Morning Muse (19 March 2020)
Painting: alcohol ink on yupo paper

to find
contentment

I look no further
on my window sill
a coffee can filled

with pansies

—Morning Muse was previously posted to Facebook (19 March 2020), and appears here with artist’s permission.

Christine L. Villa

is an all-around creative explorer: an award-winning visual artist who dabbles in painting, doodling, and photography, and a poet whose passion for writing haiku and tanka has resulted in the publication of her work in many online and print journals worldwide and has garnered her several awards. Her debut full-length collection of Japanese short-form poetry, The Bluebird’s Cry, was published in 2016.

Chrissi is the founding editor of Frameless Sky, the first haiku and tanka journal that offers collaborations of art, poetry, and music, available on DVD and through private online viewing. She is also the founding editor of Velvet Dusk Publishing, a small printing press that publishes Japanese short-form poetry, cherita, and mixed-genre full-length books, chapbooks, and ebooks. Since 2019, she has been the new editor of Ribbons (Tanka Society of America).

Author’s website: www.christinevilla.com

Author’s blog, Blossom Rain: www.blossomrain.blogspot.com