Sizzling summer haiku

sun-striped path
the forest’s outbreath
fills our lungs

This mixed media collage is 11×14, made with paper, acrylic paint, charcoal, crayon, ink and glue on cradled wood. A birthday card version reads, “happy birthday—may you grow many more rings.” © Annette Makino 2023

Today is sunny, but through the weekend, the clouds hung on till afternoon, and I was chilly enough to wear a wool sweater. Here on the Northern California coast, we have entered the month of Fogust. In our cool and damp micro-clime, so perfect for redwoods, locals are amazed by the temperature if it reaches 70 degrees.

But having lived near Ukiah, CA as a teen and visited family often since, I know a little about triple-digit heat. Today I’m sharing a haiku sequence that I wrote on a recent trip there.

By the way, while traditional haiku are supposed to convey the season, there are lots of ways to do that without stating it directly. This sequence only uses the word “summer” once, but you’ll see that there are many creative ways to imply it.

Today I’m also featuring two collage haiga (art with haiku) that were inspired by my time in beautiful Mendocino County.

Heat Wave

weathered fence posts
resting on the wire
meadowlark song

This mixed media collage is 8×10, made with paper, acrylic paint, crayon, ink and glue on cradled wood. © Annette Makino 2023

English Breakfast
a real scorcher
gathers steam

record highs
the weather map
blazing

wildfire season
the first clothes I hung
tinder-dry

and the seasons . . .
turning the fan
to summer mode

heat haze
a hummingbird
fans the air

ninety in the shade
a glass of iced tea
sweating

cherry pits
stud the bear scat
exposed trail

the day’s heat
still rising from the stones
the whoosh of bats

first stars
we open every window
to let in the night

Whether yours is foggy and damp or sunny and dry, I hope you’re enjoying the summer!

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Makino Studios News

Free shipping this week: Your Makino Studios order ships free through Sunday, August 10 with code SIZZLE25. Enter the code at checkout. No minimum order. US addresses only.

This haiga, painted with sumi ink and Japanese watercolors on paper, appears in Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku, Annette Makino, Makino Studios, 2021.

2026 calendar focus group: I’m working away on the collages for my 2026 mini-calendar of art and haiku! I could use some input on which image to use for the cover. If you’re interested in getting a sneak peek online and voting on the contestants, please reply to this email. And if you were part of last year’s focus group, I’ll include you again. Thanks!

Haiku 21.2: I’m honored to have the following haiku in Haiku 21.2, a new anthology of contemporary haiku in English, published by Modern Haiku Press:

October sun
the sky the color
of forever

Haiku North America: This biannual conference will be held in San Francisco September 24-28. I’m excited to attend HNA for the first time! Registration is still open for anyone interested in haiku.

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“Heat Wave” was published in Frogpond, 48.2, Spring/Summer 2025

A haikupalooza for Haiku Poetry Day

Today, April 17, is International Haiku Poetry Day, which falls in the middle of National Poetry Month. As it happens, I have four upcoming public events focused on poetry and art: a haiku festival, an art opening, a poetry reading and an open studios weekend. All very exciting—see below for dates and deets!

Every day last month, the Mann Library Daily Haiku site at Cornell University featured one of my haiku, selected by editor Tom Clausen. To celebrate Haiku Poetry Day, here are a dozen of my favorites. You can read all 31 poems here along with publication credits.

“maybe we too” is an 11x14 mixed media collage made with paper, acrylic paint, ink, colored pencil and glue on cradled birch panel. © Annette Makino 2024

for better or for worse
our lights and darks
tumbling together

home from errands—
a hero’s welcome
from the dog

our easy silence
every puddle
sky-deep

fog-shrouded coast
we listen
to the view

art studio
a full day’s work
under my nails

hunger moon
a descendent of wolves
licks our plates

lights out—
we discuss
our extinction

maybe I too
have softened with age
moss-covered stones

long before language the S of the river

cowlick
some part of me
still wild

what remains
of the mountain
sand between my toes

redwood time
the steady journey
from earth to sky

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Makino Studios News

ukiaHaiku Festival: The 23rd annual ukiaHaiku Festival takes place on Sunday, April 27, 2-4 p.m. at the Grace Hudson Museum’s Wild Gardens in Ukiah, CA. I’m honored to be the keynote speaker this year, a cool twist for a Ukiah High grad! The organizers write, “Join us to celebrate Ukiah’s palindrome with readings of past haiku contest winners from various local luminaries followed by an all-ages open mic for those who wish to read a haiku of their choosing.” It’s free and open to the public. I’ll have a Makino Studios table with some books, calendars, prints and cards.

