Hawai‘i Literature & Art
— Since 1978 —
On the south shore of Oahu where all the tourists can be found is a place called Waikiki a place to hang around. A 2-mile stretch of white sand and its calm turquoise blue ocean fringed by towering high-rises full of commotion. Waikiki is a wondrous place Always open to all to any…
Time goes fast, time goes slow. When you think of the past, you ask yourself why does time go so fast? With a blink of an eye you finish elementary school, with another blink you finish middle school and you begin high school. But when you think of the future, you ask yourself why time…
A beach front hotel in Waikiki, hours after a postcard sunset. The resort is finally returning to “normal”. A malihini man comes rushing into the lobby, shouting. “There’s an old beach bum in my room, don’t know he got in, I recorded everything he said on my phone”. He plays the recording for the security…
A very Happy May to all of you writers, and a special aloha to all you Kalani High School Falcons. There are three writing prompts for this month’s contest. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write a piece of any kind, a story, a poem, an observation, a dialog, a personal…
ON HE RODE — Chapter Thirty-Six The truth is, I don’t take offense easily. Cleverness and subtlety, even sarcasm and irony, are mostly wasted on me. I can get too tangled up in trying to make sense out of what just happened to be offended by it — or even to know if offense was…
25-word entry (written first): How many phases of yourself have you swallowed into darkness, consuming the light of creation reflected in luminous smiles? A growing goddess is always hungry. 100-word entry: How many phases of yourself have you swallowed into darkness, consuming the light of creation reflected in luminous smiles? Is your mutable…
100 words first My sister and I always had to do the dishes. One washed, the other dried. We switched every day, figured it would be less boring that way. And we always fought. The washer would hurry up so the dryer would fall behind. The dryer would complain that the dishes were not clean,…
PERAMBULATIONS (100 words first) In the very old days, Walking four miles From Belfair to Bear Creek After basketball practice Got me home Just in time for dinner. No mean feat For a seventh-grader, But, back then, Nobody thought much about it. Everist and Makela ran Most of the way, Ives at their heels. Me’n…
No Left Turns (First) 25 words I wanted to dance Tahitian in Waikiki. I was almost an exchange student in Argentina. I was fearless. My Mother wasn’t. Paths for other lifetimes. No Left Turns (Second) 100 words I always believed I was adopted Out of sync with my siblings and parents. In my senior…
(100 words first) English is my native language. In Madison, those dirty looks, the sing-song comments, sometimes it was as if I spoke another language, foreign, another tongue unknown to anyone. My Uber driver is from India, a UW student. After 35 years, I’ve returned to Madison. I recount my race-based interactions, and he says…