playful mallard ducks

no cares in their little world

slow speed paddling

.

three males, one female

move smoothly from shore to shore

winter afternoon

.

Did you know that Cynthia Bohannon-Brown has a photography website? It’s true. Check out more of her work at CBB Studios.

View more haiga by Cynthia.

lone spring kayaker

Chattahoochee Riverbank

panoramic view

.

peaceful travels on

a powerful waterway

carried by currents

.

.Did you know that Cynthia Bohannon-Brown has a photography website? It’s true. Check out more of her work at CBB Studios.

View more haiga by Cynthia.

narrow wooden bridge

shallow mountaintop creek on

a warm summer’s day

.

intense temptation

to bypass the safe passage

refreshing water

.

.Did you know that Cynthia Bohannon-Brown has a photography website? It’s true. Check out more of her work at CBB Studios.

View more haiga by Cynthia.

lonely buffalo

grazing in a field of green

faraway from home

.

how georgia’s climate

differs from your native west

warm winter living.

.

.Did you know that Cynthia Bohannon-Brown has a photography website? It’s true. Check out more of her work at CBB Studios.

View more haiga by Cynthia.

cute home for tired birds

quaint dwelling for feathered pair

tin roof, not rusty

.

old makeshift platform

rickety wooden structure

dauset trails garden.

.

.Did you know that Cynthia Bohannon-Brown has a photography website? It’s true. Check out more of her work at CBB Studios.

View more haiga by Cynthia.

Spring has sprung and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with a collection of nature inspired haiga. Personally, I find haiga mesmerizing. There’s something about pairing haiku with an image that is rich and complex as well as simple and fresh.

So I’m thrilled to present this week’s guest haiku’er, Cynthia Bohannon-Brown, a poet who combines photography with linked haiku. Her haiga will appear on this page for the next five days.

Cynthia has many talents and interests. She is a teacher, a photographer, a poet and a nature enthusiast. Cynthia also has a photography website that showcases her beautiful nature photography. It’s simply stunning work so be sure to check it out.

Let’s give a big welcome to Cynthia as  she tells us a bit about her life in Atlanta, Georgia and her adventurous approach to haiga:

Teacher, friend, lover, writer, poet, and photography nut are all words that accurately describe me. I live in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia (with my six zebra finches) and spend most of my waking hours thinking about nature and haiku. I am one of those poets who finds it difficult to separate the two things. I have volunteered my photography skills to organizations like the Sierra Club of Georgia and the Atlanta Audubon Society.

For the past thirteen years, I have taught elementary students and moved into teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) about three years ago. In 2009, I opened Cynthia Bohannon-Brown photography that specializes in nature photography, as well as photography for small businesses. In my spare time, I ride the lovely byways and highways of Georgia looking for my next photo opportunity.

For haiku poets, images are created from experiences which translate into words. For me, I document those images and experiences through digital photography and use them as my source of inspiration. I have found that as I move deeper into my fabulous forties, my memory simply isn’t as good as it used to be. Also, I am able to share the images with my students and motivate them to learn more about nature and to write haiku.

As a teacher, friend, lover, writer, poet, photography nut, I hope to inspire a generation of children to love and to appreciate haiku and nature as much as I do.

by Alison

Yes, I am one of those - I am Hello Kitty obsessed. But how can I not be? And who cares if I’m pushing 40? Life is good in Hello Kitty Land.

So of course I greatly enjoyed reading Hello Kitty Through the Seasons, a lovely book of haiku written in the voice of Hello Kitty herself.

Each candy-coated haiku is paired with an equally sweet photo of Hello Kitty in various seasonal settings. The book is a sort of Hello Kitty haiku diary taking us through spring, summer, fall and winter.

One of my favorite photograph-haiku combos takes place in fall and pictures Hello Kitty in her lovely and bright art studio with pallet in hand:

In my chilly loft,

the flowers reassure me:

spring will come again.

So artsy and romantic,  I swear I want to start painting again. See what Hello Kitty can inspire?

And this winter wonderland haiku features Hello Kitty dressed in a pink pom-pomed snowsuit sitting in a snowy field of lollipops:

Storm of white sugar -

a wintery confection,

I sit happily

As my first New Hampshire winter is fast approaching, I can only hope that I too will look upon it as a season of powdery white sugar yummy confections.

by Kelly

Ahhhh. What can I say? I’m soooo not a Hello Kitty fanatic. Not that I have anything against her cute little face. I just don’t get the allure of all the Hello Kitty paraphernalia out there.

And I had no idea Alison was such a fan of said paraphernalia. I knew our year of haiku would bring us closer together, but I must admit, I had no idea it would lead to me reading Hello Kitty haiku. Yet it did.

While Alison was busy checking out the photo-haiku combos of Hello Kitty Through the Seasons, I was reading Hello Kitty Everywhere!

Just like the first book in the series, this book features Hello Kitty all dolled up and looking cute on every page along with a coordinating haiku.

Hello Kitty shows up where you least expect her, like at the sidelines of a football game, rock climbing on a high cliff or dressed as a giraffe while watching a real giraffe at the zoo.

Perhaps my favorite photo in the book shows Hello Kitty all dressed up in a kimono. She’s got flowers in her hair, a fan in her hands and those geshia-girl flip-flop clogs on her feet. She’s pictured looking over a koi pond and the multitude of jeweled fish echo the colors of her dress.

The coordinating haiku reads:

Entranced by the koi,

I did not hear you approach –

Won’t you walk with me?

With that invitation fresh in my mind, I decided to open my eyes to Hello Kitty, and you know what … she is everywhere, just as the title of this book suggests.

Since reading this book, I’ve noticed Hello Kitty lurking about in many of the places I go in my usual life. For example, here is a Hello Kitty haiku I wrote after she popped up in one of my shopping trips:

Mexican deli–

gummy Hello Kitty waits

in the candy aisle

Each moment you live

Could be revelatory

So pay attention

…

.

..Did you know that Sarah Bloom has a photography website? It’s true. Check out more of her work at Sad and Beautiful World.

Break free of the crowd

Fly in your own direction

Embrace your cliché

…

.

..Did you know that Sarah Bloom has a photography website? It’s true. Check out more of her work at Sad and Beautiful World.

Our days of wine and

Roses are long gone honey

Pass me the coffee

…

.

..Did you know that Sarah Bloom has a photography website? It’s true. Check out more of her work at Sad and Beautiful World.