HCSHR 8:3 – How to Write and Publish Moving Poems and Books and Publicize Like a Pro

Wondrous Instruction and Advice from Global Poets: How to Write and Publish Moving Poems and Books and Publicize Like a Pro by Charlotte Digregorio (Artful Communicators Press, 2025)

Published by Artful Communicators Press, 2025 (5th printing)

ISBN : 978-0-9912139-2-4

Order from eBay, or by mail,

352 pages

$34.20 U.S.

Reviewed by Pearl Pirie

Charlotte Digregorio is a Haiku Canada members. You probably know her from her busy blog, Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog where she has posted poems of haiku and tanka by many people worldwide for 16 years. She has also been a teacher for decades.

She has marketed and/or published 55 titles on all manner of topics, including Haiku and Senryu: A Simple Guide for All in 2014 and Checkout Time is Soon: More Death Awareness Haiku with Robert Epstein in 2018. Unlike the two previously mentioned, Wondrous Instruction isn't listed at Amazon. This she sells through eBay. It is very heavily blurbed by a who's who of haiku. Digregorio is all about connection, being a connector.

With her ample connections she has sought to compile an extensive self-help guide for writers, especially but not only of haiku writers. To share the table of contents alone, at 4 pages, would exceed the space available of a review. 

Robert Epstein describes Wondrous Instruction as "three poet’s guidebooks in one: a how-to write and publish; a how-to publicize and sell books; and a motivational one."

At page 23, this book takes it from ground floor so no one is missed, with “What is poetry?” Each section is brief and insular as if from a serial column. The whole at over 350 pages is undeniably comprehensive, covering writers block, book design, encouragement in submissions and learning, doing artist collaboration, setting goals, writing prompts, recommended reading, marketing and publishing, finding inspiration, rustling up visibility, navigating contracts and more. It ends with an interview of herself. (Spoiler: the interview reveals she discovered haiku in 1995.). Also in the appendices is her own 40-page poetry collection of various poetry forms.

Her primary method is being an anthropologist of writers. She asks questions and dutifully relates the community back to itself. She did a lot of surveys of poets and quotes them without any salient overview, summary upshots, or conclusion. I wish she did more to distill and interpret not only collate. However her goal was to pass the mic, share the talking stick, hold space and collect up what people say. Her questions naturally have bias. For example, "Why Is Writing Poetry Joyful?" is going to give certain results. 

The book acts not only as guide, or set of guides, but a snapshot of the state of the art of poetry as practiced in English by a swathe of mainstream haiku writers in the subset who do not do syllabic 5-7-5, nor monoku, nor concrete nor urban haiku. 

It gives us a chance to see behind the poems of many of our fellow writers on what we all think we're doing and affecting. For example, Tom Clausen says (p. 112), "I can recognize that there has been a continuous thread in the haiku community where poems and friendship provide inspiration, counsel, sanity, salvation, and sustainability."

She presents heaps and heaps of materials. I can't imagine the logistics legwork of hunting down that many permissions and clearances. That sub-aspect alone is epic.

What is most pertinent here, is the part of section 2: 9 chapters, over 80 pages, specific to haiku, senryu and tanka. 

About 16% of the book pertain only to these forms, including misperceptions, purpose, routes to be memorable and perceptive, essays on how it can help us heal or accept death. She aims to make a resource for both beginner and experienced haiku writers. 

This review will primarily focus on the haiku- and senryu-related aspects. 

In her summary, a senryu uses associative leaps. It is to be distinguished from a joke in how it reveals, not just line breaks. (p. 96). "When read at open mics, poets usually just call it haiku, since it’s written in the same form.” (p. 95) 

• It can be playful, but not crude, distasteful, insulting, or offensive.

• It involves the poet’ s observation, self-reflection, or even self-deprecation.

• The last line or the ending has a turn of thought or revelation.

 “Like haiku, it must evoke some type of emotion in readers without telling us what to think .” (p. 97). She advises where to find more, such as at Prune Juice.

