enter the stream

"Enter the Stream," Genie Nakano's new work of haibun and tanka tales, is an autobiographical journey, each poem revealing a different memory, a different stage of life. The journey starts in a dream state, with "Yume," where she dies in a dream, transforms into a butterfly then wakes up "the same me." From conception to depression, from East LA to Mexico to a palm oasis, from childhood to adulthood, the reader is drawn into Genie's world. Genie varies the style of each poem, some are prose poems, others are written in a stanza format. Some use haiku, others tanka. This creates freshness from page to page. I welcome you to enter the stream and hope you enjoy these poems as much as I do. - Deborah P Kolodji (Moderator, Southern California Haiku Study Group)