Haiku North America

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Seattle gum wall
searching for words
that will stick

Haiku poet Garry Gay with Michael Dylan Welch just next to him and mostly out of view.

Haiku North America, which took place in Seattle on August 3-7, was an incredible experience. I will not try to chronicle the events here, but if you are interested in a detailed and witty account of HNA, please visit Melissa Allen’s blog at http://haikuproject.wordpress.com. While I had a lot of fun reconnecting with old acquantances, meeting new people, and hanging out with good friends, I felt as if I was only half there at times. A difficult few months with my mother, who has suffered some intense health problems, kept me from feeling fully present. In any case, I am so glad I managed to get away. Among the highlights of HNA for me were: Carlos Colon’s Elvis poems, seeing Jerry Ball designated as the next honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives (well-deserved), meeting Minako Noma and Makoto Nakanishi from Japan, attending presentations by Terry Ann Carter (on teaching haiku), Eve Luckring (on video renku), Abigail Friedman, Carmen Sterba, Debbie Kolodji, and Tanya McDonald (on how to start and run a haiku group), Emiko Miyashita (on food kigo), Jessica Tremblay (on haiku comics), and Fay Aoyagi, Melissa Allen, Gene Myers and Don Wentworth (on haiku blogging). As is always the case with haiku meetings, some of the most interesting and fun conversations took place at meal times and late at night over drinks. Not surprisingly, I returned home sleep-deprived, but reinvigorated.