Refuge for Cranes due in early September

Refuge for Cranes: Praise Poems from the Anthropocene will be available from Wildhouse Publications early September. The poems range in topic from climate fires and the demise of bees to the “transparency of grace” and the “soul’s deep-down unfathoming.” There’s praise here for beauty “glinting among the detritus,” but there’s also a call to action, to restore a damaged world. Poet and author Angela Alaimo O’Donnell has written of the collection that “Refuge for Cranes plunges us wholly into the natural world through a series of poems that are equal parts celebratory, revelatory, and prophetic…Like the cranes that give the book its title, birds rumored to be immortal and wise, the poet bravely writes the truth he sees, “scratching our message to this passing world.”  

Selections from Refuge for Cranes: “Earthbytes”

This poem was a conscious attempt to express the need for active involvement in the environmental crisis, without being “preachy.” I really wanted to write a poem that encourages commitment to conservation and mindful living. This isn’t necessarily that poem, but it’s a start. It began with a fragment of a line from several years ago, “like the bulb that from darkness emits the bloom,” and evolved from there. Yes, the current crisis is dire but I believe we can make a difference. It won’t be easy, but what’s the alternative?

Earthbytes

Perform your natural magic

like the bulb that emits the bloom.

Be in harmony with the brown bear,

the moon, and the music of reeds.

Restore the oceans and rivers,

the kelp forests, marshes and bays.

Repair the hives of bees

and the resting places of monarchs.

Embrace the other, brother and sister.

See no one and nothing as the enemy.

Notice this place as if for the first time

as if it was your own skin, your own bones —

draw strength here, and return it.

                  –  jg

Green Zendo Haiku

Recent Haiku

Night Train, a sampling of my haiku, was recently selected by Buttonhook Press (an imprint of OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters) and is set to be released in a free, PDF format. These twenty-five haiku celebrate night and the wonder of the passing moment. I’ll post more information here as the publication date nears.

silver morning: cattails, April, 2023

peeling posters: hedgerow: a journal of small poems, #142

Flowers of Emptiness

Avrom Altman began his Buddhist studies in 1969, sitting zazen at Tassajara Zen Center with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. A Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Hokomi Therapist, he’s also Professor Emeritus at Pacifica Graduate Institute. The haiku in his new book, Flowers of Emptiness, sketch a life lived with “an astonished heart.” Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D, has written, “I loved reading them and delighted further in rereading them…Let them resonate within you.” Flowers of Emptiness: Imaginal Haiku (Sungold Editions, 2023)

Opportunities                                                                

bottle rockets press is now accepting haiku, senryu, and other small poem submissions (up to 10 samples) until May 15^th. Submissions by snail mail only. Please see the site for more details. https://www.bottlerocketspress.com

Presence Haiku Journal, out of Britain, is accepting haiku, tanka, senryu, and related material for both print and online publication from April 15^th to May 31^st. For details, visit https://www.haikupresence.org

The Heron’s Nest, a quarterly online journal, is offering cash prizes for winning entries in the Peggy Willis Lyle Haiku Awards, open now until June 1^st. Judging is blind and there is no entry fee. For details visit https://www.theheronsnest.com

Karumi

The quality of karumi, or lightness, can be found in Basho’s haiku as early as 1667. He was twenty-three years old when he wrote the following:*

cherry blossoms

in the breeze — breaking out

in laughter 

Haruo Shirane, Chair of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University, has described karumi as “a focus on everyday subject matter, on the use of ordinary language, and on a relaxed rhythmical, seemingly artless expression.” Here the traditional topic of cherry blossoms takes on an unusually welcome aspect. Rather than contrasting the beauty of the flowers with sadness at their brevity, for instance, Basho depicts the exuberance of the moment. Is it the blossoms that have broken out in laughter or the poet? Or both? In this case, ambiguity adds to the impact of the lines.

Much haiku is celebratory in nature. An exclamatory haiku such as the one above is a good example of this. Another approach, common to the Basho school of haiku, presents two juxtaposed images, offering up a view that embraces them both. Below, a view of the garden, written near the end of Basho’s life, evokes a minimalist yet wholistic response: 

morning dew —

muddy melons

on the ground

Here there’s no trace of poetic conceit, just the pristine scene as Basho found it. In that sense, karumi may be considered not only in its literal sense as “not heavy or dark” but as possessed of a light artistic touch, allowing the reader to bring to the scene what he or she will. Even on his deathbed, Basho found an unexpected lightness:

flies everywhere —

how lucky they are to meet up

with a sick man

In the 20^th century, Nakagawa Soen was a lifelong practitioner of haiku. As a literature student at Tokyo Imperial University, he wrote his thesis on Basho and later became a Zen monk and teacher. This haiku, written in 1946, presents two images pointing to the connection of ordinary things:

small plums

and dewdrops —

alive together

Although penetrating, there’s nothing heavy about these lines. Instead there’s a clarity and freshness, and a sense of happiness at the simple pleasures. We, too, are alive together with the plums and the dewdrops. How wonderful! These are the primary characteristics of karumi.

*all versions by jg