Another year is almost at an end, and I’m starting to think about what I accomplished this year. But before I write my year in review I have to fill you in on what’s happened since the end of October.
Haikuniverse published another Halloween haiku of mine on Halloween. This is the second year I’ve submitted to their call for Halloween poems. I enjoy writing Halloween poems, and I hope to be able to submit again next year.
Mariposa #37, the journal of the Haiku Poets of Northern California, was published earlier this fall, and I had two new haiku appear in that issue. Thanks to Cherie Hunter Day for publishing my work. Here are both of my poems:
dark rift of the Milky Way–
a prospector sifts
through cloudy water
frog song . . .
my son wades in the shallows
of sleep
I recently received a copy of a brand new anthology edited by Scott Mason called The Wonder Code. Scott Mason has written the essays in a way that is welcoming to those new to haiku. So far I have read only the parts of the book where my work appears (I have four poems included). My favorite of these sections is chapter 2, “Come to Your Senses.” This chapter is about how cell phones and other handheld devices are a distraction from real life sensory experiences. I especially liked the Nick Virgilio quote, who said that he wrote haiku “to get in touch with the real.” It’s true what Mason says about people spending too much time in front of a screen. It’s also true that the Internet provides information and access. I live in a small town, hundred of miles from the nearest shopping centers, and I know firsthand how much access the Internet provides. The Internet has always been the place I got my information about the haiku world. And lately I have been questioning my comfort level with how much of me is on the Internet and on social media. Definitely though-provoking material, and I look forward to reading the rest of the anthology. The haiku in this anthology were all pulled from The Heron’s Nest where Mason is an associate editor. The Wonder Code makes for a great companion volume to Nest Feathers, a retrospective anthology of the first 15 years of The Heron’s Nest. The fact that there are now two anthologies available where all the haiku come from the same journal is a testament to the quality of work published in The Heron’s Nest. Many thanks to Scott Mason for including some of my work in such a great anthology.
Speaking of The Heron’s Nest, the December issue was just published today, and I have one haiku included:
rustle of corn leaves–
fitting my son
for a new ball glove
Many thanks to Fay Aoyagi and the rest of the editorial team for publishing my work.
All poems above by Chad Lee Robinson
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