Poetry Corner: Regional Reading – Elsewhere

POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading

Lavaux (1) by Robert Gillouin.

– 08/01/17

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

Our beautiful independent poets today are wanderers at heart, “lacking strong roots” as Jo(sette) says from Switzerland, they both transmit a powerful sense of home, wherever they are. Jo(sette)’s haiku in French and English feel rooted in a deep inner world. A “paradise” found by kris moon (kondo), from the USA, where she felt irresistibly attracted to Japan 45 years ago, is shared with us in layered images that reflect the ancient amidst modern that she savors in her art and poetry. Her images, combinations of haiku and computer artwork, shimmer with meaning.

This is the tenth 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

Lavaux (2) by Robert Gillouin.

Jo(sette) Pellet

Enfouie sous la neige
dans un silence absolu –
ma vallée natale

Buried under snow
in utter silence
my native valley

Ο

des hivers sans fin
toujours le nez dans un livre
l’histoire de ma vie

endless winters
nose always in a book
story of my life

Ο

à quatre-vingt-onze ans
elle se souvient enfin
qu’elle a une fille

at age ninety-one
she eventually remembers
she has a daughter

Ο

the moon
like a big round rusty coin
over the state bank

no fairies
leaned over the cradles
too cold in this valley

Jo(sette) Pellet lives in Switzerland. She was born in a mountain valley. After 25 years in Lavaux, she now lives in Lausanne and works in the psycho-social sector. Her haiku, tanka and haibun have been widely published in magazines and anthologies, and she is the author of four books of haiku. Lacking strong roots, she loves any and every elsewhere: the desert, savannah and steppes, big rivers, words…

Ο Ο Ο

kris moon (kondo)

Burnt evening by kris moon (kondo).

Paradise by kris moon (kondo).

Persimmons by kris moon (kondo).

kris moon (kondo) says: “Having lived mostly in Japan for 45 years now and settled in this mountain village, Kiyokawa in Kanagawa west of Tokyo, one of the things that has always struck me is that ancient, modern and quirky surprises abound: Temples tucked in corners one wouldn’t imagine, a brief view of Mount Fuji from a train window, a walk bridge or a busy road. Also each year piles on I find the memories of places I have been pile and blend each time I pass places I have been before and often blend with memories as far back as childhood in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, Canada and Boston. So my poetry and images luxuriate in the layering i can achieve in my digital haiga. Inner world, outer world and all ages seem to merge wherever I find myself. I am not from one place but many. I am content in this mountain village, yet it is simply a point of convergence.”

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 (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)