Haiku Society of America NewsVolume 31, Issue 6 - June 05, 2016

(HSA News replaces Ripples as the official newsletter of HSA)

In This Issue

Regional News/California

California

Oregon

Mid-west

Northeast Metro

HSA News

Become aMember of HSA

Membership includes ayear's subscription to thesociety's journal,Frogpond (three issuesyearly). In addition,members receive HSANEWS on the fifth ofeach month, the annualinformation sheet and anannual address/email listof HSA members.

The HSA appreciates your continued support and yourparticipation in society activities. As primary supplement to theHSA website, this monthly report strives to bring you news fromthe Executive Committee and the Regional Chapters.

Dear Members,

On May 28, the HSAorganized a session titledInterdisciplinaryApproaches to AmericanHaiku at the American LiteratureAssociation's annual conference in SanFrancisco. I chaired the panel on behalfof our former president, David Lanoue,

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Check out the ".haiku"column at the HSAwebpage, please. GeneMyers shares tools and tipsavailable to haiku poets.

View our web samplerand excerpts fromprevious issues ofFrogpond.

who couldn't attend due to a scheduleconflict. The scheduled speakers were,Ce Rosenow, Eve Luckring and IanMarshall. Unfortunately, Ce could notattend the conference due to a suddenillness (thankfully not serious). Our localmember, Beverly Acuff Momoi, read Ce'spaper on her behalf. You will find a briefreport by Beverly in this newsletter. Inaddition to our regional quarterlymeetings, we encourage our members toattend other haiku events to deepentheir haiku knowledge and to promotehaiku to non-members.

At the ALA haiku panel, I learned theword, 'geophony' (meaning sounds, suchas wind and waves, produced by non-living elements of the natural world)from a speech by Ian Marshall. Since'wind' or 'rain' are geophony, I went to myJapanese saijiki to seek furtherinspiration.

There are many summer wind kigo inJapanese.

(kurohae - black south wind): south wind during June rainy season

(shirohae - white south wind):south wind after June rainy season

kÙjakuf˚ - yellow sparrow wind:south east wind during May and June

There is no ('tsuyu' - plum rain), arainy season in June, in San Franciscowhere I live. But 'kurohae' helps me goback to my Tokyo days when I tried tofind a snail among hydrangeas on theway to school, or became disgusted bymold on my food during a month-longrainy season. 'Shirohae' makes me thinkabout the white shirt I wore in middleschool and the sails floating in SanFrancisco Bay. The last one, 'kÙjakuf˚'may be the most interesting. AncientChinese believed that when this 'yellowsparrow wind' - a wet wind - blows, fishchange themselves into sparrows. Thesea might have become too hot for fishand they would have escaped to thesky. Sometimes I am glad to belong toa very imaginative culture.

The following Japanese kigo related to'rain' may be impossible to use in Englishhaiku. No one will know what these kigoare about.

(kusuri furu - medicine rain)May 5 on the lunar calendar was called'kusuribi' (medicine day). Ancient peoplebelieved medicine was effective if oneused raindrops gathered in bamboo jointsto dissolve it. Also, it was believed,when rain fell on that day, all kinds ofharvests would be abundant in thefollowing year.

(tora ga ame - Lady Tora's rain)Soga brothers were slain on May 28 onthe lunar calendar after slashing theirfather's killer 20 years after his death. Lady Tora, a lover of one of the brothers,shed tears for their deaths and the rainon that day was then called 'Tora's rain.'This story has been popular in Kabuki andBunraku, the Japanese puppet theater.

I am not a nature person and I don't gohiking or kayaking. In a way I am a 'desk-haiku' poet. However, a ginko - haikuwalk - coordinated by HSA local groupswould be a great opportunity for you toget inspiration and write haiku. When Iwas in Tokyo in April, my Japanese friendinvited me to a mini-ginko in the park.

