The fourteenth Haiku North America conference, a biennial series of meetings of haiku poets and scholars, took place at the Santa Fe Hotel & Spa, Santa Fe, New Mexico, September 13–17, 2017. The conference theme was “earthtones”; Charles Trumbull, Sondra J. Byrnes, Cynthia A. Henderson, Scott Wiggerman, and Miriam Sagan were the organizers.
More than 215 poets attended Haiku North America 2017 in Santa Fe, New Mexico—a record number for the Haiku North America conference series and likely the largest gathering of haiku poets ever outside Japan. Besides Canada and the U.S.A., two North American countries were represented for the first time at an HNA conference—Mexico and the Bahamas; other haijin attended from Japan, Australia, and Switzerland.
A wide variety of presentations and other activities ran concurrently in two or three conference rooms. Program highlights included the keynote address by Ruth Yarrow, “Skin Tones are Earth Tones”; the William J. Higginson Memorial Lecture, “Haiku & Senryu in the Santa Fe Internment Camp,” Teruko Kumei, professor of American History and Culture at Shirayuri College in Tokyo; Scott Mason’s “Haiku: The State of Wonder”; and Guiding Teacher at the Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe Henry Shukman’s “Zen and Haiku.”
Popular program topics included haiku in the various nations of North America: in addition to Ruth Yarrow’s keynote talk, there were discussions and panels on Native American, African American, Mexican, and French Canadian haiku. Instructive and entertaining sessions were presented on various aspects of haiku composition and performance: sessions on the haiku basics for beginners and teaching haiku to children, adults, and non-native speakers, and American Sign Language; workshops and demonstrations of renku (linked verse), rengay, haiku sequences, haibun (haiku with prose), haiga (haiku with drawings or photos), sumi-e (black ink painting), calligraphy, and suminagashi (paper marbling); problems of haiku translation; “haiku plus” sessions focused on haiku aesthetics in painting and Indian classical dance.
The schedule was dotted with haiku readings: traditional HNA sessions are the Memorial Reading to remember recently deceased members of our community, the reading from the HNA participants’ anthology, and the Regional Reading, presenting attendees by area of residence. For the first time, blocks of time were set aside for authors to spotlight their recent books. These “Kaleidoscope” sessions were open and free and provided 30 poets a unique opportunity to present their work to the general public.
Publications were also a topic of discussion: there were sessions on The Haiku Foundation’s scholarly journal, Juxtapositions; Jessica Tremblay’s delightful Old Pond Comics, and an exposition of copyright law as it applies to haiku. HNA 2017 was rich in multimedia. Most of the regular talks were accompanied by PowerPoint presentations. Original art and historical videos were also shown.
Other activities available at the 2017 conference included a conference haiku contest and a raffle of an important painting by a Santa Fe–area artist. The silent auction and book fair both logged record sales for HNA gatherings. The rooms and services at the Santa Fe Hotel & Spa were first-rate, and the New Mexico–inspired cuisine at the Amaya Restaurant was an interesting and well-received change from usual conference fare. Optional pre- and post-conference tours of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and Bandelier National Monument were available. Santa Fe’s world-famous museums, galleries, and historical sites were also a big draw.
HNA 2017 Program
Wednesday, September 13
Afternoon
Conference set-up
Registration desk open from 1:00 p.m.
Book fair open from 3:00 p.m.
Evening
¡Bienvenidos! Welcome Reception
“Kaleidoscope Book Launches / Readings,” 1st session
Authors were allotted ten minutes to read from or discuss a new book. This event was free and open to the public. [See full bibliographic information in the Sources section below.]
- Charles Trumbull reading from Donna Bauerly’s Raymond Roseliep; L. A Davidson’s My Fifty Favorite Haiku; and Masaoka Shiki (translated by John Brandi & Noriko Martinez), A House by Itself
- Charles Trumbull reading from Sonia Coman’s Passages
- Brad Bennett reading from A Drop of Pond
- Penny Harter reading from Terry Ann Carter’s Tokaido
- William Scott Galasso reading from Silver Salmon Runes
- Bill Kenney reading from The Earth Pushes Back
- Robert Lundy and Elizabeth Williams reading from her Haiku for an Artist / Haiku para una Pintora
- Kathy Munro [kjmunro] reading from Body of Evidence: A Collection of Killer ’ku
- Kathabela Wilson reading from Driftwood Monster
Thursday, September 14
Morning
Opening Ceremonies
Blessing by Craig Quanchello, Governor, Picurís Pueblo
Picurís Pueblo was involved in the design and construction and is a majority owner of the Santa Fe Hotel and Spa, Santa Fe’s only Native American–owned hotel.
Welcome by Michael Dylan Welch, Sondra J. Byrnes, and Charles Trumbull
the HNA 2017 conference anthology
Reading of Earthsigns, the HNA 2017 Anthology by all poets included in the book, led by the editors, Michael Dylan Welch and Scott Wiggerman
Ruth Yarrow, “Skin Tones are Earth Tones” (HNA keynote address)
Ruth Yarrow linked the HNA 2017 conference theme of “earthtones” to the skin colors of our species. While affirming that the concept of race is a biological illusion, she shared haiku by many poets that revealed the ways bias and power in our society, based on skin color, affects all of our lives.
Scott Mason, “Haiku: The State of Wonder”
If New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment and Santa Fe is the City Different, haiku poetry might just be the State of Wonder. Scott Mason explored several of the distinctive ways that haiku begins with and inspires wonder.
