Dem not weeds, dem is flowers

To make a prairie/

It takes a clover and a bee/

A clover and a bee/

And reverie/

The reverie alone will do/

If bees are few.

            Emily Dickinson

A Matter of Perception

The weeds have been crying for a weeder for weeks.

Still frozen in my winter lazy bones, I thought surely I can find a way to get out of this…a little boy came to mind.

When I was a student in College of Educ, the professor demonstrated “how to read a story to 4 year olds.” Before she could begin, a little boy asked, “Teacher, why is your hair all white?”

Before she could respond, another boy turned toward the little boy and said, “Her hair not grey, her hair silver.”

So I took off my garden gloves and walked away, “Dem weeds not weeds, dem weeds flowers.”

Who’s Next, Oh America

I wrote this poem after reading Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar and On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong.

Oh America

Our living Democracy.

First it was the black

Whose color was wrong.

Then the Japanese whose faces

Wore  the enemy’s.

After 9/11, it was the Moslems.

All Asians after Covid-19

Since we all look alike.

Oh America,

Hear this, before you etch

Another on your list:

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Oh America,

Who’s next on your list?

frances h kakugawa

2023

May the year of the Rabbit

Bring Joy, Gratitude, Peace –

And continue our paying Human Kindness forward

In the Spirit of Aloha.

Thank you, my Blog friends.

frances

A living Haiku

Mr. Basho, you saw a frog leap into a pond but did you ever see a live haiku like this:

A natural haiku

Five, seven, five birds on line

On a wintry day.

My photos are weak but I waited until I saw five, then seven, then five birds rest on the line over a neighbor’s roof from where I stood.

Wordsworth Musical:

Wordsworth’s Long Road to the Stage

Lead Story – WORDSWORTH THE POET GOES ON STAGE

Wayne Harada on Wordsworth Musical

WORDSWORTH: FROM POEMS TO PLAY

Wordsworth the Musical

This scene is created for one of the poems called Hawaiian Rainbow.

Come support the University of Hawaii Performing Arts Center, Hilo.

On Banned Books

At Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento I saw this sign in the showcase of a clothes shop that sold other items: Banned books sold here. There was a small display of banned books. I stood and had to fight my tears. I plan to donate other banned books to the shop to support their efforts.

Wordsworth Musical Sold Out

All six performances for Dept of Education students for Nov 1-3 have been sold out.

Thank you, teachers and administrators. Public performances still available:

Nov 4 & 5 @ : 7 p.m.

Nov 6 @ 2.pm.

Wordsworth Musical Tickets on Sale

Hawaii friends, tickets are now being sold on the musical based on my two Wordsworth books. See you at the UH Hilo theater.

The public performances are on:

Nov: 4 and 5: 7 p.m.

Nov. 6: 2 p.m.

The following is for students with two performances a day.

Hawaii’s First Lady Interviews Frances.

First Lady Mrs. Ige of Hawaii Reads Wordsworth the Poet

Thank you, Mrs. Ige, for reading the first book in my series of Wordsworth the Poet who resolves human problems through his poetry. What an honor to Wordsworth and myself.

Join me at Wordsworth Musical

Big Islanders, come join me at UH Hilo theater for Wordsworth musical.

Wordsworth Musical Dates:

University of Hawaii, Hilo Theater presents Wordsworth Musical on:

November 1-2-3: Day performances for students K-5^th.

November 4-5: 7 p.m. performances for the public.

November 6: 2 p.m. performance for the public.

This musical is based on Wordsworth the Poet and Wordsworth Dances the Waltz.

Wordsworth the Musical

https://www.ahahanakeaka.org/

Wordsworth the Musical, based on my first two Children’s books is presented here in film and in Hawaiian with subtitles. The English version will be presented live on stage in the fall for the public and all school students, K-5th.

Am having problems with this blog…you will need to navigate on the site till you get to Wordsworth to see the musical play.

End of Summer

I was privileged to write the Foreword to this novel by Dan Shanahan. Please check this out on Amazon.

Foreword

End of Summer captures the essence of what happened after Pearl Harbor:

                              Under the rising sun,

                              the enemy came,

                              wearing my face.

End of Summer returned me, not to the fact that we were treated like the enemy, but to three basic Japanese teachings I  grew up with :  Shikata ga nai ( it can’t be helped, it is what it is), Gaman ( to endure the unbearable with patience and dignity) and Bachi  ( Divine punishment or Karma)

Two cultures meet on American soil, immigrants from Germany and Japan, to live  the American dream.As the story unfolds, a piece of farmland, taken from the Japanese when they are sent to an internment camp, becomes more than property – and the consequence of a decision made by both the German and Japanese extend into their future generations.

The story is told behind a silk fan, the quiet and dignified undercurrents and loud silences, half concealed, become a pair of threads from both cultures that weave together throughout the story. As with others of Dan Shanahan’s works, there is that large twisting gasp at the end . . . so the reader is advised not to skip to the ending. You need to experience this gasp exactly where it appears.  The beautiful use of language and the well-developed characters from two cultures will endure long after you read the last word.

Frances H Kakugawa

Author of Echoes of Kapoho and Dangerous Woman: Poetry for the Ageless

In the midst of chaos

Be still, be still.

Shhhh.

What will poets do

Without the first bloom of Spring

Waltzing in the wind?

What will children do

Without slimy green frogs

Slipping through fingers?

What will Basho have seen

Without the leap of the frog

Splash! Then stillness again?

What will you do

Without the sound of stillness

In the morning dew?

What will I do

Without hummingbird wings

Whirring in sync?

Hush hush,

Be still, be still

Listen.

(Written after turning off the radio.)

Cow 1 is not Cow 2*

Still unable to post poetry in poetic stanza….grrrrrr…..

          Under the rising sun

          The enemy came

          Wearing my face.

After Pearl Harbor, I became the enemy

After 9/11, another enemy.

After Covid-19, another Asian enemy.

Again, another enemy who wears Putin’s face.

 Cow 1 is not Cow 2.*

Putin brutalizes Ukraine

Your Russian neighbor is not Putin.

Careful, careful, Cow 1 is not Cow 2.

My ancestors bombed Pearl Harbor,

I became Cow 1. Yet, Cow 1 is not cow 2.

Such a simple, uncomplicated rule.

* Semanticist S.I. Hayakawa wrote this on the blackboard when I was a young student at his feet. He explained: You are driving along and see a cow. Driving along the road, you see another cow. That cow is not the first cow you saw.

Hey Putin

My new blog is posted below this. Can’t figure out why. grrrrrr.

Hey  Putin

Sit back a week or two

With your Russian predecessors  

Etched in the world with admiration and honor

Unlike tyrants, murderers, war criminals

Covered with ashes and human blood,

On dusty back shelves of Russian history.

***

Listen to Tchaikovsky’s symphonies –

Spend an evening with Swan Lake –

Get on your yacht with Leo Tolstoy

And War and Peace.

***

You  wish to be the most feared?

The most statued figure in all of Russia?

Be among the true greats of your history books?

Pick up your pen, Putin.

***

Poets were feared more than the KGB

During days of famine and war.

Pick up your pen, Putin,

Write a poem or two or more.

****

On the shelves of  891.71, between
Tsvetaeva and Pushkin
There is space for you.

***

A statue of Putin

In St. Petersburg and Leningard

Poet of Peace.