At the pond, we met a group of peoplewith their big cameras. They worejackets with 'Kingfisher Photo Club' logo.I was told they normally would wait for afew hours until a kingfisher, which wasrare in Tokyo, came to the pond. In away, we, haiku poets, are luckier thanthose amateur photographers. If wecannot encounter a precious kingfisher (asummer kigo), we can write about theabsence of it. 'Silence' can be a greatelement of haiku geophony.

ocean windgoldfish waits for the cueto change into a sparrow

Fay Aoyagi

HSA Presidentfay.hsa.president@gmail.com

CaliforniaDeborah Kolodji

Haiku Poetsof NorthernCalifornia

The Haiku Poets of Northern Californiamet for our spring quarterly meeting onApril 17, 2016 at Fort Mason in SanFrancisco. The following people werepresent: Mimi Ahearn, Susan Antolin,Betty Arnold, Stephanie Baker, SherryBarto, Lynda Beigel, Chuck Brickley,Bruce Feingold, Abigail Friedman, GarryGay, David Grayson, Carolyn Hall, JuneHymas, Deborah P Kolodji, PatriciaMachmiller, Beverly Acuff Momoi, RenÈeOwen, Linda Papanicolaou, Cheryl Pfeil,Sharon Pretti, Carol Steele, and JoanZimmerman. After welcoming everyone to thespring meeting, Garry introduced ourfeatured reader, Sharon Pretti, who hasbeen writing and publishing poetry formany years (primarily haiku for the pastthree years). She lives in San Franciscoand works as a medical social worker atLaguna Honda Hospital. Her favorite partof her job is running a bi-weekly poetryworkshop for the patients. She has alsoled poetry groups for seniors at severalBay Area assisted living facilities. Sharonperformed her reading entirely withoutnotes and introduced each grouping ofpoems with a few words of context andback story. From her reading:

further into

the same warwhite breath on the window

Acorn 34 Spring 2015

After the reading, we went around thecircle with a round of introductions andhaiku. Garry then made severalannouncements, including that our springmeeting happened to fall this year onInternational Haiku Poetry Day. Garrypassed around a tri-fold flier with theresults of the 2016 San FranciscoInternational Rengay Contest, for whichhe served as the judge. Top prize thisyear went to Michael Dylan Welch andSonja Arntzen. Second place went toStephanie Baker, Sherry Barto and ChuckBrickley, all of whom were present andread their winning rengay to the group.Full results and judge's comments can befound on the HPNC website atwww.hpnc.org. Bruce Feingold thenannounced that the Touchstone Awardresults were available on the HaikuFoundation website with a number ofpoems by HPNC members, including oneby Patricia Machmiller, who was presentat the meeting and recited her winninghaiku.

Garry mentioned that long-time HPNCmember Tom Tico passed away (see theprevious newsletter for a brief memorialnote), and shared a few of his memoriesof Tom from back in the days when HPNCwould meet in members' homes. ChuckBrickley and Sue Antolin also shared afew words about Tom, particularly notinghis complete devotion to haiku and histhoughtfulness in reaching out to newpoets.

Carolyn Hall announced that NewZealand poet Sandra Simpson will be inthe Bay Area in July and would verymuch like to get together with localhaiku poets while she is here. Carolynwill host a gathering at her Santa Rosahome on July 10, and there may also bea chance to go out to dinner with Sandraon the following day in San Francisco.Please contact Carolyn for details.

Garry reminded the group that the TwoAutumns reading will be on August 28and will feature Michele Root-Bernstein,June Hymas, Michael Sheffield andRobert Gilliland. Mark your calendars forthis special event! Garry also shared afew details about the annual Haiku Circleevent hosted by vincent tripi, JoyceClement, Jeannie Martin, and PeterNewton in Northfield, MA. PatriciaMachmiller and Debbie Kolodji, both ofwhom have attended the event in thepast, said it is an excellent day full ofhaiku lectures, workshops, readings, andsocializing and is well worth the trip.Details online at haikucircle.com. Garrythen mentioned the Ukaih Haiku festivaland contest, in which he won anhonorable mention this year. He thenpassed around a copy of Ernest J. Berry'snew book Getting On (Red Moon Press,2016), a collection of poems that won orplaced in some international competitionbetween 1995 and 2005.

Following a break for food andsocializing, Susan Antolin introduced ourspecial guest, Abigail Friedman, visitingfrom Washington, D.C. Abigail begancomposing haiku while living in Japan asthe only non-Japanese member of ahaiku group. Her book, The HaikuApprentice: Memoirs of Writing Poetry inJapapn, captures that experience. Whenshe returned to the U.S., she continuedwriting haiku, making the transition towriting poetry in English. In 2006, shemoved to Quebec City, where shefounded a French/English bilingual haikugroup. She now lives in Northern Virginiaand just this year founded another haikugroup, the SuperNOVA Haiku Group(that's a pun because NOVA is theacronym for Northern Virginia). Abigailhas won many awards including firstprize in the 2014 Mainichi haiku contest.In addition to The Haiku Apprentice, herother books include I Wait for the Moon(a translation of the work ofcontemporary haiku master MomokoKuroda) and Street Chatter Fading, acollection of Abigail's own poetry. All

three books were available for sale atthe meeting. Abigail presented a talkentitled Reading Haiku BeyondBorders, along with accompanyingPowerPoint slides with the haiku shereferenced throughout the lecture. Thistalk was adapted from one that she firstgave last fall to a Japanese audience,when she was the keynote speaker at the25th anniversary of AOI, a Japanesenationwide haiku organization.