Afternoon
Cristina Rascón, “Mexican Haiku: Tradition, Translation & Transgression”
Rascón asked questions such as where was Mexican haiku born? What shapes does it take today? She continued by exploring contemporary haiku styles in Mexico, not only in Spanish but in indigenous languages as well.
Alexis Rotella, “The Ancient Chinese Approach to Understanding the Seasons”
Classical acupuncturist Alexis Rotella discussed the law of five elements/seasons and how they impact our lives in ways we may never have imagined. Through a clearer understanding of the seasons, our haiku and insights about the human race also deepen. We met in autumn, the season of letting go as well as receiving inspiration from the Heavenly realms. Participants were urged to bring their notebooks and favorite fall haiku.
Miriam Sagan, “New Mexico Haiku”
New Mexico has long served as muse to writers seeking vision and expanse. Its haiku history includes the counterculture, Haiku Society of America, scholars, poets, and renegades. Sagan examined almost 50 years of haiku springing from the Land of Enchantment.
Jim Kacian, “Haiku Performance”
Kacian opened with the declaration, “I come to bury haiku performance, not to praise it.” Haiku can be excruciating to watch, listen to, be present at—and if you think it’s hard for us, imagine what it’s like for those not attuned to haiku nuance. The hope and aspiration of this talk was to inspire the listeners to consider what haiku performance is and what it might be, and to make of it something that someone besides your mother would enjoy. Kacian included an overview of how haiku has been presented over the ages, what the goals for presentation might be, and the elements of performance itself. It won’t be easy, he allowed, but if we work on it, maybe we can improve the way we present our favorite genre.
Natalie Goldberg, “The Power of Haiku and Practice,” workshop
In this hour, bestselling author, teacher, and painter Goldberg explored the connection between Zen practice and the way of haiku—another great practice. The session was limited to 20 participants.
Margaret Chula, “What the Earth Holds: A Haibun Workshop”
Earth is the ground we stand on. It feeds and sustains us. We entrust our dead to the earth and honor them. The Santa Fe landscape of rock formations, minerals, and plant life stimulates our imaginations as well as poems by eminent poets on the theme of earth. Chula led a generative workshop for both new and seasoned haibun writers.
Tom Painting, “Haiku: A First for Everything,” workshop, 1st session
Unlock the rich treasury of your memory, the power of imagination and a keener awareness of the here-and-now. Participants focused on “firsts” as a way to isolate moments in time around which one may build haiku. This was the first of two sessions, each limited to 30 people.
“Haiku North America 2017 Regional Reading,” led by Kathabela Wilson with Rick Wilson, flutes
Participants divided themselves into geographical groups and each read a haiku aloud.
Thomas Leech, “Suminagashi Demonstration”
Curator Tom Leech of the Press at the Palace of the Governors (of the New Mexico History Museum) demonstrated the 11th-century Japanese technique known as suminagashi, or “black ink floating.” Inherent in the art form is the implication of meandering water, wind-blown clouds, and tumultuous topography. This was not a hands-on workshop, but participants were encouraged to pursue this meditative marbling practice on their own. This session was limited to 15 people.
Evening
“Kaleidoscope Book Launches / Readings,” 2nd session
Authors were allotted ten minutes to read from or discuss a new book. This event was free and open to the public. [See full bibliographic information in the Sources section below.]
- Elaine Adams reading from Haiku Bouillabaisse
- Jim Kacian reading from after image
- Deborah P Kolodji reading from Highway of Sleeping Towns
- David G. Lanoue and contributors reading from Write like Issa
- Patricia J. Machmiller reading from Utopia: She Hurries On
- Vicki McCullough reading from Sisyphus: Haiku Work of Anna Vakar
- Jacquie Pearce reading from The Jade Pond
- Claudia Coutu Radmore reading from the business of isness
- Cristina Rascón reading from Flor del alba
- Francine Banwarth reading from The Haiku Life
Tom Painting, “Haiku: A First for Everything,” workshop, 2nd session
Unlock the rich treasury of your memory, the power of imagination and a keener awareness of the here-and-now. Participants focused on “firsts” as a way to isolate moments in time around which one may build haiku. This was the second of two sessions, each limited to 30 people.
Marshall Hryciuk & Karen Sohne, “Late-Night Renku Writing,” 1st session
Anyone not exhausted by the daytime program was invited to join other linked-verse aficionados in composing a new masterpiece under the tutelage of world-renowned renku masters Hryciuk & Sohne. Hryciuk explained the creation of “Crickets All Night Long”: “We convened in the festive Amaya Restaurant of the Santa Fe Hotel … at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, September 14 and, seated at three raucous and rolling dining tables completed, to our excited surprise, this full-kasen renku by 12:38 a.m.”1
Friday, September 15
Morning
Henry Shukman, “Zen and Haiku”
Dogs, stars, a flowing bridge and a single hand: haiku and koan share brevity and an association with the Zen tradition, but are they really alike? Some thoughts from a poet and Zen teacher. (Sometimes described as a “touchstone of reality,” a koan is a rhetorical device, often in the form of a dialogue or action excerpted from the biographical record of a Tang Dynasty chan master, used by Zen teachers to help a student awaken from delusion.)
“African American Haiku,” four presentations and a panel discussion
- John Zheng, “Survey of African American Haiku”
Richard Wright, James Emanuel, Etheridge Knight, Sonia Sanchez, and Lenard D. Moore are the five most celebrated African American poets in the tradition of haiku and in the variety and inventiveness of their haiku expression. Though different in subjects, each poet presents work of both enduring longevity and cultural perspectives.
