Saturday, July 1, 2017

Special Feature: Wordless: Haiku Canada 40 Years of Haiku

My Dear Readers:

In celebration of Canada's 150th birthday, I am pleased to introduce you to Wordless: Haiku Canada 40 Years of Haiku edited by Marco Fraticelli and Claudia Coutu Radmore (Ekstasis Editions, 2017). This unique anthology, dedicated to the memory of Eric Amann (see my "Dark Wings of Night" post, Eric Amann and His Wordless Poem), marks the 40-year existence of Haiku Canada. It's "more than the usual collection of three-line poems. It’s a story of the paths poets have taken to write their best haiku, a contemporary history of Haiku Canada members who write in English and French."

Selected Haiku

the names of the dead
sinking deeper and deeper
into red leaves

Eric Amann

into the afterlife red leaves

Peggy Willis Lyles

starlight
red leaves fall
into a poem

Chen-ou Liu

newborn
one pink blossom
unfurls

Susan Constable

the x-ray
shows less of me
winter light

Louisa Howerow

waterfall
without the rush
of words

Deb Koen

first thaw ...
the magnolia
drips winter

Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy

echo of the evening bell
into the silence
into myself

Heather MacDonald

spring fever --
the turtle's neck
at  full stretch

Carole MacRury

winter winds
behind my back
the stars

Marianne Paul

rocky ledge
a wolf with the moon
in its mouth

Debbie Strange

passport check:
my shadow waits
across the border

George Swede

starlight
in the pond
frogs' eyes

Rhonda Lee Usipiuk

loons scattering ...
a float plane touches down
into summer

Michael Dylan Welch

autumn colors --
the wooden scent
of pencil sharpenings

Pamela Cooper

donor form
while the body is still warm
lilac breeze

Ignatius Fay

caterpillar
turning a leaf
into itself

Ann Goldring


To wrap-up today's posting, I would like to share with you my haibun about Canada Day:

My First Canada Day

Sitting in my ESL teacher's living room with its wall-to-wall Persian rugs, I am enveloped by family stories and jokes. Although half the time I can only guess what's going on, I put a smile on my face and keep saying Yes, No, and I see in the right places. All of a sudden, a shriek breaks our laughter. My teacher's sons rush to the door. Slowly, we file out of the house toward the manicured front yard.

rainbow flowers
blooming in the night sky
my immigrant dream

Haiku Canada Review, 9:2, October 2015

Alienation

At daybreak, I wake up from a recurring dream: I ride the Mongolian horse through snowy fields deeper into the unknown world of one color.

a bowl of congee
next to a cup of coffee...
exile and after

Can I find out now what A thought of me? Why did L stand before I, blocking the sky on Canada Day? And what did E want to be added to? At last…will my being mean anything for N or for the rest of the word?

Diogen, September 2012

Note: ESL stands for English as a Second Language

1 comment:

  1. Such a poignant tribute page to Canadian haijin!

    Jan Benson

    ReplyDelete