In part one of her talk, Abigail discusseduniversality in haiku, providing severalexamples of haiku that are easy tounderstand regardless of culturaldifferences. These haiku are accessible;anyone can read these poems and beinspired. Haiku with universal appeal areoften image-based, allow the reader toimagine what is described, and resonateat a primal level. One of the manyexamples she provided is this one byBasho: "on a withered branch / a crowsits / autumn evening". Some haiku,though not image-based, still haveuniversal appeal, such as this one byShiki: "I who am going / and you whoremain / two autumns".

Next, Abigail addressed culturalperspectives in haiku, noting that ourcultural vantage point influences ourreading and writing of haiku. Abigail'sown haiku "window closed, / up to theseventh floor / cascading cries of thecicada" provided a good example of howreaders from different cultures caninterpret a haiku differently. For Abigail,the sound of the cicada was anannoyance, made all the more so in thatit penetrated the closed window all theway up on the seventh floor. Japanesereaders, however, do not consider thesound of the cicada to be an annoyancebut rather an appealing and beautifulsound, so this haiku was confusing tothem. Other haiku she discussed reliedon knowledge of cultural mythology tofully understand or at least required anappreciation of another culture'sassociations with particular landscapes(that walking out into the snow-covered

terrain in Quebec would convey a senseof home rather than of danger, forexample) for the intended meaning tocome through.

In the last part of her talk, Abigaildiscussed the individual in haiku, asking,"How much do we need to know of thepersonal context of the poet tounderstand a haiku?" While you do notalways need to know the individualcontext, haiku are often made richer ifyou do know something about the poet'scircumstances. For this haiku by MomokoKuroda, "village of my youth- / thatdistant mountain cherry / this childevacuee", it helps to know that the poetwas six years old during the firebombings of Tokyo and was evacuated tothe small town of Nasu, where she spentyears in the countryside. When shewould look at distant cherry trees, shethought they were blooming just for her.Kuroda wrote this haiku in her 70s, whichalso reminds us that haiku do not have toalways come from the poet's immediatecircumstances, but can also come frommemory. In her concluding remarks,Abigail noted that while the haiku welove on first reading are wonderful, thehaiku that take a little more work to lovealso give us much to enjoy. Abigail's talkwas very well-received and her visit toSan Francisco to meet with us was muchappreciated by all. We hope she willcome again soon!

In other news after the spring meeting, agroup of HPNC members attended ahaiku panel at the American LiteratureAssociation conference in San Franciscoon May 28. Eve Luckring and Ian Marshallpresented papers and Bev Momoi steppedin to read a talk by Ce Rosenow, who wasunable to attend. A group, including Eve,Bev, Fay Aoyagi, David Grayson, PatrickGallagher, Susan Antolin, and Bev'shusband, Kat Momoi, went out to dinnerafterwards at the Plant CafÈ on Pier 3.

The following are recently publishedbooks by HPNC members: Street ChatterFading, a new collection of Abigail

Friedman's haiku, published inletterpress by Larkspur Press;Discovering Fire, David Grayson's firstcollection of essays and haiku, publishedby Red Moon Press; Getting On, a newcollection of award-winning haiku byErnest J. Berry, also published by RedMoon Press; UNBOUND, CherylPfeil's new collection of letterpress haikucards, included in the North BayLetterpress Art Show at Kitty HawkGallery in Sebastopol, June 4-July 26;and Bamboo Secrets: One Woman'sQuest through the Shadows of Japan,by Patricia Dove Miller published in May2016 by Illuminated Owl Press.

Submitted by Susan Antolin

Haiku San Diego(Southern California)

April 10, 2016, Haiku San Diego (HSD)Regular Monthly Meeting. Few of usbraved the blustery, winter-like weatherand freeway accidents to meet, butmeet we did. Attendees: Naia(facilitator), Anita Guenin, and ClaudiaPoquoc.

May 8, 2016, Haiku San Diego (HSD)Regular Monthly Meeting. Attendees:Naia (facilitator), Scott Galasso, AnitaGuenin, Carol Judkins, Karen Stromberg,and drop-in guest Don Witmer.