A dozen artists ages 36 to 92 will show their work at “Ten Thousand Gates - A Humboldt Celebration of Asian Artists.”

Ten Thousand Gates - A Humboldt Celebration of Asian Artists: This art show at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA will feature a dozen local artists of Asian descent. The show opens during Arts Alive on Saturday, May 3 from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibition runs April 26 to June 8. The art ranges from traditional landscapes to contemporary street art. Techniques include Chinese brush painting, ceramics, photography, spray paint, junk art, airbrush, collage and digital art. The artists are Karla Kaizoji Austin, Cate Be, Jeremy Hara, Ted Hsu, the late Suk Choo Kim, Ali Lee, Thao Le Khac, Amy Leon, Annette Makino, Yoshiko Skelton, Amy Uyeki and Libby Yee.

Six poets will share their work at “Ink to Paper - A Reading by Asian American Poets of Humboldt.”

Ink to Paper - A Reading by Asian American Poets of Humboldt: This is the first public reading by poets from our local Asian American community. The event will take place at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA on Sunday, May 4 at 2 p.m. Poets include Tony Wallin-Sato, Mark Shikuma, Daryl Ngee Chinn, Annette Makino, Libby Yee and Amy Uyeki reading poems by her grandmother, Shizue Harada. Three of us will show slides of our art with the poems.  

Asian and Pacific American Month: The art show and reading are among several Humboldt County events in May held in conjunction with Asian and Pacific American month. See the Humboldt Asians and Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI) site for details. Events also include a chorale opera about the Eureka Chinatown expulsion and a Chinatown street festival. 

Open Studios: After several years off, I will be able to share my art and process during the 25th anniversary of North Coast Open Studios. I’ll be joining half a dozen international artists-in-residence plus local artists at Creekside Arts in Freshwater, CA on the second weekend, June 14-15.  

Mother’s Day and graduation: Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, May 11. Cal Poly Humboldt commencement is Saturday, May 17, and local high schools hold graduation in mid-June. See my card collection for these occasions and others.

Travel plans: I will be on vacation May 20 to June 8, and Makino Studios orders will go out slowly while I’m gone. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Free shipping: I offer free US shipping on orders of $35 or more. Just enter promo code FREESHIP35 at checkout.  

In memory of my mother

“the shape of a life” is 11x14, made of acrylic paint, paper and glue on cradled wood. The original has sold but the image is available as a greeting card and is also part of the Makino Studios 2025 calendar.

My beloved mother, Erika Makino, passed away a month ago at age 96. I was by her bedside, holding her hand, and my two sisters had been with her in recent days and hours.

From growing up in Switzerland during World War II to traveling the world, teaching special education, writing stories and making art, my mom led a fascinating life, as described in her obituary. Also see “An Adventurous Spirit,” a much longer version of her life story with more photos.

I’m learning that no matter how old you are and no matter how inevitable it seemed, it is still really hard to lose your mom. Who else could love you like your own mother? It was not always easy to grow up as the child of a free spirit: money was tight, and somehow we were always moving. By age 16 I had lived in three countries, eleven cities and 20 homes, including two stints in campgrounds. But through it all, I never doubted my mom’s unconditional love for me. What a huge loss. What a huge gift.

Over the past month of mourning, I’ve found comfort in knowing that my mother led a long and full life, getting to do most everything she wanted even into her 90s. And she had the kind of death we all wish for: at home in bed, with loved ones near, in no pain, at peace. I’m also grateful for the ability to grieve, laugh and reminisce with my sisters.

Annette Makino, left, with mother Erika Makino in Santa Barbara in 2013.

Since then my mother has visited me several times in my sleep, a loving and comforting presence. Even in scenarios that involved corpses and coffins, the dream character of my mom conveyed that these were merely the outward trappings of death, while her spirit lives beyond. Other dreams have echoed our close bond: in one I asked her if she needed anything, and she replied simply, “hug.” In another I was washing her dear face with a washcloth, very tenderly, just as I did while caregiving for her in recent years.

