Poetry Corner: All the Seasons – Northeastern USA

POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading

– 07/12/17

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

Today we feature two of my favorite Northeast poets, John Stevenson and Ruth Yarrow, with photos by poet-photographer Tom Clausen. They’re my heroes in fact, who inspire poets worldwide with their inventive sense of time and place, deeply rooted in nature. John and Ruth are planning to grace us with their presence at Haiku North America Conference this year in Santa Fe. I am anticipating the delight of a personal, poetic reunion with them! My Northeastern US childhood and new grandchild give me a special bond with these special poet friends.

This is the eighth in our series of Regional Reading haiku Poetry Corners featuring haiku poets who will be visiting Santa Fe, New Mexico in September for Haiku North America 2017*. Our corners develop from the themes highlighted by their poems and concerns.

~ Kathabela

Autumn (Photo – Tom Clausen).

John Stevenson

tourist and native
colors of
the autumn leaves

up and down
the estuary
commuter trains

Hamilton
on Broadway
1787

John Stevenson lives in Nassau, New York, which is near Albany. His sense of the region resides most strongly in the sharply defined four seasons; autumn being his favorite, and in the presence of the Hudson River. As a citizen of New York, he is aware that government has long been the primary industry of Albany.

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Ruth Yarrow with her grandchild.

Ruth Yarrow

soft-bottomed pond –
just above sunlit ripples
the toddler’s dimple

salamander
contorted in her hot hand –
the toddler’s face

lost grandchild nightmare –
I wake to the balm
of warm rain

abandoned mine mouth –
a little girl watches her pee
sink in

Ruth Yarrow taught ecology in colleges and environmental centers in northeastern US for several dozen years. When their children fledged, she and her husband worked in the northwest on environmental, peace and justice issues, and reveled in mountain backpacking for 18 years. When her husband died, she returned to upstate New York where both children and their families live. She has led workshops, judged contests, edited journals and coordinated her local haiku group. She has published over 600 haiku in major journals and six books of haiku, the latest “Lit from Within” has recently received a Touchstone award. She finds that writing haiku helps her be aware of the richness of life.

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> Poet-Photographer Tom Clausen lives in Ithaca New York gathering insight and visions from the natural world he inhabits. He shares his daily walks, explorations, and poetry online (Facebook) and in many journals and books.

*The Regional Reading will be performed live at the conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in September, 2017, led by Kathabela Wilson. The dramatic presentation will be accompanied by Rick Wilson on flutes of the various regions. Poets from Australia, India, Canada, United States, and many other regions will be presenting. Look for their haiku in future Poetry Corners. Anyone can​ register for the conference and send their haiku to Scott Wiggerman for the anthology.

> You may also want to check:

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (7)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (6)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (5)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (4)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (3)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (2)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (1)