Haiku Canada outsiders and insiders

 
Chris, it was really my own curiosity, asking about Eric Amann's memoir -- in case I, a slow reader, might actually be able to read it in a visit to Special Collections. So, no worries about not including that level of detail.

From what I can tell, Eric and Anna Vakar were both rather 'outsiders,' which is why they clicked on some level, if only for a short time.

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Hi Again Vicki,

It's quite a slight volume, and I'm sure you could read it in an hour or two in a relaxing afternoon in the archives  ;  )

Yes, I'm sure Eric thought of himself as an outsider. While cleaning dinner dishes, I did some further reminiscing about Eric and his involvement with haiku. In his memoir The House on Fountain Street the reader can see why this would be so - he was raised by "rough", working class New Canadians, and he would have stuck out like a sore thumb in that group. He was an intellectual swan in a flock of very supportive adult ducks. My image of his early editorship of Haiku mag is of a lonely, highly intelligent and deeply philosophical person looking for soul connections in the strange universe of NYC. The uniqueness of haiku, its esoteric nature in the still staid Amerikan culture of the early 1960s, would explain its appeal to the young med student/doctor.

It's always dangerous describing someone's looks, but Eric was noticeably different looking. When I finally met him at what I consider the founding meeting of HC circa 1977/78, I thought he looked gnomish or elvin. I bet he was teased a lot in his youth for his immigrant background, his high intelligence, sensitivity and his unusual looks. Definitely the makings of an "outsider" personality.

Regarding the Haiku Society of Canada and it's morphing into Haiku Canada, I can see a profound difference in the personalities of Eric and George Swede and their styles of leadership. Eric the quiet, self-effacing outsider who seemed to want our haiku community to be low key and casually social and individualist. After the initial meeting in Eric's apartment near The Danforth in Toronto, our next gatherings were casual restaurant dinners and get-togethers. I think of George Swede as the flip side of Eric's casualness - the corporate and promotional leader. Of course it took both aspects and the contributions of many, many other haijin to form HC. It bugs me that the founding of HC is described in its online home page as consisting of Eric, George and Betty Drevniok. There were a LOT of other haijin involved! I suspect that the major personality differences between Eric and George caused Eric to move on from George's "corporate" version of HC. After a lot of initial commitment to developing HC, I also became absorbed in my own poetry and writing projects, including founding Unfinished Monument Press and coordinating the Main Street Library poetry readings. In the longer view it took both these competing styles of leadership, and it's likely that without George's more organized and formal leadership style, HC would probably not still exist some 45 years after its founding and we wouldn't be corresponding today about  archival projects!