1 October 2024
On the weekend of October 3 to 5, 2024, I was the Robert Sund Memorial Poet at the Skagit River Poetry Festival in La Conner, Washington. Among numerous other readings I gave, and a panel discussion, I shared a talk about my connection to Sund, especially his short poems and his translations of haiku, which I hope to publish as an essay later. Sund was a deeply loved poet of the Pacific Northwest who died in 2001, and it was a great honour to be selected by the Robert Sund Poet’s House Trust as this year’s memorial poet. Before the festival, in September, and in honour of Sund, I added eight Sund poems to Graceguts. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, and will investigate his stellar volume of collected poems, Poems from Ish River Country.
On the Poems About Haiku page, please find Robert Sund’s “Considering Poverty and Homelessness” (a homage to Bashō), “Homage to Ryōkan,” “In a Landscape,” and the following untitled poem:
Buson, I’m leaving them in the moonlight—
your pear blossoms
and the woman reading a letter.
On the Poems by Others page, look for “Ink Bottle Poems” (my title), which consists of Robert Sund’s “In Praise of My Ink Bottle,” “Ink Bottle,” “The Table I Keep,” and “Afternoon Light.”
On my Memorial Haiku page, available through Haiku and Senryu, I’ve added a new poem written for Robert Sund:
Ish River Country—
the brightest flower
closest to the ground
Here are other additions to Graceguts, made in September 2024:
On the Poems About Haiku page, look for “Yokohama” and “Basic Maneuvers” by Clemens Starck (another widely loved Pacific Northwest poet).
A significant new addition to the Interviews page is “Questions for Editors and Poets,” conducted by Susan Antolin.
On the Speeches page, look for “Rainier Haiku Ginsha Celebrates Its 90th Anniversary,” which I delivered to the group in Seattle on 12 September 2024 (a few photos included too).
The Reports page now offers results from the Seattle Japanese Garden’s 2007 Moon Viewing Haiku Contest, which I recently found on my computer. I’ll be adding the 2024 results soon too.
On Haiku and Senryu, check out “Five Food Haiku,” complete with an image of the postcard on which these poems appeared. I read these poems as part of the Downtown Redmond Art Walk (DRAW) on 19 September 2024, and hundreds of copies of the postcard were distributed at Spark Pizza in Redmond after this date. My postcard was one of 29 distributed by Redmond food establishments as part of a Redmond poet laureate community program.
A new addition to “My Poems in The Heron’s Nest,” available through Haiku and Senryu, is the following haiku published in September of 2024:
as I touch the pine bark
it touches me back . . .
end of summer
The Commentary page includes two new spotlights on my poems on the Triveni Haiku India website, posted on 5 August 2022 and 5 September 2024.
I’ve added several new listings to my Venues, Clients, and Partners page (available through Workshops), including the Postmark Center for the Arts in Auburn, Washington, the La Conner Swinomish Library, and the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, Washington. I’ve also updated my Appearances page, including the addition of past events that I forgot to list earlier.
New to the Digressions page is “Sarah’s High School Graduation Speech,” featuring a video of her speech and the receipt of her diploma. This event took place on 12 June 2024, at which my daughter was one of two students chosen to give graduation speeches, which took place at the Alaska Airlines Arena at the University of Washington. Proud dad! Also included is a video about the origin of her prestigious high school, the International Community School in Kirkland, Washington, which has ranked as high as the #13 high school in the entire country.
And finally, a fun new addition to my Digressions page is a report of my August 2024 visit to the Seattle Competitive Karuta Club, with selected photos. Karuta is a card game traditionally played at New Year in Japan, using playing cards featuring 100 waka poems (now known as tanka) from the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, which I had the pleasure to translate with Emiko Miyashita (see 100 Poets: Passions of the Imperial Court, Tokyo: PIE Books, 2008).
Thanks for staying tuned!