Hello, dear Readers! Thank you so much for stopping by! This website is primarily my ongoing, ever-growing portfolio/collection of old and new poems I've written over the years (and then there are still more on paper collecting mildew and dust somewhere in the "Mount Fuji" of my closet, which I don't know if they will ever make it on here). This site will also contain random works of writing that need a nurturing home, which will include essays, fiction, plays, drawings, drafts, etc..
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11/21/08
I stumbled upon riesiel's wonderful work in your_spirals and found a wonderful list of "themes." I am looking forward to completing this challenge as I've been collecting poetry sites with prompts as if they were gems in a treasure chest I found at the bottom of the ocean. It keeps my poetic brain stimulated.

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100 Theme Challenge

Date Started: November 22, 2008
Percent Completed: In progress
Date Completed:
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I can't believe it. Half of the year is gone. Tomorrow is July. That means, I probably missed about 3 days' worth of writing haiku, but by a narrow margin (i.e. for several hours). As of today, I have 500 pieces of Japanese forms (e.g. tanka, senryu, haiku, and a few attempts similar to haiku/senryu).

Here's my breakdown:

January - 38
February - 62
March - 76
April - 103
May - 91
June - 131**

Half of the year total: 501** pieces since launch date on New Year's Day 2009!


On some days, I was able to write on water. The words flow like a river, and I had to row my boat hard to keep up with the words flowing from my pen. On other days, my mind is like a drought, my pen ran very little ink, and my soul was just dying of thirst.

All in all, I am amazed with how far I've gone, how much I've written. Writing meditative pieces in Japanese forms is always a challenge but is well worth my time and attention. It gave me a much keener, more focused view of life, seeing things in different facets and on a much deeper, sometimes even on a more inquisitive level.

Here's to the last half of the year! Hopefully, I can do another 500! Thank you everyone for your never-ending support, sincere thoughtfulness, care, and appreciation! <3 <3 If there's an important thing I've learned from writing poetry in general, the poet has to believe that the words he/she writes are meaningful enough to make the entire poem meaningful. Then, the poet is ready to share what he/she discovered or experienced with the world, keeping in mind that at the end of the day, it is still something the poet has created despite what anyone says, but the poem will always be evolving if the poet takes the best stones to spark that fire.

I do appreciate you all, my dear friends and readers. I am most humbled and sincerely touched. Please continue to enjoy my work. :)

**Last minute addition was written last night after this post. So, 501 pieces total. (Updated 7/01)

Hello, hello! Here's yet another monthly Japanese forms update! This would include haiku, senryu, tanka, and other similar forms for the month of June.

For those of you who would prefer to get an instant daily update instead, check out my Twitter page on the sidebar. :) Please (re-)enjoy!!
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**Last minute addition before going to bed last night! (Updated 7/01)

Another monthly Japanese forms update! This would include haiku, senryu, tanka, and other similar forms for the month of May.

For those of you who would prefer to get an instant daily update instead, check out my Twitter page on the sidebar. :)

For now, (re-)enjoy!!
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From Cafe Writing's May/June 2009 Project:

Option Five: Can You Picture That?

Use the the following photo to inspire a piece of writing in any form (poetry, prose, whatever).


Photo courtesy of Tony Campbell.

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in the woods
scent of honey lures the gut
tree hugger

On New Year's Day, I launched alotus_poetry on Twitter because there was such an enthusiastic encouragement from my friend, April, who thought that my haiku & senryu were short enough to be featured globally and that in this way, I would get a chance to share my work among the greater masses. (Thank you, April! I cannot thank you enough!) Little did I know, my Daily Haiku & Senryu 2009 Challenge turned out to be more than I expected. I not only met lots of people out there but also made many great online writer/artist-friends who wanted to learn more about the world of haiku and poetry. And I too have learned so much from them.

Somewhere in my subconscious, I wanted to do collaborations with artists as one of my creative 2009 goals. Then lo and behold, I somehow stumbled upon the work of Holly Friesen and fell in love with her work. Her landscape paintings are magnificent; the colors of each painting evoke some of the most complex emotions--a profound combination between nature and human nature. It is that very foundation that I began to realize that my haiku/senryu are just as analogous to those colors of emotions in Holly's paintings. They not only touch the imagination but also the reflection and self-awareness sometimes we take for granted in life. I am finding myself seeing many facets of our artwork combined (mine is words, hers is pictures) when I view our combined artwork (haiga) several days later with fresher eyes--the meaning of each artwork transforms itself to something new, as if it is in the moment like a haiku in and of itself. (The words cannot go without the picture and vice versa. They complement each other.)

I am excited to see where our journey leads us to for this year and most definitely look forward to building more words with more pictures.

Here are some of our work:

Cloud Spill

Lush Brush

Fire Portage

Water Receiving Sky

Please enjoy!

