Rita R. Melissano, Ph.D. is a 2024 Touchstone Award nominated Poet.  Her work in the micro poetry field has been quickly noticed and receiving special commentaries.  The featured Reader in poetry events, her poems have been published in national and international poetry journals, anthologies and featured on websites & podcasts.  Recipient of the Honorable Mention in Mt. Fuji Taisho Tanka Contest, 2024, her Haiku book will make its debut in 2025 and her Tanka book will follow.

She writes about all facets of love and beauty, even when hidden in the ugly and painful parts of life, about the richness, depth and breadth of that kaleidoscopic flow that gives meaning to our life, that moves the stars, the universe, that cradles a human and non-human heart.  That’s what inspires and awakens her being, lets her fly in the dark of the cosmos, sit inside a slice of the moon, as if it were a balcony climbed up by a woman’s song.  And that song may be a haiku that wakes her up at dawn while still dreaming, and wants to be written down.  Often, she even writes inside her dreams only to discover that what was written was never actually recorded!

Rita lives in a forest overlooking the Mississippi which inspires her writing, photography & Haiga (Japanese art form that combines short form poetry with images), oneness with Nature and living The Way…of Love.  

For now, here some of Rita Melissano’s HAIKU: