National Haiku Poetry Day
April 17, National Haiku Poetry Day, is a celebration of the genre of haiku, a kind of poetry whose origins date back a millennium in Japan; and more specifically, of English-language haiku, which has now been written for more than a century. Registered by Sari Grandstaff in 2007 and implemented as a project of The Haiku Foundation in 2012, it occurs in the heart of the United States’ celebration of National Poetry Month. The Foundation encourages public events, including readings, exhibitions and competitions on this day, and culminates the celebration with the announcement of winners from our annual HaikuNow! Contest.
Here’s what’s happening on and around NHPD in 2013. We’ll add details as we get them, and there’s still time to host one of your own. Let us know what you’d like to do and we’ll be happy to help.
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Atlanta, Georgia (Coordinator: Tom Painting)
For the Paideia School Scholarship auction, my students completed a haiga notecard project. The original artwork and haiga notecards will be displayed this coming Thursday before being placed in the auction. Here are some examples from the complete collection.
“summer stars” by Danielle Murdoch (Atlanta, grade 8)
“wooden paint pallet” by Liana Klin (Atlanta, grade 7)
“under the stars” is Jack Whelchel (Atlanta, grade 7)
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Boston, Massachusetts (Coordinators: Raffael de Gruttola and Judson Evans)
April 17
7:00 pm
Students were completing their assignment for their own anthology of writing which included haiku and renku as well as many of the standard forms of free verse. The meeting took place in the music room of the Boston Conservatory. We all sat in a circle and haiku came in an impromptu manner with students and teachers and other poets reciting their haiku in time lapse moments when they felt their haiku fit the previous reading.
Raffael de Gruttola and Judson Evans mentioned different aspects of haiku including the collaborative work that many students at the Conservatory were doing as they experimented with their own disciplines of music, dance, and theater. Judson brought many haiku books from his own collection that student poets could use with particular haiku they liked.
This evening in the Student Lounge, the Conservatory poetry annual will be given to each of the participants at no cost for them to remember their experiences in writing haiku and renku.
Recorder: Raffael de Gruttola
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Brunswick, Maryland (Coordinator: Robin Goetz)
Visitors to the library can add their haiku to the Brunswick Library’s Poet-tree all day on Wednesday, April 17. Instructions on writing haiku will be available.
Brunswick Public Library
915 North Maple Ave.
Brunswick, MD 21716
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Dubuque, Iowa (Coordinators: Francine Banwarth and Gayle Bull)
Come enjoy a Haiku Reading at the famed Foundry Bookstore
April 17, 2013
7:30 pm
Featured readers will be Francine Banwarth and Charlie Baker
Foundry Books
105 Commerce Street,
Mineral Point, WI
53565 USA
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Fort Worth, Texas (Coordinator: Cliff Roberts)
The Fort Worth Haiku Society will meet at Benbrook Library
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
7:PM
Come enjoy Haiku Readings, a Program (TBA), a Haiku Workshop, a Haiku Contest, Door Prizes, Refreshments, and a Book Table.
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Highland Park, New Jersey (Coordinator: Rick Black)
April 17, 2013
7 p.m.
25 people turned out for the screening of “remembering nick virgilio” at the Highland Park Public Library. Following the movie, we had a discussion of Virgilio’s work and passed around a copy of his new book, “Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku” for people to choose a poem to read aloud.
To cap off the evening, about half a dozen audience members read their own haiku. I have received some lovely notes, including these two below.
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Hi Rick,
I wanted to tell you what a wonderful evening it was at the HP Library. Your talk and the video about Nick Virgilio was just so inspiring. Congratulations on the book! I keep it at my bedside and read a few haiku almost every day.
Sincerely,
Ellen Rebarber
Highland Park resident
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Dear Rick,
I can’t thank you enough for the heartwarming program you presented last night. Nick Virgilio is an extraordinary writer, largely self-educated and certainly driven to produce his best work. I find his story
inspiring and thank you also for uncovering these buried gems! I’m looking forward to you unearthing more literary treasure.
