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 forty 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
