Standing Still

Michael Dylan Welch and Ruth Yarrow, editors. Dejah Léger, illustrations.

Press Here, Sammamish, Washington, 2011, 36 pages, 74 poets (one poem each), ISBN 978-1-878798-32-9.

The 2011 Haiku North America conference took place August 3 to 7 at Seattle Center, in Seattle, Washington. In this book’s introduction, I wrote that “The 2011 conference theme of ‘Fifty Years of Haiku’ reminds us that it has been five solid decades that English-language haiku has flourished in North America, with the first haiku journal having started in 1963.This theme also connects us to the location of the 2011 conference at Seattle Center, at the foot of Space Needle, which opened for the World’s Fair in 1962.With fifty years of creativity and increasing numbers of poets and poems to celebrate, the Haiku North America conference demonstrates that haiku poets do not stand still in their development and appreciation for this rewarding genre of poetry.” You can also read the entire introduction. See the Press Here page for this book. Here are thirty-five sample poems from the anthology, with selected illustrations by Dejah Léger. Read Melissa Allen’s report of the 2011 Haiku North America conference.

 

 

ebb tide . . .

the blue heron

wrapped in stillness

 

                Angela Terry

                Lake Forest Park, Washington

 

 shipped oars

we drift with the jellyfish

through her ashes

 

                Billie Dee

                San Diego, California

 

 

barefoot summer . . .

a drop of honeysuckle

on my tongue

 

                Cara Holman

                Portland, Oregon

 

 

grass shoots

              deer’s breath

              just above them

 

                Ce Rosenow

                Eugene, Oregon

 

 

scribbling pens

to find one that works

winter trees

 

                Cherie Hunter Day

                Cupertino, California

 

 

the electric fan

turns from the boxscores to

the fashion page and back

 

                Cor van den Heuvel

                New York, New York

 

 

quiet woods—

he turns to kiss me

through a snowflake

 

                Dejah Léger

                Shoreline, Washington

   

sweet grass and cedar: woven

when the settlers came

her gather basket

 

                Dianne Garcia

                Seattle, Washington

 

 

spring waterfall . . .

the morning sun splashes

from my hands

 

                Don Baird

                Palmdale, California

 

 

Brisk west wind,

yet the meadow grass sways

both ways

 

                Don Wentworth

                Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

 

 

流木の軽さ白さや南風吹く

ryūboku no karosa shirosa ya minami fuku

 

the lightness

of the driftwood—

evening southerly

 

                Emiko Miyashita

                Kawasaki, Japan

 

 

deep ruts

under the children’s swing:

end of summer

 

                Ernesto V. Epistola

                Sarasota, Florida

 

 

Spring galaxy—

the windup robot

takes one more step

 

                Garry Gay

                Windsor, California

 

 

Grandma’s face

in the window above the sink

       distant stars

 

                Gene Myers

                Rockaway, New Jersey

 

rowing

the stars overhead

the stars below

 

                Jay Friedenberg

                New York, New York

 

 

twilight—

the crows outlast

the gardener

 

                Jay Gelzer

                Seattle, Washington

 

 

first fireworks

she turns her face

to mine

 

                Joshua Beach

                Sammamish, Washington

 

 

scattered dominos

new constellations

to disagree about

 

                Katharine Grubb Hawkinson

                Seattle, Washington

 

 

rope swing

across the river,

across the years

 

                Kathleen Tice

                Kent, Washington

 

 

full moon

the fox re-sorts

the recycling

 

                kjmunro

                Whitehorse, Yukon

 

 

a light snowfall—

grandpa waves his hand

on the platform

 

                Makoto Nakanishi

                Matsuyama, Japan

   

city passersby

stare at haiku poets

standing still

 

                Marilyn Hazelton

                Allentown, Pennsylvania

 

 

midsummer’s day

this heavy

sweet-bee heat

 

                Marjorie Buettner

                Chisago City, Minnesota

 

 

a show of hands

in the jury room . . .

winter light

 

                Michael Dylan Welch

                Sammamish, Washington

 

 

癌検査難なし帰路に買う日記

gan kensa nan nashi kiro ni kau nikki

 

trouble-free cancer exam

on the way home

I acquire a diary

 

                Minako Noma

                Matsuyama, Japan

 

 

drinking radiation no risk of on the news in Japan drinking rain

 

                Richard Gilbert

                Kumamoto, Japan

 

 

no trespassing . . .

prickly pear blooming on both sides

of barbed wire

 

                Richard Tice

                Kent, Washington

 

 

sketching wild orchids—

slowly I sense

their sweet smell

 

                Ruth Yarrow

                Seattle, Washington

 

Mother’s Day—

flowers without thorns

in the psych ward

 

                Susan Antolin

                Walnut Creek, California

 

 

I tell him

he does too much—

overflowing flower basket

 

                Tanya McDonald

                Woodinville, Washington

 

 

wood grain of the door

suddenly a forest grove

inside my room

 

                Terran Campbell

                Seattle, Washington

 

 

a Chopin étude

on late-night radio

pale lilies in a vase

 

                Terry Ann Carter

                Ottawa, Ontario

 

 

floating mist

the odd sound of

my new address

 

                Tracy Koretsky

                Bellevue, Washington

 

 

deepening sunset

on the sideboard

last year’s canned peaches

 

                Wanda D. Cook

                Hadley, Massachusetts

   

numbers on his arm . . .

a grandchild asks

how he got them

 

                William Scott Galasso

                Edmonds, Washington