Fits and Starts: An Update on My Poetry Collection Progress

You have not heard “Boo” from me about progress on my poetry collection since Valentine’s Day, 2026.

Here’s the truth: There has been a lag: busy-ness, distraction, less energy, torrid temps.

Some history: Since 2017, haiku have been inhabiting my right brain, enabling a break from the (partially) left-brain work of organizing blog posts and books. With nature all around me where I walk and work; the earth, sky, and lake have inspired me to pen some verse.

Lots of feathered folk populate the contents of the collection, including mallards, egrets, and herons—along with the rhythm of the seasons, the flow of time.

Egret on a Lake close to Spindletree Way

I’ve told you earlier I have labored on a title. Here are five false starts:

Haiku that Hug the Heart

Poems from Nature, Humans, and Time & Memory

Light, shadow bob Together Wings to Fly Higher

Rising on Wings: A Collection of Nature, Whimsy, and Memory

Rising on Wings: A Collection of Flight, Flora, and Family Lore

Not liking any of them. . . at all.

But recently I have settled on a title for my poetry collection . . . mostly haiku with 2 tanka, 1 shadorma, and a Hi(ka)nu folded in. Fleeting moments, captured simply.

Rising on Wings: Uplifting Haiku

It’s true, writers, including poets, often have to dwell with dumb ideas before a breakthrough arrives! I remember feeling that way when I wrote my first memoir.

The artist creating something new for the collection from an online photo that inches along . . .

. . . and coming up with a cartoon, the inchworm reading

Now all it needs is a dash of color!

A sample verse from this collection:

An inchworm am I

Moving at a snail’s pace and

Leaving behind—words.

(You will recognize here the haiku form, which reverberates through one’s system with specific syllables: 5 – 7– 5.) When I succeed, an impulse turns into rhythmic sounds and evokes a splendid image. So I hope.

Find the previous post about my collection of 50 poems HERE

Taking a short break. Be back soon!

Walking on path close to lake