Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces (2014– )

Once a year beginning in 2014, haiku poets gather by the old apple trees, frog ponds, and perennial gardens at Wild Graces in Deerfield, New Hampshire, for a day of art, music, food, nature, readings, and workshops. Wild Graces, a botanical sanctuary and hermitage, is located 32 miles from the Atlantic Ocean on a 13.9-acre property and is the home of hostess Robin White and her husband, Marshall B Hatch III. It was also the home of Robin’s mother and haiku poet, Evelyn Lang (1939–2021). Wild Graces is also the headquarters of the small publishing house of the haiku journal Akitsu Quarterly.

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Background

The annual haiku gatherings and Akitsu Quarterly got their start in 2014 with a little prompting from haiku poet and sageVincent Tripi, founder of the Haiku Circle in Northfield, Massachusetts, who thought the New Hampshire property would be a wonderful place for poets to meet. He and poet Jeannie Martin spent a month-long housesitting/sabbatical there in 2001. 

The gatherings cultivate and foster both the arts and nature in a serene garden setting. In addition to the poets reading their works and conducting workshops, guest musicians have performed on shakuhachi, cello, shamisen, guitar, and Native American flutes in the open air in the poets’ tent. Artists have demonstratedsumi-e brushwork techniques and had the opportunuty to sell their artwork, while cohost Marshall B Hatch III has poured his home-brewed beer made with herbs, berries, and fruit that grow at Wild Graces. All gatherings have featured an open mic, a book table or tent, and the sharing of tasty and nutritious food.

Participating poets, artists, and musicians over the first seven years have included Laurie Anderson, Pamela A. Babusci, Stuart Bartow, Brad Bennett, Rob Boyce, Alan S. Bridges, David M Carrol, Laurette Carroll, Candi Chamberlain, Yu Chang, Tom Clausen, Carolyn Coit Dancy, Risë Daniels, Bill Deegan, Flutewalker, Mary Forrester, Stanford M. Forrester, Raymond French, Terri L. French, Jay Friedenberg, Junko Fujiwara, JS Graustein, Shir Haberman, Jeff Hoagland, Harry Hudson, Bruce Iverson, Jane Kelly, Michael Ketchek, Evelyn Lang, Susan Lang, Kristen Lindquist, Jamie Lowe, Hannah Mahoney, Ian Marshall, Jeannie Martin, Ben Moeller-Gaa, Laurie D Morrissey, Peter Newton, Suzanne Niedzielska, Kevin Reams, Elizabeth Reian Bennett, Alexis Rotella, Tom Sacramona, James Schlett, Ron Scully, Mary Stevens, John Stevenson, Hilary Tann, John Terninko, Vincent Tripi, Don Wentworth, Kelley Jean White, Kath Abela Wilson, Rick Wilson, David L Young, and Jan Zaremba.

1st Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, September 6, 2014

The schedule of the inaugural gathering was as follows:

2nd Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, September 12, 2015

Highlights of the 2015 program included:

• David M. Carroll, author/illustrator of The Year of the Turtle: A Natural History
• Ian Marshall reading from Walking the Haiku Path on the International Appalachian Trail
• Elizabeth Reian Bennett, grand master of the shakuhachi, performing “Song of the Giant Tortoise”
• Reading by Pamela A. Babusci, editor of Moonbathing: A Journal of Women’s Tanka
• Jeannie Martin reading from her book Clear Water: A Haiku Invitation into Our Luminous Sacred World
• Brad Bennett sharing some observations from his survey of children’s haiku books
• Tom Clausen, Robin White, and Marshall Hatch (sitting in for poet Bill Waters) read their renku “Sitting on a Toadstool,” while local mushroom hunter Tom Cummings, sautéed mushrooms for lunch. The renku was published in 2024 by Nut Hill Books of Deerfield, N.H.).

