Kirsty Karkow - Three Questions

Kirsty Karkow has two best-selling books in print: water poems: haiku,tanka and sijo and also shorelines: haiku, haibun and tanka. Both are published by Black Cat Press. Her haiku have won the Mainichi and the R.H Blyth Award and have placed in other contests. She is the past VP of the Tanka Society of America and tanka editor for Simply Haiku.

She lives with her husband in a Danish cottage on the midcoast of Maine USA.

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1. Why do you write haiku?

Thank you for being interested.

This short, seemingly simple poem satisfies an innate need-- the attempt to capture a special moment in the world around me; an event that seems to have more meaning when written down and then shared. During a dry period, even though my surroundings are usually watery, there is a deep sense of loss. For me, the writing of haiku adds to a practice of momentary awareness. Each poem doesn't have to be a winner (and few are ) but the occasional gift arrives which adds to the delight.

I knew nothing of haiku, when, in 2000, a sudden obsession with the this little poem overtook me. It has been a amazing and wonderful trip aboard this haiku train. A trip made additionally valuable by the haiku poets that I have met, and grown to respect, via the Internet. All have been very generous with their time, knowledge and experience. . . and still are. I like to think I'm able to extend this favor to others from time to time.

2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I read all kinds of classic poetry as a youngster, a habit that slipped as life got more complex. It was not until the turn of the last century that interest was re-kindled, mostly with Asian poetry. Haiku, tanka and sijo. Also the ecstatic Sufi poets. Sadly, a lot of contemporary free verse doesn't seem to resonate though I love reading what to me are the more straight-forward works of Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Czeslaw Milosz et al.

3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written what do you consider to be your top three? ( Please provide original publication credits)

I have a terrible time judging my own haiku and couldn't begin to choose. However, there have been many kind letters that have referred to favorites and three of these are shared here.

honeymoon
we wade into the current
of a great river

--The Heron's Nest May 2002
-- water poems: haiku, tanka and sijo Kirsty Karkow Black Cat Press 2005


gnarled oak
my path to the hills
starts in mist

--Modern Haiku 33:2
--A New Resonance 3 edited by Jim Kacian and Dee Everts Red Moon Press


wrist deep
in aromatic loam
new potatoes

--Modern Haiku 36.1
--Haiku Society of America Anthology 2007
--shorelines: haiku, haibun and tanka Kirsty Karkow Black Cat Press 2007


Thank you for the opportunity to gather my thoughts for your interesting column.

Kirsty

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Next week, Jane Reichhold.

Paul David Mena - Three Questions

Paul David Mena is very active in the haiku community. Paul is the webmaster of The Heron's Nest and a member of the Metro West Renku Association. He maintains and writes poetry at his free verse web site and blog and his haiku web site and blog. Paul and his wife, Mary Melodee Mena, frequently collaborate and together have produced a number of striking haiga.

Paul shares his response to Haiku - Three Questions with us this week.

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1. Why do you write haiku?

I actually wrote an article for GotPoetry.com called "Why do I haiku?" In it I say "The concise nature of haiku, which should never be longer than the length of a breath, constrains the writer to get to the point." I've been pressed for time for as long as I can remember; haiku enables me to paint a complete picture on the tiniest canvas, with no waste and no mess.

2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I still write what I jokingly call "grown-up poetry", but I have a tendency to lose patience with myself. Unless I am working with a very strong image or experience I often lose focus and meander to an unexpected destination. I wrote the chapbook "trainsongs" when I first began commuting in Boston, and I'm still happy with much of the longer poetry I wrote during that period.

3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)

These three haiku were published in "Brussels Sprout" in the early to mid-90's:

three jazz pianists
improvising
for ghosts

staring
at a blank sheet of paper —
a night without words

military jet
carves a white scar
in the sky

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Next week, Kirsty Karkow.

Peggy Lyles - Three Questions

During the warm months, I enjoy sitting in an old rocking chair on my front porch with a magazine or book of poetry. One book that has made several trips with me to my reading spot is a wonderful collection of haiku entitled To Hear the Rain: Selected Haiku of Peggy Lyles.

Peggy Willis Lyles, haiku poet, Magnapoet, and co-editor of The Heron's Nest responds to Haiku - Three Questions.

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1. Why do you write haiku?

Vince Tripi asked me that question many years ago, and after considerable thought I answered, "To participate." That may be as close as I can come to the nearly impossible answer. I could add, "Because I want to and need to." Writing haiku is a way of partaking and sharing, of contributing to and becoming one with humanity, the earth, the universe. Searching, being, expressing, and discovering merge in this life-enriching habit that sharpens observation, intuition, and experience.

2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

A great many! I came to haiku from a love of British and American poetry, studied in some depth, and world poetry sampled in translation. Although haiku has become my "specialty," I continue to read and enjoy a broad variety of classic and contemporary poems.

3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)

I hope the best ones are still ahead of me. I know that other people remember and value these:


summer stillness
the play of light and shadow
on the wind chimes


first published in Modern Haiku XI, 1980

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shimmering pines
a taste of the mountain
from your cupped hands


first published in Mayfly
#31, 2001


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and


in spite of everything forsythia


first published in The Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar 2008

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Next week, Paul David Mena.

Jeffrey Woodward - Three Questions

Haibun Today editor, Jeffrey Woodward, drops by Tobacco Road this week to share his response to Haiku - Three Questions.

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1. Why do you write haiku?

I suffer from graphomania and am advised that there is no cure. Which is also why I write the haibun wherein many of my haiku are housed.

