As part of my healing journey in 2022, I began a practice of writing a haiku each week. After 26 weeks, this practice shifted from personal and healing to an artistic body of work developing through my life. I have continued to practice this discipline and have a second book of poetry and art reflecting the journey through 2023. Book Launch will be September 7, 3-5 pm at the Y Arts Center, 115 E Church St. Frederick, MD
2023 – Free & Free Falling
I have finished the 2023 collection of haiku and images. If you want to see the images and poetry as they came together, visit my Substack Newsletter, I have been sharing about one/week.
# 30.
Hemlock, birch, maple,
oak and pine sheltered our hearts.
Veery sang us home.
July 30, 2023
2022
Some re-assembly
required, a year sifted through
52 haiku
Handmade book of original poems and drawings, 2 signatures, butterfly stitched, 64 pages.
Cover printed on Vandercook Letterpress.
35 numbered editions made
Click image for link to PDF
(c) Adrien Dawson
20 editions for sale – $50 + shipping. To order, email adrien.dawson@gmail.com
In 2022 my life became a unrecognizable.
Each morning I would awaken and wonder, “Who am I?”
I let go of my work.
I let go of my community of faith.
I let go of my marriage.
I let go of my address.
I let go of my calendar.
I let go…
One night in the darkness of 3am, I opened my hands and said out loud, “I consent, God. Whatever you ask me to let go of… I will let it go.”
I couldn’t sort out when was last week, a month ago, or yesterday.
In desperation, I wrote a small reflection each day and then a haiku at the end of each week. The poems became vessels, containers for points in time. In July, after 26 poems, I realized that these poems were taking on a life of their own. Strung together, like beads, they create a narrative of what remains after all the letting go. My body is reassembled, one week at a time, in this little book of word and image.
Thank you for re-membering me.
Adrien P. Dawson (Gehring)