Poet Profile

Rumi Komonz

Rumi’s English haiku appeared in the Newsletters of the Association of New Elderly Inc., many times since 2012 on-line, as well as in print. A series of her English haiku appeared in Memory Weaving (2014), an anthology sponsored by the City of Manningham in Victoria, Australia. (ISBN 978-0-987-1381-5-6). She facilitates ANE Bilingual Haiku Writers Group monthly in a suburb of Melbourne. She holds Bachelor of Laws, BA and Dip Ed.

Awards and Other Honors: Rumi won the Award of Excellence at the Gifu Literature Festival (2014) with an extract of her novel, Kicho & Nobunaga, re-written by her in Japanese. It was published by the Gifu Foundation of Educational Culture. Her Kyohai (Crazy-haiku) was highly commended at the same festival in 2015. She coordinated and presented the IFLIT for the Japanese group, supported by Federation Square P/L in 2012. She coordinated ANE Bilingual Haiku Residency in 2013, supported by Writers Victoria. Haiku Readings as a featured poet at Federation Square for the International Haiku Day 2014. She coordinated the Haiku & Song Festival on behalf of the Association of New Elderly Inc. supported by Victorian Multicultural Commission in June 2014. She facilitated a Ginko Haiku Walk at Montsalvat, supported by the Association of New Elderly Inc and Montsalvat, in 2015. She was also featured as one of the multilingual poets for readings and forum style discussion.

Books Published: Kicho & Nobunaga (11/30/2011, Balboa)

geisha flower
upholding
one rain drop

melting vegemite
in water
soy sauce substitute

sunrise at hospital bed
more precious today
than yesterday

her memory fades
but she never forgets
Hiroshima - the skinless bodies

walking on fallen leaves
crunch crunch the sound of 
loneliness

she prays for longevity
not for her own
but for the humankind’s

Credits: "geisha flower" - Newsletter of the Association of New Elderly Inc. [http://ane.org.au/newsletters/]; "sunrise at hospital bed" - 21st Anthology of Canterbury Writers (2014)’ (ISBN 978-0-646-92835-7); "walking on fallen leaves" - 21st Anthology of Canterbury Writers (2014)’ (ISBN 978-0-646-92835-7); "melting vegemite" - Memory Weaving (2014) [an anthology sponsored by the City of Manningham in Victoria, Australia. (ISBN 978-0-987-1381-5-6)]; "her memory fades" - Memory Weaving (2014) [an anthology sponsored by the City of Manningham in Victoria, Australia. (ISBN 978-0-987-1381-5-6)]; "she prays for longevity" - Memory Weaving (2014) [an anthology sponsored by the City of Manningham in Victoria, Australia. (ISBN 978-0-987-1381-5-6)].