Dear Friends,
I’m taking a break from the blog this month, returning in August. Meanwhile, here’s a link to Phyllis Cole Dai’s website, where an interview appeared on her newsletter, The Raft, on May 28th.
The image below features a quote from a poem in my forthcoming collection “Refuge for Cranes.”
Enjoy the summer, and stay safe. See you soon!
Best,
Jerry
To hear a selection of poems from the book read by Lisa De Lay, visit lisadelay.com.
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 15th. 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 15th to May 31st. 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 1st. 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 20th 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
The Wayless Way
“Within each of us is a divine treasure, and if we hope to discover it we need to go deep into the heart of who we are.” – Meister Eckhart
Readers of Meister Eckhart’s Book of Darkness and Light: Meditations on the Path of the Wayless Way (Hampton Roads), by Mark S. Burrows and Jon M. Sweeney, will no doubt appreciate these lucid translations in poetic form, taken from the “treatises” of Christian mystic Meister Eckhart (1260-1328). The writings of the controversial priest point to a “wayless way” toward inclusive love. “There is a light within you, in your soul, uncreated and uncreateable; it simply is,” Eckhart wrote. “What Coleman Barks has done for Rumi, Sweeney and Burrows have done for Eckhart — making his insight accessible and his wisdom sing,” observed Carl McColman, author of The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism and Eternal Heart.
Poetry of Presence
This hefty anthology (252 pages) collects some of the best work of contemporary poets, including Ellen Bass, Billy Collins, Jane Hirshfield, Derek Walcott, Li-Young Lee, Tich Nhat Hanh, Alice Walker, and Joy Harjo, along with ancient poets such as Li-Po, Hafiz, and Rumi. A treasure trove of poems from diverse voices, it reminds us that mindfulness is accessible in the midst of everyday activities. Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, Grayson Books, edited by Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R. Wilson. (Poetry of Presence II is due in May, 2023.)
Poetry of Awakening
This volume collects 78 poems, written mainly by Buddhist and Daoist poets from across the first millennium. Translated by Joe Lamport, the poems in The Poetry of Awakening: An Anthology of Spiritual Chinese Poetry (Fomite) express a sense of liberation through language. A later poem by Su Shui illustrates this paradoxical practice:*
“The bubbling stream is his voice,
the mountains his vast body.
The night bird sings sutras of wisdom —
how can I possibly convey this to others?”
*version by jg
Mountains and Rivers Mind
“The mind is no other than mountains and rivers, the great wide earth, the sun, the moon, the stars.”
– Dogen
Author and Zen Roshi Ruben Habito tells the story of his teacher Yamada Koun Roshi, who was riding on a train from Tokyo to Kamakura many years ago. He was reading from a book by the 13th century founder of Soto Zen, Eihei Dogen, when he came across the above line that stirred something deep in him. He began laughing, trying hard not to make a spectacle of himself. But lying in bed that night, the line returned with a vengeance. With a “loud burst of laughter,” he realized clearly what it was pointing to — that mountains and rivers, all things of the earth, the sun, moon, and stars, indeed all people everywhere were “no other than me,” that “they are me and I am them.” Experiencing Buddhism: Ways of Wisdom and Compassion, by Ruben L. Habito, Orbis Books; Mountains and Waters Sutra (Sansuiko), translated by Shohaku Okumura with an introduction by Gary Snyder, Wisdom Publications.
New Collection Slated for 2023
I’m very happy to report that my new collection, Refuge for Cranes: Praise Poems from the Anthropocene, will be the first volume of a poetry series by Wildhouse Publications. Slated for mid-2023, it explores the intersection between inner and outer landscapes, finding refuge in nature, art, and awareness itself. Poems range in topic from climate fires and the demise of bees, to the “transparency of grace” and “the soul’s deep-down unfathoming.” These poems were a way to address my fears about the environment, even as I continue to find beauty all around. Someone used the term eco-grief to describe the psychological effect of the crisis we’re living through — the sorrow at seeing habitats destroyed and species gone forever, and that was part of my impetus. But as the subtitle indicates, they’re also poems of praise. My thanks to everyone at Wildhouse Publications for welcoming this project and for bringing poetry to the forefront during these challenging times. (I’ll post details about ordering, etc., as soon as they’re available.)
