bare branches - the cherita

1 November 2025

4 unique short form genres created by ai li
that honour storytelling and keep its breath alive

Cherita [b. 22 June 1997]
Gembun [b. 12 June 1997]
Dua [b. 4 March 2022]
Ta Da [b. 15 May 2022]

bare branches
cherita 104
edited by ai li

*

scent of stars
gembun anthology 20
edited by ai li

updates on all forthcoming dua and gembun anthologies
and our exciting the cherita award

For those of you who missed reading ai li’s essay i, storyteller on Cherita, Gembun and Dua on Rhyvers and viewing her You Tube Cherita video interview for The Wise Owl by Neena Singh, for their special issue on Cherita, here are both links again below.

Here are ai li’s You Tube interview link : www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnGmkKKQvqo
and the link for her essay i, storyteller on Cherita, Gembun and Dua
rhyvers.com/hk22/

The full transcripts for both can be found on www.thecherita.com/lectures/ as well on the Rhyvers and The Wise Owl’s websites.

There are now over 5600 views for my Rhyvers essay on Cherita, Gembun and Dua, which appeared on 16 September 2023, with 3600 views the last time I looked, for my You Tube video Cherita interview, which appeared on 30 September 2023, and which The Wise Owl’s Editor Rachna Singh called ‘insightful’.

Book 104 of the cherita – bare branches is for your November 2025 reading and scent of stars is our Gembun Anthology 20, both of which are imbued with 90 virgin poems.

There are now 104 anthologies of the cherita, and they are all available on Amazon in paperback and kindle, along with 20 Gembun Anthologies, and 16 Dua Anthologies, with more coming your way.

bare branches is our Book 103 in the cherita series of storytelling books, with 90 virgin cherita of more timeless stories to hopefully inspire our readers and poets to join our caravanserai of storytellers.

bare branches showcases 90 fine cherita and cherita terbalik from writers and poets who hail from UK, USA, Singapore, India, Germany and Canada.

bare branches, currently Book 104, belongs to the ongoing the cherita series, as do ai li’s personal ongoing writing in one breath series of 33 virgin Cherita, Gembun, Dua, Ta Da, Cherita and Tanka, Cherita and Haiku, and Cherita, Tanka and Haiku books, and lastly ai li’s poems for inner rooms series with its 18 Tanka and Haiku books. All these books are available in paperback and kindle on Amazon.

Two of my own books of virgin Gembun, the weight of rain and blank screen, and my two books of Dua, the journey east and dancing shoes, and now arriving nowhere, my first cherita, gembun and dua book, have all been added to my writing in one breath series.

I have edited this book as I have all the other anthologies of the cherita, to be experienced two ways. It can be read as one storybook but also as an anthology of individual poems. Two reading experiences within one book, filled with stories of Life, Love, Loss and Renewal.

Cherita terbalik continues to capture the imagination of poets and there are again fine examples in this edition.

# For all acceptance letters for Cherita before 7 April 2025, for our forthcoming Anthologies – Books 103, 104, 105 and 106, please be aware that your acceptance letters should have read ‘for the fourth quarter 2025 and not ‘for the first quarter of 2026’. Your accepted cherita will now appear much earlier. Please accept my sincere apologies. I will have to have a serious word with my Dyslexia. #

Featured Poets as they appear in this anthology :-

C. X. Turner/ ai li/ Ceri Marriott/ Nicholas Gentile/ Teri Messmer/ Barry J. Vitcov/ Taura Scott/ Patricia Allen Smith/ Kathabela Wilson/ Larry Kimmel/ Sharon Hawley/ Adelaide B. Shaw/ Roy Kindelberger/ Partha Sarkar/ Tim Callahan/ James Haddad/ Eva Joan/ Pauline Dutton/ Roger Funston/ Liz Goetz/ Jan Stretch/ Dennis Owen Frohlich/ Daniel W. Brown/ Diane Funston/ Pitt Büerken/ Sigrid Saradunn/ Lakshman Bulusu/

Six sample virgin Cherita from this anthology :-

wedding picture

taken from
the wall

left behind
the nail—
and its shadow

Nicholas Gentile

morning
silence

between

winter
and
spring

Barry J. Vitcov

you in the doorway

bringing me coffee
when I wake from a nap

so real it seems
I don’t know if it’s a dream
or my imagination

Adelaide B. Shaw

dream
sweet
dreams

Venus and Mars
together

in the sky

Eva Joan

twilight stillness

the lake’s surface
tightens
around the light

something below
stirs

C.X. Turner

the way
home
grows longer

each year

age spots
on my mirror

ai li

the cherita lighthouse has been awarded to the following writers and poets in this anthology for their timeless Cherita :

Ceri Marriott/ Teri Messmer/ Taura Scott/ Jan Stretch/ Partha Sarkar/ Dennis Owen Frohlich/ C. X. Turner/ Nicholas Gentile/

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

scent of stars is our new Gembun Anthology 20 and it appears alongside bare branches Book 104 of the cherita, this month.

scent of stars showcases 90 fine gembun from writers and poets who hail from UK, USA, Singapore, India, Germany and Canada.

Featured Poets as they appear in this anthology :

ai li/ Kathabela Wilson/ Liz Goetz/ Michael H. Brownstein/ Seretta Martin/ James Haddad/ Patricia Allen Smith/ Lee Hudspeth/ Partha Sarkar/ Pitt Büerken/ Eva Joan/ Joanna Ashwell/ Barry J. Vitcov/ David Cox/ Roger Funston/ Paulette Calasibetta/ Jan Stretch/ Sharon Hawley/ Jackie Chou/ Sigrid Saradunn/ Dennis Owen Frohlich/ Daniel W. Brown/ Diane Funston/ Taura Scott/

a gem has been awarded to the following writers and poets in this anthology for gembun that sparkled :

Lee Hudspeth/ Kathabela Wilson/ Liz Goetz/ Patricia Allen Smith/ Pitt Büerken/ Eva Joan/ Joanna Ashwell/ Barry J. Vitcov/ Canada/ Michael H. Brownstein/ Partha Sarkar/ Diane Funston/ Taura Scott/ Paulette Calasibetta/

Six sample virgin gembun from scent of stars, gembun anthology 20 :-

does moonlight
have sound ?
i ask

my shadow

ai li

after
the
storm

stars

Barry J. Vitcov

autumn leaves

floating on
a watery course,
their final offering

Paulette Calasibetta

dance with me darlin
here under the moon
we’ll one day be gone

and that day comes too soon

Patricia Allen Smith

death in fact

another window
to look at the same sky
through

Partha Sarkar

a bone of lime
and still
i

can smell poetry

Michael H. Brownstein

I have enjoyed the challenge of selecting and collating for this edition of the cherita and of any other new books from either our 1-2-3 press or our the empty press, and hope that you will find the poems within worthy of a campfire gathering and the sharing of meaningful stories.

If our new book or books strikes or strike a chord with you, please feel free to review, comment on Amazon or give feedback directly to me. It would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

ai li
editor

creator of cherita, gembun, dua and ta da
and of 18 other unique and original linked forms

www.thecherita.com
storyteller oasis