Bottom: Coquina Haiku Circle Broadside with poems by Sandi, Dennis, Antoinette, Michael, and Paula
Greetings, Poetry Lovers!
Our Haiku Society of America Spring meeting in St. Augustine, hosted by the Southeast region weekend before last, was a wonderful time of poetry, catching up with friends, and making new ones. Hats off to Regional Coordinator Michael Henry Lee and the local Coquina Haiku Circle for making everyone feel welcome.
Highlights for me included hanging out with several dear haiku peeps, as well as some of our own kidlit/Poetry Friday friends, too – Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, Stephanie Salkin, and Patricia Cruzan. It was great meeting HSA President Fay Aoyagi in person, as well as Frogpond editor Michael Ketchek. I thoroughly enjoyed learning from fellow presenters Tom Painting, Stanford Forrester, and Antionette Libro. And Michael Henry Lee led us in a T'ai Chi demonstration Sunday morning which brought back memories of the sequence I learned a million years ago!
Antoinette (Toni) let me bring my wee beastie, our 3 ½-pound Chihuahua, Rita, to her house for a while after checking out of my inn Sunday morning so I could participate in the group outing to The Alligator Farm, and our closing brunch. Thanks, Toni!
Toni and the other Coquina Haiku Circle members (including Dennis, who was not able to attend the conference) do some amazing things, including producing beautiful broadsides with haiku from each member presented on large sheets (designed by Linda Bigbee). Circle member Paula Moore edits these. In our goodie bags was their new edition, along with a small coquina block from St. Augustine. It is now sharing space with the coquina piece I was given as a gift a couple of years ago, when I was regional coordinator. What a generous group!
The participating poets have given me permission to share a few of their broadside poems here today. I've picked a couple from each. (I've kept the formatting from the broadside, which you can see in the picture above.)
Enjoy!
beach walk
my mind blossoms
into hallelujah
city streets the urge to follow a seagull
Sandi Pray
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early spring…
a fish scale pattern
at low tide
early spring…
yesterday a pop
today a BANG
Dennis M. Holmes
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summer mass
a little beach sand stirs
in the holy water
riding the spray
of the breaking wave
dragonfly
Antoinette Libro
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ghost crabs
sometime between midnight
and 3 a.m.
nude beach
working off
a tan line
Michael Henry Lee
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high season
hurricane-twisted trees
at rest
heat wave the salon paints my toenails emerald city
Paula Moore
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All poems © their authors. Many thanks, all, for sharing!!
Now, aren't you ready for the beach? We've got all the kids coming in this weekend, and the beach bags packed. Stay cool, and dive on into more poetic treasures with always-cool Mary Lee at A Year of Reading.