1 June 2025

I’ve been a little obsessed with Graceguts in the last month. That’s chiefly because of a major new addition that adds more than 35,000 words spread over 166 new pages, celebrating 1,391 poems, most never added to this website before, plus 29 new essays related to this content. More on that near the end. But not even counting that huge addition, there’s a whole lot more. Here’s everything that’s new to Graceguts in May 2025:

• New on the Essays page is “Nadsat and Clockwork Oranges,” introducing and summarizing my 1988 Master’s thesis on A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, this overview not previously published. This page includes a dozen photos of my thesis pages, plus photos from the Stanley Kubrick film and associated links.

• Also new to the Essays and Tanka pages is “Tanka Appreciation Essays,” with links to three “Favourite Tanka” appreciations I wrote for the TSA Newsletter in 2001 (Brian Tasker), 2002 (Zane Parks), and 2005 (George Swede).

• On the “Defining Moments” essay, look for a wonderful new quotation on haiku by Jane Hirshfield, culled from O Mother Gaia, a 2025 documentary movie on the poetry of Gary Snyder.

• Just added to the Interviews page is a “Three Questions” interview with me by Curtis Dunlap from his “Blogging Along Tobacco Road” blog from 2008.

• New on the Commentary page is “Juxtaposé: Michael Dylan Welch and Bashō” by Mark Brooks, from Haijinx in 2002. I recently resurrected this, with comments on my “meteor shower” haiku, from the Internet Archive. Also look for “Favorite Haiku: Low Tide and Making a Wish,” with brief comments about two poems of mine by H. F. Noyes from his 1999 and 2000 Favorite Haiku books. And on the “14 or 15 Combs” commentary page, I’ve added the following related poem:

indigo sky—

there must be 14 or 15

cumulus clouds

• Speaking of additions, I’ve added a third postscript, featuring an Issa translation, to my “Points of Growth: Learning Haiku Truth from Louise Glück” essay, and a second postscript, with a Peter Newton skywriting poem, to “Skywriting: Learning Haiku from Annie Dillard.” And on “The Heft of Haiku,” look for a fourth new postscript, with a quotation from Ronald Wells, which I’ve also added to my “Why ‘No 5-7-5’” essay on the NaHaiWriMo website.

• I have a new trifold! Look for “Cabinet of Curiosities” on the Trifolds page. And, at the end of the “Cabinet of Curiosities” page (available through Sequences), I’ve added text from the back of my trifold, expanding on the idea that “haiku are revelations of curiosity.”

• Though dating from 1993, new to the Sequences page is “Shoreline.”

• New to the Haibun page is “Earl Grey,” recently published in HaikuKatha.

• On the “Parodies, Homages, Allusions” page, I’ve added “asked about the hospital,” “fresh sourdough,” and “not seeing the green wheat.” Do look them up to read each poem in full and to see if you can determine the allusions.

• A robust addition to my Haiku and Senryu pages is all my “Haiku of the Day” and “Per Diem” poems from the Haiku Foundation website, just added to a new “Haiku of the Day” page (I’ll be adding maybe a dozen older poems when I can track them down and will add new poems as they appear).

• Look for a new Haiku and Senryu page titled “From Erotic Haiku,” featuring my poems in Hiroaki Sato’s Erotic Haiku, published in 2004, one of which has been used on Amazon and Goodreads book publicity for two decades.

• I’ve added four haiku from the Spring 2025 issue to “My Poems from Wales Haiku Journal,” with page images.

• New to “My Poems in Tinywords” page (where I’ve also added numerous new images showing other poems published on the Tinywords website) is the following poem:

moment of silence—

dry ice fog

drifting to the end zone

• And on “My Poems in Haiku Society of America Anthologies,” I’ve added my haiku selected for the 2012 anthology that ended up being cancelled.

• In working on my expansive “Haiku from Index Cards” project (details below), I came across numerous poems written for other haiku poets, many of them memorial haiku. I’ve added poems for the following people on my “Memorial Haiku” page, with photos of each poet if they weren’t already present: R. H. Blyth, Leonard Cohen, William J. Higginson, Francine Porad, Hal Roth, Pat Shelley, Robert Spiess, and vincent tripi.

