knowing
they are not for me
bundled wildflowers
- Tia Haynes
I just received and read with relish Bundled Wildflowers, the Haiku Society of of America's 2020 members' anthology.
The title of the anthology, as the editor, Bryan Rickert, explained, was inspired by the haiku above, one of the submissions.
The way the HSA members' anthologies work is that every member of the society submits haiku, and each member is guaranteed that one of his or her poems will be selected.
Of course, the experience and skill of the poets vary, so the quality of the poems is sometimes uneven. But it does give them a chance to get published, and to encourage them to continue developing their skills.
And even the more polished poets might be tempted to submit lesser poems. Indeed, as Robert Epstein acknowledged in his contribution:
members' anthology
submitting poems
others rejected
But that does not lessen the delight of this anthology. It's wonderful to see all the subjects. Some are familiar, like love, loss, death, nature, and so on. One subject that jumped out at me was dogs in light of the loss of my beloved Ruby last year..
emptying the vacuum -
enough dog hair
to bring her back
- Chad Lee Robinson
twilight walk
I let the old dog
wander where he will
- Bill Deegan
tornado watch
carrying the old dog
into the root cellar
- Jerome Cushman
And my own contribution -
listen to the rain
all I can do this morning
with no dog to walk
Cushman is one of our local poets and part of our local haiku group, so it was nice to see his poem. Some other local haiku friends included are Carolyn Coit Dancy, Michael Ketchek, and Deb Koen. The anthology includes submissions from some of the best-known American haiku poets. It also includes works from many lands - after all, though it's "American," anyone can join. Among the nations represented are English-language ones you would expect, like Canada England, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, and Australia. but also such countries as Japan, Malaysia, India, Syria, the West Indies, Bulgaria, Russia, Austria, Portugal, Germany, and Montenegro
In his introduction, Rickert cited two poems in particular - the one that inspired the title, and this one:
rough turbulence
I switch the playlist
to gospel
- Crystal Simone Smith
He noted this one haunted him given our turbulent times, and in his mind the title poem and this one are "linked in some way." His parting wish is "this bundle of wildflowers is our gift to each other and mine to you. Hopefully its beauty can help us get through a little bit longer."
Indeed, in these turbulent times, little gifts of beauty like these haiku can make things easier to bear.
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