Meetings of the Haiku Society of America - 2008 Meetings

Haiku Society of America Meetings

Haiku Society of America meetings are held at various locations throughout the U. S. The HSA also supports other local, national and international haiku activities.

The locations, times, and programs for the meetings appear in the HSA Newsletter and on this page of the HSA Web site. Announcements and details of HSA regional meetings appear in the HSA Newsletter. Inquiries regarding regional meetings can also be addressed to the appropriate Regional Coordinator. Dates, times and locations are subject to change. Please verify your travel plans with the coordinator for each meeting.


Haiku Society of America 2008
National Meetings

 

1st Quarterly Meeting:
March 14-16 - Fort Worth, TX

The Fort Worth Haiku Society and the Southwest Region hosted the 1st Quarterly HSA Meeting in Fort Worth on March 14-16. The program included Workshops, Presentations, and Readings. Program presenters included the new President, Lenard D. Moore, and Dave Russo.


Lenard D. Moore writes a haiku at the Japanese Garden


Shirley Crow & Peter Weber at the HSA Meeting

For more photos from HSA Meeting in Fort Worth visit: <http://nc-haiku.blogspot.com/2008/03/photos-from-hsa-meeting-in-fort-worth.html>

 

2nd Quarterly Meeting:
June 27-28, 2008 - Seattle, Washington

Haiku Northwest hosted a national quarterly meeting of the Haiku Society of America at Hugo House and Seattle Japanese Garden. The Haiku Society of America events started with dinner at Boom Noodle on Friday, June 27. For a complete blog about this meeting, see Deborah Kolodji's web site:

day one: http://dkolodji.livejournal.com/227439.html
day two: http://dkolodji.livejournal.com/227784.html
day three: http://dkolodji.livejournal.com/227886.html

Schedule for Friday, June 27, 2008

4:30 to 5:00 p.m.
Haiku Broadcast on KSER Radio
Listen to Haiku Northwest, featured on the KSER radio poetry show hosted by PoetsWest. To listen, tune your radio to 90.7 FM in the Seattle area, or listen online by visiting http://www.kser.org/ (click Listen Live). You may need to install plug-in software to listen online, so allow extra time before the broadcast to do that.

music
Curtis Manley, Marilyn Sandall, William Scott Galasso, and Connie Hutchison read a selection of Haiku Northwest member haiku accompanied by Dejah Légar on guitar.

5:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m. No-host dinner at Boom Noodle restaurant at 1121 E Pike Street (near Hugo House), phone 206-701-9130

At the Boom Noodle, tt was great to see Tenzing, Michael Dylan Welch, and Johnye Strickland again. I also met Lenard D. Moore, Alice Frampton and Christopher Herold for the first time. From Boom Noodle, we all walked over to the Hugo House, where Michael Dylan Welch had planned a wonderful program, starting off with a read-around of haiku.

poet
(l to r): Ida Freilinger, Michael L Evans, Deborah P Kolodji, Terran Campbell, Michael Dylan Welch, Angela Terry, Marilyn Sandall, Karma Tenzing Wangchuk, Christopher Herold.

7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
SEATTLE HAIKU NIGHT
Hugo House Cabaret, Richard Hugo House, 1634 Eleventh Avenue, Seattle
Cosponsored by Richard Hugo House and the Washington Poets Association
Directions at http://www.hugohouse.org/house/map/
(park behind building or along the street)

7:00 p.m. Welcome and introductions, Michael Dylan Welch
7:30 p.m. Memorial reading for Robert Major
7:45 p.m. “Music and Sound” haiku performance by William Scott Galasso, Connie Hutchison, Curtis Manley, and Marilyn Sandall, with music by Dejah Léger
8:15 p.m. Results of the Francine Porad Haiku Contest sponsored by the Washington Poets Association, Margaret Chula, judge, announced by Angela Terry, contest coordinator
8:30 p.m. Elizabeth and John Falconer on koto and shakuhachi: “Wind in the Bamboo: Four Seasons of Haiku and Music”
9:30 p.m. Open-mike haiku reading

One very cool idea for a local haiku group is that Haiku Northwest has scripted out a haiku/music performance that they can do on a moment’s notice when someone requests a haiku reading/presentation. I think it would be great to do something like that here with the Southern California Haiku Study Group. Haiku Northwest members have scripted two different shows. They performed “Music and Sound.” Curtis Manley, Marilyn Sandall, William Scott Galasso, and Connie Hutchison read a selection of Haiku Northwest member haiku accompanied by Dejah Légar on guitar.

