winter afternoon - the cherita

1 January 2026

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]

winter afternoon
cherita 106
edited by ai li

*

mindfulness
dua anthology 17
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 5900 views for my Rhyvers essay on Cherita, Gembun and Dua, which appeared on 16 September 2023, with 3800 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 106 of the cherita – winter afternoon is for your January 2026 reading and mindfulness is our dua anthology 17, both of which are imbued with 90 virgin poems.

There are now 106 anthologies of the cherita, and they are all available on Amazon in paperback and kindle, along with 20 Gembun Anthologies, and 17 Dua Anthologies, with more coming your way.

winter afternoon is our Book 106 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.

winter afternoon, Book 106, belongs to the ongoing the cherita series, as do ai li’s personal ongoing writing in one breath series of 36 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.

# 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. #

Two of my own books of virgin Gembun, the weight of rain and blank screen, my two books of Dua, the journey east and dancing shoes, and arriving nowhere, my first cherita, gembun and dua book, along with another night and leaving, my two ta da anthologies now join my writing in one breath series.

I have edited winter afternoon 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 editio

Featured Poets as they appear in this anthology :-

ai li/ Teri Messmer/ Sigrid Saradunn/ Larry Kimmel/ Kathabela Wilson/ Tim Callahan/ Richard Dutton/ James Haddad/ Partha Sarkar/ Tsanka Shishkova/ Nicholas Gentile/ Jackie Chou/ Pitt Büerken/ Patricia Allen Smith/ Liz Goetz/ Sharon Hawley/Taura Scott/ Dennis Owen Frohlich/ Jan Stretch/ Daniel W. Brown/ Lee Hudspeth/ Lakshman Bulusu/ Ceri Marriott/ Timothy Daly/ Eva Joan/ Jim Niffen/ Alessia Russo/ Michael H. Brownstein/

Six sample virgin Cherita from this anthology :-

tulip blossoms

one early
butterfly

still snow
on the
mountain

Eva Joan

before
and
after

the space
in between

life

Jan Stretch

the new moon

was so
bright

it illuminated
all
my past

Daniel W. Brown

how did they
find each other

two in a million

these perfectly
matched
bookends

Teri Messmer

my window

framed
with rain

i got lost
between lightning
and thunder

ai li

I play the violin

you gave me
as a child
and know that

somewhere
you are listening

Ceri Marriott

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

Teri Messmer/ Patricia Allen Smith/ Liz Goetz/ Kathabela Wilson/ Taura Scott/ Sharon Hawley/ Daniel W. Brown/ Jim Niffen/ Michael H. Brownstein/ Eva Joan/ Partha Sarkar/ Ceri Marriott

mindfulness is our dua anthology 17 and it appears alongside winter afternoon, Book 106 of the cherita, this month.

mindfulness showcases 90 virgin dua.

Six sample virgin dua from mindfulness, our dua anthology 17 :-

windmill

I flail to warn the birds

Jan Stretch

away they went

but not to heaven

James Haddad

no one here but rain

washing away my sins

ai li

day kneels

to dusk

Paulette Calasibetta

the years have

become decades

Jackie Chou

the milky way

I pale into nothingness

Ganesh R

a dua bella has been awarded to the following writers and poets in this anthology for dua that shone :

Paulette Calasibetta/ Jackie Chou/ Sigrid Saradunn/ Ganesh R/

Please use our standard submission emails for all 4 of our genres as I consider them separately. Failure to do so can cause a delay in replying to your submissions.

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