Poetry Corner: Regional Reading – Nature’s Cure

Grass widows (Photo – Debbie Asakawa).

POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading

– 07/26/17

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

Our corner today is a gathering of dear poetic friends and influences as well as a prelude to our reunion in Santa Fe, in September, 2017. Both of these fine poets seek out nature as a cure, an elixir of life, essential to a healthy vibrant creative existence. Let us feel the power, now when we need it most.

This is the ninth 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

Balsam root (Photo – Margaret Chula).

Margaret Chula

crude oil spill in Mosier
this spring, an abundance
of grass widows

S.A.D.
I sit under my Happy Light
and eat papayas

how can anyone
be unhappy—
field of balsam root

Monet’s water lilies—
my third umbrella
this Oregon spring

Margaret Chula says: “Oregon is known for its rainfall. From October to May, you can count on at least a trace of rain. When out-of-towners arrive, they always say: “It’s so green!” In spring, we are rewarded for all those dark days with an abundance of wildflowers. I’m an avid hiker in the Columbia River Gorge, where grass widows herald the beginning of spring, followed by hillsides of balsam root. I feel blessed to have landed here in Portland, Oregon, after fifteen years living and traveling in Asia. And, like Japan, there are four distinct seasons, which I celebrate by writing haiku, tanka, and haibun.”

Ο Ο Ο

Mustard Fields (Photo – Carolyn Hall).

Carolyn Hall

stars wink out
in the headlights
white-tailed deer

deep autumn
the pistache tree glows
into dusk

Thanksgiving rain
the droop of leaves
in the crimson vineyard

summer solstice
a wild turkey
takes a look back

Carolyn Hall says: “I spent the first 50 years of my life as a city girl (first St. Paul, then San Francisco). Then we moved (half-time) to the country: just outside of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County. There I rediscovered seasons! And discovered wildlife and vineyards, mustard fields and egrets at the lake. It’s opened a world of possibility for haiku. I love being city mouse / country mouse. It suits me perfectly.” Carolyn is a haiku poet and painter, and has been writing haiku for 18 years. Her fourth collection of haiku, ‘Calculus of Daylilies’, has just been published by Red Moon Press.

Ο Ο Ο

*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 (8)

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• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (4)

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• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (2)

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