2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

All other poetic forms, verse or prose. I find, in every instance, that my pleasure in reading is increased by perceptible form and meaning. I try to practice moderation but am powerless before this vice.

3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three?


only after my shadow
into the deep summer
of a grove's recess

Nisqually Delta Review, May 2007


for the marionette
deprived of its falsetto,
a dream of dancing

Lynx, June 2007


single-mindedly
rubbing a whetstone away —
cicadas at dusk

Contemporary Haibun Online, September 2007

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Next week, Peggy Willis Lyles.

Roberta Beary's The Unworn Necklace honored by Poetry Society of America

Haiku blogs are ablaze today with news of our very own Roberta Beary's book entitled The Unworn Necklace being a finalist (one of two) for the William Carlos Williams Award given by the Poetry Society of America. You may recall that Roberta was our featured Haiku - Three Questions poet on March 9, 2008.

Dave Russo of the North Carolina Haiku Society has a detailed blog post here, as does Bill Higginson on his Wordfield's Haikai Pub, and David Giacalone on his f/k/a blog.

Congratulations, Roberta! What a tremendous victory for you and haiku!

Kudos also to John Barlow, Editor of Snapshot Press, for publishing this spectacular book of poems. The haiku community eagerly awaits your next publication.

Tom Clausen - Three Questions

Tom Clausen lives in Ithaca, NY with his wife, Berta Gutierrez, and their son, Casey and daughter, Emma, in the same house Tom grew up in. Tom works in a library at Cornell University where he used to post haiku in an elevator for patrons. This has evolved to become a link at the Mann Library home page featuring a daily haiku. He became enchanted with haiku and other short poetic forms in the late 1980s after reading an article about Ruth Yarrow, a fellow Ithacan at the time.

Tom has five chapbook collections of haiku and tanka: Autumn Wind in the Cracks, Unraked Leaves, Standing Here, (self published) A Work of Love (Tiny Poems Press) and Homework (Snapshot Press, UK).

Tom is also a member of the Upstate Dim Sum Route 9 Haiku Group.

Tom shares his answers to Haiku - Three Questions with us this week.

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1. Why do you write haiku?

I enjoy the challenge of trying to write something meaningful to myself and others in as few words possible. The human world is so bent on excess in terms of materials and expression and haiku has a refreshing antidote quality for all that is over the top too much! From reading haiku that have moved me and given me pause and solace I have fallen in love with the hope that serendipity might deliver me a few moments here and there that I can channel into something worthy to share. I like the brevity and always now concision of haiku. It is especially gratifying that haiku express appreciation for the qualities in our world that often are taken for granted or are so subtle that they often get missed. Just like my comments here may be overly wordy I love haiku for the simple reason that there must be discipline and avoidance of being overly wordy!

2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I very much enjoy senryu, tanka, haibun and most any forms of poetry. I tend to be partial to free forms and anything that speaks to the universal in the utterly personal. When I read a poem that awakens in me an inner sense of truth or awareness or awakens me to something special I feel fortunate and renewed in my interest and gratitude for poetry.

3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)

Not sure I have a top three but for the sake of this question and being what I am most often not: decisive! I'll pick three. . .

sidewalk sale —

wind twists a lifetime

guarantee tag

- Woodnotes

in the dark —

through the window light

my wife and child

- Modern Haiku

on the way home

more geese
on the way home. . .

- Frogpond

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How would you respond to the questions that Tom answered? Think it over; if you would like to participate in Haiku - Three Questions, send your answers to me and I'll post them in the coming weeks.

Next week, Jeffrey Woodward.

Ellen Compton - Three Questions

Ellen Compton is a freelance writer with a background in painting and theatre arts. She lives and works in Washington, DC, and is often drawn to the shores of nearby Chesapeake Bay.

Ellen shares her response to Haiku - Three Questions with us this week.

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Hello Curtis:

1. Why do you write haiku?

Just some of the reasons I write haiku:

The study of haiku sharpens my awareness. In writing haiku I can touch what my memory holds and my senses and imagination perceive. Small is beautiful--one red maple leaf, or a couple of pebbles, a good haiku. And haiku is a pure poetry. Writing it teaches me more about poetry than I could ever learn in the classroom.

2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Other poetic forms?

Well, I love and write tanka and have been experimenting with the possibilities of haibun. Rengay are always fun, and especially so when the poets are meeting in person. In the past I have written poems in other genre, and occasionally do so now. I read, learn from and greatly enjoy the work of non-haiku poets--Mary Oliver, Emily Dickinson, Hopkins, Blake, Billy Collins, Pablo Neruda, Ted Kooser, to name only a few of the many. And I somehow consider Thoreau among the poets.

3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)

My top three? I'm probably not the best judge, but here are some I wouldn't mind being remembered for:


kaleidoscope
The little sound of a star
shattering

"kaleidoscope" first appeared in Modern Haiku,23:1, winter-spring 1992. Later Cor ven del Heuvel included it in the 1999 edition of The Haiku Anthology (New York: W. W. Norton).

motor stilled . . .
                   the headland echoes
            the loon

"motor stilled . . ." first appeared in South by Southeast, 5:1, 1998, and was selected for Snow on the Water, Red Moon Anthology 1998 (Red Moon Press, 1999).

sifting pebbles
my fingers pause to read
the broken one

"sifting pebbles" received Honorable Mention in the San Francisco International Competition, Haiku Poets of Northern California, and was published in Woodnotes, No. 27, Winter 1995.

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If you're enjoying this weekly feature, please consider sending your response to the questions that Ellen answered.

Next week, Tom Clausen.