Oct. 29/82
Bill Higginson
From Here Press
Box 219
Fanwood, N.J.
07023 USA
Dear Bill,
Delighted to hear from you! Yes, it must be over a decade since
we corresponded, and it sounds as if a lot of water has passed under
both our bridges . . . hopefully our experiences can be incorporated
into our haiku and other poetry . . .
It's funny but I never met a real, live haiku poet (other
than the occasional wanderer I pressed into authorship in my hippie
years) until 1979, when just for the hell of it I decided to attend
a meeting of "The Haiku Society of Canada" at Eric Amman's (sic) house.
I arrived with some trepidation and a 6-pack of beer, and surprise!
everyone present was a real, live writing haiku poet & even more
astounding - fairly normal human beings. I don't know if you have
ever met Eric, but he is a shy, self-effacing guy, sort of a
gnomish Woody Allen without the forced humour. George Swede was
a larger version of a hobbit (not as elfin as Eric - he's since
shaved his beard) - Margaret Saunders is everyone's aunt and granny
in one, Marshall Hryciuk is a big-bearded, big-bellied laughing
Buddha (too much acid? -) etc. A very congenial group, esp. after
we polished off the beer, some saki, a few bottles of wine, etc.
Serious discourse was forced to give way to a round-robin haiku
reading, which eventually 'degenerated' into good natured bantering
about each other's occasional misadventures at authorship. No
blood was shed, the highest accolade I can give. Subsequent
meetings of the HSC and the more recent Toronto Haiku Workshop
have followed pretty well in this tradition.
Anyway, a toast, welcome back to Haiku (for both of us)!
The enclosed collections will update you better (I hope)
than a long and boring letter about my life. Unfortunately, the most
recent work in the collections is about 2 years old, so as soon
as I gain access to a photocopier, I will inundate you with some
more current writing. If you have any available collections of your
work, let's swap!
At his point I was dragged off to a Halloween Party in
my housing co-op - 3 or 4 beers and several hours later I'm back . .
you are of course most welcome to use any of my haiku in any projects
you have in mind .... I'll send you some more recent stuff here as well -
Thanks for the compliments about my haiku (you may have the only
extant copy of "Guest in a Garden", by the way) . . and thanks for the
offer to visit - it's inevitable that we meet - not sure of my status
regarding border crossings (haven't been in the States since '69) . .
I'll try to correspond more frequently than every decade in the future . .
POETRY POWER!!
Chris
no signature available on this carbon copy
Tuesday, 26 December 2023
1982 letter to Bill HIgginson re early Haiku Society of Canada meeting
Tuesday, 3 January 2023
1980s/90s correspondence to Haiku Canada archives
A major part of my donations to Haiku Canada will be correspondence. While searching through ancient boxes I found several folders full of old haiku letters, mags, flyers, posters, reviews, and even a few old haiku newsletters and assorted memorabilia. I think it's key to get this material into the archives asap, as these papers would likely be among the first to be recycled or even burned when I leave this sphere - sad, but true. My good friend and executor is a self-proclaimed redneck, without any interest or knowledge of their value in literary and haiku communities.
To start the process I've been sorting the letters by the names of my correspondents, including both letters to and from me. As it's interesting to give a quick glance through my back pages while sorting, I hope to include occasional brief notes as I prepare items for mailing. As I begin this process, I hope to refine and simplify it as much as possible. This basic cataloguing should help professional library archivists if they chose to refine the cataloguing, and also to give some guidance to anyone interested in researching or just browsing. Pages paper clipped by correspondents.
Marco Fraticelli: early/founding member of Haiku Canada; editor/publisher haiku friendly mag The Alchemist
2 letters from Marco to me and a card
2 letter from me to Marco
copy special haiku limited edition the Alchemist #47 of 100
Dorothy Howard: early/founding member HC, co-edited and published early bilingual anthology with Andre Duhaime, edited/published mag raw nervz, HC archivist, etc. etc.!
approx. 10++ letters from both of us, including some still in envelopes
Hans Jongman: longtime membership secretary for HC
envelope with 2 cards
Michael Dudley: early/founding member HC
1 letter from me and card ad for his collection Man in a Motel Room
Leroy Gorman: early/founding member HC; coordinator HC member broadsheets
1 letter from each of us
George Swede: founding member HC; too many roles and projects to list
2 letters from me; also includes 2 drafts of my review of Eric Amann's Cicada Voices: Selected Haiku of Eric Amann 1966 - 1979, edited by George Swede; for High/Coo Press
~ ~ ~
Chris, it's fantastic that you have these early correspondences to donate!
Best wishes for 2023 to all!
Vicki
(Head archivist Haiku Canada)
Saturday, 10 December 2022
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.
~ ~ ~
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!
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Happy 35th Birthday for Haiku Canada!/memories of founding meeting/1969 haiku chapbook
From: Chris Faiers [mailto:zenriver@sympatico.ca]
Sent: May-07-12 1:21 AM
To: Terry Ann Carter
Subject: donation for HC silent auction
Hi Terry,
Chris the cricket here. As a founding member & longtime supporter of HC I'd
like to make a donation for the silent auction at the upcoming 35th
anniversary ...