- Meta Schettler, “Ashe! Writing the Electric: Haiku, Richard Wright and the Black Arts Movement”
Schettler’s paper explored how Richard Wright’s experimentation with the haiku form related to later writings by Black Arts poets Amiri Baraka and Etheridge Knight. All three poets’ work combined Black culture, African American experience, and Zen principles to redeem the past in the present-tense space of the haiku form.
- Tiffany Austin, “The Gendered Blues in Sonia Sanchez’s Morning Haiku”
Sanchez’s haiku offer a look into her attention to the beauty and “non-beauty” of the brief, succinct image with the use of simultaneous moving yet stilling metaphoric language. In her haiku, especially Morning Haiku, Sanchez genders the image through duende and cante jondo or “deep song” related to Andalusian music and dance, providing an embodiment of nature and intimacy amongst relationships either personal or when referring to musical and visual artists and political figures unlike any other poet writing haiku.
- Ce Rosenow, “The Storytelling Tradition in Lenard D. Moore’s Extended Haiku Sequences”
Moore forces us to reconsider the relationship between haiku and narrative. He draws on the African American tradition of storytelling to convey and preserve elements from a broad range of topics and uses formal characteristics of traditional haiku to weave the past into the present and to pass important narratives on to the next generation.
- Jeannie Martin, “Haiku: The Basics,” workshop
In her workshop for those new to haiku, Martin covered the basics: form and structure, content, the four most recent trends in writing haiku, and a little history. She took a look at famous and not so famous haiku and reviewed the elements that make them work. Participants had an opportunity to consider what attracts them to haiku and what might be their preference in terms of style and content.
Moments in Time: Remembering the Santa Fe Japanese Internment Camp, video
From March 1942 to April 1946, the Santa Fe Internment Camp held 4,555 men of Japanese ancestry. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S. Government arrested and imprisoned thousands of Japanese-American men, branding them “dangerous enemy aliens.” Incarcerated without trial, they were forced to leave behind their families along with everything they knew and loved. Professor of Literature Gail Okawa, renowned photographer Patrick Nagatani, and southwestern artist Jerry West share their family’s stories about the Santa Fe camp. Highlighted are original family photographs along with rare camp photographs loaned by Brian Minami of manymountains.org. Featured is Japanese flute music performed by Andrea McQuate. YouTube video shown with the permission of New Mexico PBS.
Lidia Rozmus and Charles Trumbull, “Georgia O’Keeffe and the Haiku Aesthetic”
While Georgia O’Keeffe is not known to have composed haiku, she certainly knew of them. Japanese aesthetics infused her work from the outset, and evidence can be found not only in her paintings but in her studios and living spaces. Trumbull spoke about the sources of O’Keeffe’s East Asian influences, and sumi-e master Rozmus provided examples of Japanese aesthetics in her paintings. Illustrative slides paired O’Keeffe paintings with haiku that have been written about them.
Afternoon
“Haiga Gallery”
An electronic presentation of haiga from the haiga panelists: Linda Papanicolaou, Melissa Allen, Terri L. French, Kris Moon (Kris Kondo), Patricia J. Machmiller, Carole MacRury, and Alexis Rotella.
Deborah P Kolodji, Brad Bennett, Paul Miller, Kathy Munro, and Alan Pizzarelli, “Cover to Cover: Writing & Publishing a Book of Haiku,” panel discussion
Now that you’ve written and published a number of haiku, it may be time to think about your first book. Where do you start? What haiku do you include? What haiku do you leave behind? How do you order the haiku within the manuscript? How long should the manuscript be? What are the differences between writing chapbooks, full-length books, and themed anthologies? This panel of award-winning poets and publishers provided all the answers.
Jeannie Martin, “Prickly Pear: Touch in Haiku,” workshop
Touch is perhaps our most basic sense, the way we first experience the world and often, our last as well. In this workshop we will focus on touch in haiku: how we convey deep reality, connection with nature and each other, and belonging through this most basic sense. After reading a variety of haiku involving touch, we will try our hands at writing a touch haiku using an easy prompt.
Donna Beaver & Veronica Golos, “Native American Haiku—A Conversation”
Poets Donna Beaver and Veronica Golos discussed Native Americans writing haiku and other short forms. Through readings and conversations they reviewed the history and rediscovery of short poetry in Native cultures and the current state of Native American work in short forms, including haiku. Beaver and Golos discuss how short poetry is being explored to express the experience of Native culture through the power of place, Native languages, traditional storytelling, and much more.
Robert T. Lundy and Elizabeth Yahn Williams, “Collaborative Tones in Writing to Art,” workshop
Two award-winning editors taught a workshop on writing to art (ekphrasis) as it relates to haiku. Williams also addressed foreign markets and Lundy spoke briefly about how his Sierra Club hikes influence his poetry. They also commented on the art of collaboration as it relates to their series of French and Spanish parallel readers.
Teruko Kumei, “Haiku & Senryu in the Santa Fe Internment Camp.” The William J. Higginson Memorial Lecture
About 70 years ago, looking down over the city of Santa Fe, Japanese immigrants in the Santa Fe Internment Camp gathered and wrote haiku and senryu. They left a record of their senryu reading circle, Kogen (Highland), and published a haiku anthology, Ginto (Silver Dome). I propose to introduce their poems in Japanese, then explain the meaning in English. As haiku and senryu are “the records of life, poems of sentiments,” listening to the voices of the internees deepens our understanding of the lives and sentiments of the people in the Santa Fe Internment Camp.