My mother not only gave me unconditional love, she modeled how to live an authentic life. As one of my sympathy cards reads, “those we have loved are always with us.” I am truly blessed to be my mother's daughter and to carry her in my heart.

the shape of a life
one sparkling wave
returns to the sea

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Makino Studios News

Debut in Rattle poetry journal: This month I am honored to have my first appearance in the print version of Rattle, a general poetry journal with a 0.2% acceptance rate, one of the toughest poetry journals to get into. My haibun (prose with haiku), “Migration,” connects the monarch butterfly stopover near one of my childhood homes to my father’s absence.

Anniversary sale: To celebrate Makino Studio’s 14th anniversary on March 18, and in thanks for your years of support, I’m offering 14% off everything in the shop through Tuesday, March 18 at midnight. Enter code 14YEARS at checkout.

Featured poet at Mann Library site: I’m pleased to have a haiku featured every day in March on the Mann Library Daily Haiku site at Cornell University, curated by Tom Clausen. You can follow along on the site daily and find work by many other terrific haiku poets in the archives.

Red Moon Anthology: A haiku sequence I wrote last year about caregiving for my mother, “Shorter Days,” is included in Telling the Bees: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2024. I’m delighted to be included in this annual collection of the finest haiku published around the world.

Ten Thousand Gates: A Humboldt Celebration of Asian Artists: The Humboldt Arts Council will host a show by a dozen Humboldt County artists of Asian descent, including myself, at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA, opening from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, May 3 during Arts Alive.

Ink to Paper: I’m organizing an accompanying poetry reading and slide show of haiga (art with haiku) by Humboldt-area Asian-American poets at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 4 at the Morris Graves. There are several other interesting Asian heritage events in Eureka in the works for that weekend; stay tuned . . .

To kneel and kiss the (soggy) ground

“this small corner” is an 8x10 mixed media collage made with paper, acrylic paint, colored pencil, ink and glue on cradled wood panel. It is part of the 2025 Makino Studios calendar of art and haiku. © Annette Makino 2024

I’m normally a pretty upbeat person, but I’ve been feeling heavy and down of late. The election results have left me grieving for the alternate future I’d hoped for and dreading the changes under the incoming regime.

election night
slowly unclasping
my pearls

Meanwhile, the bomb cyclone and atmospheric river here on the Northern California coast have kept us mostly housebound for the past week, with brave forays to jump-start the generator or take brief walks between storms.

cold winter rain
the swollen creek also
rushing home

Combined with ceaseless rain, the short, dark days of late November are not helping one bit. Who decided it was okay for the sun to set before 5 p.m.?! The daily loss of light only deepens my melancholy.

mourning dove
the ancient sorrow
in my bones

To combat this gloom, I’m making a conscious effort to focus on everything that’s still good in my part of the world. And what better time to cultivate an attitude of gratitude than Thanksgiving?

this small corner
of the universe . . .
twitching whiskers

It really helps to list all my blessings. For one, though my hair is grayer now, in many ways I feel healthier and fitter than I was fifteen or twenty years ago when I was working full-time and raising two children. Back then it was a challenge just to get dinner on the table, let alone work out and walk in nature every day. Now I take pleasure in my improving strength and balance in tricky yoga poses. And I appreciate that my legs willingly carry me for miles.

Annette Makino and husband Paul W. Blank on the Oregon Coast, October 2024.

I’m also thankful for Paul, my beloved mate of 33 years, a brilliant, funny and kind partner through weather fair or foul.

shore pines
bearded with moss
his laugh lines

We are very fortunate to have warm and easy relationships with our two adult kids. They are interesting and delightful young people who actually seem to enjoy spending time with their ancient parents (within reason). I’m also blessed with a close-knit extended family (hurray for tension-free holidays), a comfortable home and a vibrant community in a beautiful part of the world.

And I’m especially grateful for the gift of meaningful work. In the past I’ve held positions where I felt valued but not essential, meaning someone else could step in and do the same job. And the work, though worthwhile, wasn’t my personal passion. But as Chief Cook and Brush Washer at Makino Studios, I now create art and poetry that no one else could make because it is an authentic expression of my being, borne of my unique life experience.