Sandhill Crane Conservation
In 1937, conservationist Aldo Leopold warned in his essay, “Marshland Elegy,” that upper Midwest Sandhill Cranes were in danger of extinction. But with the support of farmers, wetland restoration, and changed hunting practices, their population rose from just 25 breeding pairs in Wisconsin to over 15, 000 today, while the eastern population is around 90,000 (“A Conservation Success Story,” October 26, 2022, www.https://wpr.org). Yet cranes still remain at risk throughout the world, with 10 out of 15 species endangered, including Greater and Lesser Sandhill Cranes of California’s Central Valley. The International Crane Foundation “works worldwide to conserve cranes and the ecosystems, watersheds and flyways on which they depend,” according to their mission statement. To learn more and how you can help visit www.https://savingcranes.org.
Writing Opportunities
Wildhouse Poetry, a new imprint of Wildhouse Publications (WHP), is sponsoring a chapbook contest to launch their new poetry series. Offering publication and $500 to the winner, the contest will be judged by Jane Hirshfield. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, WHP “exists to bring transformative spiritual insights to people for whom traditional resources may not fit,” according to their homepage. The non-profit indie press is also considering full-length poetry, fiction, and non-fiction manuscripts through Submittable (https://www.wildhousepublishing.com/WiPo).
Happy New Year!
(Coming up: Writing the New Year Haiku)
A Place for Joy
The poet Carl Phillips said in an interview recently that, “A place must be made, still, for joy.” That’s probably always been the case but these days the need to cultivate positive feelings and attitudes may seem more critical. May we all find a time and place for joy, now, and in the days to come.
Pushcart Nomination
“Encomium for a Garden” (Spiritus, Fall 2022), was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. This is one of those serendipitous poems that practically wrote itself. I may have changed a word or two and then changed it/them back, again. This is my favorite kind of poem to write, one that flows easily from pen to paper. My thanks to the editor, Mark Burrows, for forwarding it.
Winter Workshops
Cassie Premo Steel, author of Earth Joy Writing: Creating Harmony thorough Journaling and Nature, will lead an online writing workshop, Release the Dark, Receive the Light, sponsored by Ashland Creek Press, on January 2, at 11:a.m. www.https://ashlandcreekpress.com
Robin Farr, poet and co-editor of River Heron Review, will lead a four-session online workshop, Poetry Boost: From Title to Publication on Thursday nights from November 10 to December 8. www.https://riverheronreview.com
Writing Opportunities
Emergence Magazine
An online magazine with an annual print edition, Emergence publishes essays, op-eds, films, and audio stories about the “timeless connections between ecology, culture, and spirituality,” according to their homepage. Focusing on “long-form content that is both thought-provoking and evergreen,” they also offer a weekly podcast with interviews, narrated essays, fiction, and more. www.https://emergencemagazine.org
Passager Journal and Books
Dedicated to the work of writers over the age of 50, Passager Journal publishes a twice-yearly print edition and now features a weekly podcast, too. Passager Books focuses on poetry collections, short fiction, and anthologies by writers who’ve been published in the journal and offers the Morgenthau Prize for a first book of poetry by a writer age 70 or older. www.https://passagerbooks.com
The Cincinnati Review is seeking poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and translations through December. (Submissions close once they meet their cap.) A print magazine out of the University of Cincinnati, it pays $30 per page for poetry. www.https://cincinnatireview.com
KAIROS Literary Magazine
Founded in 2016, this online magazine is looking for poetry, creative nonfiction, and op-ed pieces. Published tri-annually, submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. www.https://kairoslit.com
Prairie Schooner is a print quarterly published by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. They’re seeking essays, interviews, reviews, short stories, and poetry now until May 1st. The Raz-Shumaker Book Prize opens January 15th. www.https://prairieschooner.unl.edu
In Praise of the Natural World
Attention is the beginning of devotion.
– Mary Oliver
Praise seemed to come instinctively to Mary Oliver. One of the most popular late twentieth-century poets, Oliver’s attention was often focused on the woods, ponds, and beaches that she explored in forays around her home in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In Upstream (2016), a collection of essays on nature and literature, she notes that early on she “did not think of language as the means to self-description…” but as a way “to notice, to contemplate, to praise…” One of my favorite poems, from New and Selected Poems Volume One (winner of the National Book Award) is “Little Owl Who Lives in the Orchard.” It captures me from the first line and doesn’t let go until the last line. I could say the same for most of Oliver’s poems, but this one feels as if I’m right there in the orchard listening to a youngish owl “flutter down the little aluminum ladder of his scream.”
