My fifth Wordsworth book in my Wordsworth the Poet series is here. I’ll be in Hawaii for book signings, talks on Wordsworth and other workshops. Stay tuned for dates. Hilo friends, I’ll be at Basically Books on June 24th at 2:00 p.m. I’ll be discussing how I wrote all five Wordsworth books and Wordsworth promised to make an appearance. Please drop by to say hello. My Oahu events are still in pencil. I will post them when they’re in ink. I’ll be speaking on caregiving and will do a poetry writing workshop along with book signings ..read more

Have you ever gone through the belongings of your loved ones after they’re gone? In 2002, I found in my mother’s bureau, every Mother’s Day card she had received from her children. Included were hand-written letters of thanks sent by her physician. These letters told me my mother had regularly dropped off orchids and papayas from the farm where she worked. I sent these letters back to the doctor and he was totally moved that my mother had saved each one. She lost to Alzheimer’s but I found her stories in her belongings. Allow me to share a poem I wrote after observing two people exchange phone ..read more

I wrote this poem after reading Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar and On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. Oh America Our living Democracy. First it was the black Whose color was wrong. Then the Japanese whose faces Wore  the enemy’s. After 9/11, it was the Moslems. All Asians after Covid-19 Since we all look alike. Oh America, Hear this, before you etch Another on your list: The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose ..read more

In the midst of chaos Be still, be still. Shhhh. What will poets do Without the first bloom of Spring Waltzing in the wind? What will children do Without slimy green frogs Slipping through fingers? What will Basho have seen Without the leap of the frog Splash! Then stillness again? What will you do Without the sound of stillness In the morning dew? What will I do Without hummingbird wings Whirring in sync? Hush hush, Be still, be still Listen. (Written after turning off the radio ..read more

Sometimes, even a poem cannot capture a significant image . So this is a poem of that poem that cannot be written: Half a butterfly On concrete walk, So significant a sight, Yet not a metaphor Comes to mind. Forgive me, wing, For my inadequacy. Frances 10-22-20 ..read more

This is an interview with  Asian American Curriculum. Hope there is something here for you. Thank you …. file:///C:/Users/Frances/Desktop/Asian%20American%20newsletter%202020.htm ..read more

Thank you black crow For your company this morn. Are you Poe’s raven Calling Nevermore?   Thank you majestic oak For the symphony above Hi C’s, low C’s A chorus of chirps, baton free.   Oh, sparrows, sparrows Wait, wait, you can’t go Seven on a telephone line, Complete your haiku ere you go.   Such was my walk this Friday morn, Around the silent mall With nature’s best For companionship.   ..read more

Morning Shock Waves   Who is this woman In my morning mirror? Who let this old Japanese woman in?   I have fallen in aftershocks From devastating earthquakes – Aftershocked from broken romances – Rear-ended crashes . Avalanched by human cruelty – But never, never, such Aftershocks of this mirrored truth. Get her out of here!!!   Frances Kakugawa 9-17-19 ..read more

Men in Disguise at Book Signings   “Did your husband write all these books?” He was in the audience a few minutes ago. Yet, here he stands in his three piece designer suit Scanning book titles with furrowed brows.   “Idiot,” I didn’t say, “Would I be sitting here, Two hours on my hemorrhoids Signing someone else’s books With carpal tunneled fingers?”   At Barnes & Noble in Hawaii, The FBI disguised in a loud Aloha shirt, A wilted orchid  lei, a camera strapped like a gun Interrogates me. “You wrote these books?” Not satisfied, he grills me over hot coals again. “You? Yo ..read more