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Weekly Gum Balls, different flavors of haiku, visual poetry, sci-fi short stories, & stuff that catches my eye will drop into your inbox on Mondays. I needed bits of joy to make my day, now I will share them with you

Gumball #11 - Sky Brush

Magic is in the Air - Notice Everything

Marjorie Pezzoli

Sep 19, 2023

Sky Brush

With a twinkle in her eye

she painted rainbows in the sky

I looked up

pondered

then asked

How big is your brush?

waited for her reply

As big as the sky

as large as my love for you

That made me smile

more than touched

my eyes began to shimmer

Reflections of love

filled my eyes

Colorful emotions

dripped onto the canvas of me

Honored and grateful this poem was published in the San Diego Poetry Annual 2022-2023. I still remember looking up to the sky then the words flowed into my thoughts. It is what I call a “continued conversation” with my sweet Alyssa, my StarChild.

This weekend has been filled with marvelous happenings and full circle moments.

Scott Mason shared his presentation: The ‘Cor’ Curriculum - Lessons from the Works of an American Haiku Poet Master - Southern California Haiku Study Group

Learning about Cor van den Heuvel was pure delight, we enjoyed hearing Scott tell us about time spent in Cor’s company as well. A living gem and Master Wordsmith to say the very least.

Thank you Scott for putting into words what I have been intuitively doing:

Overlook nothing - Discover the Magic - Explore the Past

Cor’s baseball haiku really hit home to me. I turned my mantra - “You can come up to bat as many times as you choose, no three strikes out in my game” into a 3 liner. Since 2013 this thought continues to help me.

up to bat

as many times as needed

no three strikes

9.16.23

It was nice to learn that Cor would use longer lines in his haiku to best convey the emotions of the moment. Scott added “have the reader be a co-creator”.

This has expanded my thinking. It is very freeing to me in the same way when I learned the 5/7/5 syllable rule is a western constraint for writing haiku. I like writing tighter poems.

Baseball Haiku: The Best Haiku Ever Written about the Game

by Nanae Tamura and Cor van den Heuvel | Apr 17, 2007

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=cor+van+den+heuvel&adgrpid=1331509146256081&hvadid=83219560672575&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=43832&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83219670374837%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=9997_13533727&tag=mh0b-20&ref=pd_sl_4dkzwz3zdl_e

More of Cor’s books are the link, now to decide which one to start with first.

I have so much more appreciation for haiku due to Scott’s presentation. Thank you to Deborah P Kolodji for holding this incredible Zoom for the study group.

All I can say is find your tribe, your jam, it makes all the difference when you do. It is pure magic!

Til next week - Marjorie