Michael Dylan Welch, “Haiku & the Art of Forest Bathing,” workshop
A presentation and generative writing workshop on the virtues of soaking in the woods as inspiration for writing haiku. Participants learned how shinrin-yokuand friluftsliv could help them with their haiku. It was not just for tree-huggers!
Rich Schnell, Zoann Schnell, and Jean Ann Hunt, “Teaching Haiku / Online Course”
This program presented the objectives, learning activity structure, and technology used for an entirely online haiku course. The course, through its assignments and feedback processes, was developed to expose teachers and mental health clinicians to the dimensions of the haiku form, along with haiku’s relationship to culture, consciousness, and spirituality. Reading and writing haiku, participating in a live online renku group, experiencing ginkō walks and accessing haiku-devoted blogs such as Haiku Chronicles were incorporated into the course.
Julie Warther and Dan Schwerin, ”Creating Haiku Community on the Ground,” panel discussion
A panel presentation on how to start up and maintain local haiku study groups that meet the needs of on-the-ground poetic environments. There is much to be said for the artistic inspirations and enthusiasms of national and international haiku conferences, but many haiku poets return home to the prospect of little or no local community with which to share and sustain the craft. Each of the panelists had begun a haiku group in the past year. Each group varied in structure and purpose, though in general, the goal was to nurture haiku poets at every stage of creative development. Warther and Schwerin shared stories of getting started, as well as meeting outlines, inspirational activities, craft workshops, and the dos and don’ts of critique with conference participants interested in teaching haiku and developing haiku community in their own home town or regional neighborhood.
Maxianne Berger, “Winnows: HaikOuLiPo”
OuLiPo is a French experimental literary group founded in 1960. Members of the Ouvroir de littérature potentiel (workshop of potential literature) use constraints to writing as a means to creativity. Berger presented some Oulipian and other constraints as they have been applied to haiku before discussing her own experience with Winnows. Each haiku in her 2016 book was the product of an extreme erasure of Moby Dick. Within each chapter, the selected words—at times paragraphs apart, at times pages—some whole in the original, others hidden within a word or spanning adjacent words—these words, without changing their order, produced a haiku or senryu.
Scott Wiggerman, “Revising Haiku for Beginners”
Those new to haiku often sense that something’s not quite working in haiku they’ve written, but they don’t know what it is or how to fix it. In this critiquing workshop for newbies, Earthsigns coeditor Wiggerman led the way in discussing haiku that participants brought to the workshop, highlighting techniques that just might turn mediocre haiku into something to be proud of. This session was limited to 30 people.
“Haiku North America 2017 Memorial Reading,” presented by Deborah P Kolodji
Remembering the life and work of members of our haiku family who have left us since the 2015 Haiku North America conference.
Evening
“Kaleidoscope Book Launches / Readings,” 3rd session
Authors were allotted ten minutes to read from or discuss a new book. This event was free and open to the public. [See full bibliographic information in the Sources section below.]
- Carolyn Hall reading from Calculus of Daylilies
- Kala Ramesh reading from beyond the horizon beyond
- Alexis Rotella reading from Between Waves
- Carmen Sterba reading from An Amazement of Deer
- Don Wentworth reading from With a Deepening Presence
- Ruth Yarrow reading from Lit from Within
- Yoko’s Dogs reading from Rhinoceros
- Michael Dylan Welch and Tanya McDonald reading from Seven Suns / Seven Moons
- Karina M. Young reading from Eucalyptus Wind
Marshall Hryciuk & Karen Sohne, “Late-Night Renku Writing,” 2nd session
Flushed with success over “Crickets All Night Long,” the kasen renku they had created the night before, the late-night renku writers reconvened and completed a second full kasen, “The Ghost of Abiquiu.”
Saturday, September 16
Morning
Robert Rotella, “Copyright for Haiku Authors”
This presentation covered the basics of copyright according to U.S. law. Topics included how to secure copyright and the benefits of registration. Are haiku even copyrightable, considering their brevity? The doctrines of fair use, public domain, and dedication to the public. Also discussed was the Creative Commons License.
Preethi Ramaprasad and Kala Ramesh, “Dance Your Way Through earthtones”
A recital of dance and haiku reading that highlighted the synergy between an Indian classical dancer and a haiku poet. A selection of haiku from Naad Anunaad: An Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku, written by authors from all over the world, was read aloud by Ramesh, then interpreted through Ramaprasad’s abhinaya (body and facial expression), a beautiful idiom of the Indian classical dance style called bharatanatyam.
Beverly Acuff Momoi, “You Are Here: Where Perspective and Point of View Intersect in Haibun”
This presentation looked at the relationship between what Haruo Shirane called “the vertical axis” and perspective and point of view within haibun. Specifically, it considered if the haibun’s vertical axis provides depth that will resonate over time and place and how our choices of perspective and point of view operate to increase accessibility and enjoyment for today’s readers. Further, how do the approach we take in prose and the way we frame the haiku influence the readers’ overall experience? Does point of view—whether we choose first-, second- or third-person narration—strengthen or weaken that perspective? And how do perspective, point of view, and the vertical axis work together to create memorable haibun that reward rereading?
Lidia Rozmus, “One Brush Stroke: Sumi-e Demonstration and Workshop,” 1st session,
Sumi-e and haiga master Rozmus demonstrated the Japanese art of black-ink painting, explaining the materials, preparations, and techniques involved. Workshop participants were invited to try their hand at sumi-e. The session was limited to 10 participants.
Makoto Nakanishi, “The Power of Kigo in Making Haiku”
Kigo—season words—can be very powerful in bringing out rich and colorful images for readers of haiku. It is even said that one season word is worth 20 to 30 sentences! This presentation explored the power of season words, using examples from the haiku classes that Nakanishi had conducted in Canada.
