1 May 2024

Significantly more activity on Graceguts for the month of April compared with March, but still a relatively quiet month. Here are the highlights.

• New on the Essays pages, specifically on my “Haiku Checklist,” look for a link to “Checklista för Haiku,” a translation into Swedish by Marcus Liljedahl.

• On the Poems by Others page, check out “Che Fece . . . Il Gran Rifiuto” by C. P. Cavafy (with video links to “Say Yes to Life” by Gang of Youths) and an untitled poem by Saadi, a 13th-century Persian poet. The latter poem also includes links to other versions and uses of the poem.

• My gratitude to Amelia Fielden for her commentary on my “summer sunlight” tanka, chosen as an honourable mention in a recent issue of Ribbons. Look for this new addition through the Commentary page.

• On 5 April 2024, it was a particular pleasure for me to participate for the third time in the annual “Ars Poetica” exhibit at the Bainbridge Artisans Resource Network on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Look for new event photos on my poem “The Clarinet” (available through Poems), including photos of a glass artwork interpretation of my poem by Sandy Schlyer.

• I continue to coedit First Frost, and we just published issue #7. Look for two photos of this issue, recently added to the First Frost page, available through Digressions. Starting with this issue, First Frost is now available through Amazon.

• Newly added to the Venues, Clients, and Partners list (available through Workshops) are Pelican Bay Books & Coffeehouse and the Madrona Series Poetry Readings, reflecting a 13 April 2024 featured reading I gave in this series.

• A few other miscellaneous additions are the inclusion of One Art on the Links list, and new quotations by Kei Andersen on the Your Thoughts page and by Kevin Lawler on the Haiku Workshops page. I’ve also added a cover image of Fractured by Cattails to the “My Poems in Haiku Society of America Anthologies” page.

• It’s more cosmetic than anything else, and already previously done on hundreds of other pages, but throughout the Further Reading subpages and all essays in the Selected Essays and Interviews section on the Woodnotes page, I’ve redone the formatting to present all the publication credits in a grey bar, to help differentiate that information from the essays themselves.

• Another pleasing addition is a link to an audio recording of my “Something Fishy” rengay (with C. R. Manley and Tanya McDonald), which was featured on Rattle.com on 19 April 2024. I’ve listed this link on my Appearances page and also on the “Something Fishy” page on my Rengay.com website.

• And speaking of Appearances, numerous additions (among others) include the following:

  • • “The Joy of Haiku” workshop on 14 April 2024 at the Japan Fair at VanDusen Botanical Garden, Vancouver, British Columbia.

    • My haiga presentation on 17 April 2024 for the Haiku Society of America Washington region haiku Zoom event.

    • Leading an ekphrastic haiku workshop for Haiku Northwest on 11 May 2024 at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington.

    • “Haiku Targets” on 15 May 2024 for the Japan Fair in Bellevue, Washington, including links to their associated haiku contest (entries due by 31 May 2024).

    • My PowerPoint presentation, “Forest Bathing and the Art of Haiku,” slated for 25 June 2024 at the Kirkland Library, in Kirkland, Washington.

    • And coming up on 2 November 2024, my presentation on “A Dying Art: Death Haiku in Japanese and English” for the 2024 Haiku Society of America Zoom conference.

As always, I’m grateful for readers. Please also consider Donations.