3rd Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, September 10, 2016

Highlights of the 2016 program included:

• Alexis Rotella presentation on haiku and Chinese medicine
• Tom Clausen and Michael Ketchek leading a haiku workshop
• Readings by Stanford M. Forrester Pat Davis, and the poets of Wrenku, the New Hampshire haiku group (Evelyn Lang, Kelly Jean White, Pat Davis, Susan Lang, David L. Young, MarshallHatchand Robin White)
• Mimi White, past poet laureate of Portsmouth, N.H., was scheduled to read her tanka but could not attend
• Bruce Iverson presenting Asian brush paintings
• A display of hand-carved flutes and performance by Flutewalker of Vermont

4th Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, September 30, 2017

Owing to inclement weather, the poets gathered inside around the stone hearth. Highlights of the 2017 program included:

• Stanford M. Forrester conducting a workshop titled “R. H. Blyth’s Study of Senryu”
• Jeannie Martin leading a workshop, “Touch Haiku”
• Brad Bennett reading his recent work
• Hannah Mahoney reading her recent work
• Jamie Lowe performing on the shamisen

5th Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, September 8, 2018

Highlights of the 2017 program included:

• Rick Wilson performing on the shakuhachi and other world flutes
• Jeff Hoagland leading a workshop, “Insects and Haiku”
• Stuart Bartow reading from his new book, Quaking Marsh: Haiku
• Kath Abela Wilson reading from The Owl Still Asking: Tanka for Troubled Times, accompanied by Rick Wilson on flutes
• Jeff Hoagland and Robin White sharing their half-kasen renku, “Crow Talk, Owl Speak,” also accompanied by Rick Wilson
• Jane Kelly, naturalist and falconer from Epping, N.H., with Guthrie, her barn owl, performing from their “On The Wing” project

6th Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, September 7, 2019

Highlights of the 2019 program included:

• Reading by Don Wentworth, editor of Lilliput Review, from his haiku writings over the years with anecdotes
• Reading by Ben Moeller-Gaa from his new book Wishbones: Haiku & Senryu, and a talk with JS Graustein of Folded Word, who calligraphed and published the book
• Jeff Hoagland leading a nature workshop, “Finding Yourself on the Web of Life”

  

  

7th Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, September 12, 2020

Because this meeting took place face-to-face during the COVID-19 year, poets wore commemorative Wild Graces face masks and enjoyed a special boxed lunch. Highlights of the 2020 program included:

• Harry Duane Hudson presenting spoken word, haiku, and artwork from his 18–year walking meditation project Snow on Water
• Stanford M. Forrester reading from and and leading a workshop on Tim J. Myers’s children’s book, Basho and the Fox
• Jeannie Martin reading her haiku and those of Vincent Tripi from her book Touch of Light;
• Terri L. French reading from The Color of Bruises and, together with JT, the book’s 11-year-old narrator, performed Keepers: A Book of Haibun
• Junko Fujiwara, faculty member at Boston College, presented classical selections and jazz improvisations on the cello.

  

  

8th Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, August 28, 2021

Because of the continuing COVID pandemic, only those fully vaccinated were allowed to attend. Highlights of the 2021 program included:

• Stanford M. Forrester presenting “Eyes and Ears,” a very brief introduction and workshop on the intersection of haiku and concrete poetry
• Tom Sacramona, Kristen Lindquist, Hannah Mahoney, and Mary Stevens read their work from A New Resonance 12
• Kristen Lindquist leading a birding ginkō
• sumi-e brush paintings and woodblock prints with Bruce Iverson
• Wild graces 7, edited by Robin White and published in August 2021, the anthology of poets who attended at least one of the first seven Wild Graces gatherings, was distributed
• Performance of music for classical guitar by John Tavano, staff musician at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

• Shin-Yi Yang, founder of the Boston Guzheng Ensemble and the Boston Qin Society, performing on the guzheng (21-string Chinese zither)

9th Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, August 27, 2022

Highlights of the 2022 Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces included:

• Jeff Hoagland, “Flower Power” workshop
• John Stevenson, workshop titled “Quiet Enough and Still”
• Laurie D. Morrissey reading her haikai
• Performance by shakuhachi master Elizabeth Reian Bennett

  

  

  

10th Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, August 26, 2023

Again for the Tenth Anniversary Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, only persons who had been vaccinated and boosted for Covid-19 were permitted to attend, and participants wre limited to 52. Registration fee was $50.00.