If “attention is the beginning of devotion,” as she wrote, then wonder may be the beginning of praise — for the fox “so quiet — he moves like a red rain,” for the hawk with “one exquisite foot” attached to a twig, even for “The cracked bones/of the owl’s most recent feast…” For Oliver, attention most often means being in the presence of, whether it’s the owl in the orchard, a hermit crab on the beach, a hummingbird in a trumpet vine, or egrets at the edge of a pond. This attention to wildlife and the environment alerts her to possibility — the possibility of danger, of beauty, of death, of life, or simply of nothing “but the cold creek moving/over the old pebbles…”
Unlike the narrative “I” of Whitman, who she considered a childhood “friend,” Oliver’s “I” enjoys a relative position in the background. From this vantage point, she offers observations rich with detail, color, and music. She’s not afraid to use a well-placed exclamation point occasionally, or just as often, a question mark. “Are you listening, death?” she asks in “The Rabbit.” These kinds of questions don’t always come with answers, of course, but reflect a sense of mystery that permeates her work, a respect for not knowing and for silence.
She had her darker moments, some of them probably attributable to childhood trauma. In “A Visitor,” she struggles to come to grips with her estrangement from her father, a subject she discussed frankly in her later years. In one of her most well-known poems, “Wild Geese,” she writes, “Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine./Meanwhile the world goes on.” If there’s a secret to her appeal, I think it’s that she comes to the poem with an inclusive love for the world in all its imperfections — that and a willingness to embrace it again and again.
Writing Prompt: Gratitude
For this prompt, make a list of ten things you’re grateful for. They might be ordinary items around you — just-picked tomatoes, a set of salt and pepper shakers, or a glass of water, for instance, or they might be something more personal such as a family member, pet, or a prized possession. After completing your list, select the most promising subject and write continuously about that for at least five minutes, or more. When you’ve run out of steam, take a look at what you’ve come up with. Is there a poem there, or more than one poem? After fine-tuning your work, let it sit for several days. Then go back and have a second look. If it’s redundant, remove the deadwood. If it feels incomplete, you may want to weave in some additional details, or consider posing a question and answering it.
Writing Opportunities
Poetry Northwest is accepting poetry submissions from October 1st to November 30th. https://www.poetrynw.org
The Colorado Prize for Poetry is open for submissions of full-length manuscripts (48-100 pages) from October 1st to January 14th. https://www.coloradoreview.colostate.edu
Haiku as Discovery
Haiku sometimes arrive intact and read just right. But more often than not (at least in my case), they can benefit from revision. This process is the subject of the article, “Haiku as Discovery,” forthcoming in the fall issue of Seashores, #8 (https://www.haikuspirit.org).
Recent Haiku
old pine: Modern Haiku, issue #54.1, Fall 2022
empty swings: Haiku Corner, Japan Society, #34, 2022
walking (under redwoods): Seashores, issue #8, Fall, 2022
Inquiry as a Poetic Tool
Questions naturally arise in first drafts but they can help during the later stages of composition, too, if we’re stalled, or seeking to develop a theme. The right question can move us from reason to intuition, from the prosaic to the unexpected.The following questions all have one thing in common — they ask “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” or “how:”
“What is the world?”(from Book of a Monastic Life, by Rilke)
“Which side am I supposed to be on?” (from the poem of the same title by W.H. Auden)
“How can you look at the Neva…?” (from White Flock, by Anna Akhmatova)
“Oh, what will I do, what will I say, when…?” (from The Swan, by Mary Oliver)
“What can I say to someone…?” (from The Fire in the Center, by Rumi)
“Don’t you want God to want you?” (from The Tradition, by Jericho Brown)
“And what did I do today?” (from Kennedy’s Inauguration, by Robert Bly)
“When did we enter the heartless age?” (from Heartland, by Lisel Mueller)
Writing Opportunities
The Maine Review is open for submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry (including hybrid forms) from September 1st to November 30th. A triannual online journal, MeR “publishes culturally significant writing by writers living in Maine, across the country, and around the world. https://www.mainereview.com
Third Coast Magazine, out of Western Michigan University, will be accepting poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction from September 15th to October 15th. Work published in Third Coast has gone on to win both O’Henry Prizes and Pushcart Prizes. https://www.thirdcoastmagazine.com
modern haiku is accepting haiku now until November 15th. www.https://modernhaiku.org
The San Francisco Renaissance
The First Festival of Modern Poetry took place in San Francisco in April, 1947. Organized by Madeleine Gleason, founder of the San Francisco Poetry Guild, the two-night event featured readings by twelve poets including Gleason, William Everson (Brother Antonius), Robert Duncan, Muriel Rukeyser, and Kenneth Rexroth. Together with poets Robert Creeley, Kay Boyle, and other transplants to the Bay Area, they comprised what came to be known as the San Francisco Renaissance. Although her work was overshadowed by the advent of the Beats in the mid-1950s, Gleason continued to publish throughout the 1960s and 70s. Her poetry was featured in Donald Allen’s The New American Poetry:1945-1960 and Collected Poems:1919-1979, with an introduction by Robert Duncan, was published posthumously in 1999. Samples of her work can be found at www.poetryfoundation.com.
