Featured Writer: Roberta Beary

Roberta Beary's book of short poems, The Unworn Necklace (Snapshot Press 2007 & 2011) was named Poetry Society of America award finalist and Haiku Society of America award winner. A long time editor of the annual Red Moon Anthology, she also is the haibun editor at Modern Haiku. Her poetry is featured in Haiku In English, The First Hundred Years (Norton, 2013) and in the reference work, A Companion to Poetic Genre (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). She has edited six haiku collections/anthologies and travels worldwide to give workshops and readings. Read more at robertabeary.com and follow her on Twitter

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Dementia (Mild to Moderate)

My mother hugs me hard and tells me I am beautiful. She says, "I love you, I love you" in a voice that anyone can hear. She blows kisses my way. We hold hands and she turns her head and smiles at me. When I get up to leave, she asks me to stay for dinner. She grins and says there is a man she wants me to meet, someone who adores her. I demur and say I have to leave. She laughs, then says, "I won't hold it against you!" In my life, I have never known her to be cheerful. I have never seen her engage in banter. Or dish out compliments. I do not know this woman. I want my mother back.

long after . . .
the frailty
of silk roses

First published in Cattails (May 2014)

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Roberta's advice to aspiring and practising haibun writers:

Strive for a haibun title which adds texture, strive for risk-taking prose that steps away from the mundane, and strive for high quality haiku that illuminate the prose.