Haiku Canada Archives: Nicholas Virgilio and Michael Dudley

 Hi All,

Vicki reminded me that I'm slowing down with my donations, so I thought I'd better get these two important collections in the mail asap  ;  )  

The first is the Selected Haiku of Nicholas Virgilio published in 1988 by Canadian presses Burnt Lake Press and Black Moss Press. The intro is by Canadian haijin Rod Willmot. Virgilio was one of the most influential earlier English language haijin. His classic haiku is:

Lily:
out of the water ...
out of itself


The second donation is series three through six in a limited first edition of 125 copies published by Wind Chimes Press in 1986.

There is an interesting dedication to me dated 4 October 1986 The Fallout Shelter

To Chris,

among flickering
but distant light -

with warmest wishes,
Michael

We must have done a group haiku reading that night in Toronto, although my memory is vague on the event. It was an extremely busy and "crazy" time for me with projects and dealing with my starter house in Toronto.

my memory was jogged by Michael memorializing the event by burning the bottom corner of the page in a candle flame  


the first haiku of his series "On Strike"

broken hockey stick
shaft
of a strike sign



off to the post office on this rainy spring day -

 

spring cleaning

more books

off to the archives

 (for Vicki, Heather, KJ, and Lara)

Chris/cricket

day moon rising (book review)

day moon rising, by Terry Ann Carter
Black Moss Press, 2012
72 pages, $17
isbn 978-0-88753-499-7


day moon rising
on the bodhisattva path

As a fellow haijin, I couldn't resist turning the title of Terry Ann Carter's new collection from Black Moss Press into a haiku. The cover illustration lends credence to my intuition that Terry IS on the Buddha path, or more particularly the path of the bodhisattvas, enlightened beings who return to aid humans with our enlightenments. The black & white photo of a stone female bodhisattva is overlaid with psychedelic floral and bird patterns - bright painted red lips identify the Buddha's sex.

The content further reveals Terry's Buddhist calling to our truest inner beings. There are tens of thousands of haiku poets worldwide now - possibly haiku is the most rapidly growing literary form on the planet. At its most basic level, writing three lines of imagistic poetry just isn't that hard to do. So it's the content, and the intent of the haijin/poet, which matters most. Otherwise, it's just three clever lines, or 'haikuish', with no heart or soul or wisdom (academic poseurs, and there are many hundreds of you cluttering and ego tripping in the haiku world now, please take note!)

This slim book documents Terry's recurring visits to a land of 'the Heart of Darkness', Cambodia. As a member of The Tabitha Foundation of Canada, Terry works with teams, including Cambodians, to build houses. I hadn't heard of this incredible program until I read her book, and miraculously, more than one and a half million Cambodians have been helped out of poverty and despair by this Canadian foundation.

As mentioned, Terry is a master haijin, and current President of Haiku Canada. But most of the poetry is longer in form, and truly heart wrenching. Amid heat and sweat stench she records eight-year-old girls forced into prostitution and infection with AIDS and other horrors. As a Buddhist, Terry doesn't flinch from acknowledging these truths of suffering, and yet somehow I came away from reading this collection feeling hopeful and inspired.

I have read this book twice, both times sitting on the deck of the shaman shack at my ZenRiver Gardens retreat. In a mild state of reverie before the initial reading, I was thinking of lotus flowers, as one is in the first stages of bloom across the river. So synchronicity greeted me with a wakening slap from the first poem:


Wild Lotus
  (after Mary Oliver)

You do not have to be vigilant.
You do not have to be aware of every little sign.
You do not have to record the millions buried.
It is an insurmountable task.

You can't set down the facts.
You can't go ghost
hunting in the fields of mines.
You can't even say you have a stake
in this harvest.

Whoever you are
know that the wild lotus
that blossoms in the filth of ponds
is pure.

There are moments of humour amid the horror and sweat-dripping labours, as in the poem "For the Tuk Tuk Drivers'

who know these roads like a crab
knows sand.


but the horror is always present:

in the glass case of skulls,
a reflection
of my own face

and beauty will not be denied:

through the dragonflies' wings
the sky
bluer


At this historic juncture on planet Earth, we desperately need more poets and haijin of this calibre. Poets simultaneously able to live and lead and record the inward and outward journeys which all beings will eventually experience. Congratulations to Black Moss Press for publishing this unique book, and to Terry Ann Carter, who is showing us how to be fully and deeply human.

Namaste,
peace & poetry power!
Chris Faiers/cricket

Note: This review was published in the Haiku Canada e-Newsletter, Summer 2012 (part 2)
late June
 

Happy 35th Birthday for Haiku Canada!/memories of founding meeting/1969 haiku chapbook

This Victoria Day weekend Haiku Canada (founded as the Haiku Society of Canada) will mark our 35th anniversary. Some blurry memories of our founding meeting follow:

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 ************************************** **************************************

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"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