Poetry Corner: Regional Reading – Ancient Voices, The Southwest

POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading

– 08/16/17

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

My feelings for the Southwest run deep and strong. I lived in Santa Fe for nine months in 1975. It was a life-changing experience. I learned a craft that supported our little family of four for twenty years, and I realized that I could do that, with the creative arts. Reading Sondra’s and feeling the strength of Jari and her husband’s approach to life brings back the beauty and import of this place where over 200 poets will converge to blend with the dynamic landscape in moving and creative ways. Rick Wilson will play a replica of a Native American ancestral puebloan flute. Originals were found in caves in this Southwest region.

This is the twelfth 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

Photo – Michael Czarnecki

Sondra J. Brynes

Sondra says: “Northern New Mexico is a special world—even transformational. Every day I am struck by the light, the diversity and history, cultural richness and ancient voices.”

music from the plaza
threaded with birdsong
summer dusk

a finger of lightning
in the jemez mountains
the hairs on my arms

another scorcher
bells of our lady of guadalupe
cool the evening

santa fe plaza
wafts of counterculture
still in the air

an ancient story
listening to waves
of wind

same time same place cottonwood fluff

Sondra J. Byrnes writes haiku, senryu, and tanka. Her poetry has been published in Frogpond, Prune Juice, A Hundred Gourds, Ribbons, Modern Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, Moongarlic, among others. Along with short form poetry, Byrnes is interested in ikebana and chanoyu. Byrnes is a retired law and business professor from the University of Notre Dame; she lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is on the organizing committee of Haiku North America Conference in Santa Fe. She says: “I’m working with a terrific team to plan a wonderful Haiku North America!”.

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Photo by Michael Czarnecki

Jari Thymian

after rain
desert silence
broken by toad song

shorter days
the scent
of roasting chiles

a magpie perching
on summer’s yellow mullein
bends the noon shadow

new moon
scorpions
carry the light

Jari Thymian says: “My husband and I are volunteering for four months at the Mora Natl. Fish Hatchery not far from Santa Fe so it’ll be easy for me to get there. After living 26 years in the high desert of Denver, my husband and I sold our house and most possessions. We are full-time RVers in our fifth year of volunteering in state and national parks, historic sites, etc. We get to live 4-5 months in places like Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (WI) and Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park (TX). To me, volunteering is an active vote for what I believe in – preserving cultures, wildlife, history, and wilderness. We hold residency in Sioux Falls, SD, where we return every couple years. Through haiku, tanka, and haibun I can love many places.

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> Photos by Michael Czarnecki who won’t be in Santa Fe this time but wishes he could be!

*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 (11)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (10)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (9)

• POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading (8)

• 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)