Alice Frampton - Three Questions

Alice Frampton, a licensed pre-school teacher, stumbled upon haiku in January of 2000 while reading The Poet's Market. Luckily, she discovered Frogpond and a very helpful editor, Jim Kacian. Since then, she has been coordinator for the pacifi-kana region of Haiku Canada, taught haiku to elementary and high school poetry classes, helped found the Seabeck Haiku Retreat, had her haiku and related works published in many excellent journals and books, been embraced by numerous other fine haijin, and is now an associate editor for The Heron's Nest. In 2007, after thirty-four years living in Canada, she moved back to her hometown in Washington State to be with her aging mother. She is the author of one book: a gate left open (2009) published by Red Moon Press.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I write haiku to create. After trying many different forms of poetry, I found haiku is the way I want to express what I am feeling right here, right now. Mostly I write for people, to convey what I would like to show them at any given moment. Does this mean that I write solely from an instant? No, it means that something jogs a moment and I want to share it with a friend and maybe, if it goes out into the world, with other poets. Since my youth, I have always written down snippets of ideas that touch me. Haiku fits this nicely.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I love writing for children: poetry, songs, word play, even stories. I enjoy using nursery rhymes and songs and creating more verses for them. And I’m fond of using these as fun teaching tools, the sillier the better. I’m pretty good at limericks, too.

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

These are my favorites:

so much to do

my son points out

the lightning

Haiku Canada Newsletter Vol. XIV February 2001

all the answers

in the back of the book –

summer solstice

The Heron’s Nest Vol. X September 2008

snow-covered hives

miles to go

for groceries

Frogpond Vol. XXVIII No. 2 Summer 2005

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If you've been enjoying this weekly series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response (whether it be for haiku or tanka) to the three little questions that Alice answered. You must be a published poet to participate.