Robert Witmer's latest book, Finding AWay, was gifted to our group by hisbrother, Don Witmer. Don joined ourmeeting to introduce us to Robert's newbook and tell us a bit about Robert andhis approach to haiku. We were sopleased to welcome Don. Members aresharing Finding A Way so that we allhave a chance to connect with and enjoyRobert's haiku. (Robert Witmer lives inTokyo, Japan, with his wife Aiko. Theyhave two children, Layla and Alex.Robert teaches at the Faculty of Liberal

Arts, Sophia University, where he hasworked for the past 35 years. His bookwas published in April 2016 and isavailable at Amazon-dot-com, amongother places.)

Our April and May two-month topic builtupon, yet shifted from, March's study ofThe "Simple" Haiku: Complex Craftingand the Impression after the WordsFall Away. Over the course of the twomonths we discussed Meaning in Haiku,the title of a Charles Trumbull article inFrogpond 35.3, pages 92-115. Weexplored the two questions he posed tohimself when editor of Modern Haiku: 1. What does "meaning" mean?2. What meaning do I expect from ahaiku?Our discussion encompassed the issues of* the feeling of meaning, and itsintangible nature,* readily graspable meaning,* coloration to plain sense writing thatdeepens but doesn't change the image,* too much meaning,* spoon-fed meaning,* purely descriptive language,* a question asked by John Ciardi, who,in Trumbull's words, "asks not what apoem means but rather how a poemmeans" and the devices used to bringpower to the poetry, not to the meaningper se, and* the wordless poem - what we are leftwith when the words fall away.

During the final segment of our April andMay meetings, HSD membersparticipated in an anonymous haikuworkshop.

submitted by NaiaTemecula, CA

Southern California Haiku Study Group

On May 15, 2016, Susan Rogers organized

a ginko and haiku reading with tea at theWhispering Pines Tea House in Glendale(shoseianteahouse.com). Tea service wascoordinated by Ginna Claire Nguyen. Shoseian is located in Brand Park,1601West Mountain Street, was built in 1974through combined efforts of the SisterCities of Glendale and Higashi-Osaka,Japan is one of the few traditionalJapanese Teahouses open to the public inthe United States. Spearheaded by Mrs.Otto Neufeld, local Glendale educatorand prominent citizen, the Teahouserepresents the spirit of goodwill, lastingpeace and friendship between thepeople of Japan and the United States.Given the name "Shoseian" or "WhisperingPine Teahouse" by the Fifteenth GrandTea Master of the Urasenke School of Teain Japan, the Teahouse is designated anofficial Tearoom. Dr.Yamazaki of Higashi-Osaka provided initial support for theTeahouse and Gardens.

The Teahouse design is by architectHayahiko Takase.

Susan Rogers in front of the Whispering PinesTea House, Glendale, CA

Susan Rogers, Mary Torregrossa, KimberlyEsser, Chris Wesley, D'Ellen, Deborah PKolodji, Peggy Castro, Yvette NicoleKolodji, Patricia Wakimoto, Toni Steele,and Sharon Yee were among the haikureaders. Chris Wesley accompanied thereaders on guitar.

Peggy Castro (left), D'Ellen in the WhisperingPines Tea House

On May 21, 2016, the monthly workshopwas coordinated by Greg Longenecker,who led a writing session on one-liners.Participants brought 3 line haiku thatthey wanted to workshop into one-linehaiku. The meeting was attended byMarcia Behar, Elva Lauter, WakakoRollinger, Kim Esser, James Won, BillHart, Lynn Algood, Janis Lukstein,Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin, and GregLongenecker.

The June 18th workshop will be the lastSouthern California Haiku Study Groupworkshop at the museum for about ayear. The Pacific Asia Museum is closingdown for seismic retrofits. It isanticipated to re-open in June of 2017.Meanwhile, the SCHSG will continuemeeting monthly. The August 2018meeting, with special guest DavidLanoue, will take place at theWhispering Pines Tea House in Brand Parkin Glendale on August 20th. The locationof the July 16th meeting is yet to beannounced.

The deadline to submit to the annualSCHSG anthology is June 15.

submitted by Deborah P Kolodji

OregonShelley Baker-Gard

Remember to register forthe Regional conference inPortland, Oregon, August12th-14th. The conference has eventsFriday evening, all day Saturday, andSunday morning. You are, however,perfectly welcome to attend just one ortwo days. The conference will offerworkshops, anthology readings, fun

dinners, and a guided tour of a Japanesegarden. See the HSA Oregon Website fordetails: http://www.hsa-haiku.org/meetings.htm or contactShelley Baker-Gard atsbakergard@msn.com.

