Loke Hilikimani (pen name of Rose Hirshman, born Rose Maleson, August 23, 1906, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.; died April 17, 1984, Lexington, Massachusetts), schoolteacher, poet, and haiku poet. She published her work sparingly in American and Canadian journals, notably Modern Haiku and Wind Chimes.
Rose Maleson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1906, the daughter of Frank (or Efriam) Maleson and Johanna Graff, Latvian-born Yiddish-speaking Jews who had immigrated from Russia to the United States two years before Rose’s birth. Frank‘s occupation in the old country was given as pipe maker on his immigration papers, but by 1920 he was listed as the proprietor of a candy store in West New York, New Jersey.
Rose Maleson graduated from New York University. She married Leo Hirshman in New Jersey in 1932 and moved to Suffern, New York, at about the same time. Leo was an optometrist and semi-professional singer with barbershop quartets and choral groups. Rose worked for many years as a teacher at the Cypress Road Elementary School in Suffern. She was also active in social organizations.
She was a volunteer of R.S.V.P., a senior citizens group active at Rockland Community College and Empire State College. In 1981 she was honored with a personal achievement award from the Rockland Community Women’s Network and Rockland Community College.
Rose Hirshman pursued her avocation in poetry. She adopted the pen name Loke Hilikimani and published her longer poems in local magazines that included The National and Bergen Poets, as well as joining the Rockland Poets group.
Her interest in haiku developed in the mid-1970s, and she began submitting to the haiku journals in 1975. She actively published for only nine years, but found special success with the journals Modern Haiku and Wind Chimes. She was a member of the Haiku Society of America and published a few verses in the first two years of its membership journal, HSA Frogpond. She occasionally placed her work in other American journals including Janus & SCTH, High/Coo, and The Red Pagoda and the Canadian Cicada and Inkstone.
Her haiku were generally classical in subject matter—nature poems with a solid sense of seasonality—but not slavishly following the 5–7–5 syllabic pattern that was standard in the 1970s. Here follow a dozen of her haiku and senryu that represent the scope of her work:
| among chromatic trees one elm bare1 Cloudburst! on the hill shattered sunlight2 flash flood— the stream overflowing with sound3 Death Valley: a broken mesquite branch marks the shifting sand4 airboat skimming the Everglades … a whirr of heron wings5 winter darkness: from a cruse of oil endless light6 again no letter— gliding across the lake a family of ducks7 Summer stillness a black cloud pending8 walking home the road rushes on behind me9 Summer stillness a black cloud pending8 my Asian student— in her name the sound of temple bells10 Year of the Child: in the pile of toys a smooth stone11 |
In the last year of her life, Hilikimani published a heartfelt memorial to pioneering haikuist Raymond Roseliep, who had passed in April 1983. Like Hilikimani, Roseliep often wrote using a haigō, “Sobi-Shi.”
| In the spirit of … Sobi-Shi leaves leaving wordless poems both sides of the door: ENTRANCE Mu full of Sobi-Shi the stream echoing a stream Sobi-Shi ringing unrhymed bells blackout candle light Sobi-Shi leaves leaving seeds |
Rose Hirshman / Loke Hilikimani died in April 1984 at the home of her daughter, Florence Baturin, in Lexington, Massachusetts, and was buried in the Sons of Israel Cemetery in Suffern, New York. She was 77.
Robert Spiess published a haiku that he had selected for honorable mention in the Autumn 1984 issue of Modern Haiku, “In Memory of Loke Hilikimani (Rose Hirshman), August 23, 1906–April 17, 1984:”
| Sunset: day lily petals enfold the growing dusk |
Two years later, her good friend and haiku partner Leatrice Lifshitz founded the Rockland County Haiku Society and the Loke Hilikimani Haiku Contest in her memory.
Sources / Further Reading
Haiku in print periodicals
- Modern Haiku, 1975–1984. 22 haiku.
- Janus & SCTH, 1978. 2 haiku.
- HSA Frogpond, 1979–1980. 5 haiku.
- Cicada (Toronto), 1980. 4 haiku.
- High/Coo, 1980–1981. 2 haiku.
- Inkstone, 1982. 1 haiku.
- Wind Chimes, 1983–1984. 21 haiku.
- The Red Pagoda, 1984. 2 haiku.
In anthologies
- Rotella, Alexis, ed. The Rise and Fall of Sparrows: A Collection of North American Haiku. San Diego, Calif.: Los Hombres Press, 1990. 1 haiku.
Longer works
- Loke Hilikimani, “In the spirit of ….” Wind Chimes 12 (1984). 7-haiku sequence.
- Loke Hilikimani and Leatrice Lifshitz. “Excerpts from a renga,” Wind Chimes 8 (1983). 6 haikai by Hilikimani and 5 by Lifshitz.
Biographical information
- Jane Reichhold. “Biographies of Those Women Writing Haiku,” AHA! Website, 1986.
- “Rose Hirshman.” The Journal News (White Plains, New York), April 19, 1984. Obituary.
Compiled by the Haikupedia Editors
Notes
- Modern Haiku 6:3 (1975). [↩]
- Modern Haiku 7:2 (May 1976). [↩]
- Modern Haiku 9:2 (Summer 1978). [↩]
- Modern Haiku 10:2 (Summer 1979). [↩]
- HSA Frogpond 3:1 (February 1980). [↩]
- Cicada 3:4 (1980). [↩]
- Inkstone 1:1 (Summer 1982). [↩]
- Wind Chimes 10 (1983). [↩] [↩]
- Wind Chimes 7 (Winter 1983). [↩]
- Modern Haiku 14:3 (Autumn 1983). [↩]
- Wind Chimes 12 (1984). [↩]