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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To Peggy Willis Lyles, in memoriam
On the death-bed
a blank sheet of paper…
her unwritten haiku
bare branches
I choose a layer
of blue silk
In reading this haiku at this sad time, I became more aware of life’s choices. When the trees go bare, we have ways to insulate ourselves. Be it layers of clothing, clouds or a synthesis of both, there is a framework, a birthplace of interpretation and nuance. The contrast of images in this haiku is a remarkable indication of the sublime appreciation of life as seasonal time.
September twilight–
waiting for the sparrows
to share a song
–to Peggy whom I have known from her gentle hand with and words for the haiku I had submitted for HN
mother-daughter
small talk . . .
snap beans
Peggy Lyles
It’s not necessarily the big events with family and friends that show inseparable love, it’s moments like this, doing something seemingly routine side by side.
Condolences to her family and long-term friends,
Carmen
Moon
and melon cooling
with us in the stream
Peggy Willis Lyles
The Haiku Anthology
Peggy’s haiku confirmed for me the importance of the gentle perception. This haiku always struck me as being about much more than that melon or the Moon …with a capital “M”…
” the numbness” and ” Mother’s scarf” ( mentioned
by Chris Patchel and Michael Dylan Welch, respectively) are haiku that are literature.
” the numbness” and ” Mother’s scarf” ( mentioned
by Chris Patchel and Michael Dylan Welch, respecively) are haiku that are literature.
“Whenever I received a new haiku journal, her name has long been one that I immediately looked up in the index, and she never disappointed.” -Michael W.
Same here. On a couple occasions I also felt moved to comment on her poems, however inadequately, via Re:Readings. This is one of her poems I don’t think was mentioned (I’m also fond of all the ones that were):
the numbness
of scar tissue—
forsythia
I only know Peggy through her writing, yet can’t shake the sadness of her passing.
Peggy was not only a fine haiku poet, but also gracious and kind. Whenever I received a new haiku journal, her name has long been one that I immediately looked up in the index, and she never disappointed. Here’s a favourite poem by Peggy:
Mother’s scarf
slides from my shoulder—
wild violets
Such a simple and immediate image, yet how deftly she trusts it, and trusts her readers to dwell in what it might mean that a scarf slips from her shoulders, and why. And not just any scarf, but her mother’s scarf. And these are not domesticated or cultivated flowers, but wild violets, and what, too, does that say about the poet and her appreciation for nature, and perhaps her relationship with her mother? Much to contemplate and dwell in here indeed. This depth is common in Peggy’s haiku, and it is a great loss for the entire haiku community that Peggy is now gone. I will miss here.
Michael
P.S. When I posted a message on my Facebook page mourning Peggy’s loss, a friend (not a haiku poet) responded by saying this: “Michael, thanks for posting this. I know virtually nothing about haiku, so I looked her up and read a few of her pieces. They were utterly amazing.”
Peggy’s passing is a great loss to us all.
Fortunately we have some great weblinks so that anyone and everyone around the world can read her work and her words in articles.
Please enjoy her haijinx work as haiga:
http://www.haijinx.org/2010/03/27/whats-so-funny-by-peggy-willis-lyles/
Peggy’s haijinx spotlight:
http://www.haijinx.org/II-1/lyles/index.html
Peggy says:
What’s So Funny?
“By now I am convinced that haiku can handle whatever epiphanies or peak
experiences may come a poet’s way and express practically any genuine
human feeling.”
“…there will be smiles and laughter along the way. Haiku are about all
of life, and humor is part of the mix.”
Peggy Willis Lyles
haijinx magazine
August 17, 2001
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