is a much-published and much-honored poet. The approaches to writing she shares in this collection prove useful for those who seek inspiration and for those who give writing workshops.

–Maxianne Berger, Book Review Coordinator, Haiku Canada Review

Sample Poem from Ripples of Air: Poems of Healing:

Excursion

by Charlotte Digregorio

Roses needn’t be red, white or yellow.

I see purple in them, as in lilacs and orchids.

I take a few moments to sit in my room,

empty my mind of tiring tasks,

and taste the rose-scented rippling air

of my summers and winters.

In my twilight years, I discover the shades

of my decades, noticing deep colors.

Purple is in my moods, sorrowful or peaceful,

watching sunset’s amethyst clouds

darken the roses or the butterfly’s violet

wings skimming over regal petals.

I feel roses’ moist buds, see the sound

of falling blossoms in sun and rain

during this short stay.

*********************************************************************************

Daily Haiku: May 4, 2022

swollen river—

another deep

regret

.

by Stella Pierides (Germany)

Modern Haiku, 45:2, 2014

Daily Haiku: May 3, 2022

game of tag

the sea otter and I

lock eyes

by Ulrike Narwani (Canada)