The Shortest DistanceEbba Story and Michael Dylan Welch, editors. Cover photograph by Garry Gay. Press Here, Foster City, California, 1993, 20 pages, 51 poets (one poem each), ISBN 1-878798-11-1.
This book was the conference anthology for the second Haiku North America conference, in 1993, which again took place at Las Positas College in Livermore, California (near San Francisco). Here’s a quote from the introduction: “We are normally separated by spatial and temporal distance. As we gather to share and celebrate our involvement with haiku, that distance dissolves. We are drawn together over the shortest distance—shorter even than the written forms we cherish. We meet in the moment where hearts and minds open and rejoice. There is no distance here.” The following are a dozen sample poems from the book.
moonrise outside the hospital nurses take a drag
Barry Goodmann Hackensack, New Jersey
half-closed eyes . . . one lash draws a beam from the candle
Christopher Herold Woodside, California
lonely night the faces painted on the window of a toy bus
Cor van den Heuvel New York, New York
Antique map; an ant travels the old spice route
Garry Gay Windsor, California
my face deep in white lilac I hear no bees
Geraldine C. Little Mt. Holly, New Jersey
frost-sharp stars prick the purple darkness —pond ice snaps
Hank Dunlap Prescott, Arizona
a stand of iris the sudden turn of the koi raises the bottom
Jerry Ball Livermore, California
sunset shadows the curve of the swan’s neck as she settles
Jean Jorgensen Edmonton, Alberta
low summer sun— the shadow of an earring on your cheek
Michael Dylan Welch Foster City, California
my son’s toes dipped in the sea— his grip tightens
Tom Lynch Martinez, California
the fence post hangs upright in the washout— mid-summer heat
William J. Higginson Santa Fe, New Mexico
rock garden— a fallen camellia floats in the sea of gravel
Yoko Ogino Kobe, Japan
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