Posted in Poetry and Writing, tagged NCPA, Northern CA writers on May 24, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
The Purple Place
363 Green Valley Road, El Dorado Hills, California 95762
NCPA: Northern CA Publishers & Authors is launching this book on May 28, Tuesday night at 6 p.m.
at The Purple Place. Please join the authors and poets whose stories and poems appear in this anthology. Yes, I have a piece
titled: Junkyard for Writers. If you can’t join us for an autographed book, they are available at:
Posted in Events, My Books, Poetry and Writing, tagged Barnes & Noble, Watermark Publishing, Wordsworth! Stop the Bulldozer on February 13, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Book Signing for Wordsworth! Stop the Bulldozer!
Saturday, March 2, 2013
1 P.M.
Barnes & Noble
6111 Sunrise Blvd
Citrus Heights, CA
Ph: 916-853-1389
It would be sooo embarrassing if no one came…..
Posted in Going Green, My Books, our children, Poetry, Poetry and Writing, Students in classrooms, tagged Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods, Nancy Arcayna, poetry contest for students, Star*Advertiser, Watermark Publishing, Wordsworth! Stop the Bulldozer on February 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Wordsworth and I made the Hawaii newspaper today:
Honolulu Star/Advertiser
February 9, 2013
“Wordsworth! Stop the Bulldozer!” by Frances H. Kakugawa (Watermark Publishing, $10.95), tells the tale of Wordsworth, a small Hawaii mouse, and a few of his friends who use poetry in their attempts save a koa tree grove.
Wordsworth is troubled when he finds a load of fallen trees on a truck bed and a bulldozer ready to plow down the last remaining tree, the one where he and his best friend, Emily, had carved their initials. As the tiny friends struggle to make a difference and preserve the forest, one of Wordsworth’s poems becomes a rallying point as two groups of adult mice debate the trees’ importance.
The friends find their “Save This Tree” poems taped to pine, mango and coconut trees. Young children might get lost in the words, but the message is endearing.
Tree in a Box kits, which can be purchased at www.bookshawaii.net for $14, include seeds to start a milo tree (a type of tree from the hibiscus family, similar to hau) along with a “Wordsworth” book.The activity of planting a tree may make the environmentally friendly message clearer for younger readers.
Colorful illustrations by Andrew J. Catanzariti bring the tale to life.
Write an ode to your favorite tree . Have a favorite tree that inspires you to write poetry? Watermark Publishing and Hawaii-born author Frances Kakugawa invite keiki in grades K-12 to participate in the “Wordsworth the Poet Poe-TREE Contest.” To enter the contest, kids are invited to follow the example of Wordsworth and write a poem that celebrates their favorite tree. Six prize packages — two per grade division: K-5, 6-8 and 9-12 — will be awarded. Each package includes a copy of the three Wordsworth series books, a child’s gardening tool kit and Koa Legacy Tree from the Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative donated by Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods. Download the entry form at bookshawaii.net and click on News and Events. By March 1, send entries marked “ATTN: Wordsworth’s Poe-TREE Contest” via email to wordsworth@bookshawaii.net or to Watermark Publishing, 1088 Bishop St. Suite 310, Hono?lulu, HI?96813. Winners will be notified April 15.
Posted in My Books, My Rants About Something, Poetry, Poetry and Writing, tagged Hawaiian Hardwood Allliance, Watermark Publishing, Wordsworth! Stop the Bulldozer on February 1, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Look everyone. We have posted these photos to help answer a question that is often asked by people who come to Frances’ and my book signing events:
“What age is this book written for?”
( There’s another question that is often asked but we’ll talk about that on another day)
I like Frances’ answer when she says, “I’ve been signing these Wordsworth books for unborn children all the way to adults”. And she has. The themes in these books are relevant to people of all ages. Well, at least that’s what the reviewers have said. I also heard readers are writing haiku and tanka poems just like the poems in this book. And planting trees!
These two boys are sons of Frances’ former 6th grade student, Bob Webster, who now live in New York. Bob used to be like Wordsworth. In one of Frances’ poems, she wrote about Bob saying, after he finished writing a poem, “I’m all poemed out.” You can find this poem in Teacher, You Look Like a Horse on page 73. Sorry everyone, but I am forced to promote her other books, that was our understanding when I was allowed to add this post here. I know, the book business is tough, right?
Bob’s three sons are planning to plant a tree for the Wordsworth Plant a Tree Society in Spring. I guess it’s too snowy to plant trees in NY. Son #3 was taking a bath when this photo was taken.
And here’s Dorothy Jalcick enjoying my book. She’s with her daughter Diane Woodruff. A little bird told me Dorothy reads all of my three books over and over because she really likes them.