Exploring North Beach and Telegraph Hill
Centered around Washington Square, just below Telegraph Hill, San Francisco’s North Beach district is the kind of neighborhood where poets scribble at sidewalk cafes and seniors practice Tai Chi in the park. Although the Beat movement that once flourished there is long gone, you can still get a feel for it at Café Trieste, 601 Vallejo Street. It’s a good spot to sip a cappuccino at a sidewalk table while writing in your journal or catching up on emails. Just up the street from Café Trieste, The Beat Museum, 540 Broadway (near the corner of Columbus Avenue), features books, manuscripts and ephemera of poet Allen Ginsberg (Howl), novelist Jack Kerouac (On the Road), and other North Beach habitués of the 1950s and 60s.
No tour of North Beach would be complete without a visit to City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue (near Broadway). Co-founded by legendary poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who served as San Francisco’s first poet laureate, it carries a wide range of literature, counter culture magazines, and poetry broadsides. You’re likely to find a copy of Diane Di Prima’s Recollections of My Life as a Woman on the shelves, along with Ferlinghetti’s classic, A Coney Island of the Mind, not to mentionan array of current releases.
Vesuvio Cafe, 255 Columbus Avenue (across Jack Kerouac Alley from City Lights), has been a bohemian watering hole since the 1940’s. Enjoy a glass of wine and people watch from a window seat, or jot down some random free verse on your napkin.
On and Off the Streets
San Francisco has changed dramatically over the years but it’s still a place of surprising beauty. Although much of the downtown and South of Market areas have acquired a bland, corporate look, North Beach has managed to maintain its quirky charm. Part of the fun of exploring the area is leaving your car behind. Narrow side streets are lined with bay-windowed flats while sidewalks merge into stairways that practically beg to be investigated. If you’ve got your walking shoes on, head up Telegraph Hill Boulevard to Coit Tower and Pioneer Park for the 360-degree bay and city views. Funded by Lillian Hitchcock Coit, the tower was designed in a pared down classical style by Arthur Brown, who also designed City Hall, and was completed in 1933. After checking out the tower’s WPA murals by artists such as Clifford Wright, consider trekking down the Filbert Steps on the eastern side of the hill where a colorful flock of green parrots can sometimes be seen. At the bottom of the steps you’ll find Levi-Strauss Plaza with its “participatory” fountain, just across from the palm tree-lined Embarcadero.
Summer Reading
Did you know that you can borrow digital and audio books for free on your library card? Just download the Hoopla and Libby Apps on your device, set up your account, and you can borrow up to six books for a month at a time. (An added advantage of Libby is that it works with Kindle.)
Opportunities
Salt Hill Journal is now accepting poetry submissions to September 5th, along with nonfiction, fiction, and art year round. https://salthilljournal.net
Parenthesis Journal is now accepting poetry submissions to September 1st, along with art and photographs. https://parenthesisjournal.com
Orison Books is now accepting entries in multiple genres for a chapbook contest to July 1st. Manuscripts should be between 25-45 pages. https://orisonbooks.com
Haiku Notes
Recently, I’ve been updating a batch of haiku and adding newer ones to the mix. The goal is to get them into publishable form, but the more immediate focus is just on relaxing and enjoying the process. There’s another factor at play, too, and that’s the benefit to be had from a regular practice that builds on itself. Time spent at the keyboard or easel (or engaged in any art form) is nurturing time for the psyche. I don’t think we can ever get too much of that.
Voices of Nature
With its de-emphasis on the “I” and emphasis on nature, traditional haiku often invite us to let go of our preoccupations, if only for a moment. The following haiku by Issa (1763-1827) is a good example of that:*
at home on a branch
racing downriver — a cricket
chirruping
This piece locates the reader in its environment with just two words, “branch” and “downriver.” Here, the cricket appears as a locus of experience, at home and singing from its perch as the world rushes by.
