Graceguts News

1 April 2025

March of 2025 has been a quieter month regarding Graceguts additions, but here’s what I’ve been up to:

• A major new addition to the Essays page is “Fuyoh Observations: Seven Lessons on the Nature and Scale of Haiku in Japan.” This detailed essay explores how Japanese and American haiku groups and journals differ (not just in their scale), and presents lessons Westerners can learn from these differences. I presented this essay at the first Seabeck Haiku Getaway in 2008, at the Haiku North America conference in Ottawa in 2009, and for the American Literature Association conference in San Francisco in 2010, but never published it before now. I’ve also added a supporting page, “Selected Poems from Fuyoh / Rose Mallow.”

• New to the Haibun page are “Step Quota,” published in Rattle #87 (link to audio recording coming in June), and “Pirouette,” published in Drifting Sands Haibun #31.

• I’ve been revisiting old newsletters from the Tanka Society of America from about 25 years ago and decided to post three of my earliest “President’s Messages” on the Reports page. Check out the Autumn 2000, Winter 2000, and Spring 2001 messages. I also include photos of all three issues.

• A colourful new addition to the Digressions page is “Helluva Haiku Comics.” I first created these comics in December of 2016, and posted them to the NaHaiWriMo page on Facebook in February of 2017, and again in February of 2025. And now they’re on Graceguts.

• On the Commentary page, look for a link to Emma Baldwin’s analysis of my “meteor shower” poem, from the PoemAnalysis website.

• Three spiffy new postscripts include the following:

  • • On the “Metaphor in Haiku” essay, a new postscript explores metaphor as an expression of subjectivity.

    • On the “Heft of Haiku” essay, look for a postscript that discusses limericks.

    • And on “The Haiku Gatekeeper: An Interview with Robert Spiess,” look for “A Personal Postscript,” including a couple of photos.

• On the Poems About Haiku page, check out “Forms of Attention” by Campbell McGrath.

• And for fun on the Poems page, look for my own little cautionary ditty, “Song to Be Sung at the Start of Poetry Readings.”

I hope to have a major new musical addition to Graceguts in April, so stay tuned!