1 October 2023
September has been another quiet month for Graceguts additions (even quieter than August). Here are my recent shenanigans:
Just added to the Links page is a listing for Western Washington Poets Network, a new organization that I helped to start in August of 2023. In September I created an extensive new website for the organization and will continue to serve as its web manager. The site’s purpose is to list regular poetry readings in Western Washington, with venues arranged by city and by days of the month. I also started a Facebook page to support this service.
The Reports page now includes the 2023 Moon Viewing Haiku Contest results, which I cojudged with David Berger and Terran Campbell at the Seattle Japanese Garden. I’ve also linked to this report from the Moon Viewing listing on the Digressions page.
New on the Appearances page is a link to Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine, for which I’m serving as 2024 guest haiku editor. Submissions are welcome throughout October of 2023, and I’ll be selecting poems that will be featured every two weeks throughout 2024. See the submission guidelines (select the Haiku option). I’ve made a few other additions to the Appearances page too.
New to the Poems About Haiku page is “japanese lesson” by Robert Lax.
And new to the Poems by Others page is “This Is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams.
Freshly added to the page for “My Poems in The Heron’s Nest,” available through Haiku and Senryu, is the following, from the September 2023 issue:
longing . . .
the present tense
of fireworks
On the Memorial Haiku page, also available through Haiku and Senryu, you’ll find the following poem for beekeeper and haiku poet Bob Redmond, who died of cancer at age 57:
September’s first chill—
the bees seem to know
their keeper is gone
New on my Rengay website are the following collaborations, recently published in Blithe Spirit (first two) and Raining Rengay (last three):
“Against the Glass” (with Margaret Rutley and Sidney Bending)
“Garden of Earthly Delights” (with Marci Ameluxen and Elijah Mu’ied)
“Between” (with Shelley Baker-Gard and Jacob Salzer)
“Now” (with Gary Hotham)
“Silver Lining” (with Gillena Cox and Radhika De Silva)
Every month I also update listings for the monthly readings I curate and MC at SoulFood Poetry Night, now in its 18th year, and I post recent event photos on the Facebook page.
I’m also busy with preparations for Haiku Northwest’s 16th annual Seabeck Haiku Getaway, which I’ve been directing all these years. This year’s retreat runs from October 26 to 29, 2023, and will feature Jeff Hoagland as our special guest, along with David Lasky talking about haiku comics and Lucien Zell visiting from Prague. See the registration and schedule pages. And if you can’t come this year, let’s hope for next year!
As before, thank you for exploring Graceguts!