Sitting in the Sun

Michael Dylan Welch and Crystal Simone Smith, editors. Kate MacQueen, artwork.

Press Here, Sammamish, Washington, 2019, 64 pages, 94 poets (one poem each), ISBN 978-1-878798-40-4.

Sitting in the Sun collects haiku and senryu by 94 attendees of the 2019 Haiku North America conference, held 7–11 August 2019 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Edited by Michael Dylan Welch and Crystal Simone Smith, with North Carolina–themed artwork by Kate MacQueen, this anthology showcases many of North America’s leading poets, plus an upcoming generation. As the introduction says (adapted here), “Sitting in the Sun celebrates the fifteenth biennial Haiku North America conference. These conferences provide an array of academic research and inspired readings and presentations, but they’re also a kind of ‘sitting on the porch a spell,’ a gathering of friends to enjoy the day, to talk about a favorite poetic subject, and to ponder—or avoid—the ups and downs that life has to offer. In the very first Haiku North America anthology in 1991, the collection’s poems were arranged by each poet’s first name, and we’ve been doing that ever since. It’s a sort of front-porch familiarity that we continue to value—and seek to promote. So please sit a spell with these poems and poets.” See the Press Here page for this book. You can also read the entire introduction, see the contributor list, and order the book on Amazon. Here are 40 sample poems from the anthology.



late spring

the emptiness inside

a cracked blue egg


Agnes Eva Savich

Austin, Texas



tending gumbo the blend of our voices


Bill Cooper

Naples, Florida



New Year’s Day

a toddler’s shovelful

of snow


Brad Bennett

Arlington, Massachusetts



yellowjacket

in the bottle’s throat

summers end


Brent Goodman

Rhinelander, Wisconsin



slow-falling snow

the steady hand

of the beggar


Bryan Rickert

Belleville, Illinois



Sandia mountain

there’s no word in Tiwa

for “whale”


Charles Trumbull

Santa Fe, New Mexico



making tamales

the flow

of family stories


Claire Vogel Camargo

Austin, Texas



bedtime

wind and streetlight

play tag in our tree


Craig Kittner

Wilmington, North Carolina



progressive church

in the collection plate

a lottery ticket


Crystal Simone Smith

Durham, North Carolina



church bells

at dusk—I swing

at the last pitch


Dave Russo

Cary, North Carolina



the White House

whiter than ever

November chill


David G. Lanoue

New Orleans, Louisiana



winding up

the pitcher launches

summer thunder


Erin Castaldi

Mays Landing, New Jersey



The dog’s gray muzzle

rests in my hands

still holding the ball


Garry Gay

Windsor, California



early daffodils

deep in an unkempt forest—

her curls upon curls


Gideon Young

Chapel Hill, North Carolina


full

moon

tango

on

water


Jen Murdock

Charlotte, North Carolina



safe house

in the back yard

a sleeping doe


Jennifer Hambrick

Worthington, Ohio



snow-dome

quietly

steadily

I too settle


Jill Lange

Cleveland Heights, Ohio



taut tent

the tympani

of rain


Jim Kacian

Winchester, Virginia



Superbowl party

I make new friends

with the dog


Joshua Gage

Cleveland, Ohio



one fortune cookie

for the two of us to share

crescent moon


Julie Warther

Dover, Ohio



a hawk takes off

after a while

I touch down


Kala Ramesh

Pune, India



Durban bus stop

I stoop to fill my hands

with frangipani


Kate MacQueen

Chapel Hill, North Carolina



first snow

a teacher joins her class

at the window


Kathe L. Palka

Flemington, New Jersey



night breeze

I listen to jazz

in my car


Lenard D. Moore

Raleigh, North Carolina



molting swallow

she tells me

about her rapist


Lori A. Minor

Madison Heights, Michigan



ants crawl

across our unfolded map—

highway rest stop


L. Teresa Church

Durham, North Carolina



the weight

of a paper crane

first snow


Makoto Nakanishi

Matsuyama, Japan



dark night

playing the harp by touch

power outage


Marcyn Del Clements

Claremont, California



end of the year—

the swing’s muddy underside

reflected in a puddle +


Michael Dylan Welch

Sammamish, Washington



deep autumn

her left side sagging I visit

the right side


Patricia J. Machmiller

San Jose, California



shop owner

dishes out gelato

and gossip


Robert Moyer

Winston-Salem, North Carolina



fading photo

a moment of our youth

sitting in the sun


Robin Palley

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania



over the wall

without papers

migrating geese


Sarah E. Metzler

Marion Center, Pennsylvania



a new lift to the door—

Grandma,

cherry blossoms are waiting!


Shinko Fushimi

Mito, Japan



home

from the mammogram

fresh squeezed orange juice


Shirley Brooks

Taylorville, Illinois



new diagnosis

learning to live with

the way she says it


Susan Antolin

Walnut Creek, California



rainy day—

I can’t see the bright side

of anything


Susan Burch

Hagerstown, Maryland



cloud shapes . . .

my sister and her wife

discuss baby names


Tanya McDonald

Woodinville, Washington



wishing

she wasn’t cremated

Mother’s Day


Tia Haynes

Lakewood, Ohio



family graves

all tombstones except grandpa’s

lean to the right


Valerie Fern

Carmel Valley, California