One of Basho’s students, who later became a nun, Chigestsu (1632-1706) was also adept at conveying the voices of nature:*
songbird riffing
outside the window — pausing
from dishwashing
Here’s another domestic scene, this one from Ryokan (1758-1831):*
sounds of pot scrubbing
mixed with the voices
of tree frogs
A good haiku offers more than an escape from our cares; it may also depict them as universal, as these lines by Chigetsu suggest:*
a murmur now,
cry of the katydid
grown old
Onitsura (1660-1738) manages to depict the music of silence in these three lines, no small feat:*
silent music
of blossoms, drifting
through air
This one, by Buson (1716-1784), isn’t exactly a voice, yet still evokes its subject:*
winter night —
the patter of rats, walking
across dishes
A follower of Pure Land Buddhism, Issa suggests a kinship between nature and faith in the following haiku. There’s something about the call of geese overhead that commands attention and announces our “place in the family of things,” as Mary Oliver has put it:*
passing overhead,
a flock of wild geese, chanting
Amida Buddha’s name
Besides his well-known lines about the dreams of “lost warriors,” written in 1689 (and mentioned in my last post), Basho wrote another war-related haiku that year after visiting a shrine to the warrior Sanemori:*
how sorrowful —
under an old helmet,
cries of a cricket
Is Basho’s sorrow for the cricket and/or Sanemori? Or is it for the folly of war, in general? This piece leaves much unsaid. What does it evoke for you? For more on this subject, see Basho’s classic Narrow Road to the Interior and Other Writings.
*versions by jg
Haiku Writing Prompt:
Find a comfortable and safe place in nature to relax for ten minutes or more. Begin by jotting down a list of any sounds you may hear, whether natural or mechanical. Select one and then add to this an appropriate kigo or seasonal word that connotes the time of year. (Some examples of words for summer that appear in kigo dictionaries are dandelion, sunflower, lightning, summer dew, ice water, firefly, and so on.) Practice shaping the words you selected into phrases that form a viable haiku, whether in a 5-7-5 syllable format or something close to that. Limit the number of syllables to 17, more or less. Then go back and look at your lines again, making any changes or additions that clarify or add depth.
April is Poetry Month
National Poetry Month began in April, 1996, spearheaded by the Academy of American Poets. Visit their website to sign up for Poem-a-Day, to order a free poster, and find out the many ways you can celebrate poetry at home and in the classroom. www.poets.org
The Beauty of Passing Things
Traditional Japanese haiku often show an appreciation for the aesthetic of transience, known as mono no aware (the beauty of passing things). The following two haiku by Basho, below, include seasonal references, evoking transience with images from the natural world:*
spring fades —
birds cry out, and tears
blur the eyes of carp
In these lines, Basho depicts nature as sentient. Birds and fish seem to be aware of spring’s passing, possibly even lamenting it. There’s an intimacy that suggests the poet shares a connection with the creatures and cycles of nature.
This next one, written at the site of a famous battle, reminds me of Shelley’s poem Ozymandias. Both deal with the folly of dreams of conquest, yet Basho’s lines suggest the element of rebirth in nature and, by extension, in human nature:*
dried grasses —
all that remains of the dreams
of lost warriors
*versions by jg
Recent Publications
Humana Obscura is a print and online journal that focuses on work “where the human element is concealed but not entirely absent, aiming to revive the nature genre,” according to their website. Founded in 2020, they seek poetry, short prose, and artwork in a variety of mediums. “Notes from Snow Mountain” (Spring 2022, issue #4) is a brief account of a hiking trip on Mt. Lassen, known originally by the name Snow Mountain (or Kohm Yah-mah-nee in Maidu). www.humanaobscura.com
Canary is an online journal “that explores one’s engagement with the natural world.” They seek poetry, essays, and fiction “that address the environmental crisis with its heartbreaking loss of habitat and species.” “Sleeping Deer in the Afternoon” (Spring 2022, issue #56) depicts an encounter with a group of deer sleeping in an orchard. www.canarylitmagazine.org
cattails is an online journal that publishes “new and unpublished English haiku, senryu , tanka, and haibun with translations in the poets’ own language. “baby squirrel” (April 2022) was written several years ago, but the use of the adverb “this” suggests otherwise. www.cattailsjournal.com
Jerome Gagnon Blog 