Now, that makes me feel good because books, if written well, are read over and over again. So thank you, Dorothy and boys,for enjoying Wordsworth! Stop the Bulldozer!
We don’t have photos of another reader who is over 90 years old. When George read this book, he wanted to plant a Koa tree so Frances arranged to have one planted in his name, by the Hawaiian Hardwood Alliance. So we’re all happy folks on this page.
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Dignity in Aging, Elder Care, Hawaii, Poetry and Writing, tagged Breaking the Silence, male caregivers, Men Caregivers, Rod Masumoto on January 16, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Many months ago, I was interviewed by Nina Wu of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser about male caregivers. Nina was interested in writing an article about the rise in men caregiving for their wives. I told Nina, “caregiving makes no distinction, the demands are the same for spouses, brothers, sons.”
And I told her about Rod Masumoto, who is in Breaking the Silence, and who I have talked about here on my blog before. Rod is a very special caregiver, and I am so proud of how he came to be a better caregiver by finding his voice through poetry. Even though he said he would never write poems!
Here is the photograph of Rod and his mother, Fusae, that ran in the newspaper:
It must have been fate that inspired Nina to do this story because at the same time she reached out to me, Rod had just contacted me to say that his mother had passed away. I am happy for Rod and his mother that their story was shared. Here is what Rod told Nina:
When he first walked into her workshop three years ago, he told her flat out that he wasn’t into poetry. And yet he penned his first poem that day, titled “What Do I Feel?” and went on to write 30 more.
Today, Masumoto, a retired safety system specialist, will tell you writing those poems saved his life.
He cared for his mother, Fusae, for 14 years until her death from Alzheimer’s in September.
Before going to the workshop, he felt isolated in his daily challenges, which included helping his mother bathe, get dressed and eat. It was painful to him that she didn’t recognize her son or recall the things she had taught him.
Masumoto’s anger at the situation was growing, and he was overwhelmed.
“It’s a daily battle trying to survive, and (writing) helped me vent the anger and frustration,” he said.
As he wrote poem after poem, Masumoto found not only an outlet for his emotions, but began to find acceptance for his mother’s situation, as well as a willingness to open up to changes.
“When you take care of somebody and remain in the box (isolated), you cannot survive,” he said. “You have to allow yourself to expand and to be flexible.”
Support groups can help you see that you are not alone, he said, or offer solutions you may not have considered. His advice is to be open to whatever services are available, whether it be home care, hospice or help around the house, so you’ll have more quality time with your loved one.
Rod and I talked to Nina back in October, but the newspaper article just ran yesterday. If you have paid access to the Star-Advertiser website, you can see the whole thing. Rod and I are at the very end.
In case you can’t read the article, here is a little bit more from the article, the part where she quotes me:
“We think caregiving is more for women because it demands so much nurturing, cleaning and tasks like giving baths,” she said. ”But at the end these men become the most compassionate, most capable caregivers.”
Caregiving is physically exhausting, according to Kakugawa, but other aspects of it, such as handling finances and legal matters, can be stressful as well.
Men may better be able to compartmentalize their feelings in order to focus on caregiving tasks at hand, she said, but it does not necessarily mean they experience fewer emotions. Caregiving rises above all gender and brings us all to the humanities of caring for a person with compassion and dignity. “
Posted in Books & Work by Other Writers/Artists, our children, Poetry, Poetry and Writing, Sacramento Poetry Center, Uncategorized, tagged Poetry, Self Portrait, Van Gogh on January 10, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Now tell me, which self portrait would you put on your wall?
Mira is a new friend of mine and I hope to meet her someday in person. I met her through my book Wordsworth Stop the Bulldozer. She has been giving Wordsworth a run for his pen with one poem after another and someday I may share some of her work. Her poems are as delightful, introspective and beautiful as her portrait.
To Mira
Move aside, Van Gogh
Mira’s portrait brings on smiles
In dreary winter.
To Van Gogh
You spell cold winter
Without the magic of snow
Smile, Vincent Van Gogh.
Posted in Poetry, Poetry and Writing, Sacramento Poetry Center, tagged Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods, Poetry writing contest, Sacramento Poetry Center, Watermark Publishing, Wordsworth! Stop the Bulldozer on December 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
A reminder that the deadline for the poetry writing contest sponsored by my publisher is nearing….January 15th. Here’s the original announcement:
Frances H. Kakugawa, author of the Wordsworth the Poet children’s books, and Watermark Publishing of Honolulu announce the Wordsworth the Poet “Poe-TREE Contest,” open to children in grades kindergarten through 12th grade. (Contest rules follow.)
In Wordsworth! Stop the Bulldozer! — the newest Wordsworth the Poet adventure released this month — a bulldozer has invaded the little mouse’s special koa grove where he often writes his poems. What should Wordsworth do?