... & can it really be 35 years??? - I remember the nervous excitement of
meeting other haiku poets for the first time in Eric Amann's small condo at
Broadview & Danforth - even think I remember where I parked. I lugged along
a 6-pack of Budweiser for protection, in case things got uncomfortable or
too stuffy. No worries - Eric, George Swede, Margaret Saunders and Marshall
Hryciuk were only to eager to share my liquid contribution : ) Memory has
faded a bit, as I'm sure a couple of other founders were there - some faces
have blurred - guess I can blame the Budweiser!
What I'd like to contribute is an 'illuminated' (illustrated with coloured
felt pens) copy of "ZenRiver: Poems & Haibun", & possibly a couple of other
spare author's copies - maybe "Crossing Lines" & "Tough Times: When the
money doesn't love us". I'll rummage thru some of my stacks & see what else
is there (oh yeah, prob. some Unfinished Monument chapbooks - I published
haiku by Marshall, maybe even a rare chapbook I published of Margaret's &
maaayyybeee even a Shaunt Basmajian book? ... be interesting to see what's
in the Unfinished Monument box!!!)
What I'm planning to do is ship the books to you for taking to the meeting.
I left TO 23 years ago, & have lost touch with most haiku people there.
Hope this is OK with you? (and congrats again on taking on the role of
Prez).
If it's OK to ship, are you still at the Stinson Ave. address?
Best wishes for a successful 35th! please give my regards to all ...
peace & poetry power!
Chris/cricket ... and Chase (still going strong at 12+ years) ...
wroooooooffffffffff!
footnote: I'll put in my 2-cents bid here for being one of the first Canadian haijin to publish collections of haiku: in 1969 I self-published two chapbooks, Cricket Formations and Guest in a Garden. Hope they're in the Haiku Canada archives somewhere. If not, following is the text of Cricket Formations, as put online about a decade ago by webmaster Weed.
CRICKET FORMATIONS*********************************** Halloween a young boy in a skeleton suit Rain gray doves strung on a wire Mistletoe falling slowly fading shotgun blast *********************************** In this cove waves stirring palm frond reflections Slug pocked sign rusting testimony to a day's bad hunting Night wind flapping loose weatherproofing *********************************** Blue sea bobbing red and white lobster trap buoy Tree covered campus is this the same park I dreamed in childhood dreams? Light breeze striding across campus a thin professor *********************************** Christmas vacation tame ducks starving by the campus lake New Year's Eve moon shining on tinsel Christmas tree wake Spring sun melting children's snow fort tunnels *********************************** First spring rain mudpuddles crossing the road First green appearing buds on the new stake hedge and chameleons Bay wind blowing Coconut Grove sailboats tinkling rigging *********************************** Lobster antennas waving from the twin caves of a cement block The flower of this old tree a treehouse green garden hose spouting a rainbow *********************************** stone house the roof demolished wallpapers flowers sun Tropical gardens in rough patio stones gray sea fan fossils Cavern pool tourists watching blind fish *********************************** Easter Love-In a longhaired child handing out fruit Summer moonlight rotting on our roof a starfish Summer rented house behind closed windows a mummified frog *********************************** Yellow butterflies, flowers leaves Vine leaves pressing church window *********************************** T V A lake beneath calm water Almond City L S D these clouds reveal too much moon England sheep grazing among gravestones *********************************** Piccadilly Circus Cupid's fountain spraying hippies Mounted sailfish lining the walls of Nassau airport Luxembourg black paint on pink brick U.  . A.*********************************** Brighton Beach sharp rocks stumbling bather reveals smooth round young breasts Channel marker and perched birds pointing home Night beach lovers sharing lifeguard stands *********************************** Western version "LSD" haiku LSD the writing on every wall messages growing on every tree and in a water crystal strung sky iconic clouds shift to clearly reveal the moon *********************************** Time for Peace Poems Ceremonial Smile of the Flower Children glimpsed Shantih* lightens my mind allswell allowing a smile which remains without remembering why * Shantih, the Peace Which Passeth Understanding *********************************** Full Lotus Lethe, body resting the thin white stream released like spider strands (another of nature's soft ladders) climbing higher to its source subtly expanding Blossoms *********************************** Eyes There is something between a flower and a gem Eyes something between love and fidelity your eyes in mine eyes are both gem and flower part iris and part calcite smooth eyeball and more the yearning pupil opens to the mind where we can see into the depths of each other like the many meanings in the multi-faceted crystal the black passage opens to the eternal living eons longer than doomed diamonds and brighter than short lived color reflecting flowers Your eyes Yon eyes must be mine sometime Poetic Conclusion Aye, for we are flowers all Aye, for we are priests all Aye, for we are poets all Aye, for we are poet-priests all Aye, for we shall soon be gods All ************************************** ************************************** |
Chris Faiers (home) | biography & bibliography | Eel Pie Dharma
"Cricket Formations" © Chris Faiers 1969
originally printed in England by C&O PTO, Richmond, Surrey
comments to weed@wussu.com
revised 4 December 2007
URL http://www.eelpie.org/cricket/cricket.htm