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,

$34.20 U.S.

Reviewed by Pearl Pirie

The title is quite a mouthful, out of the tradition of self-publishing of get it all there on the cover. Charlotte Digregorio is one of our Haiku Canada cohort members living in the U.S. 

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 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.

There are of course many books on marketing books and on how to write haiku. Unlike the two repveiously mentioned, this one isn't listed at Amazon. This one she sells through eBay. 

With her ample connections she has sought to compile a definitive self-help guide for writers, especially but not only of haiku writers. It comes out to 352 pages. 

By page 23, this book takes it from ground floor, “What is poetry?” It is extensive. Two share the table of contents alone, at 4 pages, exceeds the space available of a review. 

Surprisingly she rolled an interview of herself, and her own 40-page poetry collection as the appendices, which has free verse, haiku and other forms. Spoiler:  In the interview reveals she discovered haiku in 1995.

In section 2 there are 9 chapters, over 80 pages, on 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. 

The remainder covers writers block, cover design, reading, artist collaboration, setting goals, marketing and publishing, finding inspiration, contract and more.

The Eastern forms are covered at the basic intro level. For example, “Senryu is often read to audiences in cafés who find it delightful when it’ s humorous and witty, or moving , sad, or tragic about a life-changing experience. When read at open mics, poets usually just call it haiku, since it’ s written in the same form.” (p. 95) and “Like haiku, it must evoke some type of emotion in readers without telling us what to think .” (p. 97).

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

“While problems can be major and we sometimes feel there is no way out, 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.”

Then she resumes examples, and 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). Then she quotes a lot of people saying poetry helped them. She did a lot of surveys of poets and quotes them without any salient overview, summary or conclusion.  It doesn't distill so much as collate.

There are so many haiku it reads rather like an anthology with commentary. In chapter 13, “Haiku and Senryu Help Us Survive Sad Times’ she doesn’t cite studies as the title and preface say, but shares poems about people’s grief. Likewise the next title is more clickbait, "A Psychologist Reveals How Haiku Helps Us Accept Death“ 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. 

Not quite sure how to take her takes as she unpacks sample poems. For example, p. 98,

puddle of neon

nyloned legs

shadow by

Jeffrey Winke (USA)

This she unpacks as dirtying puddle and prostitute in a “”dark dirty life”, impelling us to wonder at the dark pathos if she’s going to be killed. 

Wow. That’s a head-spinner. Where does a sex worker in risk come from? Rainy night silhouette of urban person in nylons? I didn't even read gender. A glitter of neon. A night out. Anonymity of the city. A kind of romantic scene. 

True that haiku should be able to be read multiple ways but I can't explain this cultural gap. Likewise, 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)

Seems I'm at odds with what she perceives. For example, I 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. I don’t know. Is she closer or further to the writer's intent? There’s a contrast in colours, the bright light catching the reds of the brandy like fire against the dullness of cassock? Maybe it’s a cultural gap too far? Again I don't know.

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. 

The main advice buried in the section, “Write Perceptive and Memorable Senryu” seems to be write with layers but mostly she’s not advising so much as unpacking and explaining what she sees in senryu. 

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)

• 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.

There's a lot of food for thought to digest. It certainly has a wide scope of the communities of haiku and senryu.