Bundled Wildflowers - HSA 2020 Members' Anthology

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.

Pax et bonum