Schedule for Saturday, June 28, 2008

9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. HAIKU SOCIETY OF AMERICA NATIONAL QUARTERLY MEETING

Hugo House Cabaret, Richard Hugo House, Seattle
Cosponsored by the Washington Poets Association

9:00 a.m. Welcome and introductions, round of open-mike haiku reading
10:00 a.m. Haiku Society of America business meeting and announcements, led by Lenard D. Moore, society president

connie

10:30 a.m. Connie Hutchison: “Haiku Northwest: Celebrating 20 Years”

Returning to the Hugo House, there was another round of open-mike haiku. Tenzing read a haiku from his Southern California Haiku Study Group days in my honor. Then, Ce Rosenow presented a paper on the senryu tradition in America. Senryu is one of those things that haiku poets like to argue about. Is it haiku? Is it senryu? Everyone has their own definition.

Ce did an admirable job of addressing the essence of senryu, and how it fits in our society without getting overly bogged down in the “definition.” She framed her discussion by noting what she considers the two distinguishing characteristics of senryu – (1) that it occurs in a difficult cultural moment and (2) that it involves the everyday practices of human activities. She also spoke of the idea of writing about things “vicariously experienced through television,” which seems to be more acceptable for senryu than haiku. It was a very interesting paper that I hope she publishes someday soon.

After another break where I both bought and sold books, Michael Dylan Welch spoke on “Cracking You Open: The Joy of Haiku.” Here he quoted Jane Yolen, among others, while talking about the sheer joy of writing. He posited that every haiku essentially says the same thing – “it’s great to be alive.” Although I admit to reading some very moving “sad” haiku about death and other difficult topics, I agree with his underlining theme about adopting an open, child-like wonder in order to allow the haiku come through.

1:00 p.m. Announcements, another round of open-mic haiku reading
1:30 p.m. Ce Rosenow: “‘Precious Records of Human Beings’: The Senryu Tradition in America”
2:20 p.m. Break
2:30 p.m. Michael Dylan Welch: “Cracking You Open: The Joy of Haiku”
3:30 p.m. Break
3:45 p.m. Ruth Yarrow: “Emotion in a Moment: Painting Watercolors and Writing Haiku”

The last presentation of the day was by Ruth Yarrow on “Emotion in a Moment: Painting Watercolors and Writing Haiku.” In this, Ruth compared her painting experiences with her writing experiences, coming up with ten things to consider when writing haiku, showing paintings which showed those concepts. The ten items were simplify, lighten, contrast, reverberate, deepen, balance, grow, experience, share, and challenge.

Schedule for Sunday, June 29, 2008

10:00 a.m.

HAIKU DAY AT THE SEATTLE JAPANESE GARDEN

On Sunday, we had a ginko walk and kukai at the Seattle Japanese Garden, which is located in the Washington Park Arboretum.

At the entrance was a haiku display with sample poems from Northwest Haiku members in addition to visiting haiku poets who were there for the HSA meeting. It was fun to see one of my haiku displayed so far from home.

the world so empty
without you in it—
summer sea

- Deborah P Kolodji
from fog and brittle pine, the 2007 Yuki Teikei Society Membership Anthology

After strolling through garden tranquility, we met at the viewing platform where Michael Dylan Welch explained the writing exercise we were going to do on our ginko walk. We were to write haiku on the theme of sound.

10:00 a.m. Ginko talk by Michael Dylan Welch, then a ginko (haiku-writing walk)
11:30 a.m. Kukai talk by Carmen Sterba, then a kukai (poem-selection party)
12:30 and 2:30 p.m. Optional guided tours of garden
1:00 p.m. Lunch at nearby restaurant (to be determined)
1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Koto and shakuhachi performance by John and Elizabeth Falconer

poet
Marilyn Sandall, Lenard D. Moore, Deborah P Kolodji
Seattle Japanese Garden, June 29, 2008

music
(r to l) David Ash, Ida Freilinger, Gerald McBreen, Brendan McBreen

 

