Poetry Corner: Signs of Seasons

POETRY CORNER – The Regional Reading

– 04/26/17

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

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

In Signs of Seasons, our two brilliant poets invoke the subtle and powerful in their surroundings as seasons change. Nature’s rich and vital beauty distinguishing their Nortwestern US experience is alive in their strong haiku and prose. Haiku traditionally use “kigo” –a word or phrase that is a “sign” of nature’s time and place, deepening the poem and adding to its strength and overtones.

~ Kathabela

Dunes in front of Patricia’s house in late August with three different wildflowers in mid to late summer—dudleya (live-forevers) in the foreground, beach paintbrush in the middle ground, and beach sagewort in the background (Photo – Ed Grossmith).

Patricia J. Machmiller

Approaching Autumn

wilderness poster
secured with masking tape—
sticky monkey flower

“The dunes where I live on the Monterey Bay have a changing palette throughout the year. In spring they are bright with the golden yellow of beach poppies and the soft lavender of lupine. As we move into summer, yellow and reds predominate with live-forevers, yellow sand verbena, and vibrant orange paintbrush. In the fall the only yellow left is from the mock heather; this is the time of the soft dusty greens of sagewort and gone-to-seed lupine. Georges Braques’ early cubist paintings were done in earth tones—greens, grays, and browns. He said that by minimizing color he was able to better explore form. I understand that for as the dunes’ colors become more muted in the fall and winter, I become more aware of the structure of the plants and of the landscape itself.”

between foredunes
a wedge
of autumn sea

Monterey cypresses
the sign language
of autumn

Patricia J. Machmiller writes looking out from the deck of her beach house near Moss Landing on Monterey Bay in Northern California; she gives haiku workshops here and also paints. See her artwork and haiga at her website.

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Mossey forest (Photo – Carolyn Winkler).

Carolyn Winkler

wearing robes of soft green moss
an old growth forest
stands in formation

holding her offering
she bows in the rain
Lilac bush

this moment
lilacs, cherry blossoms
and rain

Carolyn Winkler lives in Portland, Oregon. She says: “Here in the Pacific North West we have a saying ‘Once you fall in love with this place you have moss in your blood.’ One of the treasures of Oregon is hiking through the groves of old growth forest. And Spring here is full of flowers. A lot of us have lilac bushes.”

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*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. See the newly updated program as it develops here.