The program highlights were:

• Ben Cosgrove, New England-based traveling composer and multi-instrumentalist
• Reading by Ben Gaa, haiku poet from St. Louis, Mo.
• Brad Bennett, haiku poet from Arlington, Mass., the featured reader
• Pat Davis, haiku poet from New Hampshire, leading the “Origami Peace Crane Workshop”
• Performance by R.D. King, guitarist and academic from Boston

11th Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, August 24, 2024

• Michael Dudley had planned to lead a morning workshop but did not attend Wild Graces owing to the Covid-19 pandemic
• John Hughes performing on the kora, a 21-stringed West African instrument
• In Dudley’s place, Stanford Forrester presented his workshop on writing and sending haiku postcards

Judson Evans                                             Mary Stevens                                             Jeff Hoagland

12th Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, August 23, 2025

The program included

• Solo performance by Toji Kaido Perlman of Portland, Maine, master shakuhachi player and teacher.
• Michael Dudley leading a workshop titled “Junctions/Junctures˝ and accompanied by Toji Kaido Perlman.
• Kristen Lindquist, leading an akitsu workshop and ginkō.
• Mary Stevens leading a haiku diary practice workshop.

13th Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces, August 22, 2026

In March 2026, an announcement from Robin White was posted. It read:

Just opened registration for the 13th Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces to be held on August 22, 2026. Ben Cosgrove returns as our musical guest. Janice Doppler will offer a workshop, “Perspectives on Zoka,” and Jeff Hoagland will be on hand for his presentation & ginkō “A Basketful of Pollen.” To keep it intimate there is a 50-person limit. To register online, visit www.wildgraces.com.

Sources / Further Reading

• “Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces” Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/haikugatheringatwildgraces/. The most recent post is dated September 2017.
• Annual Haiku Gathering at Wild Graces web page: https://www.wildgraces.com/annual-haiku-gathering.
• Babusci, Pamela A. A Solitary Woman: Tanka. Published privately (CreateSpace), 2013.
• Bartow, Stuart. Quaking Marsh: Haiku. Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2018.
• Bennett, Brad. “Children’s Haiku Books: An Annotated Bibliography.” Modern Haiku 46:3 (Autumn 2015), 34–52. 
• Carroll, David M. The Year of the Turtle: A Natural History. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
• French, Terri L. The Color of Bruises. Windsor, Conn.: Buddha Baby Press, 2019.
• French, Terri L. Keepers: A Book of Haibun. Published privately, 2018.
• Hudson, Harry Duane. Snow on Water: Words, Music, Imagery website: http://www.snowonwater.com.
• Kelly, Jane. On the Wing website: http://onthewingnh.com.
• Marshall, Ian. Border Crossing: Walking the Haiku Path on the International Appalachian Trail. Pawcatuck, Conn.: Hiraeth Press, 2012.
• Martin, Jeannie F. Clear Water: A Haiku Invitation into Our Luminous Sacred World. Oklahoma City: Red Moon Publications, 2013.
• Martin, Jeannie. Touch of Light. Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2019. Includes 31 haiku by Vincent Tripi.
• Moeller-Gaa, Ben. Wishbones: Haiku & Senryu. Calligraphy by JS Graustein. Meredith, N.H.: Folded Word Press, 2018.
• Moonbathing, a Journal of Women’s Tanka. Edited by Pamela A. Babusci.
• Myers, Tim J. Basho and the Fox. Illustrations by Oki S. Han. Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books, 2000.
• Terninko, John. Love Poems and New Beginnings: A Collection of Zen Sketches, Poems and Haiku. Nottingham, N.H.: Responsible Management, Inc., 1994.
• Tripi, Vincent. … The Path of the Bird: A Collection of Haiku on American Wild Birds. Selected and arranged by Phyllis Walsh. Richland Center, Wis.: Hummingbird Press, 1996.
• White, Robin, ed. Wild Graces 7. Deerfield, N.H., Wild Graces, 2021; briefly reviewed by Tom Clausen in Frogpond 45:1 (Winter 2022), 137–38.
• Wild Graces Sanctuary & Hermitage website: https://www.wildgraces.com/about.
• Wilson, Kath Abela. The Owl Still Asking: Tanka for Troubled Times. Published privately (Lulu.com), 2017.

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Compiled by Robin White and Mary Stevens