It means even more that my art resonates for others, providing a bit of beauty and insight in a world that sorely needs both. With zero paid advertising, I sell more than 15,000 cards a year. Though that is barely a rounding error for Hallmark, I see each card as a little spark between two people, helping them express their caring for each other. My calendars, prints and books, often given as gifts, play a similar role. I’m honored to be a vehicle for those connections.

My poems also seem to speak to people: a recently published haiku sequence about losing our dog Misha, called “At the Exit,” garnered heartfelt responses from readers who took the time to email, comment on social media or tell me in person how much it meant to them.

So this season, I give special thanks to you, my supporters, for giving me a sense of purpose, for the gift of right livelihood. As the Sufi poet Rumi said, “Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Makino Studios News

Calendars, books and notecard sets are among the Makino Studios items offered at 15% off through this Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024 with code THANKS2024.

Thanksgiving sale: Cards, notecard sets, calendars, books and prints are all 15% off in the shop through this Sunday at midnight. Enter discount code THANKS2024 at checkout. Good on orders of $20 or more while supplies last.

2025 calendars: For the 12th year running, my mini-calendars of haiku and art are still just $12 each (or $10.20 if you catch the Thanksgiving sale). These beautiful little calendars make great gifts for friends and family!

Notecard sets: Browse several designs of holiday and everyday notecard sets. These come eight to a box with eight kraft envelopes.

Greeting cards: You can find 70 single cards in the card section of the Makino Studios site, including some holiday designs. Note that some designs are almost sold out at the moment.

Holiday shipping deadlines: For arrival on or before December 25, please place your order no later than December 17. The mail has been slow these days, so even sooner is safer.

Made in Humboldt Fair: For Humboldt County folks, this event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA is running now through Dec. 24. There you can find my book (Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku), signed and matted prints, 2025 calendars and notecard sets.

Arcata Holiday Craft Market: This fair takes place Dec. 14-15 at the Arcata Community Center in Arcata, CA. This is my only in-person event this season. Look for the Makino Studios booth on the lefthand side of the main hall.

“It’s complicated”: A year ago I wrote this post about the uneasy history of Thanksgiving, which is relevant again.

Thanks: I always appreciate your feedback, whether by email, in person or on social media.

Credits: Haiku in this post were first published in tinywords, The Heron’s Nest and Wales Haiku Journal.

Finding a warm community

software update
the maple releasing
its obsolete

                       l

                            e

                                       a

                                v

                       e

                            s

“software update” is 11x14, made with acrylic paint, paper, pen and glue on cradled wood. This is a page from my 2025 calendar. A card version reads, “have a wild and crazy birthday”. © Annette Makino 2024

I had a wonderful time at the Seabeck Haiku Getaway last month! It was four days of marinating in all things haiku with fellow poets in beautiful Seabeck, Washington.

Since the conference theme was maps, I recruited my geographer husband, Paul W. Blank, to lead a “Walk on the World” session with his giant maps that show the world at 16 miles to the inch. It was great fun wandering across Eurasia in our stocking feet! Many haiku emerged from his session and others.

The schedule was packed with presentations and “Write Now” exercises, many on the theme of maps and travel. Featured guest Crystal Simone Smith shared her moving haiku inspired by 19th century fugitive slave ads; she also led us in exploring new haiku approaches.

The Seabeck Haiku Getaway always includes a kukai, a contest of haiku written at Seabeck that is judged by the participating poets. I was honored that both of my submissions placed, tying for first and sixth. Here is my first-place poem:

Geographer Paul W. Blank, far right, explains the big maps at the Seabeck Haiku Getaway in October 2024.

Tokyo alley
I run into
the moon from home

But for me, the best part of the long weekend was deepening my ties to the haiku clan. During communal mealtimes, walks in the woods and late-night socializing, I got to reconnect with poet friends and meet others I’d only known by name. Basking in this community was especially precious to me since I live far from any in-person haiku groups.