• On my Digressions pages, I’ve added a sample poem from notebook #26 to “My Haiku Notebooks,” added a photo of the lamination card of my “Miniature Poems,” and added the following poem to “Katikati Haiku Pathway”:

spawning ground—

the ripple in the creek

becomes a fin

• I’ve been deepening my skills with video creation, most recently using CapCut. New to the Videos page is “We Rise with Our Dreams,” presenting music from a very obscure favourite song that I finally found in digital form earlier this year after first loving it more than 35 years ago. This video also appears on my growing YouTube channel (see https://www.youtube.com/@michaeldylanwelch). I’ll be adding other videos later, mostly featuring haiku.

• I love poems referring to haiku and have added three new pieces to my “Poems About Haiku” page. They are “Auto Mirror” by Adam Zagajewski, “Priceless Gifts” by Anna Swir (also linked to from my “Defining Moments” essay), and “Empty Mirror” by Kenneth Rexroth.

• Here’s a raft of miscellaneous minor additions:

  • • On Digressions, the “Typos Happen!” page has two new typo stories (#8 and #9), “Writers I’ve Studied With” now includes Ellery Akers, and “Haiku Christmas Cards” now features my “night falling snow” card.

    • The Links page now lists Caffeine, HaikuKatha, Ridge Whisperings, and Talking Leaves.

    • Ironworks, in Vancouver, British Columbia, now appears on my “Venues, Clients, and Partners” page.

    • On Reports, the “2024 ukiaHaiku Festival Contest Winners” page now includes three new photos.

    • On my Appearances page, among other additions, I’ve now listed my 15 June 2025 presentation, “Our Endless and Proper Work: Learning Attention from Mary Oliver,” for the Federation of British Columbia Writers, and have added details for the Morioka haiku contest that I’m judging again (submission deadline is 1 September 2025, award ceremony on 16 November in Japan).

    • My “Haiku Workshops” page now includes an appreciation from Miki Kasahara, Japan Fair program manager.

Haiku from Index Cards

And now for the biggie, my main obsession for the month of May 2025. I’ve added a sprawling new page for “Haiku from Index Cards”—a major new section on the Haiku and Senryu page. As mentioned earlier, it amounts to more than 35,000 words spread over 166 new pages, celebrating 1,391 haiku and senryu, most never added to this website before, plus 29 new essays, appreciating the first poem that starts with each letter of the alphabet (plus three extra essays). These new additions feature poems selected from 4,500+ published haiku all managed on index cards, one poem per card, and each poem appears with the year written and the year originally published, with occasional notes and links. Here’s an itemization of all these additions, mostly presenting thematic sets of poems:

• A Miscellany (70 poems)

• A Baked Potato (short essay with four poems)

• Abandoned (four poems)

• A Day without Rain (three poems)

• After All These Years (three poems)

• Afternoon (six poems)

• Alone Again (three poems)

• A Lull (four poems)

• April (six poems)

• At the End (three poems)

• At the Whatever (eight poems)

• Autumn (18 poems)

• B Miscellany (24 poems)

• Baby Asleep (short essay with one poem)

• Before (eight poems)

• Between (nine poems)

• Billowing (three poems)

• C Miscellany (36 poems)

• Cabbage Butterflies (short essay with one poem)

• California Drought (four poems)

• Cherry Blossoms (five poems)

• Chilling (six poems)

• Christmastime (14 poems)

• Country Road (three poems)

• D Miscellany (39 poems)

• Dad in Hospice (short essay with one poem)

• Distance (13 poems)

• E Miscellany (11 poems)

• Early Frost (short essay with two poems)

• Early Morning Walk (short essay with one poem)

• Election (four poems)

• Empty (13 poems)

• F Miscellany (42 poems)

• Faded Hopscotch Chalk (short essay with one poem)

• Fading Sunset (six poems)

• Faint (three poems)

• Falling (four poems)

• First Day (four poems)

• Funeral’s End (three poems)

• G Miscellany (18 poems)

• Gabriola Grass (short essay with one poem)

• H Miscellany (30 poems)

• Haiku Poet’s New Car (short essay with one poem)

• Harvest Moon (four poems)

• Heading Home (three poems)

• Here and There (three poems)

• Hospice (five poems)

• Hospital Waiting Room (three poems)

• I Miscellany (21 poems)

• Ice Cream (short essay with one poem)

• Indian Summer (four poems)

• J Miscellany (12 poems)

