Peggy Willis Lyles
September 17, 1939 – September 3, 2010
It is with great sadness to report that on Friday, September 3, 2010, Peggy Willis Lyles passed away. She was a former Woodrow Wilson Fellow and English teacher, and contributed regularly to leading haiku journals for more than thirty years. At the time of her death, she was an associate editor of The Heron’s Nest and a member of The Red Moon Anthology staff. Peggy was revered by haiku poets worldwide. Her gentle, generous spirit touched so many, and her work will continue to touch and influence for countless decades to come (Haiku Registry).
Her most recent haiku collection was To Hear the Rain: Selected Haiku of Peggy Lyles (Decatur, IL: Brooks Books, 2002).
The Heron’s Nest, where Peggy was an associate editor, will publish memorials in the December 2010 issue. Please submit your memorial poems and brief tributes to Managing Editor, John Stevenson (ithacan@ earthlink.net ). Those who wish to convey their appreciation for Peggy to her family should write to:
Bill Lyles
2408 Woodcreek Court
Tucker, GA 30084
Here follows is a small selection of her haiku:
first frost . . .
on a silver card tray
wild persimmons
bare branches
I choose a layer
of blue silk
as if it were a lie the moonlit sea
into the afterlife red leaves
wind-borne seed
I have
my doubts
the greyness
goes right through us
autumn wind
a stone, a leaf . . .
the quiet closing
of a door
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Hearing a bird singing
Under willow shadow …
Another life
an overcast sky
the horse with a bright blanket
nibbles and pulls
Alan Summers
Thanks Peggy for brightening up many an overcast day.
I’ve only known Peggy since 2005, through her poetry and her correspondence with me concerning the f/k/a weblog and The Heron’s Nest. Peggy’s grace, insight, and caring were palpable — in pixels and on the printed page. I can give no greater praise than to say that her virtues as a human being were as splendid as her haiku.
Many haijin have already expressed their feelings about Peggy as a poet and person at this website. Thanks to each of you for helping to create the warmth of a community that mourns her loss and celebrates her life together and as individuals.
No poet added more to the quality and ambiance of my weblog than Peggy Willis Lyles. I felt fortunate to share her poetry as examples of the best of our genre with many readers who weren’t familiar with haiku. By going to Peggy’s f/k/a Archive Page — http://tinyurl.com/PeggyLylesHaiku — you can find links to almost 60 postings that contain two or more of her haiku or senryu. I hope she could feel my gratitude, fondness and admiration whenever we interacted in cyberspace.
What a perfectly pitched, sensitive, inclusive, magical voice this poet had; it was as if everything and everyone she saw she recognized as part of her family and treated with gentle kindness. The whole world was home to her and everyone, everything was welcome and sung by her. Such a one is rare in the world and will be missed by all I am very sorry to hear of her passing. I am awed by her talent.
Please do enjoy all the Notes from the Gean haiku, but here’s the link to Peggy’s haiku: http://www.geantree.com/haiku9_10_12.html
Alan, Renga Editor, Notes from the Gean
Peggy’s death was a shock to me and a lingering sadness. You know how it is when you anticipate hearing from someone special again sometime soon, and then you find out that they’ve died. It’s a little difficult to accept the reality.
Peggy was so gracious and supportive to so many in the haiku world, as many, I believe, who came into contact with her in any way. I admired her tremendously and love her work. These are Peggy’s, from the current ‘Gean’, which went online on September 1st. I’m sorry that Peggy’s spacings won’t show here, but the beauty of the haiku will come across anyway.
dolphin voices —
red sun settles into
the Marshes of Glynn
enough snow
to hush the children —
dusk closing in
the quilt’s imperfect pattern Leonids
child’s play —
salt from a lost ocean
for the robin’s tail
spring thunder
young magicians
reappear
Peggy Willis Lyles – U.S.A
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