Good NewsNo registration fee.

Oregon HSA members are continuing tomeet in their close-to-home poetrygroups, and as many as possible will beat the conference to welcome the poetsattending from out of state andelsewhere within the state. We hope tosee you here!

Mid-WestJulie Warther

Ohaio-ku Study Group

The Ohaio-ku Study Group met Saturday,May 14, at the Cuyahoga Falls Librarywith nine members in attendance: SusanMallernee , Phyllis Lee , Jill Lange , JoeMcKeon , Kevin Rainwater , HolliRainwater , Nancy Brady Smith ,Valentina Ranaldi-Adams and JulieWarther. We discussed some of ourfavorite poems from the most recentFrogpond, workshopped some of our ownhaiku, held a kukai and a reading.Congratulations to the winners of thefirst Ohaio-ku Monthly Kukai.1st place: Holli Rainwater2nd place: Susan Mallernee3rd place: Julie Warther. Winners received copies of Mayflyjournal, generously supplied by JoeMcKeon.

The next meeting of the Ohaio-ku StudyGroup will be held Saturday, June 11,

2016 from 10am - noon at the CuyahogaFall Library in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. HSAmember, Don Fulmer, will present aprogram incorporating haiku and NativeAmerican flute music.

"Haiku is a Japanese poetic formoriginating in the 17th century. Theancestors of Native American flutes dateback at least 1500 years, with the"modern" style flute appearing in theearly 19th century. Two very differentforms of expression from two verydifferent cultures, yet they beautifullycombine to express and share ourexperiences and emotions. Come join usto learn about and listen to thecombination of haiku and NativeAmerican flute. Have fun writing haikuand listening to flute music inspired byyour writing."

In coordination with the flute program,we will hold a kukai with the theme,"Wind". Following the reading of eachentry, Don will provide a flute response.

Contact Julie Warther atwartherjulie@gmail.com for furtherinformation.

CAR POOLSChicago to Mineral Point, Wisconsinfor the Cradle of American Haiku

Festival

Car pools from the Chicago area to theCradle of American Haiku Festival inMineral Point, Wisconsin, are beingorganized. Cars will be leaving aroundnoon on Friday, August 5, and returningafter lunch on Sunday, August 7. Travelexpenses will be shared.

If interested, contact Mike Kozubek atmkozubek@att.net

Digregorio ExhibitsIn Illinois

Charlotte Digregorio, Illinois Member, ishonored to have two exhibits of herhaiku/haiku sequences that will runthrough the first week of 2017.

The first, from July 8 through Sept. 30,will be held in Schaumburg, IL at MeetChicago Northwest, (the GreaterWoodfield Convention and VisitorsBureau).

The second exhibit will be from Oct. 1,2016 through Jan 7, 2017 at RollingMeadows Public Library in RollingMeadows, IL.

In addition, Charlotte recently hosted apoetry program, sponsored by HighlandPark (IL) Poetry, at Madame ZuZu's TeaHouse in Highland Park. The programfeatured a guest poet and an open mic.During the latter, she read some of herhaiku.

submitted by Charlotte Digregorio

Northeast MetroRita Gray

Northeast MetroSummer Meeting

Saturday, June 11, 2016, 2:30-5:30 p.m.Westbeth Center for the Arts,Community Room, 155 Bank Street

Community Room is directly to the leftwhen you enter at 155 Bank Street)

_____

Program:

ReconnectionUnfortunately, due to space rentaldifficulties, we were unable to have aspring meeting. So let's reconnect bydrawing on what we learned from KazukoNishimura at our October meeting. Wewill hold a traditional haiku contest.Each attendee will bring two favoritehaiku they've written, and by the end ofthe contest we will have three overallfavorites, whose winners will discusstheir writing process.

Intermission

Announcements: haiku news, newprojects, upcoming events, HSA 50thanniversary plans

Workshop

Working on something that's almost therebut not quite? Need feedback to helpmove along the process? This is yourchance to read a haiku-in-progress to areceptive group of fellow poets and getthe advice and constructive criticismthat will hopefully turn your unfinishedwork into a polished poem.

_____

For all who are interested, we will go todinner after the meeting, at around 6:00p.m., at The Hudson Hound, an Irishbar/restaurant located at 575 HudsonStreet between West 11th Street & BankStreet.