His new friend, Akiko, has an idea! Wordsworth, Akiko and their friends have all written poems about the special qualities of the trees they see around them — mango trees, coconut trees, kukui trees. Can their poems stop the bulldozer?
To enter the Wordsworth the Poet Poe-TREE Contest, students can follow Wordsworth and Akiko’s example and write a poem that celebrates their favorite tree. Six prize packages will be awarded, two per grade division (K-5, 6-8 and 9-12). Each prize package includes a copy of each of the three books in the Wordsworth series, a child’s gardening tool kit and a Koa Legacy Tree from the Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative, donated by Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods.
Send entries ATTN: Wordsworth’s Poe-TREE Contest to wordsworth@bookshawaii.net or to
Watermark Publishing
1088 Bishop St., Ste. 310, Honolulu, HI 96813.
The contest is open to all children kindergarten through 12th grade residing in the United States. Each entry must include the child’s name, age and grade, school, hometown and parent, guardian or teacher’s contact information and signature.
For complete rules, contest information and to download the entry form, visit http://blog.bookshawaii.net. Entries must be received by January 15, 2013. Winners will be notified February 1, 2013.
For those who are ineligible to enter the Poe-TREE Contest, or who aren’t inclined to write poetry, Kakugawa and Wordsworth have another way to celebrate trees: They invite readers far and wide to plant trees in their own communities. “It’s not only about trees being cut down where we
live,” Kakugawa writes in the introduction to Wordsworth! Stop the Bulldozer! “Our children and their children must have trees in their future to hug and enjoy and sit under in the shade. Trees also help keep us alive and healthy.”
Kakugawa has created Wordsworth’s Plant A Tree Society to recognize readers of all ages who plant a tree in Wordsworth’s honor. To receive a membership certificate in the Plant A Tree Society, readers must plant a tree for Wordsworth in their community (in the backyard or at school, for example) and post a photo of themselves with their tree on Wordsworth’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/WordsworthThePoet). Photo submissions should indicate the variety of the tree and where it was planted.
Submissions may also be e-mailed to wordsworth@bookshawaii.net or mailed to Watermark Publishing. Photos will not be returned and will be posted online.
Watermark Publishing recognizes that not everyone can plant a tree in their own backyard, and has teamed up with the Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative to offer a solution: a program to plant Wordsworth Legacy Koa Trees on Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods’ 1,000 acres of conservation land on the Hamakua Coast of Hawai‘i Island.
Groups or individuals may sponsor a Wordsworth Legacy Tree for $60. The purchase also includes a copy of Wordsworth! Stop the Bulldozer!, a certificate bearing the GPS coordinates of the planted tree, and automatic membership in Wordsworth’s Plant A Tree Society. Additionally, $10 of the sponsorship fee will be directed to a fund dedicated to providing Legacy Trees for underprivileged children. Wordsworth Legacy Trees may be purchased at http://legacytrees.org/watermarkpublishing.
1088 Bishop Street, Suite 310
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Ph. 808.587.7766
Fax 808.521.3461
http://www.bookshawaii.net
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Dignity in Aging, Elder Care, Poetry, Poetry and Writing, Sacramento Poetry Center, tagged Alzheimer's Association, Breaking the Silence:A Caregiver's Voice, Mary Swisher, Mosaic Moon: Caregiving Through Poetry, Northern CA Alzheimer's Association, november Alzheimer's Awareness Month, Poet caregivers, Sacramento Poetry Center, Wordsworth Dances the Waltz on November 6, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Alzheimer’s Awareness Month:November
Once a month, a group of caregivers and I meet at the Sacramento Alz office as poet/caregivers.
We sit around a wooden rectangular table to share our intimate lives through our pens. Often, we share the seasons from our garden: figs, strawberries, blueberries, plums, apples,peaches, zucchini, zucchini, zucchini during the Summer and Autumn months.
Sometimes there is complete silence in the room, as though there is nobody there, sometimes belly laughs so loud, I close the door to keep our laughter in. There are poems that bring the Kleenix out, poems that receive nods, “yes, I know what you’re saying.” We become poets, admiring images, metaphors and the beauty of language. But most of all, we are caregivers, using poetry to pause, reflect and to make sense of our lives as caregivers, and to discover the abundant gifts of humanity hidden beneath the everyday-ness of caregiving. We also create new words if need be. And we learn from each other, how to be the most compassionate and knowledgeable care givers, without being afraid of truth. And there is complete trust as we open the doors to find meaning in this relationship between caregiver and the ones being cared for. We are no longer suffering caregivers but poet/caregivers, creating art from among the “ruins.”
