ocean

Travel Haiku: Cambria California

| Danna Smith

Haiku is about “seeing”—about paying attention to a moment in nature and capturing that moment, like a snapshot, on paper with words (before it disappears). 

My husband and I recently took a drive to Cambria on the northern California coast to celebrate my birthday. Rather than keep a written journal, I like to poetically record what I see in my travels. I’m sharing some of my travel haiku here today. Some attempts are better than others but hopefully, you can “see” what I saw through the imagery in these poems.

Continue reading →

Letters to Mother Goose Series: a Ship a-sailing

| Danna Smith

You know Mother Goose writes in rhyme, but do you know her characters are poets too? Welcome to week thirteen (just one week left) of my Letters to Mother Goose poetry series! This week the poem is penned by the captain and crew of the ship a-sailing in response to Mother Goose’s wish upon a star: 

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.  
I wonder how my children are. 
Up above the world so bright, 
if I may, I wish they'd write...
Continue reading →

Travel Haiku: Taking Haiku on the Road

| Danna Smith

Early this month, we talked about how to start a Haiku Journal. As mentioned, famous Japanese poet, Matsuo Basho, recorded his travels by way of haiku in his diary. I recently took a drive to the northern California coast for some R & R and thought I’d follow Basho’s lead by poetically recording what I saw each day. Here are a few of my travel haiku, hopefully you can “see” what I saw through the imagery in these poems:

Continue reading →