Oh, I like this format!

I agree with T&A, it is excellently formatted.

Love it! Love it!

A full story arc, but still poetry, nonetheless....

Very well done. Enjoyed this a lot.

This haiga in particular is open to critique on form, quality, theme, anything you would like to say.

You are always welcome to critique any of them! It is very useful in working in an unfamiliar artform. And whatever you have to say is of value, really.

I am getting better at this and this is a culminating post of a series of haiga all about the same place and experience. It was lost in the shuffle but I wanted it to be together in one spot. And the final haiku is new for this haiga string.

thank you for reading!

I keep going back to the "natural canvas" and "elephant stalks". I love the power of the images and the words together. Beautiful. I think you are definitely on to something.....

Beauty. Robert Aitken wrote:`

The sun glitters
on the path
of a snail
~
It was written in 1944. As fate would have it ... He was tossed in prison internment camp in Kobe, Japan. He met British professor, R.H. Blythe. He studied Soen Nakagawa Roshi. Robert Aitken was one of the first serious Zen students in America. He used haiku extensively.
The Buddha twirled a flower and the slime of a snail's path glitters.
I'm reading haiku mind, by Patricia Donegan. I gotta go Do it. Get some work done.
P.S. ePriddy. On Sunday I'm having lunch with Robert H. Deluty PhD. He's a gentleman among gentle folk. O, I wish you were to join us.
Sip Haiku Tea.

Glorious, absolutely glorious.

I Love the Still Elephant Stalks! Absolutely perfect, evocative!

And pretty darn fond of the Living Talisman.

Thanks for these.

Very well done.

T and C-I am glad you like it. It seems like a lot of stuff for a little form of poem, but that's why it's epic!

Brenda- thank you!

OEs- I am glad. it makes me happy that these bring joy.

Cart- the form is like poetry for cheaters, few words and illustrated, so I try harder to make up for the potential chese factor. Stalks is one of my favorite ever. The tiny kid and the giant columns. They are actually straight, they just look like they are walking from that angle.

Arthur- I will look up Donegan. And if you are near a computer, feel free to share these with your guest. I would love to be a fly on that wall at your meetup!

Red- thank you!

Connie- the talisman one holds a lot of the iconography of hte series for me. A touchstone, in actual history, is used to determine the metallic properties of unknown substances. I love the idea of a thing that can determine whether you have a soul or not. I think the moment of fear of a stranded jellyfish that is obviously still alive is one of those moments. My son and I used his net and pushed it back into the surf. We are deluding ourselves that it lived. Always wear water shoes, even strands of disconnected jellyfish will still sting.

Older- thank you!

This one came out in fits and starts and I realized it was a series when I saw that I kept accessing the same cellphone pic folder. I am taking a real camera there next. And maybe a sketchbook.

You are on to Something Big and Beautiful. Definitely Soul-Stirring. I have been reading about Purpose, so I may sound a little pompous right now. But I love the new format! and how the last haiku w/o visual ties it all together.

Wood, water, earth, sand & sea - I am missing the combination of things. Thanks

Very nice.

i agree with t&d and cat. i love the kokopele dancer, especially, and the shadow next to your lovely flute player.

Overall I don't get poetry too well unless it is read to me by someone with a greater understanding of how it should sound and where emphasis should be applied. Though I like the poetry, I suspect I would be more greatly moved by it if I heard it, rather than read it.
I love the elephant picture and I saw your ideas on what you had in mind with it, but to me, it looks and sounds like the epitome of the smallness of young childhood, full of imagination, exploration and a larger than life world surrounding you.

3rd picture down: Kokopelli's rocks! Kokopelli's flute playing chases away the Winter and brings about Spring. Known as a fertility god, prankster, healer and story teller, - a party animal of sorts - and dates back over 3,000 years when the first petroglyphs were carved. Your photo & enhancement embody that definition. What I just thought of that would be ultra cool is photoshopping your son's shadow into the shape of Kokopelli - keep the same angle and stretch of the shadow.

Seaweed picture is cool - like green whale's teeth.

Tiny tags say I'm here - that's awesome.

I am going to copy these comments onto the post in question.
Thanks for sharing a piece of your peace.

Love them all, but was especially drawn to the flute player and Kokopelli's shadow in the "spontaneous spirit dance."