An updated introduction to Selma: reader, writer, poet, and Oh, so ordinary — “Be humble, for you are made of dung. Be noble, for you are made of stars.” ~ Serbian Proverb In April 2020, I wrote my first About Me on this lovely platform and shared parts of myself as my parts uncurled in current world events, namely the pandemic that I…

There’s a vulture in this poem and it’s looking out for you — My stash is slowly waning — perfect Yet I grasp hard — for crying out loud! Delirious I see it orbit Just one, but one’s an unwanted crowd Its naked head bears downward, Aimed right at me like a nuke “Not your next meal,” I tell it And thumbing my throat, I puke…

How you begin is only where you start — Inconspicuous atop a mountain range Just where your walking boot heel bequeathed a dent A trickle of tears from a cloud baptized me To give me a splashing genesis at life In time I grew virulent, keen as a stream That scurried after winding, rugged terrain The wind in my hair, on…

Kill one birch tree and you’re responsible for the premature death of the Douglas firs — silver birches, brighten the forest and make my stride confident I collect their silky bark to kindle a lonely night. Fujico Hashimoto Selma’s first American Sentence Kill Paper birches, and witness how Douglas firs die prematurely. © selma Friends, to learn more about what an American Sentence entails, please click…

Literally or figuratively, what clutter? — declutter all clutter: jumbled thinking rumpled spaces discord, disorder figuratively, literally for what’s trivial and what’s important are what you extract of your surroundings if something unscrambles knots within you fixes your mood, tidies perspective if it sends your heart aflutter curls up your lips, delights your senses amplifies and gladdens moments that is not clutter…

Basking on the memory of that first snowfall with photos — “Thank goodness for the first snow, it was a reminder–no matter how old you became and how much you’d seen, things could still be new if you were willing to believe they still mattered.” ~ Candace Bushnell Happy 2023 to readers of For Awe and all my supporters. May we…

Sending you a picture postcard from my shore on the globe — bathed in evensong listen to the canticles dispatch from my shore © 2023 selmamartin.com Hello, dear readers. Here’s sending you a postcard from the pacific side of Japan, where I send you blessings wherever you may be.

Here’s one: Wakamizu — a beautiful aesthetic concept in a tanka on the reflection of a star bouncing in the water in my glass — pouring a glass of water reflects me a star buoyant as a New Year's Day blessed and holy water I bow and drink it up © 2023 selmamartin.com Akemashite omedetto gozaimasu: Happy New Year in Japanese *bowing* Hello, dear friends. Do you like learning new words? …

An eight-syllable lined quatrain questioning all the rains we’ve been having — These rains, we need and need them not — For the rose, the corn, for the soil But what of the hungry spider That camps out, web weaves, then gargoyles Isn’t her life worth something more too? These rains, we need and need them not — Or the worm that braved…