• January 2nd (short essay with one poem)

• K Miscellany (eight poems)

• Kachina Dolls (short essay with one poem)

• L Miscellany (19 poems)

• Lakeshore Bonfire (short essay with one poem)

• Lasting (18 poems)

• Leaves (nine poems)

• Lingering (five poems)

• M Miscellany (40 poems)

• Magnolia Dreams (short essay with one poem)

• Melting (five poems)

• Meteor Shower (short essay, timeline, and one poem)

• Midday Heat (five poems)

• Midsummer (seven poems)

• Misty (seven poems)

• Morning (nine poems)

• Mother (four poems)

• Moving Day (six poems)

• My Oh My (ten poems)

• N Miscellany (22 poems)

• Nagasaki Blossoms (short essay with two poems)

• Neap Tide (three poems)

• News (four poems)

• New Year’s Day (eight poems)

• Night (11 poems)

• Noon Sun (four poems)

• November (four poems)

• O Miscellany (27 poems)

• Oak Shadows (short essay with one poem)

• October (three poems)

• Opening (three poems)

• Our Rhythmic Breathing (three poems)

• Out (seven poems)

• P Miscellany (25 poems)

• Pages of a Letter (short essay with one poem)

• Poetic (three poems)

• Popping (three poems)

• Power Failure (three poems)

• Prairie (five poems)

• Q Miscellany (nine poems)

• Quarantine (short essay with one poem)

• R Miscellany (31 poems)

• Race Day (short essay with one poem)

• Rain (12 poems)

• Rainy (four poems)

• Reds (eight poems)

• Remaining Snow (three poems)

• Remembrance Day (three poems)

• Reunion (three poems)

• Rumours (four poems)

• S Miscellany (63 poems)

• Safeway Entrance (short essay with one poem)

• Scent (four poems)

• School (six poems)

• Shooting Star (three poems)

• Sidewalk Sale (three poems)

• Silent (five poems)

• Slant (three poems)

• Small Town (four poems)

• Snow (22 poems)

• Snow Day (three poems)

• Snowy (four poems)

• Spring (22 poems)

• Spring Breeze (five poems)

• Spring Cleaning (five poems)

• Spring Thaw (five poems)

• Steady (three poems)

• Still (nine poems)

• Sudden (nine poems)

• Sultry (three poems)

• Summer (24 poems)

• Summer Rain (four poems)

• Summer’s End (five poems)

• Summer Solstice (four poems)

• Summer Stars (three poems)

• Summer Stillness (three poems)

• Summer Sun (three poems)

• Sun (seven poems)

• Sunbreak (five poems)

• T Miscellany (95 poems)

• Tailgate Party (short essay with one poem)

• Taking (three poems)

• Thanksgiving (three poems)

• The Ferry (three poems)

• The Moon (three poems)

• The Scent (four poems)

• Through (five poems)

• Thunder (six poems)

• Tourists (three poems)

• Trees (three poems)

• Turning (six poems)

• U Miscellany (seven poems)

• Ultrasound Picture (short essay with one poem)

• Un (eight poems)

• Under (ten poems)

• Used (three poems)

• V Miscellany (eight poems)

• Vacant Lot (short essay with one poem)

• Valentine’s Day (six poems)

• W Miscellany (35 poems)

• Wafted by the Breeze (short essay with one poem)

• Warm (six poems)

• Wet (six poems)

• Winter (21 poems)

• X Miscellany (one poem)

• X-ray of the Dog’s Hip (short essay with one poem)

• Y Miscellany (nine poems)

• Yard Sale (short essay with two poems)

• Yours (eight poems)

• Z Miscellany (three poems)

• Zane Grey (short essay with one poem)

• Zoom Reunion (short essay with one poem and concluding thoughts)

To supplement the preceding additions, I’ve created a new landing page on Essays (also available through “Haiku from Index Cards”) called “Index Card Essays” listing 29 new essays (26 for poems starting with each letter of the alphabet, plus two bonus essays and one for the last index card poem). One of these essays, “Meteor Shower,” tells the story and publication details for my most widely published haiku and shows all the index cards I’ve used to track this poem along with a timeline of the poem’s history. Working on all my haiku and senryu from index cards, which entailed rereading all 4,500+ published poems, has given me numerous ideas for future website additions, which I’ll work on over the coming months.