Sincerely,
Valeri Weidmann
Highland Park Library
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Hopewell, New Jersey (Coordinator: Jeff Hoagland)
On Saturday, April 20, a group of eight haiku poets gathered on the 930-acre Nature Reserve of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association in Hopewell Township, NJ to celebrate National Haiku Poetry Day. The festivities began with camaraderie, refreshments and a sharing table festooned with an assortment of haiku journals and favorite haiku books on display.
Jeff Hoagland, host and education director at the Watershed Association, facilitated a ginko, graced by the sights, sounds and scents of spring emerging. The haiku walk traversed sprawling meadows and passed through the forest en route to a pond with nesting geese and tree swallows. During the walk poets encountered a full range of spring “activities”, enjoying the calling of spring peepers, the antics of courting birds, and early spring wildflowers. On the return walk, poets shared some of their haiku at the specific trailside locations of their “birth”.
The event concluded with a haiku reading beginning with an announcement by Haiku Foundation board member Mark Harris revealing this year’s HaikuNow! Competition winners and Touchstone Awards. David Caruso was present to share his Commended haiku from the Contemporary category of the HaikuNow! Competition.
The event, over three hours in duration, was enjoyed by all. It is hard to beat good food, a walk in the wild, and the fellowship of haiku poets. All vowed to return next year and look forward to bringing others.
Below is a sampling of haiku from the ginko.
a fallen ash tree —
imagining ten thousand
Louisville sluggers
Scott Masonfootsteps
on a boardwalk
her mother’s mother’s house
Caroline Harrisafternoon ginko —
we follow our shadows
further down the trail
Kathe L. Palkatwilight the peepers kick it up a notch
James Paulsonfall grass
the sun doesn’t want to set
nobody does
David Carusoside by side silos
one with the top missing
the wind in the ash
Mark Harrisspring ginko
one haiku persists
wood tick
Jeff Hoagland
Scott Mason, Mark Harris, David Caruso, Caroline Harris, Kathe L. Palka, Jeff Hoagland, James Paulson
Scott and David get the naturalist’s perspective from Jeff
Scott approaches the “Haiku Generator” with caution
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Huntsville, Alabama (Coordinator: Terri L. French)
April 13
6–7 p.m.
Come enjoy a workshop titled “Haiku: It’s Not for the Birds” A powerpoint presentation covering the history of haiku from it’s origins in ancient Japan to the 21st century in English, including haiku tweets, known on Twitter as “TwiHaiku.” Attendees then can create haiku weathergrams to hang around the grounds at the Center in honor of April 17, National Haiku Day.
Beloved Books
Flying Monkey Arts Center
Huntsville, AL
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Los Angeles, California (Coordinator: Debbie Kolodji)
April 17
7:30 p.m. until ?
Bean Town Coffee Bar will again offer a haiku open mic.
45 N. Baldwin Ave
Sierra Madre, CA
Poets should bring haiku to read!
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Minneapolis, Minnesota (Coordinators: Marjorie Buettner and Donald Skrivseth)
April 14th
3-5 pm
Black Bear Crossing on Historic Lake Como
Larry Kitto Community Room
Program by Marjorie Buettner and Donald Skrivseth
Music by Gary Lee Joyner
National Haiku Reading day occurred April 14th at Black Bear Crossing on Historic Lake Como in St. Paul, MN. The coordinators were Marjorie Buettner and Donald Skrivseth with music by Gary Lee Joyner. Six haiku poets and one musician along with many friends and family braved the sleet and snow storm: Christina Nguyen with daughter Miriya, Marjorie Buettner, Marsh Muirhead, Irene St. Onge, Donald Skrivseth, Marc Thompson and Gary Lee Joyner. The community room was filled with friends and family who, in addition to the haiku readers, helped read memorial haiku by those haiku poets who have passed in the last two years.
