1 June 2022
It’s been a busy month of May in 2022. Here are some recent updates to Graceguts:
A major addition to the Essays page is “Haiku and the Art of Forest Bathing,” first published in Modern Haiku in 2020. Its new postscript also includes additional forest-bathing haiku and comments, a writing exercise, and selected links. See also the related haibun, “Rebirth,” originally published as an envoy to the essay.
On “How Graceguts Got Started,” also on the Essays page, look for a new postscript about site visitors from 220 countries and territories that have visited Graceguts as of 19 May 2022. On “Haiku as History,” look for a new postscript about David Mamet, and on “The Heft of Haiku,” there's a new postscript quoting Cody Poulton.
On the Reviews page, another major new addition is my review of the book Haiku 21. I’ve been meaning to add this for ten years (reviewed in 2012), and this addition also includes my extensive “Notes on Gendai Haiku” added to the Essays page.
On the Reports page, look for my new selections and commentary as judge of the 2022 Drevniok Awards sponsored by Haiku Canada. I’ve also added selections and commentary for the Nature Company “Haiku for the Earth” haiku contests I judged in 1994 and 1995.
The Further Reading page now includes a 2011 essay by Hans Jongman, “The Honkadori Revisited: Have I Read this Before? Déjà vu in Haiku,” with a new postscript of mine at the end, featuring correspondence about the essay from 2011.
On the Digressions page, a new entry is “Bumbershoot,” summarizing my coordination of haiku activities for the 2005 festival’s literary stage at Seattle Center. And under “Haiku Invitational,” look for a new video of Christopher Gaze reading recent haiku winners. I’ve also updated numerous links on this page.
The Videos page now includes my 2021 “Even in Kyoto” Zoom presentation for the Japan Writers Club, plus a few other links and updated links.
The Poems About Haiku page now includes two new untitled “meta-ku” by Ayo Edebiri and Zach Woods.
On the Poems by Others page, look for “How I Go to the Woods” by Mary Oliver and “The Use of Trees” by Naomi Beth Wakan.
On the Haiku and Senryu page, I’ve updated “Haiku Forum Haiku” to include five new poems with Japanese translations by Toru Kiuchi.
A new addition to the Poems page is “Countin’ Up the Hits,” a sadly unfinished poem about mass shootings in the United States.
On a brighter note, a new tanka trifold, “Seaweed in the Sand,” now appears on the Trifolds page (you can have a look on the Trifold Downloads page).
As always, thank you for reading!