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 Poets House Trust as this years 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.

 

Buson, I’m leaving them in the moonlight—

         your pear blossoms

                  and the woman reading a letter.

 


Ish River Country—

the brightest flower

closest to the ground

 

Here are other additions to Graceguts, made in September 2024:

 

as I touch the pine bark

it touches me back . . .

end of summer

 

 

Thanks for staying tuned!