Purple Phoenix

A grotto of purple and snowy white petals
An ancient theatre of angelic dancers
held together in prayer
A phoenix rising

PhotoPoem by Akiba & Maryam Mermey Copyright © 2020

Maryam Mermey
The Transformative Arts
PhD, REAT, Founding Executive Director
Maine, USA

Dr. Maryam Mermey is a trauma-informed, Registered Expressive Arts Therapist and the Founding Executive Director of The Transformative Arts. The Transformative Arts is presently focused on offering international trainings on the healing benefits of the integration of dance, haiku poetry, nature photography and music for counselors/therapists, educators, health care professionals and medical professionals. As an expressive arts artist, Maryam publishes haiku with the “Blithe Spirit” "Presence” and “The Bamboo Hut” Journals and received a commendation in the 2022 Martin Lucas Award Contest.

The enlightening Winter ’24/25 Edition of the "Wales Haiku Journal” is now available online. In addition to the beautiful moments in which nature catches us off guard & we are somehow altered, are also poetic acknowledgements of the strife of war tearing at our souls. The Winter ’24/25 Edition of the "Wales Haiku Journal” does an incredibly, masterful job of rekindling a winter affinity with ourselves, each other and nature against perfectly attuned backgrounds as well as allowing voices to speak to the perilous conditions in our world. Akiba & I are immensely grateful to be able to share two photohaiku or haiga on p. 116 & p. 118.Purple Phoenix

Photo Haiku of Akiba & Maryam Mermey

The Haiku Foundation honors the work of contemporary masters of the dual art of haiga: visual image wedded to haiku. This month we feature a collaboration between Akiba & Maryam Mermey. Inspired by the beauty, mystery & interconnectedness of nature, Akiba & Maryam create photo haiku as part of their spiritual practice. Akiba is a nature photographer, tai chi teacher & expressive arts program developer. He enjoys playing the native american flute as a meditation. Maryam is a haiku poet, dancer & international expressive arts therapy presenter/teacher. She received a commendation in the 2022 Martin Lucas Award Contest. In May of 2023, one of her haiku was accepted into the anthology, To Live Here, which was created as a fundraiser to support unhoused people in the UK. She also contributed a haiku to the 2024 English~Bulgarian Anthology, Shining Windsponsored by The British Haiku Society. Maryam & Akiba share their haiga in the Wales Haiku Journal, Cattails, and the Contemporary Haibun Online journals. They have also exhibited their work throughout Maine in the US.