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The Commencement Bay Haiku group, based in Tacoma, Washington, was founded in 2011 by Carmen Sterba, Judt Shrode, and Jim Westenhaver. In 2022, to celebrate their tenth anniversary, the group published This Morning’s Tides, edited by Dianne Garcia, Emily Kane, and Richard Tice. I introduced the three founders to each other, helped to encourage the group’s formation, and attended many of their early meetings. Consequently, I was asked to contribute to the anthology, and I’m generously represented by the following pieces—three rengay, two sequences, a haibun, and a tan-renga, plus a bio. I include them here, or links to them elsewhere.
Six-person rengay with Jim Westenhaver, Megan Shea, Judt Shrode, Burk Ketcham, and Janice Sakai, about the bookstore where the group usually held its meetings before the pandemic.
Twelve-verse sequence on the Chinese zodiac, each zociac animal paired with a representative flower (nominated for a Pushcart Prize).
“35 Courtlands Drive, Watford”
Haibun about a house where our family lived in Watford, England when I was a pre-teen.
Seven-verse sequence about flowers traditionally associated with autumn in Japan.
garden walk
each rock
in its right place
Carmen Sterba
a shiny penny
in the snow-viewing lantern
Michael Dylan Welch
Two-person rengay focused on musical instruments, written with Carmen Sterba.
Three-person rengay written with Richard Tice and Kathleen Tice focused on various types of blossoms.
Michael likes to be surprised by empathy and gratitude in haiku. He has been active with haiku for more than 40 years and joined the Haiku Society of America in 1987. He founded his press, Press Here, in 1989, edited Woodnotes from 1989 to 1997 and Tundra from 1998 to 2001, and is currently coediting First Frost. Michael cofounded the Haiku North America conference in 1991 and the American Haiku Archives in 1996, and founded the Seabeck Haiku Getaway in 2008 and National Haiku Writing Month (www.nahaiwrimo.com) in 2010. Michael has won first place in the Henderson, Brady, Drevniok, and Tokutomi haiku contests, among others, and his poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of publications, translated into more than twenty languages. His website, devoted mostly to haiku, is www.graceguts.com.
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