4th Quarterly Meeting:
December 5-7, 2008 - Winston-Salem, North Carolina

The North Carolina Haiku Society hosted the winter quarterly meeting of the Haiku Society of America from Friday December 5 to Sunday December 7, 2008 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This was the second time that the NCHS has hosted an HSA quarterly meeting. See more details at:

<http://www.nc-haiku.org/meetings.htm#hsa_2008>

See photographs from the meeting at:

http://lilaf.smugmug.com/gallery/6783386_VDDzC#435120551_MWAMt

The Haiku Society of America held its 4th Quarterly Meeting of 2008 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, March 5-7, 2008. The President, Lenard D. Moore, and Newsletter Editor Johnye Strickland held an Executive Committee meeting while other participants were enjoying the Saturday morning ginko in Reynolda House at Reynolda Gardens. President Moore welcomed everyone to the Business Meeting at 1:30p.m. in Brookstown Inn in Winston-Salem. He announced that the Executive Committee had selected Charles Trumbull as the recipient of the 2008 Sora Award, for service over time to the Haiku Society of America, and that the award would be presented to Charlie in person at the 1st Quarterly Meeting of 2009 in Eugene, Oregon. [Details of the Eugene meeting will be found at the end of the National News.] Results of the election of Officers and Regional Coordinators was reported: all candidates on the ballots were elected except for the RC position in Alaska. Mark Arvid White received 3 write-in votes, which makes his election unanimous as the replacement for Cindy Zackowitz. The President reported that Miriam Borne had announced her resignation as RC for the Northeast Metro area after the Nominating Committee, chaired by Ce Rosenow, had completed its work and the ballots were already being printed. Rita Gray has agreed to take the job, and she will be appointed by the President for 2009. The President also announced winners of the Henderson, Brady, Einbond, and Virgilio Contests. [Additional information appears in Contest Results. The winning poems will be published in the next issue of Frogpond.] Charles Trumbull has been appointed Editor of the 2009 Members’ Anthology. He will be assisted by Joe Kirschner and Lidia Rozmus. [More information about the anthology will be found at the end of National News.]

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the founding of The Haiku Society of America by Leroy Kanterman and Harold G. Hender-son. In honor of this occasion, three of the four Quarterly Meetings have included readings from past issues of Frogpond. At the New York City meeting in September, Leroy Kan-terman was introduced as one of the founders. Those present expressed their appreciation to him for his efforts on behalf of haiku poets in North America. President Moore announced that the commissioned Fortieth Anniversary Anthology reprint of the winning poems of the Brady and Henderson Awards would not be available, as previously announced, before the end of the year.

Roberta Beary, who with Ellen Compton edited dandelion clocks, the 2008 Members’Anthology, reported that the pre-ordered copies had been mailed, and that additional copies were available for purchase at the meeting. The Society received two letters from the British Haiku Society, along with a poem by Doreen King of the BHS which was read aloud by Roberta Beary.

Under Other Business, Johnye Strickland explained that the Executive Committee was discussing the problem of having Quarterly Meetings. President Moore was having difficulty finding hosts for two of the 2009 meetings, and rising transportation costs as well as the general state of the economy are deterring even EC members from attending four meetings a year. A suggestion was made that we reduce the number of meetings, but Johnye pointed out that the By-laws require four, and that any attempt to revise the By-laws is usually met with little support. Attorney Roberta Beary suggested that it was not necessary to amend the By-laws in order to change the number of meetings for the coming year. We could vote to suspend the rule for the year, and remain legal. Being thus enlightened, Johnye made a motion to suspend the requirement for 2009, and just have two meetings. The motion was seconded by Tom Heffernan, and passed unanimously.

President Moore presented gift boxes of Mount Olive Pickles to Bob Moyer and Dave Russo for their work in helping organize the Winter Quarterly Meeting of HSA in Winston-Salem. The Business Meeting con- cluded with a memorial reading of poems by, and for, the renowned poet, scholar, teacher and friend, William J. Higginson, whose death occurred October 11, 2008.

Photos from the 2008 HSA Meeting in Winston-Salem taken by Dave Russo may be seen here: http://lilaf.smugmug.com/gallery/6783386_VDDzC#433773704_uSde3
Submitted by Johnye Strickland, for Secretary Lane Parker