Mary Swisher, caregiver for her husband shares two of her poems:
A Daughter’s Lament
(the labor of becoming our own mother)
It’s as if the overcast day has
Blown this unknown Niobe of tears
Into our midst.
Silently she rains down her
Salty drops until it puddles at her youthful feet.
The first daughter tells her sorrow … “I left my mother
In “that” home, my sister hates me, it breaks my heart.”
Our Niobe gives an audible sob and we can feel her
Tears lap at our ankles.
The second daughter speaks “My husband can no longer drive
He could get lost … and he knows it.”
More tears, enough to put a monsoon to shame, and yet …
Another daughter has gone to work, left her mother-child
At day-care.
The deluge continue, tissues mound into a white mountain now
We are sitting in a sacred lake
Another daughter: “my brilliant husband can’t walk…on the floor
I can’t … too heavy and my mom needs more and there’s no money…”
She reads a poem, crying, out of breath.
By now we have become a Greek chorus
Buoyed on salty swells of tears
Our new daughter speaks
Amid gasping sobs, she cries, a desperate howl
For the mother she has lost, but still holds,
And will not let go.
©Mary Swisher Feb. 201
These are the days
I write bitter poems
These are the days
I scream
don’t cry, just
scream
hate the person I have become
wonder who I ever was
ever compassionate, understanding
full of joyous kisses
pranks and laughing fits
over some shared escapade
the person who wrote
love notes to tuck under his pillow
or his lunch sack.
Now I write angry words
That I hide, even from myself
I have become a liar, a plotter
mapping his days and mine to avoid
conflict…I agree when I don’t really,
I say “never mind” or “it’s not important.”
Explaining is like
my speaking Greek to a Greek,
I know so little Greek.
Everything becomes confusing
to the point where
I scream
NEVER MIND … FORGET IT!
and he says
FORGET WHAT?
©Mary Swisher
October 2012
voices of other caregivers will be posted throughout November.
Posted in Memoirs, Poetry, Poetry and Writing, tagged Memoir Writing, Poetry, Power of Ink, Sacramento Poetry Center on June 25, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Memory Miners
Last week, I facilitated the 2nd of two memoir writing workshops at the Asian American Center in Sacramento. Half way through the session, as I listened to their lst draft of memoirs, I knew I couldn’t leave. So we formed a club called Memory Miners and will meet monthly until the excavation and recording of memoirs become as comfortable as writing a grocery list. Membership is closed to the dozen who attended both sessions. Here’s a poem I wrote for the occasion.:
The Power of Ink
I can’t let it die.
Once I let its grasp on me
Loosen and uncoil, it will die
And I can’t let it happen.
If it dies,
Generations of my ancestors
From Hiroshima to Hawaii…
My grandparents, great grandparents I never met
My mother whose life I held with honor as I
Helped her live her last Alzheimer life.
They will all die,
Erasing all memories
From the slate of their children, grandchildren
And all future children.
I can’t let it die.
©frances h kakugawa
Posted in Books & Work by Other Writers/Artists, Poetry and Writing, Thoughts, Musings, Things to Share, Uncategorized, tagged Dandelion Wine, Farewell Summer, Ray Bradbury on June 8, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Farewell Summer
Some people ought not to leave us at all. Ray Bradbury, who died on Tuesday, is one of these people.
My first contact with Bradbury was in the early 70′s. I saw him being interviewed on national television and I was so intrigued, I wrote him a letter, addressed to the TV station. Lo and behold, he responded. We corresponded for a while, exchanging our own writings and thoughts on writing. He told me to never leave my childhood. To always preserve that magic of not always having the answer.
I had written a rough draft of my Enemy Wore My Face story that appears in my newly published, Kapoho: Memoirs of a Modern Pompeii. He liked it immensely.
Fast forward: I was a literature curriculum writer for the state of Hawaii and presented a few lesson plans at the English Institute in San Diego. Bradbury was there and I was tongue-tied. He was delighted to see how we had incorporated some of his books into our curriculum. He told me then, why he doesn’t fly at all. “If we were meant to fly,” he said, ” we would have been born with wings.”
Fast forward: Nimitz School. Hawaii. Sixth grade class. 1980′s.
The State Culture and the Arts produced one of his plays, The Halloween Tree. I took my class to the stage production and sent their reviews to Bradbury. My students were very honest and added suggestions on how to improve his play, in addition to telling him he did a good job. One suggestion was his title needed to be changed. Once again, he expressed total delight in hearing from us, saying he would seriously consider their critical analysis. My 6th graders added another hero to their list on the day his letter arrived, snail mail, as it has always been.
I recently read my favorite, Dandelion Wine and the sequel, Farewell Summer, 2006. No, I guess writers like Bradbury never really leave us. Thank you, Ray Bradbury.