Elizabeth Morley, “Circles Round the Sun: The Haiku Writing of Mexican and Canadian Children”
This presentation (read by Makoto Nakanishi) described recent research in Japan to examine the haiku writing of children in elementary schools in Canada and Mexico. There is an emphasis on teaching methods that inspire and support environmental “seeing,” season-word generativity, and haiku-sharing circles. For some of the children, English is a language they are learning, but the young poets make haiku that are accessible and expressive, even in a second language. Links were made to environmental education, English as a foreign language, and special education as well as to the specifics and data on teaching protocols that work.
Afternoon
“Haïjins and Haïkus in French-Canada: Beginnings and Trends,” presentations, panel discussion, and reading
- Jessica Tremblay introduced the work of pioneers Jocelyne Villeneuve and André Duhaime and gave an overview of the most innovative poets of the new generation
- Claudia Coutu Radmore spoke on publications and publishing in French and English
- Maxianne Berger focused on spreading the good news today: teachers, groups, and publishers—what they do and how they do it
- A bilingual reading of haïkus from French Canada
Lidia Rozmus, In Silence, a short film with accompanying booklet
Joe McKeon, Three Generations, video
Donna Beaver and Alan Pizzarelli, “The Haiku Chronicles: An Exhibition of Concrete Poetry”
This video short exhibited classic concrete poetry, from the Calligrammes of Apollinaire, the mouse’s tail in Alice; the worldwide concrete “renaissance” of the early sixties, featuring works by Eugen Gomringer, Emmett Williams, Ian Hamilton Finlay, and others, all the way to contemporary visual, animated, and kinetic concrete poetry (including haiku) by poets such as Marlene Mountain, Richard Brautigan, Mason Williams, and others.
Garry Gay, “Rengay Workshop”
This hands-on workshop was led by the creator of the rengay, a fun and easy Western linking form. The rengay was explained and explored, and participants divided into twos or threes to write their own collaborative poems.
Patricia J. Machmiller, “Ruminations on Charles Trumbull’s Unfinished Odyssey to the Geographical Center of the 20th Century”
Machmiller commented on the two completed parts of “Trinity,” the trilogy by Charles Trumbull focused on the development, testing, and first use of the atomic bomb. The trilogy is written in a haibun / haiku sequence form. The commentary examined the effectiveness of the form, the methods employed to incorporate the specialized language of science into the poetry, and how the location of the different sites affects the writing.
David G. Lanoue, “Translating Haiku: Where Spirit Meets Letter”
Good poetic translation is a tightrope act. On one side, the translator needs to convey literal sense, while on the other he or she must find a way to approximate the spirit of the work in the target language. To lean too far one way or the other is to court disaster, as this talk showed—drawing from examples of English translations of Japanese- and Spanish-language haiku.
Nick Virgilio Haiku Association, “Nick Virgilio,” two short films
The NVHA (Henry Brann and Robin Palley) presented two short films about the pioneering American haiku poet: Remembering Nick Virgilio by Sean Dougherty, and the filmed play Nick of Time … Nick of Time by Joe Paprzycki.
Shinko Fushimi, “Haiku Learning as a Life-Long Continuing Education”
In an aging society, life-long continuing education becomes a critical concern. Japan has hundreds of years of tradition of composing poetry (haiku or tanka) on an occasion of ceremony and event among educated people. Farewell poetry is their last work and a summary of their lives, as a result of their life-long education.
Jerome Cushman, “Seeing Haiku: Haiku in American Sign Language and Sign Mime”
A few well-known haiku were performed using ASL and sign mime, followed by a discussion of the special analysis required to translate haiku/senryu. Cushman also signed some haiku/ senryu submitted by members of the audience.
Linda M. Papanicolaou (chair), Melissa Allen, Terri L. French, Kris Moon (Kris Kondo), Patricia J. Machmiller, Carole MacRury, and Alexis Rotella, “Trends in Modern Haiga,” panel discussion
Seven practitioners of haiga discussed their own work as well as broader topics such as text-image linking, current approaches to creating a image, and the implications of these issues for the development of the art form.
Lidia Rozmus, “One Brush Stroke: Sumi-e Demonstration and Workshop,” 2nd session
Sumi-e and haiga master Rozmus demonstrated the Japanese art of black-ink painting, explaining the materials, preparations, and techniques involved. Workshop participants were invited to try their hand at sumi-e. Both sessions were limited to 10 participants. Some auditors were allowed in the 2nd session.
Evening
”La Fiesta del Haikú,“ conference reception
- Cash Bar
- Music by La Familia Cipriano Vigil—norteño music from El Rito, New Mexico
Conference Barbecue Banquet
- Announcements of the winners of HNA 2017 Haiku Contest and awarding of prizes
- Completion of the silent auction
- Raffle drawing
- Reading of “The Ghost of Abiquiu” the late-night renku by the authors, with sabaki Marshall Hryciuk and Karen Sohne presiding
- Distribution of the group photo
- Announcement that the site of Haiku North America 2019 would be Winston-Salem, N.C.
- Traditional passing of the HNA banner
Return of La Familia Cipriano Vigil for listening and dancing
Sunday, September 17
Morning
John Stevenson, “What Is a Haiku, What is an English-language Haiku, and Why Do We Ask These Questions?”
What we call haiku today is the product of many centuries of evolution. This presentation focused on what is consistent through most of that period and what has fallen away as haiku has been adapted to the poetics of various languages and cultures, particularly to English-language practices. The session was open to all but is tailored to be of most value to poets relatively new to haiku.
