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)

review EEL PIE ISLAND DHARMA in HAIKU CANADA REVIEW

Eel Pie Island Dharma: a hippie memoir/haibun, by Chris Faiers, Hidden Brook Press,
(wwwHiddenBrookPress.com), ISBN 978-1897475-92-8, 2012, 122 pp. perfect-bound, $17.95

They say that if you can remember the sixties, you weren't actually there. Fortunately, this isn't always the case. In his haibun memoir, Eel Pie Island Dharma, Chris Faiers recounts his adventures as a survivor of those infamous years. Hippies, junkies, bikers and school girls all traipsed through the derelict Eel Pie Island Hotel in the late sixties, and Faiers was among them. If you are one of those who lived through those years, this book will provide you with enough flashbacks to keep you going for quite a while. If you are too young, or too old, or too cautious to have experienced those days firsthand, this is your chance to find out what it was all about. The following is a sample:

A path led down a lane to the monastery and the temple beside it. The service consisted of all present sitting in meditation in the comfortable chapel for about a half hour to forty-five minutes. It was very
relaxing and the meditations were led by a monk who sat in front. The layout of the chapel wasn't dissimilar from a Christian service - with the notable difference that no words were spoken, no hymns sung. It was up to each of us to make our peace with the world. 

Walking to meditation
through fresh snow

Yes, Virginia, there actually is an Eel Pie Island, and Chris Faiers was there. He even provides the photographs to prove it.


Marco Fraticelli


HAIKU CANADA REVIEW
Vol. 7   Number 2
October 2013
pages 53 - 54