1982 letter to Bill HIgginson re early Haiku Society of Canada meeting

 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

letter from William J. Higginson, editor Haiku Handbook etc., Nov. 1982

 Typed letter from William J. Higginson, "haiku godfather" who edited seminal English language haiku books including The Haiku Handbook (McGraw-HIll) and Wind in the Long Grass (Simon & Schuster).

On From Here Press letterhead, Fanwood, New Jersey
4 November 82

Ah, Chris

Good to hear from you! And to have the books, and the info on yr
past", as they say. Sorry it's unlikely that we'll meet  in the States, but thoroughly understand.

I like to tell the p/r people
"The Air Force made me a poet." And in a way it's quite true. But
though I had a top-s clearance for most of the four years I worked
in USAF, I shortly had my pictures in FBI files for anti-war activi-
ties in the New Haven area, late sixties. I was a bloomin' campus radical,
and like many of the breed, a little older than most of the kids in
school then. Anyway, a friend of mine who had the audacity to declare
himself a C.O., - - with substantial corroboration from several ministers
of the cloth (he was really a classical religious C.O.) - - spent two
years in Ft. Leavenworth. Really a useful way to treat sane, talented
people.

Right now trying to dig in for the long haul, self-sufficiency in
suburbia, and all that. We've started gardening, Penny (Harter - - my
wife), and I. Organic. Just learning, and not enough time for all
that's to be done. But it's clear that we must stop the pillage of
mass farming, as big a threat to humankind and a lot of other kinds
as nuclear war, etc.  Ah, well, enough pontificating.

Listen, thanks so much for the books. Delighted to have them. I'm
enclosing a couple of things from this end for your perusal. I don't
think you have thistle brilliant morning, and sure few up there
have seen PATERSON PIECES, though Eric may have a copy.

Gonna get this off, as pressure's on for various projects and bed
too calls. But great to hear from you, and I do look forward to
a meeting, perhaps in the great north, north american homelike nation.

Be well!

Bill

p.s.(handwritten)
Do you get funding for readings at Libr? I'll  maybe have a book or so, with Canadian
distr. if that's a help. I can probably
put together something at U. Buffalo, on the way.    

1982 letter Bill Higginson ("haiku godfather")

16 October 1982

Dear Christopher Faiers,
               "Cricket",


Always assuming that you are the same person - - which I'm
fairly sure you are:

Delighted to be back in touch with you, after what must be
more than a decade. I have frequently come upon "I AM A
GUEST IN A BEAUTIFUL GARDEN" and CRICKET FORMATIONS in my
shuffling moves from one place to another - - now done with
for a while, I hope    - - and smiled, looked through them again.
They are not 100% GREAT, to be sure, but so much verve and
ZIP, compared to most of the DRECK surrounding itself with
covers in the name of haiku.   AND THERE ARE some fine poems
in the two little booklets.

                                                   I wonder if you have put out
anything since?  I've been pretty much out of the haiku
world until quite recently - - if you get FROGPOND you will
have seen some of my more recent efforts at an article on
the haiku scene.  But I'm back now that a 5-7-5 year period
of turmoil in my life is somewhat behind me, and coming on
strong.  

Anyway, I've asked Keith to pass this along to you because
(1) I really mean what I say, I do like your little book-
lets,  and
(2)  I have a project in mind that will involve some of your
work, and I would like to see more, as well as be directly in
touch with you.

Please drop me a line - - a post card will do - - with your
current address.  If you've got the time to be chatty, let
me have an update on events since you left Eel Pie Island
Hotel.   But if you don't want to,  or don't have time to,
why that's ok too.  (I never realized that you were a Canadian
when you were writing from England.)

And if you're ever heading into the NYC area, let me know.
We can probably promote a bed and some board for a day or
two,  and I'd love to meet you.

Best wishes,

Bill Higginson (signed)    

 

Notes: I've been going through drawers, files, long stashed boxes, etc. to find haiku related materials to donate to the Haiku Canada Archives. I started investigating a folder yesterday and discovered this correspondence from 1982. I believe the project Bill was referring to was the seminal The Haiku Handbook published by McGraw-Hill in 1985. A few years later Bill kindly included one of my haiku in the gorgeously illustrated children's haiku book, Wind in the Long Grass.    

from Haiku Handbook:

vine

leaves pressing

church window

from Wind in the Long Grass:

streetcar rumble

kept me awake last night

puts me to sleep

Keith is Keith Southward, the editor of Inkstone, the original publication of Haiku Canada (then The Haiku Society of Canada)