Earlier this year haiku poet P. H. (Peter) Fischer and I co-edited the conference anthology for the 2023 Seabeck Haiku Getaway. Published by Haiku Northwest, it was distributed at last month’s gathering. Winds Aloft features terrific cover art of Seabeck and six haiku comics by graphic novelist David Lasky, as well as poems by almost all of the 56 conference participants that year. Here’s one of mine inspired by the bigleaf maples at Seabeck:

the last rays of sun
offered back to the sky
yellow maple

As Peter and I wrote in the introduction, “Haiku poets are a special breed. The habit of keenly observing life’s details tends to make people more attuned, thoughtful and appreciative. Or perhaps it works the other way around. In any case, each year this unique tribe gathers at Seabeck to create a warm community of like-minded folks. In the words of physicist Douglas Hofstadter, in this kind of synergy, ‘The soul is greater than the hum of its parts.’ We appreciate everyone who added their own unique hum to the magic that is Seabeck.”

In these turbulent times, we need community more than ever. So on this, my eighth time at Seabeck, I was grateful once again to be welcomed into the fold.

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Makino Studios News

These are just four of the notecard sets on sale at 20% off in the Cards section. Sale ends this Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.

SALE on notecards: I’m offering 20% off all holiday and everyday notecard sets. These come eight to a box with eight kraft envelopes. Normally $20, they are on sale through midnight this Sunday, Nov. 17 for $16 with promo code NOTECARD20. Most of these designs are also available as single cards with words.

2025 calendars: So far this season, more than 500 of my mini-calendars of art and haiku have gone out the door! Still just $12 each, these lovely little calendars make great gifts for friends and family.

Greeting cards: You can find most of my newest single cards at the top of this collection of 70 designs. These cards are made with fiber from responsibly managed forests and the mill uses green energy and carbon offsets. They are printed in Arcata, California by an independent small business and go for $5 each.

Holiday shipping deadlines: For arrival on or before December 25, please place your order no later than December 17. The mail has been slow these days, so even sooner is safer!

Made in Humboldt Fair: This event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA runs through Dec. 24. There you can find my book (Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku), signed and matted prints, 2025 calendars and notecard sets.

Arcata Holiday Craft Market: This fundraiser for the Arcata Recreation Department’s youth scholarship program takes place Dec. 14-15 at the Arcata Community Center in Arcata, CA. Look for the Makino Studios booth on the lefthand side of the main room. This is my only in-person event this season and I will be offering some deals and closeouts.

Social: I’ve given up on Twitter/X, but I regularly post art, haiku, news and more on Instagram and Threads as @annettemakino and on Facebook as Makino Studios (links below). See you over there!

Thanks: I always appreciate your feedback, whether by email, on social media or here in the comments.

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Credit: “the last rays of sun” - 5th place tie, kukai at Seabeck 2023; in Winds Aloft: 2023 Seabeck Haiku Getaway Anthology, Eds. Annette Makino and P H. Fisher, Haiku Northwest, 2024

The tale of three sisters and a blank calendar

“egret wings” is 8x10, made with paper, acrylic paint, pen and glue on cradled wood. It is part of the Makino Studios 2025 calendar of art and haiku. A card version reads, “wishing you a wonder-full birthday”. © Annette Makino 2024

First of all, I’m excited to share that my 2025 calendars have arrived! This is the twelfth year in a row that I’ve produced a mini-calendar of my art and haiku (and they are still only $12). I’m so pleased to be able to share the culmination of a year’s worth of art-making with you.

fresh calendar
the squares empty
with promise

But today I want to tell you about the deep roots of this calendar project. I co-produced my first art calendar back in 1976, at the ripe old age of 13. My mother, two younger sisters and I were living in Basel, Switzerland with my elderly grandmother that year. One fall afternoon, my mom brought home a calendar for the following year with a blank space for each month’s image. She asked us three girls to create the art. We set to work with our colored markers on the floor of our shared bedroom. I remember drawing a scene of the birch woods near my grandmother’s house, fiery in yellow and orange leaves. Our mom, who always encouraged our creativity, loved the calendar.

"Another Makino Production" - art calendars by Erika, Annette, Yoshi and Yuri Makino

Back in the US the next year, we three created another calendar from scratch, photocopied it and gave copies to close friends and family for the holidays. We continued to make these every year through our teens and college years, labeling them “Another Makino Production.”