Jim Kacian, Peter McDonald and Ce Rosenow, “Juxtapositions, The Journal of Haiku Scholarship,” panel discussion
Using The Haiku Foundation’s peer-reviewed journal of haiku research, Juxtapositions, as a model, the editors of the journal discussed the value of haiku scholarship to the larger haiku community, including to poets who do not consider themselves academics. They also considered the relationship between published haiku scholarship and several of the topics addressed by other presenters at this year’s HNA conference. Additionally, it addressed the functions performed by different types of haiku journals, including Frogpond, Modern Haiku, and others.
Jessica Tremblay, “Old Pond Comics: Flowers and Skulls”
HNA’s cartoonist-in-residence presented some of the highlights of the conference using comics, photos, and storytelling. From panels to workshops, her two adorable characters, Master Kawazu and his apprentice Kaeru, leave no book table unturned. Conference attendees were urged to watch the presentation carefully—maybe they’d recognize themselves in one of the cartoons!
All conference participants, led by Michael Dylan Welch, “Final Round Reading”
Attendees were invited to share the haiku they have written over the weekend and/or under the spell of The Land of Enchantment and The City Different.
Other Activities and Events
Silent Auction
The silent auction netted about $2,200 to benefit Haiku North America. Many thanks to all donors and especially Carolyn Lamb for all the wonderful items she donated from from the estate of her mother, Elizabeth Searle Lamb. Thanks to committee member Scott Wiggerman for organizing the silent auction, and to Wanda Cook, who volunteered to oversee it.
Book Fair
The HNA 2017 book fair also did extraordinarily well. Attendees exchanged more than $15,000 worth of books and other merchandise. Not a penny of that—not even a percentage “handling fee”—went to HNA or the local organizing committee; the authors or publishers received the entire sales price. Grateful thanks to Cynthia Henderson, who organized and ran the book fair, ably assisted by volunteers Alanna Burke and Basia Miller.
Freebies Tables
Two tables, actually, filled with free materials from participants: poem cards, brochures, trifold broadsheets, mini-chapbooks, notices and advertisements, etc. One notable publication distributed to all HNA attendees in their registration packets was Open Spaces: Haiku from the Santa Fe Haiku Study Group and Guest Poets, a small anthology edited by Alanna Burke and Basia Miller expressly for Haiku North America 2017.
Raffle
A raffle held for the benefit of Haiku North America proved very popular with conference goers. Tickets were sold during the conference. The prize was an oil painting titled New Mexico Colors by Santa Fe artist Bill Berra, who generously donated the work to HNA. The winning ticket was held by Scott Mason of New York, who, serendipitously, is a collector of Southwestern art. Accepting thanks for his contributions to the conference, at the HNA banquet Berra stood up and said how touched and amazed he was to have so many people writing about his painting!
Image from the artist
Haiku Contest
Berra’s New Mexico Colors was also used as a prompt for the haiku contest held during the course of the conference. Contest judges were Kathy Munro and Gary Hotham, and the contest organizer was Sharon Rhutasel-Jones. The winning poets, their haiku, and prizes were:
Agnes Eva Savich—1st Place
evening falls
with every breath
another color
Placing first in the haiku contest, Savich took home a painting titled Open Spaces—Finch 1 donated by artist William Berra.
Image from the artist
Don Wentworth—2nd Place
standing tall
mountain to mountain
shoulder to shoulder
Second Prize was a pair of signed Hopi inlay earrings donated by the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. The inlay is constructed from two layers of sterling silver. A design is traced on a sheet of silver and is then cut out by hand with a jeweler’s saw and imposed on the second piece.
Sandi Pray—3rd Place
grandmother’s shawl
comforting a child
mesa twilight
Third Prize was a platinum photograph by Dan Geist. Geist’s work appears in a variety of collections including those of the New Jersey State Museum and the Johnson Matthey Corporation.
Marcyn Clements—Honorable Mention
Flame Skimmer
wings steal
the light of sunrise
Tom Painting—Honorable Mention
powdered
to create paint
the hematite hills
Weathergrams, calligraphy demonstration by Escribiente: The Albuquerque Calligraphy Society
Calligraphy and haiku have gone hand-in-hand for centuries, whether in Japan or the West. Conference-goers were invited to stop in the hotel and watch the skilled calligraphers of Escribiente make weathergrams—paper tags to be hung on trees in the hotel patio and garden area.
Axle Contemporary, “Text & Image: Playing with Haiga”
Coinciding with the Haiku North America conference, Axle Contemporary (Matthew Chase-Daniel and Jerry Wellman) presented an exhibition of work by New Mexico artists who pair text and image in their artwork. The Axle Contemporary Mobile Gallery (a converted van) was parked in the lot of the Santa Fe Hotel, Hacienda & Spa on Wednesday and Thursday. The exhibition was inspired by haiga, a traditional Japanese form of haiku + image. “Text & Image: Playing with Haiga,” celebrated contemporary artists who combine poetic language and images to create what are both literary and visual artworks. Haiga rose to prominence in Japan in the 17th century and continues to this day. In Western culture, text and image were paired in early and mid-20th century works by Surrealists and Dadaists. Today the traditional and contemporary forms inform each other, and many artists draw from both traditions. This exhibit featured the work of John Brandi, Juliana Coles, Guy Cross, Luke Dorman, and Jerry Wellman.
In addition, late Thursday afternoon students from the New Mexico School for the Arts painted large banners with their own haiga-inspired words and images and paraded them through the lobby of the HNA conference hotel before proceeding to downtown Santa Fe in a public art action done in collaboration with Axle Contemporary.