Stuck somewhere in Kansas*

I drove on a midnight road to a bleak horizon on
a cross between a bicycle and a skeleton of a car,
holding a poster-sized portfolio of pages and pages
of words and amorphous sketches
around my waist like a belt of chains,
pedaling, pushing, pulling,
panting,

afraid to lose words or find them
hidden beneath my gut.

A sliver of the moon crossed over
the hazy sunset,
perhaps an eclipse or a tornado with clouds strolling in
towards my heart
and swallow me whole--
an expectant kiss, a melting gaze.

I cannot decide
if I should move into the void
or hold back for as long as I can.

*Note: A free-write based on an odd dream I had last night or rather earlier this morning.

Hello, my dear friends, fellow writers/poets, and readers!

I have not been neglecting you entirely. I sincerely thank you for all the comments and support you've given me while I was away. However, I will return soon to catch up and stop by your journals/blogs for a visit as I always do return visits (given if there is some sort of blog address, email, or some contact info) and enjoy doing so! I will also return messages, so please bear with me! <3

Secondly, I have just posted a collection of this past month's haiku and senryu! Please indulge with a cup of tea and fortune cookies! I hope you won't be disappointed. However, for those who are on Twitter, you have already read at least most of them. HERE'S THE LINK!

Next, I want to post the last week's worth of NaPoWriMo poems on here. I've written a whole lot, but haven't gotten much chance to revise very much of it nor do I think some of them make any sense. However, these posts will come in quick bursts, so keep a lookout for them! :)

Finally, I've been so incredibly busy these past few weeks. The end of the semester is here, and I am in need of rest and relaxation. Thank you all for your kind words. <3

And here's another avalanche of haiku and senryu (and similar forms) since April 6th. I've been updating daily on Twitter instead...

For now, enjoy!!
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Prompts from Read Write Poem:

*Note: This was a hard prompt at first, but I think I'm happy with how it turned out! It's been a while since I've written some rhyming poems...

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Runs in the Blood

I raised a village,
saved a village
through brews of herbal tea.
They gave me their palms
to read their lifelines,
but I feel their blood
rushing to the sea.
Yin and yang, hot and cold,
I tell them,
they must be balanced equally;
but if not, drink this potion
and your body will quickly restore the qi.
Alas, my son refused to carry on
the wonders of this Chinese magic
with ginseng to truly cure me.
He was too busy attending
to worldly matters
and wished to be carefree.
Of course, the loving father that I was
let him go about his ways,
and I too old to bend my knees,
instead sat and prayed for a future blessing.
One day,
I looked over at the edge of heaven
and exclaimed profusely.
If she could see me,
I would have given her my practice
as I am proud to see my great-granddaughter--
a compassionate nurse she will surely come to be.

Prompts from Poetic Asides:

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On Regrets

revolving door
paper moths flutter through
but cannot move forward

Prompts from Poetic Asides:

---

his permanent loss
distance cuts stars in half
time trickles to tears

Prompts from Read Write Poem & Poetic Asides:

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Mid-Challenge

Work--
it's a challenge
to not meet a forbidden challenge
where the curious eyes meet with mystery
and words go down under
through a sea of electronic paper
and moon-tide banter.

There's a borrowed desk
between us--
the many knacks you could use
to open the closed oyster.
Somehow I find it
that you wear your pearly heart
on my sleeve
like sticky notes on a computer.
I notice it when it burns
and sizzles like molten lava,
the way your office erupts
in disarray,
and I'm escaping, not wanting
to know where this ashy love would fall.

Prompts from Read Write Poem & Poetic Asides:

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The Newly Minted Grad

summer beginnings
aligned with fireworks of c(l)aps
blackbirds in rows

career beginnings
aligned with paper footprints
penguins in tow

life beginnings
aligned with bouts of doubts/dreams
game ducks on show

Prompts from Poetic Asides:

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in her shoes
one size too big to fill
out crawls a spider

Just glaze over this. Don't read this. I didn't change it much, but I always like to document the changes within this poetry journal/site of mine.
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Prompts from Read Write Poem & Poetic Asides:

*Note: Inspirational image by pareeerica.

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Self-Awakening

Rise from the ashes, my little
early bird. Your divine feathers, so
beautiful, they bring healing words to my fingertips once
I sing and walk into the labyrinth of tree trunks,
ready to transform my crumbling world in-
to something complete and steady, ever growing with goodness.
How I wish when peace comes to those who stop
fighting for it and instead seek for it within themselves.

Prompts from Poetic Asides:

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Non-Ouroboros

Act on impulse when
Nothing seems to work.
Getting there quickly strums the
Ego so the heated game becomes survival of the fittest.
Ready to prove a point, one strikes with bitter poison

but only to lose to self-destruction.