Mostly she pulls examples for the Eastern forms rather than explain. She doesn't go into the history. There are other books for that. 

In Chapter 11 “Find Healing and Wisdom through Haiku and Senryu” she explains,

“Haiku and senryu allow us to focus on something positive or doable to help us. When we go through unspeakable times, reading and writing them allow us to hope or to share with others. We see a crack of light in darkness.”

She gives hundreds of examples from hundreds of writers, and while unpacking them, and concludes haiku is for social good, and self-development. “By learning to write them effectively, your comforting thoughts will benefit others, too. As a part our daily routine, we find our purpose in life through reading and writing them.” (p. 115).  The underlying thesis seem to be haiku as a means to social good order and interior balance. 

From the outset of the book there's a perspective of hustle culture and individualistic success. "I wish each of you success and recognition for your creativity and hard work." Success is mentioned 29 times. (Which perhaps isn't many over 300 pages.) Community is mentioned 23 times.

This is striking against another textbook for poets being read concurrently, Do It Wrong: How to be a Poet in the Twenty-first Century by Derek Beaulieu (Assembly Press, 2026).  He emphasizes that capitalistic notions of success can sideline one from growth. He posits a flat model rather than a competitive model for poetry. In it he stresses poetry as "how we assert the world can be different." Poetry is a force to disrupt, or challenge in Beaulieu's framing, rather than in Digregorio's perspective, haiku is counter challenges and soothe.

In chapter 12, she inquires to follow up on what people currently think about Robert Spiess "Intelligence of the Heart" (1995) and shows pages of resulting responses, including (p. 123),

"Perhaps intelligence of the heart is the closest we come (in the West) to the Japanese concept of “ kokoro, ” a word that connects the mind, body and spirit. It is understanding the interconnectedness of everything."

Terry Ann Carter (Canada)

In chapter 13, “Haiku and Senryu Help Us Survive Sad Times", she doesn’t cite studies as the title and preface might suggest, but shares poems about people’s grief. The next title is clickbait, "A Psychologist Reveals How Haiku Helps Us Accept Death", but doesn’t actually. It says Robert Epstein who is/was a psychologist, wrote death poems to help himself.

Chapter 14 is called “Leading Lives with Purpose through Haiku and Senryu” which relays 9 pages of quotes of people who were asked how haiku gives them purpose. This crowd sourcing polls can give you a snapshot of what your contemporaries are thinking. For example,

"Haiku is about capturing the moment before me. Writing haiku is the perfect way to teach us to live in the present moment and not in the past or the future. Be here now."

Marco Fraticelli (Canada)

There are so many haiku it reads rather like an anthology with commentary. I was not always quite sure how to take her takes as she unpacks poems. For example, p. 103,

his black habit:

the Benedictine monk

sips brandy

         Anthony J. Pupello (USA)

She says, "Pupello illustrates the irony in the monk’ s life through the imagery of inanimate objects. The juxtaposition of the austerity of the monk’ s black habit, contrasts with his indulgence in expensive liquor, the latter incongruous with the ascetic and pious life he vowed to lead. There are layers of meaning here. At first, we chuckle about the monk’ s hypocrisy. However, when we ponder the senryu, we’ re concerned that in his sequestered life, he may be masking the serious problem of alcoholism." (p. 103)

I personally see no humour or hypocrisy in the monk. Benedictines are famous for making various alcohol. Is it a play on a habit worn vs. sinful habit of drinking? Maybe. Is she closer or further to the writer's intent? To me there’s a contrast in colours, the bright light catching the reds of the brandy like fire against the dullness of cassock.

A poem can allow us to fill in from our head and world, not overly constraining interpretation. That’s part of the beauty of poetry. As she says (p. 32)

"People respond to our art in different ways with their own interpretations. All interpretations are valid. Hopefully, any piece of writing or art you’ re exposed to, will ignite your creative ideas and critical thinking."

There's a lot of food for thought to digest. It certainly has a wide scope of the communities of haiku and senryu or for your general life as a writer.