Hawai‘i Literature & Art
— Since 1978 —
From “Kona Glitter, 1964: A Ghost Story,” by Kobai Scott Whitney . . . For the life of me, I can’t remember what word we used for “hunk”in 1964. It seems to me that hunk did not appear until the 70s or 80s and that the girls of Kona Waena High in 1964 must have…
From Issue 67/68: “For the past twelve centuries, the Japanese people have expressed their intense pent-up emotions in tanka, one of the most unique and shortest forms of poetic expression in the world. Most Japanese samurai wrote jisei (deathbed tanka) at the site of their hara-kiri. It was natural for many hibakusha to write taka…
353 words. Symbolism in all that goes bling!
"…looking for elusive tigers and an unknown adventure." (445 words)
Sonny Chillingworth, one of Hawai'i's prolific and renowned slack key artist, tells a story about the early love between his grandparents. Both families did not approve of their relationship, so his grandfather would court his beloved at night. Here he would put a needle into her metal screen that covered her window, tied to it was string that would be waxed. The other end of the string would be pulled along to where his grandfather would be, and the end of the string put into his guitar. As his grandfather would play, the music would vibrate through the string and against the metal window where Sonny's grandmother would follow the music – and the string – to her love. This slack key technique is known as needle and thread.
Their love story inspired me to write this poem about my own love of my life. Our relationship started with a flower, that inspired him to write a song…and the rest is history.
You know Nani, the most precious thing to me is something we can take from this 'aina, we can keep it alive and growing. Let's take some plants from the lehua taro patch. Word count:858
Scars, let flow the blood! Seventy-four words
Year of the Snake entry for July. 500 words. For RC and GD.
July, she will fly : ) The Great BR Writing Contest is 3 years old this month. This month, the word limit is . . . uh . . . unlimited : ) That’s right, as many words as you want, but remember to put in your word count. The triggers for this month are…
Trigger #7. 137 heartfelt words. "She was a unique blend of worlds that rendered her beautiful in any region on earth." We're half-breeds, you and I, caught in between two worlds that sometimes have difficulty blending on the same platform. So where, I ask, do we find our sure footing to pour out what's in our heart when the world under our feet feels unsteady? Even beauty has trouble finding acceptance…