Shahai by Grant Savage
I know I said I’d post only once a week or so but I’ve had contributions to the blog that I’d like to get out to everyone.
From Bryan Cook:
startled
in the hot tub
a full moon
a woodpecker
drums out grubs
in my head
in steerage
dreams of fortunes to be won
caged
to sink with the unsinkable
shoes rest below an iceberg sea
From Gill Foss:
in late sunlight
lengthening shadows creep
towards old age
three purring cats
barely enough room
on one lap
autumn wedding
Canadian / Japanese
blessed with sweetgrass
From Grant Savage
holocaust day
despite repeat applications
of illegal chemicals
those damned immigrant
lawn grubs
Another package today from Scrivener Press who printed Haiku Canada’s 35th Members’ Anthology, Touch of a Moth, which all Haiku Canada Members will get. I opened it to find bookmarks to go with the books, (that are sitting here behind a living room chair in cartons until our Haiku Canada Weekend in May) the bookmarks complete in themselves as little artworks.
This news from Rick Black’s Turtle Light press blog: Haiku Hits the Streets in Washington, D.C.
Crowd of 100,000 people at the Japanese Street Festival in Washington D.C.
At 8 a.m. on Saturday, April 14th, I met Lee Giesecke of the Towpath haiku group – the local D.C. chapter of the Haiku Society of America – at a metro stop with my car packed full of tables, extra chairs, tablecloths, straw baskets, easels, sumi-e paintings, some regal sunflowers, magenta tulips, a large variety of haiku books to browse through and others to give away, haiku pamphlets, brochures and flyers, and a very large, welcoming balloon…
Later, Rick says: So, I put out (her) books and others on the front table. And then I added a sheet with a half-humorous “Haiku I.Q. Quiz” that I had made up for people to take:
1. A haiku is a car, a poem or a Japanese vegetable?
2. Who wrote a famous haiku poem about a frog…?
3. Haiku must have 17 syllables in three lines of 5-7-5 – true or false?
4. Issa was a great Japanese baseball player – true or false?
And then the flow of visitors began. It started as a trickle, then increased in intensity as the day went on. People would just look at the booth, astonished, and say, “I didn’t know there was a Haiku Society of America.” That was the most oft-repeated phrase that I heard throughout the day!
Another brilliant idea, having people write poems with chalk:
During the day the streets were completely packed with people from one side to the other, watching Japanese drummers or performers faking a sword fight, drinking Japanese beer or buying souvenirs. Overall, we must have had at least 1,000 people or more at our booth. Many people went away with a book, a brochure, a flyer, a bookmark, or a pencil – and the happy memory of writing haiku.
For more photos, see Rick’s personal Facebook page.
A sequence from Grant:
there in the middle
of the double
exposed lily
the newness of missing you
in the hummingbird’s green
green bee
at a dahlia
spring over
but how your august
showers me with sun
bee and kalanchoe
window between
in the body
of your email
missing you
shade in the letters
of the war memorial
a dead ant cradled
and carried high by others
back to the queen
you as if there’s nothing
but a kiss in my arms
you
and the willows’ shimmy
against the wind
all this spring
the thoughts of warm rain
… your kiss-
… flowers and your unfurling
… me always
He also sent this, a little different but delightful:
(birthday cake/ with her name/ candles and a half-baked p
o
e
m)
John Martone, a favorite poet of mine, has another book of short poems:
Says John: Just uploaded a short book, “maybe a week (it’s all one poem)” to scribd — and you can find print copies at lulu — http://www.lulu.com/shop/john-martone/maybe-a-week-its-all-one-poem/paperback/product-20075838.html I’ve just ordered mine!
kado ottawa 