Circle Publications, LLC
BOOKS
ZIP CODE 48209
Where you start means a lot
“Where you start means a lot” is an understatement. It includes your DNA, where you were born and grew up, parents, family, one’s physical, social, psychological, and emotional environments, things you don’t have any control over, and things that you don’t realize until you are older.
My parents immigrated from Sweden, but growing up in a blue-collar neighborhood in Detroit it was clear that all immigrants shared common experiences. This book focuses on my “start”, birth through high school. These reflections are presented as vignettes, containing haibun and tanka prose* or their approximations, in that the poetry could be senryu, tanka, or short forms following Rabindranath Tagore, Rumi or Piet Heim’s Grooks. The poetry serves many functions depending on the story, for example, a point of reflection or introspection, an observation, a generalization, a summary, or humor.
Avian Art
Chaotic Creations, Creative Perceptions
I believe that we need to focus on the beauty that exists in this universe – that includes the unexpected little things that nature presents to us every day. As Carrie Newcomer expresses so well in her song Geodes;
“All these things that we call familiar
Are just miracles clothed in the commonplace”
Bird poo on my car’s front windshield was the original motivation for this book. The droppings displayed herein are abstract, chaotic patterns, or
“suggested” objects, figures of animals or possibly mythological subjects. I have created digital collages, haiga and other image-poem material from my expanding universe. However, I have not altered the dropping’s pattern - each is as it was found and photographed.
Short poems have been added to the image. I have extracted many of the patterns from their original backgrounds and merged them with a variety of backgrounds so as strengthen the suggested imagery. In these cases, I have added a thumbnail image of the original, along with a brief description of my initial observations and the nature of image modifications.
Together
haiga reflections of humanity
I have been intrigued by three forms of image-word integration. The first being Grooks, the creation of Piet Hein, a Danish scientist, poet and artist. Grooks
combine a sketch and short poem to form an aphoristic
unit. Second, the work of Geoff Butler, a Canadian artist from Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia, who also combines poetry and prose with his paintings to create what he describes as, “allegories in painting and verse.” The third form is haiga, its historical and contemporary expressions. In haiga, combining a visual image with haiku, senryu or tanka, creates a unique entity. Motivated by these inspirations, I too use images and words seeking to create a mix of allegorical and aphoristic elements.
My haiga, and poetry have been published in Cattails, frogpond, Contemporary Haibun Online, Prune Juice, Ribbons, Peninsula Poets, Bones, The Sciku Project, Haigaonline, and DailyHaiga.
AWE
We experience awe in our relationships with nature, but we also experience wonder and awe from art, music, religion and for some of us, mathematics, and science. I am in awe of how mathematical language allows us to understand and explain this world we inhabit. In this book I take a look, using haiku, limericks, verse and images, at some everyday things from a tongue-in-check quasi mathematical point of view. This somewhat strange perspective will give you a bit of insight as to the wonder and awe I feel as I navigate this world and universe we all call home.
Universal and Accessible Design for Products, Services, and Processes
New laws, global competition, technological advances, and evolving societal values toward disability all demand the integration of universal and accessible design principles into the general practice of the design community. This growing international movement forces competitors to expand their traditional concepts of design and adopt these principles as a core component of design and essential to success in today’s global market.
Supplying definitions, theory, and applications, Universal and Accessible Design for Products, Services, and Processes allows professional designers, educators, and students to implement these principles and understand how their application fits a broader societal and competitive design environment.
