Embedded Files
In 2008, with Alice Frampton as cofounder, I founded and named the annual Seabeck Haiku Getaway, held each year amid the falling leaves and foraging deer in Seabeck, Washington. This retreat has gained numerous traditions, one of which has been to publish an annual anthology. We had an “unofficial” anthology in 2008, put together by Christopher Herold, and this publication is most likely what inspired us to make the Seabeck anthologies happen every year. In 2009 we even had three anthologies, two of which grew out of special activities that year. Since then, we’ve had one retreat anthology each year, as listed here (most recent first). Every retreat attendee received a free copy and was guaranteed to have at least one haiku included. Eventually, Seabeck anthologies also included the results of our annual kukai (anonymous haiku contest). Together, these collections have documented a dynamic annual haiku event that has attracted poets from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and occasionally from elsewhere in the world.
The following are all my contributions to Seabeck haiku anthologies, including links to essays, introductions, and afterwords. Anthology titles link to Amazon for books available online (books with no links were often handmade and handsewn). The years listed indicate the year of the Seabeck retreat, with most anthologies published in the year following the retreat. My gratitude to all the editors who have made each anthology distinctive, helping to celebrate and commemorate our getaway weekends. For more information about past Seabeck Haiku Getaways, visit “Past Seabeck Retreats” on the Haiku Northwest website.
[I’ll add more poems and cover photos as I track them down.]
2025
2025
[title to be announced]
Michael Dylan Welch and Sheila Sondik, editors
[letterpress]
[cover image and poems to come]
2024
2024
Terry Ann Carter and Lynne Jambor, editors
getting lost
in an old map
the cartographer
Scenic Beach +
This year Crystal Simone Smith is our guest, and I’m eager to pick her up from the airport. The weather is so remarkable for October that we can’t resist taking the ferry route from Fauntleroy to Southworth. The skies ache with blue. From the deck I say that the mountain is out, and she remarks about sea birds that are foreign to her.
a family of guillemots
milling in the cove—
Rainier making a cloud
sunning cormorant . . .
our ferry shudders
into dock
After the drive to Seabeck, I continue a few miles past the conference center to Scenic Beach State Park. It’s where I take all our guest speakers every year—a reconnection ritual. Huge yellow leaves have begun to carpet the forest floor by the picnic shelter. I point out bright rusty arbutus bark that a previous guest, Marco Fraticelli, loved so much. We amble and sit, walk a bit more, centering ourselves in the woods, with a view of the Olympics across the water. Sometimes a line of fresh snow marks a melting point halfway down the mountains. But not this year.
smell of woodsmoke . . .
a Japanese maple
welcomes us
Soon it will be time to head to the Historic Inn, back at Seabeck, to check in and be on stage for the weekend, but for now we are quiet in the woods, gentle waves lapping at the oyster shells whitening the shore. A stone I skip will take another thousand years to reach the beach again.
as if to say
it’s time to go
one cloud after another
~ ~ ~
Spinning the Globe +
a rengay by Sean Carlton, Luke Brannon, Michael Dylan Welch,
Beki Reese Van Buren, Trixie Lynn, and Billie Dee
old map . . .
searching for a country
yet to exist Sean
North recharted
cloudless night Luke
on the seabed
after the fire
captain’s compass Michael
spin of the globe—
my finger lands on
Tasmania Beki
the GPS
still recalculating Trixie
dead reckoning
our course leads
to the dragon’s maw Billie
~ ~ ~
stone steps
worn to a curve
crescent moon
2023
2023
Annette Makino and P. H. Fischer, editors, with artwork by David Lasky
full moon over the woods
one owl
answers another
finding a way
through the corn maze
morning mist
2022
2022
Deepening Leaves
Lisa Gerlits and Antoinette Cheung, editors
[handsewn, and printed on deluxe papers; special commendation in the 2024 Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards for book design and aesthetics]
[cover image and poems to come]
2021
2021
Counting Stars
Aidan Castle and John S Green, editors
[cover image and poems to come]
2020
2020
Tanya McDonald and Kelly Sauvage, editors
the year’s first snow
if only
it would not be your last
2019
2019
C. R. Manley, editor
hillside hike—
the aspens seem more yellow
in the fog
at Seabeck
hearing the dinner bell
I long for Seabeck
meteor shower . . .
a gentle wave
wets our sandals
2018
2018
Carole MacRury and Vicki McCullough, editors
a padlock at the gate yellow aspens
Forgotten +
a rengay by Michael Dylan Welch and Garry Gay
estate sale—
the remains of a silverfish
in the insect book Michael
on the unswept walkway
dew-covered caterpillar Garry
vacant lot—
a dozen grasshoppers
ticking in a jar Michael
termite dust
under the back step
rusted nail heads Garry
a nest of bees
in the broken mailbox Michael
forgotten swing set
two fireflies
chase each other Garry
2017
2017
Seabeck Reunion: Seabeck Haiku Getaway Tenth Anniversary Anthology
Michael Dylan Welch, editor
“Joining the Reunion” (anthology introduction)
sailboats bobbing
in the Seabeck marina—
new moon
the instructor’s haiku kite
flies better than mine . . .
windfall apples
my children see
the face within—
uncarved pumpkin
Tango +
a rengay by David Berger, Jacquie Pearce, Michael Dylan Welch,
Michelle Schaefer, James Rodriguez, and Vicki McCullough
midnight—
you roll over
and wake to the moon David
my kisses follow
the curve of light Jacquie
our legs entwined
wordless
we fall to the floor Michael
a tease of breasts
and squeeze below Michelle
my tongue
in your mouth
you draw me in James
rising on the sultry air
the yowl of a cat Vicki
~ ~ ~
windfall apples—
the taste of fog
on my tongue
“Ten Years of Seabeck Haiku Getaways” (anthology afterword)
2016
2016
Inhaling
Ce Rosenow and Barbara Snow, editors
[cover image and poems to come]
2015
2015
Exhaling
Dianne Garcia, Tanya McDonald, and Angela Terry, editors
[handbound]
[cover image and poems to come]
2014
2014
Chandra Bales and Susan Constable, editors
cedar branches
as silent as the moon
misty rain
night walk—
we all return
wet from the woods
2013
2013
Michael Dylan Welch and Angela Terry, editors
“A Warm Welcome” (anthology introduction)
heading home—
a labyrinth
that never ends
night geese—
the leaves turning
in the dark
joining friends
on the porch
falling leaves
2012
2012
Windfall
Connie Hutchison and Ruth Yarrow, editors
[handmade with bamboo binding]
[cover image and poems to come]
2011
2011
Bound by the Beauty
Michael Dylan Welch, compiler
[handmade holograph anthology]
[poem to come]
2010
2010
From Leaf to Leaf
Tanya McDonald and Michael Dylan Welch, editors
[handsewn binding]
[cover image and poems to come]
2009
2009
Seeing Stars
Michael Dylan Welch, editor
[handsewn binding; winner of the 2010 Merit Book Award from the Haiku Society of America for best anthology]
“Galactiku” (anthology introduction)
a shell in my pocket
from the night beach—
a whirl of constellations
a box full of buttons
the constellations
of memory
Woolly Bears & Cedar Flashing
Tanya McDonald, editor
[handsewn binding]
[cover image and poems to come]
Seabeck Tan-Renga chapbook
Penny Harter, Christopher Herold, and Karma Tenzing Wangchuk, compilers
[cover image and poems to come]
2008
2008
Feathering the Moment:
Spontaneous Composition Emanating from Silent Observation
Christopher Herold, editor
[“unofficial” Seabeck anthology]
[cover image and poems to come]
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