Hawai‘i Literature & Art
— Since 1978 —
wen I stay about tirteen I wen go surf wid my fren evry time we go Waikiki we like go Pops da spot off da Halekulani one time one local guy wen see me one blonde haole girl an he figah I stay come from California since he made this assumption I decided to speak…
“Sir? Excuse me?” Ronald Ito turns around, sees it’s an older security guard. Close cropped silver hair, the kind of crewcut you inherit from your days in the military. But his military life is one he left long ago, it appears. He’s soft, beer paunchy. Ito is much younger, a former member of his high-school…
We know about sparkling eyes, dancing eyes, laughing eyes, and eyes the windows, mirrors, portals to the soul, But what about tiny soul creatures (living secretly) within each dark (and private) eye? My great-aunt Helen had a voice like that, (a voice-within-a-voice), a Sarah Vaughn voice, a Vaughn Monroe voice. Eyes like that, multidimensional eyes,…
Aloha and welcome to the February Year of the Tiger Bamboo Shoots Writing Contest. If you were looking for the February writing prompts, you have come to the right place. This month is special. In conjunction with Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, Hawaiian Language Month, we are encouraging anyone interested in submitting contest pieces written in Hawaiian…
She opened the door, peered within, then, sighing, closed it. Three days of leftovers; time to transform, Chopped-wise, or commence discarding. She didn’t like to waste. As she stood in the kitchen, straining for possible permutations of three widely dissimilar dishes into a marginally palatable meal, her thoughts were interrupted. He: Eh. I go pick…
Everyone knows January first is new To me, new means That sweet scent of a just born baby’s head The smell and crackle of book pages never read by anyone before me That book bag my Mom made from scrap material, filled with school supplies And a box of 48 Crayolas, sharpened and still whole…
Take it slow and easy, if you wanna get along with me. A get-along is an easy glide that doesn’t put pressure inequitably on any part by not applying much pressure, period. I’m driving slow, gliding along, looking for a place to park, a place with a roof over it, if posse le. Ah well,…
It’s another spring coming that I won’t be back in Madison, go there to write, my personal writing workshop, a retreat, where the energy is good and the writing flows. I’ve been doing this for several years now, spending five days doing nothing but write all day, for several years, I should say, up until…
Why, hello again, Miss Sadie So pretty this morning Like mornings past Beaming brightly Glowing whitely Coquettishly glimmering Chrome shimmering GLC 300 Paper plates serving notice: 02/28/22 Some lucky someone’s Christmas gift? Beauty notwithstanding You scowl unhappily Vulnerable and forlorn Singular in your station On the street amongst riffraff At the mercy of the elements…
1st Feels like the old new year: infinite loop; flying Dutchman; Möbius strip. 2nd Paranoid about going to the gym though working out with a trainer in a room by ourselves, double masked. Embarrassed but asked if could bring a fan to circulate the air. 3rd Spent more time than wanted to researching KN 95…