Hopefully next year the weather will be kinder!
Marjorie Buettner
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New Orleans, Louisiana (Coordinator: David Lanoue)
April 17
4:30-5:30 p.m. Haiku Reading
Xavier University campus, 1 Drexel Drive, New Orleans, University Center, Room 201
6:30-7:30 p.m. Haiku Reading for the community
Latter Library, New Orleans, 5120 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans
The New Orleans Haiku society in cooperation with Xavier University of Louisiana held two public readings on April 17, 2013. The first reading took place on Xavier’s campus (4:30-5:30 p.m.) Students were invited to read their own haiku and/or favorite haiku by Issa, in honor of Issa’s 250th birth anniversary. Dr. David Lanoue and fourteen students participated. All of the students had learned about modern haiku in the past two weeks; Lanoue exposed his own students to it, and he visited the class of one of his colleagues, Professor Ralph Adamo. Several students exhibited real talent in composing their original haiku. Lanoue encouraged all participants to keep writing haiku and to watch for signs for future haiku and general poetry readings on campus.
Later that evening at Latter Library on St. Charles Avenue (6:30-7:30 p.m.), a public reading was held, at which the winning haiku of The Haiku Foundation contest were read, followed by an open mike. Turnout left much to be desired, with only three participants showing up that Wednesday evening to share haiku: Johnette Downing, Nicholas Sola and David Lanoue. Downing and Sola read original haiku, while Lanoue, to celebrate Issa’s 250th anniversary, read many of his favorite Issa poems. Despite the small size of the gathering, the meeting was lively and, according to all who participated, worthwhile.
After the meeting, the group decided that in future we will not attempt to celebrate NHPD midweek. Henceforth, if April 17th falls on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, we will celebrate it on a preceding or following Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday (the latter to coincide possibly with our normal third Monday of the month haiku meeting).
There was no media coverage, but the event was advertised on NOLA.com, a local arts and entertainment website. Latter Library also displayed a poster for it.
David G. Lanoue
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San Francisco, California (Coordinator: Patrick Gallagher)
Come celebrate at two upcoming haiku gatherings in the San Francisco area:
Yuki Teikei Haiku Society
Saturday 4/13
Haiku Poets of Northern California
Sunday 4/21
Contact Patrick Gallagher for details wpgallagher.home@gmail.com.
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Shreveport, Louisiana (Coordinator: Carlos Colón)
April 17, 2013
6:30-8:00 p.m.
Broadmoor Branch, Shreve Memorial Library, Large Meeting Room
1212 Captain Shreve Drive
Shreveport, LA 71105
Come celebrate National Haiku Poetry Day with an open mic from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. The reading will feature members of the Northwest Louisiana Haiku Society, a co-sponsor along with the library and the Haiku
Foundation. The reading is free and open to the public. Participants are encouraged to read up to five haiku. For more information or to sign up to read, contact Carlos Colón at 868-8932 or 678-3889.
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Washington DC (Coordinators: Roberta Beary, Ellen Compton, Kristen Deming)
April 30, 2013
5:30pm
Japan American Society
1819 L Street, NW, 1B Level
Washington DC
Towpath Haiku Group invites you to a reading of Haiku in English at the Japan American Society of Washington DC facility in downtown Washington.
Haiga courtesy of Rick Black.
Towpath is a Washington area society of poets who read, study, and write haiku in English. Members are acknowledged leaders in the English-language haiku community, with national and international honors to their credit. Following the readings by Towpath members, we invite your participation by “open mic”. We hope you will read some haiku of your own, or perhaps write some new ones, and we look forward to talking with you.
Watch the video!
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Winston Salem, North Carolina (Coordinator: Bob Moyer)
April 2O
2:30-3:30 p.m.
Come celebrate National Haiku Poetry Day With a POETEA—A Taste of Tea and Poetry.
Bubbling Well Tea and Bead Bar
621 N. Trade St.
Winston Salem NC
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