“morning hike” is 11x14, created from handwritten notes, book pages, and Japanese washi papers. These were painted, torn and glued on cradled wood panel. This is one of the pages of the 2024 Makino Studios calendar. The image is also available as a card reading, “the woods may be dark but I’ll walk beside you.”
I recently attended the annual Seabeck Haiku Getaway in beautiful Seabeck, Washington. Organized by Haiku Northwest, this is always a magical and fun gathering. As a featured reader there, I chose to share some poems I’ve written over the years inspired by the hikes my husband and I take several times a week. It seems fitting that during my reading at Scenic Beach State Park, a bald eagle’s cry punctuated my words.
As I explained at my reading, here on California’s redwood coast, we are blessed with amazing variety in the natural landscapes around us, including deserted beaches, old-growth redwood forests and tree-lined rivers. Here is a sampling of the haiku that I’ve found along the trail.
morning hike
my face undoing
the spider’s work
leaf light
tree by tree
the path unfolds
I highly recommend the Seabeck Haiku Getaway for haiku poets anywhere. For more details and photos of this year’s gathering, see @annettemakino on Instagram or Makino Studios on Facebook, links below.
our easy silence
every puddle
sky-deep
tree pose
the redwoods and I
wave our branches
untold stories
tufts of rabbit fur
line the trail
edge of the woods
some things I may not
want to know
chigger bites
my finger traces
the wilderness map
A trail on the grounds of the Seabeck Conference Center in Seabeck, WA in October 2023.
fallen shore pine
an egret’s long glide
over still water
solo hike
slowly catching up
to myself
mountain switchbacks
a turkey vulture
considers our odds
summer dusk
we cede the great outdoors
to a mosquito
egret wings
the evening sun
glides to earth
In these turbulent times, here’s wishing you the peace and healing of time spent in nature.
Publication and contest credits: Acorn; A Warm Welcome: 2013 Seabeck Haiku Getaway Anthology; The Sacred in Contemporary Haiku; Harold G. Henderson Memorial Awards Contest; Wales Haiku Journal; Modern Haiku; The Heron’s Nest; Dust Devils: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2016; Presence; Something Out of Nothing: 75 Haiga.
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Makino Studios News
New card designs: I’ve created eight new cards for a range of occasions. Browse the whole collection.
New holiday notecard set: I also designed some new boxed notecards of persimmons, reading, “wishing you joyful holidays.” See all notecard sets.
2024 calendar: My mini-calendars of haiku and art make great gifts—and they are still just $12 each.
Haiga presentation: October was a busy month: I was also a featured reader for Haiku Poets of Northern California, where I showed a selection of my watercolor and collage haiga (art with haiku). The 15-minute Zoom presentation is on YouTube.
Made in Humboldt Fair at Pierson’s: This event at the Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka features locally made gifts and food products by Humboldt artisans and craftspeople. You can find my calendars, notecard sets, signed prints and books there. Runs through Dec. 24.
Arcata Holiday Craft Market: This fair benefiting youth development scholarships takes place the weekend of December 9-10 at the Arcata Community Center. Look for my Makino Studios booth on the lefthand side of the main room. Mother’s Cooking Experience will cater.
Free shipping: I offer free US shipping on orders of $35 or more. Enter code FREESHIP35 at checkout.