Try to RSVP to Rita for dinner NO LATERTHAN FRIDAY, JUNE 3. ritagray58@gmail.com

HSA Haiku Panel at ALA On May 26-29, 2016, the AmericanLiterature Association held its 27thannual conference at the HyattRegency in San Francisco, CA, andincluded a panel organized by theHaiku Society of America. On Saturday, May 28, HSA PresidentFay Aoyagi chaired a panel onInterdisciplinary Approaches toAmerican Haiku that included papersby HSA members Ce Rosenow, EveLuckring and Ian Marshall. Ce Rosenow was unable to attend dueto illness, but her paper, A CarefulPoetics: Caring Imagination, CaringHabits and Haiku, was read byBeverly Acuff Momoi. It discussedfeminist philosopher MauriceHamington's work on care ethics andexamined how haiku - through its useof image - can develop caring habitsin the reader. Eve Luckring presented Video-Renku:Link and Shift in Visual Language,exploring how film montagetechniques can be employed to linkand shift visually, in ways that aresimilar to renku. Video-poems fromLuckring's The Junicho Video-RenkuBook provided intriguing examples ofhow visual and sonic juxtaposition canwork. Ian Marshall's discussion of The Soundof Water: An Acoustic Ecology ofHaiku featured more than a dozenhaiku from Allan Burns' anthology,Where the River Goes. He looked atthe frequency of haiku about thebiophony and the geophony, and therange of ways sound was represented- from rain to waterfalls to fallingdew in James Hackett's The sound ofthe sun. After the presentations, there wassome discussion, including the

observation that the three talks werecomplementary, adding depth to eachother. Sue Antolin, Patrick Gallagher,David Grayson and Kat Momoi joinedthe panelists and continued thediscussion over dinner at a nearbyrestaurant.

submitted by Beverly Acuff Momoi

Lee Gurga travelled to Tokyo recentlywhere he and David Burleigh spoke toHasegawa Kai's Koshi Haiku Group onApril 19th. Gurga's talk was entitledJapanese Haiku and ContemporaryEnglish-Language Haiku. Burleigh spokeon English Haiku in Japan. After histalk, Gurga was interviewed by areporter from the Asahi Newspaper,which published an article on hispresentation.

Burleigh Hasegawa Gurga

Newspaper article about Gurga's talk toKai Hasegawas haiku group

April 19 2016

submitted by Lee Gurga

Last November, The National Institute ofJapanese Literature in Tokyo gave asymposium on haiku. Speakers familiar toHSA members include Lee Gurga, ToshioKimura, and Michael Fessler. Gurga spokeon Japanese Haiku and ContemporaryEnglish-Language Haiku, Kimura gave asurvey of international haiku in English,and Fessler gave a talk titled The PoundParadigm.

All three talks are included in theConference on Japanese Literaturethat has just been published by theNational Institute of Japanese Literature.

submitted by Lee Gurga

On April 17 (International Haiku PoetryDay), Amy Losak co-presented a haikuworkshop at the Queens BotanicalGarden in NY (queensbotanical.org). Sheand teacher Sachiko Clayton provided abrief overview of the form and read aselection of haiku, including several ofSydell Rosenberg's, Amy's mother (acharter member of the Haiku Society

America in 1968 and Secretary in 1975;1929-1996). Participants were thenencouraged to tour the grounds andwrite their own haiku which were thendiscussed in the workshop. After this session, Amy read Sydell'shaiku and senryu (as well as a few longerpoems) in a separate poetry reading. Thepanel was made up a wonderful roster oflocal poets, including Queens PoetLaureate, Maria Lisella. For the second consecutive year, Amyhas sponsored this workshop in Queens,where Sydell lived, worked, wrote andraised her family. Amy spearheads othercreative initiatives to bring Syd's work tonew and mostly young audiences,including a successful partnership withthe NY nonprofit arts educationorganization, Arts For All (arts-for-all.org). Haiku are used to teach thebasics of drawing, painting and music tosecond grade students at a school in theBronx and a school in Queens. Amy hasalso submitted a haiku picture bookmanuscript to several publishers and isworking with Swale (swaleny.org), anorganization that is building a floatingfood forest on a barge, to integratepoetry into this project to bring fresh,natural food to the public.

Sydellpoetry.com, losak@optonline.net

Ignatius Fay HSA NEWS Editor Haiku Society of Americahsabulletin@gmail.com

Comments or concerns about your membership?Please contact the HSA officers

Haiku Society of America | P.O. Box 31 | Nassau | NY | 12123