Frank Graham of Sacramento Poetry Center will be interviewing me on:
Sunday: August 20
10 a.m.
Brickhouse Gallery
2837 36th St
Sacramento
I will be reading selections from my forth-coming poetry book: Dangerous Woman.
Posted in Brickhouse Gallery, Sacramento CA, My Books, Poetry, Poetry and Writing, Sacramento Poetry Center, Uncategorized, tagged Brickhouse Gallery, Dangerous Woman: Poetry for the Ageless, Events, podcast, Poetry on August 16, 2017| 2 Comments »
Frank Graham of Sacramento Poetry Center will be interviewing me on:
Sunday: August 20
10 a.m.
Brickhouse Gallery
2837 36th St
Sacramento
I will be reading selections from my forth-coming poetry book: Dangerous Woman.
Posted in Poetry and Writing, Uncategorized, Wordsworth the Poet on January 21, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Hey Frances, you forgot my frontal view.
I’m going to Hawaii soon to visit their classrooms so schools in Sacramento, let me know if you’d like a visit; I’ll have you writing poems in ten minutes.
Posted in Books & Work by Other Writers/Artists, Poetry, Poetry and Writing, poetry month, Sacramento Poetry Center, Uncategorized on April 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »
At our last poetry writing support group for caregivers, caregiver Bob shared the following poem:
I Began to Write
I began to write because I was angry.
I began to write because I was hurt.
I began to write because I needed to vent.
I began to write because Fran could not.
But along the way an epiphany.
I fell in love, I fell in love with words.
I find joy in finding the right word and
Like a jigsaw puzzle only one word will fit.
I love the richness and simplicity of the right word.
It has elegance and beauty in its own right.
I love the harmony of words together
With meaning greater than the sum of its parts.
I see stories unfolding to make you weep.
To laugh and move you to action.
This is the power of words.
©Bob Oyafuso
Bob confessed how he pondered over each word and of the time spent
searching for the right word. “It’ll take me 35 years to write a book,” he laughed. He explained so well the process of writing poetry.
Driving home, I thought of …
It took me years of reflecting and over six months of actual writing to write the following poem. When the episode happened, ( I was a young new teacher, I noticed a first grader missing…I panicked and went outside and saw him running across the playground with arms all out…running into the fog. I stood and watched him until he returned; he merely said “I couldn’t touch it.” We walked back to class without a word, my arms around his shoulders.)
I knew I had to capture it so I wrote a short story.
Somehow the story just didn’t do it. I wrote the story in various forms and finally settled on the following:
Run, Run, But Not Into the Fog
A little boy
Runs into the fog
As it slowly creeps
Over the field,
Softening edges
Into mists.
He runs and runs
And soon is swallowed
By the mysterious giant.
Then slowly, quietly
He returns to me
With wooden legs
And puddled wings.
“The more I ran
The more it disappeared.”
from The path of Butterflies.
No one ever said writing is easy.
Posted in Alzheimer's Care Resources, Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Dignity in Aging, Humanities, My Books, poetry and caregiving, Poetry and Writing, tagged Alzheimer's Association, Caregiving, I Am Somebody, Northern CA Alzheimer's Association, Poet caregivers on October 23, 2014| 6 Comments »
Posted in Poetry, Poetry and Writing, tagged April Poetry Month, John Ciardi, Okuman Kotomichi, Poetry Writing Support Group for Teens, Sacramento Poetry Center on April 16, 2014| 2 Comments »
Two of my favorite “quotes”
There is no poetry for the practical man. There is poetry only for the mankind of the man who spends a certain amount of his life turning the mechanical wheel. But let him spend too much of his life at the mechanics of practicality and either he must become something less than a man, or his very mechanical efficiency will become impaired by the frustrations stored up in his irrational human personality.
An ulcer, gentlemen, is an unkissed imagination taking its revenge for having been jilted. It is an unwritten poem, a neglected music, an unpainted water color, an undanced dance. It is a declaration from the mankind of the man that a clear spring of joy has not been tapped, and that it must break through, muddily, on its own.
– John Ciardi
Poems are not written to sing of the moon and flowers; they must speak of our hearts in response to the moon and flowers. We must never forget that in our hearts are the seeds of our poems. If we merely speak of the moon and flowers, poems become simply poetical forms, whatever the human heart may be. If these things become a part of ourselves, then we may admire them in verse.
– Okuman Kotomichi
19th century
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:
http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Prose-Poetry-Collection-California/dp/098260145X
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.