Events

From Harvard Art Museums - a FREE Zoom Seminar

Haiku and You: Painting Edo and the Arnold Arboretum

March 26, 2021, 2pm-3pm Eastern Time

In this lively program, professor David Atherton and curator Rachel Saunders will explore poetry and painting during the Edo period. Poet Sheryl White will look at how haiku has evolved as a contemporary creative practice in North America and will offer tips for writing your own haiku. Finally, professor David George Haskell will discuss how to awaken your senses to connect with nature and find words to capture the beauty of the world around you.

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雨雨雨

Clark Strand: Celebrate the Season with Haiku: An Online Equinox Weekend Retreat

Friday, March 19 - Sunday, March 21, 2021

Our workshop begins on Friday night, covering the basics of haiku: its form, seasonal subject matter, and that little spark of wit or insight that is essential to every good poem. By the end of the evening, participants will be ready to write haiku of their own.

Read more here

雨雨雨

Postcards from the Pandemic

An art project to be presented in the window of Studio &, 1027 Main Avenue, Durango, Colorado, mid-March, 2021.

Read more about the project here

Here's my postcard (Kanji letter for Fire):

Studio &

Comments

Season Word Blues

What's the Point of Season Words? Can You Write Haiku Without Them? After almost a year of writing (mostly bad) haiku, I began to understand the point of season words. There are conflicting rules about season words (also known as kigo ), and those rules can be confusing. Some haiku poets pay no attention to season words. I find them useful, providing a kind of shortcut, not just as a reference to nature, but for setting a tone, emotion, and social commonality. I invite you to play with them. As my teacher, Clark Strand , likes to say, "Haiku is anything you can get away with in seventeen syllables." What I like about season words : they force me to think, to consider the world in ways I may usually avoid. A season word provides a jumping off place. It's especially fun to use season words when writing in a group, to see how others use the word--a process that's often inspiring. What I don't like about season words : They can be a trap. Many have been overused...

Trash Panda Haiku Journal I'm delighted that one of my haiku has been accepted for the first edition of " Trash Panda, " a biannual print journal for the poetic expression of life in the Anthropocene. This is the home for English haiku and short form poetry of 17 syllables or less that doesn't shy away from the reality of nature in the present. Please consider subscribing. September 2019, NYC, Climate March

My Haiku Journey

I was first exposed to haiku as a child in elementary school. Perhaps you were too? I wrote a poem about a chestnut ... that's all I remember. Over the years, now and then, I'd try my hand at writing haiku, but when I visited Japan at cherry blossom season--studying Japanese and calligraphy--I was drawn into living, breathing haiku. Upon returning to the states I sought a teacher, and I found a wonderful workshop at Upaya Zen Center , in Santa Fe, taught by Natalie Goldberg and haiku master, Clark Strand . (Clark doesn't call himself a master, but I believe he is one.) I began to study haiku in earnest, studying with Clark, reading haiku masters like Bashō and many others, composing haiku in a Ku-Kai group. And, of course, writing hundreds of haiku ... mostly bad and a few good. Haiku is a journey, a way of viewing the world, noticing the juxtaposition of the human condition and nature. Most poems contain a season word, kigo , and (although there's debate, due t...

When Haiku Rains - Suzanne Tyrpak

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