HNA 2017 Group Photo by Garry Gay
Optional Pre-conference Group Tours of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Optional Post-conference Group Tour to Bandelier National Monument
Tanka Sunday 2017
The Tanka Society of America sponsored its fourth tanka conference. “Tanka Sunday 2017” took place immediately after the Haiku North America conference in the same meeting area, with a variety of speakers, readers, performers, and other activities. Presenters included Maxianne Berger, Margaret Chula, Marilyn Hazelton, Carole MacRury, Claudia Coutu Radmore, Kala Ramesh, David Rice, Alexis Rotella, Kozue Uzawa, Michael Dylan Welch, Kathabela Wilson, Aya Yuhki, and others.
Participants, Special Guests, Donors, Organizing Committee, Staff, and Volunteers
NUMBERS OF REGISTERED PARTICIPANTS BY PLACE OF RESIDENCE
| United States (197) | |
| Alaska | 2 |
| Arkansas | 3 |
| Arizona | 1 |
| California | 38 |
| Colorado | 6 |
| Connecticut | 1 |
| Florida | 1 |
| Georgia | 2 |
| Guam | 1 |
| Iowa | 2 |
| Idaho | 1 |
| Illinois | 2 |
| Indiana | 2 |
| Louisiana | 1 |
| Massachusetts | 7 |
| Maryland | 8 |
| Michigan | 1 |
| Mississippi | 1 |
| North Carolina | 4 |
| New Hampshire | 2 |
| New Jersey | 11 |
| New Mexico | 42 |
| New York | 12 |
| Ohio | 8 |
| Oklahoma | 1 |
| Oregon | 5 |
| Pennsylvania | 5 |
| Rhode Island | 1 |
| South Dakota | 1 |
| Texas | 8 |
| Utah | 1 |
| Virginia | 4 |
| Washington | 6 |
| Wisconsin | 4 |
| Canada (14) | |
| British Columbia | 7 |
| Ontario | 3 |
| Québec | 3 |
| Yukon Territory | 1 |
| Other North America (2) | |
| Bahamas | 1 |
| Mexico | 1 |
| Other countries (9) | |
| Japan | 5 |
| Australia | 2 |
| India | 1 |
| Switzerland | 1 |
SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKERS AND PERFORMERS
| Craig Quanchello | Governor, Picurís Pueblo, Peñasco, N.M. |
| Wayne Yazza, Jr. | Lieut. Gov., Picurís Pueblo, Peñasco, N.M. |
| Bill O’Neill | New Mexico State Senator, Albuquerque, N.M. |
| William Berra | artist and donor, Santa Fe, N.M. |
| Veronica Golos | poet and publisher, 3: A Taos Press, Taos, N.M. |
| Tom Leech | Director, The Palace Press, New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, N.M. |
| Preethi Ramaprasad | Bharatanatyam (Indian classical) dancer, New York City and Chennai, India |
| Pam Beason | Escribiente—The Albuquerque Calligraphy Society |
| Thelma Hahn | Escribiente—The Albuquerque Calligraphy Society |
| Beth House | Escribiente—The Albuquerque Calligraphy Society |
| Caryl McHarney | Escribiente—The Albuquerque Calligraphy Society |
| Cipriano Vigil | La Família Cipriano Vigil, El Rito, N.M. |
| Cipriano Pablo Vigil | La Família Cipriano Vigil, El Rito, N.M. |
| Felicita Vigil Piñón | La Família Cipriano Vigil, El Rito, N.M. |
| Jerry Wellman | Axle Contemporary, Santa Fe, N.M. |
| 14 students from the New Mexico School of the Arts | prepared haiga with former Albuquerque Poet Laureate Hakim Bellamy and artists Karina Hean and Jerry Wellman, and paraded their work at the Conference and through Santa Fe |
MAJOR GRANTORS AND DONORS
| The Haiku Foundation, Jim Kacian, Chairperson |
| The Haiku Society of America, Fay Aoyagi, President |
| The Heron’s Nest, John Stevenson, Managing Editor |
| Modern Haiku, Paul Miller, Editor |
| Buck and Patti Niehoff |
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, STAFF, AND VOLUNTEERS
Organizing Committee
Audio-Visual Support
| Alissa M. Trumbull |
| Ben Trumbull |
Volunteers
| Chandra Bales |
| Sue Burgess |
| Alanna Burke |
| Wanda D. Cook |
| Jackie Cornwall |
| Richard Feldman |
| Alice Jennings |
| Larry Jones |
| Alison Keogh |
| Hannah Mahoney |
| Basia Miller |
| Susan Nalder |
| Nancy O’Conner |
| Sharon Rhutasel-Jones |
| Sakina von Briesen |
HNA 2017 Photo Album
Photo by Garry Gay
Related Haikpedia Articles
Haiku North America 2015—Schenectady, New York. The previous conference.
Haiku North America 2019—Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The following conference.
Sources / Further Reading (Print)
- Adams, Elaine Parker. Haiku Bouillabaisse. Kingwood, Texas: MediaIsla, 2017.
- Bauerly, Donna. Raymond Roseliep: Man of Art Who Loves the Rose. Winchester, Va.: The Haiku Foundation Publications, 2015.
- Berger, Maxianne. Winnows: Haiku and senryū “plundered” from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick with a preface by the poet. Toronto: Nietzsche’s Brolly of Imago Press, N.d. [2017].
