Sightlines – a collaboration between poets and artists

Sightlines was the name of an art exhibition held in April 2022 at the Small Works Gallery in Murwillumbah, NSW (Australia) – a unique collaboration between artists and poets, which was launched with a poetry reading. 

Five local poets, including me, were invited to submit poems which might inspire 11 local artists. This collaboration was very exciting for us all!

I submitted haiku, for the directness and immediacy of the visual images. Three artists chose four – or five – of them. (In the transcribing, sending poems over the internet, two haiku managed to run together as one poem. And hey, it really worked! An artist responded to it as a whole.) 

To read the haiku, see all the artwork they inspired, and read what the artists say about the experience, see here. 

Image © Annique Goldenberg 2022,
photographed by Rosemary Nissen-Wade.

 

Sucking Mangoes Naked

 

This wonderful title and book cover belong to a new anthology in which I'm delighted to have several pieces included. Much gratitude to Tad Wojnicki for conceiving, compiling and editing the whole and seeing it through to publication.

Here is the blurb from its Amazon listing:

You love haiku. You’ve flipped the books, checked the sites, and scrolled the zines. But you’re left craving that special something… It may be something as obvious as love. Well, how about a book of erotic haiku?

 Sucking Mangoes Naked is a no-holds-barred look at the twists & turns of love, spiritual as well as physical, told in a “let’s sit down and chat over a cup of some exotic tea” manner. So brew a cup of Oolong, Yerba Mate, or Acai, and dig in! 

Like you, the poets included in the Sucking Mangoes Naked anthology have had their succinct, nut-shaped erotica scattered here and there – everywhere -- throughout the literary landscape without a tangible proof of their efforts. But starting today, they can hold the fruit of their love dreams and longings in their own hands. 

Also for the first time, they find themselves belonging to a large tribe of haiku poets from far-flung corners of the world united by the most powerful human instinct – to love and to be loved.

 

Personally I am not holding a copy in my arms, as I prefer ebooks. (I know; I'm a Philistine, right?) Luckily it is available in that form too.

Just for the record, it does include some tanka, senryu and haiga as well as the haiku. Here are a couple of my efforts. 

hiked up my skirt
danced at the edge of the swell
teasing bare-legged
the ocean kissed my toes
then surged up past my knees

*
 
under his touch
I myself can feel
how soft my breasts

There are more in the book – by me, I mean – as well as a great variety, ranging from subtle and delicate to outspoken and frankly hot, by a number of other poets from many countries, all writing in English.

Here is where to find this entertaining and very affordable book on Amazon: click this link. 

Haiku Anthology

Oh, how exciting! I just got in the post the anthology "Jumble Box" edited by Michael Dylan Welch, drawn from last year's NaHaiWriMo (National Haiku Writing Month – which is actually international). That happens every February but there aren't always books resulting. I tend to wander away to other things between Februarys, so I was a bit late to realise it had been issued, but very glad to have it now. It looks and feels beautiful, with lovely artwork by fellow-Taswegian Ron Moss, and of course lots of excellent haiku. I'm especially chuffed that the three of mine included are all one-liners: a form I much admire and seldom even attempt myself.

Back in January 2007, just over 10 years ago, I decided to try and teach myself to write haiku. I discovered that I had a lot to learn!  It's wonderful to have come from those first clueless attempts to having work selected by a respected editor for an international collection such as this.

"Jumble Box" is available from Amazon, only in paperback – and this is one of the rare cases when I am delighted to have it in that form rather than ebook, because it is very easy to read, and the font and layout make it altogether a visual work of art. (Also, I must admit it's easier to show off a physical book to other people when I want to do some skiting.)
https://www.amazon.com/Jumble-Box-Senryu-Nati…/…/ref=sr_1_1…