Through the 70s we drew unicorns, butterflies and mimes. In the early 80s these gave way to punk/New Wave-inspired designs and absurdist pen and ink sketches with titles like “Mr. Zapkins Takes a Bath.” When we were in late high school and college, the calendars included portraits of boyfriends and, in the case of my sister Yoshi, detailed assignments from art school. Besides pen and ink drawings, we featured scratch board art, black and white photos and linoleum block prints—anything that would Xerox well.

"Birth of Annette" by Annette Makino, December 1966 (age 3-1/2).

But as we got busy with the rest of life, it became harder to come up with four artworks apiece. One year we stretched our offerings by producing a “special artistic retrospective” that featured some charmingly strange drawings from our toddler days. One depicted my birth, or so I explained at the time. We also included sketches by our mom, Erika, as a guest artist.

Untitled, by Yuri M., produced around 3 a.m. some night in late 1980 (age 13)

Another year, my sister Yuri stayed up till 3 a.m. the night before our deadline, making a sketch of one of her running shoes, laces trailing. It was a decent likeness, but oddly small and pathetic on the page. It looked like the desperate last-minute measure that it was, and we have laughed about it ever since. Though my sisters and I stopped producing our calendar in 1987, my collection is a precious time capsule of our youth.

Fast waaaay forward to 2013, and I created the first Makino Studios calendar of my art and haiku. To my surprise, the 400 calendars I printed that year sold out—even though my customers were not all blood relatives! Over the past dozen years, these annual calendars have continued to earn fans—I love hearing how people ship them to friends around the country and abroad. And my sisters still provide valuable critiques of my works in progress.

November rain
the swaying palms
on the calendar

While my artistic technique has improved since I was 13, I still get just as much pleasure from creating a usable collection of art and sharing it with the world. In fact, I consider the Makino Studios mini-calendar to be a tiny rotating art gallery. Thanks to all who have served as curators by hanging one on your wall! There are no unicorns (or running shoes) in the 2025 edition, but I hope you will enjoy it all the same.

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Makino Studios News

These 2025 mini-calendars measure  5-1/2” wide by 7” tall closed (5-1/2” x 14” open). The calendar includes an artist’s bio and some background on haiku and haiga (haiku art). These are professionally printed in the USA on substantial paper and saddle-stitched.

NEW! 2025 calendars: Featuring original haiku and Asian-inspired collages of peaceful landscapes and animals, my mini-calendars are $12 each. Special thanks to those who agreed to serve as my focus group, helping me decide which pieces to leave out and which to put on the cover.

New cards coming: Birthdays, sympathy, get well, holiday and everyday—I have ten new card designs coming off the press soon. Check for them around Sept. 25 in the card section of the Makino Studios site!

Free shipping: I offer free US shipping on orders of $35 or more. Just enter promo code FREESHIP35 at checkout.

Henderson Haiku Awards: This year I was honored to serve as one of the two judges for the Haiku Society of America’s flagship haiku contest. Fellow haiku poet P.H. Fischer and I pored over more than 1200 poems to find our favorites. Check out the winning poems and our commentary.

Seabeck Haiku Getaway: Sponsored by Haiku Northwest, this fun and inspiring gathering takes place in Seabeck, Washington October 24-27. I will be there and can highly recommend this annual event for beginning and experienced haiku points alike. P.H. Fischer and I co-edited the conference anthology for last year’s getaway, sparking memories of a great long weekend of marinating in haiku.

Made in Humboldt Holiday Fair: I’ll have Makino Studios wares, including 2025 calendars, notecard sets and books at Pierson’s Garden Shop in Eureka, CA November 5-December 24.

Arcata Holiday Craft Market: Mark your calendars: my only in-person event of the whole year will take place Saturday and Sunday, December 14-15 at the Arcata Community Center in Arcata, CA. This festive event raises scholarship funds for low-income youth to participate in the City of Arcata’s recreation programs.

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The haiku “egret wings” was first published in Wales Haiku Journal.

“November rain” was first published in Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America

"The Three Sisters" by Yuri Makino, 1971 (age 4).