- Burke, Alanna C., and Basia Miller, eds. Open Spaces: Haiku from the Santa Fe Haiku Study Group and Guest Poets. Santa Fe, N.M.: Deep North Press, 2017. Published for the attendees of Haiku North America 2017.
- Carter, Terry Ann. Tokaido: Haibun. Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2017.
- Coman, Sonia. Passages: Haiku Through the Seasons. Tokyo: Hoshin Media Group, 2017. In English, Japanese, Italian, Romanian, and French.
- Bennett, Brad. A Drop of Pond. Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2016.
- Davidson, L. A. My Fifty Favorite Haiku. Edited by Laura Tanna. Photographs by Kirby. Miami: DLT Associates, Inc., 2017.
- Galasso, William Scott. Silver Salmon Runes (Haiku/Senryu 2010–2016). Laguna Woods, Calif.: Galwin Press, 2016.
- Goldberg, Natalie. Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku. Novato, Calif.: New World Library, 2021.
- Hall, Carolyn. Calculus of Daylilies.Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2017.
- Hryciuk, Marshall, and 19 others, “Crickets All Night Long” Haiku Canada Review 12:1 (February 2018), 35–38. Kasen renku composed at Haiku North America 2017.
- Hryciuk, Marshall, and 24 others, “The Ghost of Abiquiu.” Unpublished. Kasen renku composed at Haiku North America 2017.
- Kacian, Jim. after/image. Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2017.
- Kenney, Bill. The Earth Pushes Back: Haiku.Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2016.
- kjmunro and Jessica Simon, eds. Body of Evidence: A Collection of Killer ’Ku. N.p. [Carlton Place, Ont.]: Catkin Press, 2017.
- Kolodji, Deborah P. Highway of Sleeping Towns: Haiku and Senryu.Pasadena, Calif.: Shabda Press, 2016.
- Lanoue, David G. Write Like Issa: A Haiku How-to. New Orleans: Haiku Guy, 2017.
- Machmiller, Patricia J. Utopia: She Hurries On: Haiku. Amherst, Mass.: Swamp Press, 2017. Color prints by the author.
- Masaoka Shiki. A House by Itself: Selected Haiku. Translated by John Brandi and Noriko Kawasaki Martinez. Buffalo, N.Y.: White Pine Press, 2017.
- McCullough, Vicki, ed. Sisyphus: Haiku Work of Anna Vakar. Carleton Place, Ont.: Catkin Press, 2017.
- Naccarato, Angela, and Jacqueline Pearce, eds. The Jade Pond: Haiku Inspired by the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden: Vancouver Haiku Group Anthology. Vancouver, B.C.: Vancouver Haiku Group, 2018.
- Radmore, Claudia Coutu. The Business of Isness. Ottawa: Éditions des petits nuages, 2017.
- Ramesh, Kala. Beyond the Horizon Beyond: Haiku and Haibun. Pune, India: Vishwakarma Publications, 2017.
- Chiyo-ni. Flor del alba / Ijnaloxochitl: Antologia de haiku del Chiyo-ni. Translations by Cristina Rascón (Spanish) and Mardonio Carballo (Nahuatl). Mexico City: El Dragón Rojo, 2017.
- Root-Bernstein, Michele, and Francine Banwarth. The Haiku Life: What We Learned as Editors of Frogpond. Lincoln, Ill.: Modern Haiku Press, 2017.
- Rotella, Alexis. Between Waves: Haiku. Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2015.
- Sterba, Carmen. An Amazement of Deer: Our Cascade Mule Deer Neighbors in Haiku, Photos, and Solo Rengay. University Place, Wash.: Cascade Deer Press, 2017.
- Trumbull, Charles. “Trinity” [part 2 of 3]. Frogpond 35:3 (Autumn 2012), 51–53. Haiku sequence with headnote. Reprinted in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists online, April 17, 2014: http://thebulletin.org/trinity-haiku7052.
- Welch, Michael Dylan, and Tanya McDonald. Seven Suns Seven Moons. Seattle: NeoPoiesis Press, 2016.
- Wentworth, Don. With a Deepening Presence. No place: Six Gallery Press, 2016.
- Williams, Elizabeth Yahn. Haiku for an Artist / Haiku para una pintora. Spanish translations by Edith Jonsson-Devillers; art by Marion Wong. Oceanside, Calif.: Guidelights Productions, 2017.
- Wilson, Kath Abela. Driftwood Monster: Haiku for Troubled Times. Chicago: Locofo Chaps of Moria Books, 2017.
- Yarrow, Ruth. Lit from Within: Haiku and Paintings. Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2016.
- Yoko’s Dogs. Rhinoceros. Wolfville, N.S.: Gasperau Press Ltd., 2016.
- Young, Karina M. Eucalyptus Wind: Haiku. Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2017.
Sources / Further Reading (Online)
- Axle Contemporary website: https://www.axleart.com. A mobile artspace based in Santa Fe.
- HNA 2017 News Bulletin blog, Haiku North America website: http://www.haikunorthamerica.com/blog/archives/09-2017. 16 blog posts by Charles Trumbull, July 9–September 22, 2017.
- “William Berra Exhibition.” Nedra Matteucci Galleries website: https://www.matteucci.com/berra-exhibition.
- “Tanka Sunday 2017.” Tanka Society of America website: http://www.tankasocietyofamerica.org/tanka-sunday-2017.
- Tremblay, Jessica. Old Pond Comics website: https://www.oldpondcomics.com/faq.html.
Author: Charles Trumbull
Notes
- “Crickets All Night Long” was published in full in Haiku Canada Review 12:1 (February 2018), 35–38. [↩]