telling a story is the first edition of the cherita: a storybook journal.

The cherita genre was created by ai li on the 22 June 1997. It consists of three stanzas of 1 - 2 - 3 lines and it tells a story.

This inaugural edition celebrates the cherita’s official twentieth birthday 22 june 1997 - 22 june 2017, and showcases the work of 76 fine cherita from poets who hail from UK, USA, Sri Lanka, Singapore, India, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Ireland and Canada.

Featured Poets as they appear in this edition: -

ai li/ Larry Kimmel/ Marilyn Humbert/ Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy/ Patricia Prime/ George Tardios/ Kala Ramesh/ Michael H Lester/ Urszula Funnell/ pamela a. babusci/ Ed Higgins/ Pat Davis/ Matsukaze PreJean/ Pravat Kumar Padhy/ Robin White/ Jan Oskar Hansen/ Geoffrey Winch/ Paula S. Zwenger/ Alexis Rotella/ Caroline Skanne/ Oz Hardwick/ Joanna Ashwell/ Gabriel Bates/ Joyce Futa/ Sydney Wyborne/ Aparna Pathak/ Kath Abela Wilson/ Christine L. Villa/ Vasile Moldovan/ Jennifer Hambrick/ George Swede/ Debbie Strange/ Keitha Keyes/ Mary Gunn/ Peter Jastermsky/ Gavin Austin/ Marietta Jane McGregor/ Allyson Chen/ Autumn Noelle Hall/ Samantha Sirimanne Hyde/ Malintha Perera/ Sheila Windsor/ Alegria Imperial/

The book has been edited to be experienced two ways. It can be read as a storybook and as an anthology of individual poems.

The entire book also has one poem to a page to allow the author’s words to breathe.

Here is an example from the book: -

The stars are mirrored

in a pool
Of rain

With my hand
I scoop up the water
and have a handful of stars

George Tardios

The cherita invokes the storyteller who lives in all of us.

We hope you will immerse yourself in the storytelling within and that these stories will take you all on an explorative journey filled with wonder, contemplation and ultimately of interconnectedness.

ai li is the editor and publisher of the cherita: your storybook journal. She is an internationally published Haiku, Tanka and Cherita poet and the founding editor and publisher of still, moving into breath and dew-on-line.

N.B. Print versions of the cherita do not contain images.