Campaign twist

“mixed ancestry” is 8x10, made of a letter and envelope from my Swiss grandmother, Japanese washi paper, buttons covered with kimono fabric, a feather, acrylic paint, thread and glue on cradled wood. It is on view at Medium Gallery in Ukiah, CA through August 2024. © Annette Makino 2021

What a wild stretch we’ve had on the political front! Just three weeks ago, with Joe Biden insisting he was staying in the presidential race and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, things felt very dire to me. The mood at the Republican National Convention was triumphant as surveys of voter opinion showed Biden slipping farther and farther behind Trump.

dry thunder
the latest polls
roll in

But then, as you possibly may have heard, Biden graciously withdrew his reelection bid. With uncharacteristic speed, the Democrats united around Vice-President Kamala Harris as their presumptive presidential nominee.

campaign twist
our menu options
have changed

It’s been amazing to see the tsunami of energy and excitement this has unleashed among Democrats: endorsements, donations, volunteer signups, voter registrations, even TikTok memes! Although the race is still very tight right now, I take heart that many polls are starting to favor Harris. We may not be doomed to another Trump presidency after all. In an unfamiliar turn of events, reading the headlines is actually making me happy!

election news
with a side of ice cream
the taste of hope

I’m struck by how much I have in common with Kamala Harris. We are both Democratic women around age 60 from Northern California. We are both married with two adult children, stepkids in her case. Her husband is Jewish; mine is half-Jewish. She has a sister named Maya, like my daughter. We were both raised by immigrant parents: hers from India and Jamaica, mine from Switzerland and Japan. We both grew up partly overseas but mainly in the United States. And we are both biracial, specifically half-Asian.

True to form, Trump has leaned into racist attacks on Harris and questioned her Black credentials because she is also Indian, saying, “So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

But over 12% of Americans identify as multiracial. We understand that you can embrace more than one race just as you can have both German and Irish ancestors. Yes, it can be trying when strangers ask, “What are you?” In the Facebook group Subtle Halfie Traits, people who are part Asian lament the challenges of navigating their different races or not being fully accepted by one side or the other.

But overall, I love my blend of ethnicities and cultures. Because of my mixed parentage, I lived in both Switzerland and Japan as a child. I speak several languages and have traveled widely. My world is so much richer thanks to my hybrid background.

mixed ancestry the warp and weft of me

Nothing is guaranteed; we have to work for it. But I am fired up to elect our first female, Black and Asian President. (Oh, and I love her boisterous laugh and joyful energy; what a contrast with Trump!) I’m sure that if Harris wins the November election (knock on wood), her unique background will be a valuable asset to our nation. Her leadership will draw from a firsthand understanding that diverse races and cultures only strengthen the vibrant tapestry that is America.

spacious skies
the bald eagle leans
into the wind

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Makino Studios News

2025 calendar focus group: I have almost finished the collages for my 2025 mini-calendar of art and haiku! I could use some input on which image to use for the cover and which of the 13 pieces to leave out. If you’re interested in getting a sneak peek online and voting on the contestants, please let me know by email (link below). Thanks!

Rattle Editor Timothy Green interviews Annette Makino about her haiku on Rattle’s podcast on July 21, 2024. Starts at the 2:00 mark.

Rattle podcast: I’m delighted that my “dry thunder” haiku was selected for Rattle Poetry’s weekly Poets Respond feature. On their July 21 podcast, I spoke briefly with Editor Timothy Green about how I came to write the poem. Watch it on YouTube starting at the 2:00 mark.

Q&A: A Closer Look with Annette Makino: Erica Goss recently interviewed me for her Sticks & Stones poetry newsletter about how I combine art and haiku in my haiga. Erica is an award-winning poet and a friend since babyhood; check out her site.

Anywhere But Here: Several of my collages, including “mixed ancestry,” shown above, are on display this month at Medium Gallery in Ukiah, CA. The exhibit features reflections on time and place, longing, wanderlust, and exploration. The show runs until August 31.

Made in America II: A Humboldt Celebration of Asian Artists: The Humboldt Arts Council will host a show by thirteen Humboldt County artists of Asian descent at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA in May 2025. I’m honored to be part of the group and am organizing an accompanying poetry reading and haiga slide show.

Obon Festival: The annual Humboldt Obon festival takes place in Arcata, CA this Sunday, August 11 from 4-8 pm. This traditional Japanese festival, which remembers and honors our ancestors, will be held on 9th Street in front of the Arcata Playhouse. Although I won’t have a booth there this year, it’s always a fun and festive time!