haiku correspondence Elizabeth Searle Lamb and 1990 Cordova Mines haiku

 

Elizabeth Searle Lamb

American poet

Elizabeth Searle Lamb was an American poet. She is known for writing English-language haiku. Raymond Roseliep called her the "First Lady of American haiku". Her work has been translated into other languages. Wikipedia

Born: January 22, 1917, Topeka, Kansas, United States

Died: February 16, 2005, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States

Books: Inside Me, Outside Me: Songs to Sing, Games, Rhymes, Puzzles, and Think Poems, A Light in the Darkness: Stories about God's Mysterious Ways from Guideposts and Today and Every Dayfrom me to Elizabeth Searle Lamb Jan. 31, 1990
Cordova Mines, Ontario

 

                                                 ~    ~    ~    ~

 

from me to Elizabeth Searle Lamb Jan. 31, 1990
Cordova Mines, Ontario

Elizabeth Lamb
FROGPOND
970 Acequia Madre
Santa Fe, New Mexico
87501
U.S.A.

Dear Elizabeth,

Thank you for your letter (of Oct.27) and the Christmas card.
Sorry to take so long replying; I had my first attack of kidney
stones in ten years over the holidays. Combined with a bout of the
flu, all activities were stopped in their tracks. Now I'm
feeling a lot better, taking lots of hikes back on the snowmobile
trails with my boarder's dog - there are beaver dams (& lodges),
deer tracks, snowshoe rabbits and last week I flushed about
thirty grouse.

Really enjoyed CASTING INTO A CLOUD. My favourite so far is:

all night
singing in the bathroom
autumn crickets

I was pleased to note that you published it with Bill Higginson's
press. Bill and I corresponded back in the late sixties, and
recently we have begun corresponding again (well, at least every
few years). Thanks also for signing my copy, and I was overwhelmed
with your dedication.

Last week I sent you a copy of my collection FOOT THROUGH THE CEILING.
It's my first major collection so far, and it includes longer poems
as well as haiku/senryu. I also put together a dummy of my first
chapbook, CRICKET FORMATIONS. "Cricket" was my nom de plume in the
sixties.

I'm enclosing some unpublished haiku with this letter for your con-
sideration for FROGPOND. They are all about life here in Cordova
Mines. They are so recent to me, I'm not 100% sure of their quality,
so it'll be interesting to me to see if you think any are worthy
of publication.

Work is proceeding well on the haibun. I have copytyped all but five
of the twenty-eight or so vignettes. Will send you a draft copy as
soon as I finish.

POETRY POWER!
Chris  

in the hamlet
my rubbish fire
more fun than TV

burning rubbish
smoke and neighbour
follow me

birds chirp
in the shared garage
until the door opens

distant smoky line
becomes a V of ducks
returning north

bright yellow
on my empty clothesline
a wild canary

after the rainstorm
  turtle trapped
in the middle of the road

after the rain
Stones on the stereo
wild canary lands

garter snakes
entwining
on my front stoop

new canoe
paddling cautiously
among fall leaves

after canoeing
writing haiku
instead of my novel

our car scares up
buzzard feeding
raccoon roadkill

painting my canoe green
snake slithers away
through high grass

blue flowers
  up the hill
     vacant cottage

searching for moth eggs
her jeans
stretching

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

to be published in next members'
anthology of Haiku Canada:

September
crickets invade
haikuist's house

& submitted to theJapan Air Lines contest:

orange leaves
drained hatchery beds
sunning

temp job
outside the fence
wild grapes

early snowfall
in stretched twilight
kids roll snowmen

In a letter from me to Elizabeth on August 2, 1990 I thank her for accepting 3 of the above haiku for publication in Frogpond. Which 3 I don't have a clue  ;  )-