In 2008, the first HSA Quarterly Meeting will be held in Fort Worth, TX. The other quarterly meeting dates and locations are to be announced.

Details of locations, times, and programs will appear in the HSA Newsletter and Web site, as will announcements and details of HSA regional meetings. Reminders of national meetings, HSA contest deadlines, and occasional other news or announcements will also be sent by e-mail. Inquiries regarding regional meetings can also be addressed to the appropriate regional coordinator.

1st Quarterly Meeting: March 14-16 - Fort Worth, TX

The Fort Worth Haiku Society and the Southwest Region hosted the 1st Quarterly HSA Meeting in Fort Worth on March 14-16. The program included Workshops, Presentations, and Readings. Program presenters included the new President, Lenard D. Moore, and Dave Russo. For additional information, contact Brenda Roberts at: <Brephoenix@aol.com>

For more photos from HSA Meeting in Fort Worth visit: <http://nc-haiku.blogspot.com/2008/03/photos-from-hsa-meeting-in-fort-worth.html>

2nd Quarterly Meeting: June 27-28, 2008 - Seattle, Washington

Haiku Northwest hosted a national quarterly meeting of the Haiku Society of America at Hugo House and Seattle Japanese Garden. The Haiku Society of America events started with dinner at Boom Noodle on Friday, June 27. For a complete blog about this meeting, see Deborah Kolodji's web site:

day one: http://dkolodji.livejournal.com/227439.html
day two: http://dkolodji.livejournal.com/227784.html
day three: http://dkolodji.livejournal.com/227886.html

Schedule for Friday, June 27, 2008

4:30 to 5:00 p.m.
Haiku Broadcast on KSER Radio
Listen to Haiku Northwest, featured on the KSER radio poetry show hosted by PoetsWest. To listen, tune your radio to 90.7 FM in the Seattle area, or listen online by visiting http://www.kser.org/ (click Listen Live). You may need to install plug-in software to listen online, so allow extra time before the broadcast to do that.

5:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m. No-host dinner at Boom Noodle restaurant at 1121 E Pike Street (near Hugo House), phone 206-701-9130

At the Boom Noodle, tt was great to see Tenzing, Michael Dylan Welch, and Johnye Strickland again. I also met Lenard Moore, Alice Frampton and Christopher Herold for the first time. From Boom Noodle, we all walked over to the Hugo House, where Michael Dylan Welch had planned a wonderful program, starting off with a read-around of haiku.

7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
SEATTLE HAIKU NIGHT
Hugo House Cabaret, Richard Hugo House, 1634 Eleventh Avenue, Seattle
Cosponsored by Richard Hugo House and the Washington Poets Association
Directions at http://www.hugohouse.org/house/map/
(park behind building or along the street)

7:00 p.m. Welcome and introductions, Michael Dylan Welch
7:30 p.m. Memorial reading for Robert Major
7:45 p.m. “Music and Sound” haiku performance by William Scott Galasso, Connie Hutchison, Curtis Manley, and Marilyn Sandall, with music by Dejah Léger
8:15 p.m. Results of the Francine Porad Haiku Contest sponsored by the Washington Poets Association, Margaret Chula, judge, announced by Angela Terry, contest coordinator
8:30 p.m. Elizabeth and John Falconer on koto and shakuhachi: “Wind in the Bamboo: Four Seasons of Haiku and Music”
9:30 p.m. Open-mike haiku reading

One very cool idea for a local haiku group is that Haiku Northwest has scripted out a haiku/music performance that they can do on a moment’s notice when someone requests a haiku reading/presentation. I think it would be great to do something like that here with the Southern California Haiku Study Group. Haiku Northwest members have scripted two different shows. They performed “Music and Sound.” Curtis Manley, Marilyn Sandall, William Scott Galasso, and Connie Hutchison read a selection of Haiku Northwest member haiku accompanied by Dejah Légar on guitar.

Schedule for Saturday, June 28, 2008

9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. HAIKU SOCIETY OF AMERICA NATIONAL QUARTERLY MEETING
Hugo House Cabaret, Richard Hugo House, Seattle
Cosponsored by the Washington Poets Association

9:00 a.m. Welcome and introductions, round of open-mike haiku reading
10:00 a.m. Haiku Society of America business meeting and announcements, led by Lenard D. Moore, society president

10:30 a.m. Connie Hutchison: “Haiku Northwest: Celebrating 20 Years”

Returning to the Hugo House, there was another round of open-mike haiku. Tenzing read a haiku from his Southern California Haiku Study Group days in my honor. Then, Ce Rosenow presented a paper on the senryu tradition in America. Senryu is one of those things that haiku poets like to argue about. Is it haiku? Is it senryu? Everyone has their own definition.

Ce did an admirable job of addressing the essence of senryu, and how it fits in our society without getting overly bogged down in the “definition.” She framed her discussion by noting what she considers the two distinguishing characteristics of senryu – (1) that it occurs in a difficult cultural moment and (2) that it involves the everyday practices of human activities. She also spoke of the idea of writing about things “vicariously experienced through television,” which seems to be more acceptable for senryu than haiku. It was a very interesting paper that I hope she publishes someday soon.

After another break where I both bought and sold books, Michael Dylan Welch spoke on “Cracking You Open: The Joy of Haiku.” Here he quoted Jane Yolen, among others, while talking about the sheer joy of writing. He posited that every haiku essentially says the same thing – “it’s great to be alive.” Although I admit to reading some very moving “sad” haiku about death and other difficult topics, I agree with his underlining theme about adopting an open, child-like wonder in order to allow the haiku come through.

1:00 p.m. Announcements, another round of open-mic haiku reading
1:30 p.m. Ce Rosenow: “‘Precious Records of Human Beings’: The Senryu Tradition in America”
2:20 p.m. Break
2:30 p.m. Michael Dylan Welch: “Cracking You Open: The Joy of Haiku”
3:30 p.m. Break
3:45 p.m. Ruth Yarrow: “Emotion in a Moment: Painting Watercolors and Writing Haiku”

The last presentation of the day was by Ruth Yarrow on “Emotion in a Moment: Painting Watercolors and Writing Haiku.” In this, Ruth compared her painting experiences with her writing experiences, coming up with ten things to consider when writing haiku, showing paintings which showed those concepts. The ten items were simplify, lighten, contrast, reverberate, deepen, balance, grow, experience, share, and challenge.

Schedule for Sunday, June 29, 2008

10:00 a.m.
HAIKU DAY AT THE SEATTLE JAPANESE GARDEN

On Sunday, we had a ginko walk and kukai at the Seattle Japanese Garden, which is located in the Washington Park Arboretum.

At the entrance was a haiku display with sample poems from Northwest Haiku members in addition to visiting haiku poets who were there for the HSA meeting. It was fun to see one of my haiku displayed so far from home.

the world so empty
without you in it—
summer sea

- Deborah P Kolodji
from fog and brittle pine, the 2007 Yuki Teikei Society Membership Anthology

After strolling through garden tranquility, we met at the viewing platform where Michael Dylan Welch explained the writing exercise we were going to do on our ginko walk. We were to write haiku on the theme of sound.

10:00 a.m. Ginko talk by Michael Dylan Welch, then a ginko (haiku-writing walk)
11:30 a.m. Kukai talk by Carmen Sterba, then a kukai (poem-selection party)
12:30 and 2:30 p.m. Optional guided tours of garden
1:00 p.m. Lunch at nearby restaurant (to be determined)
1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Koto and shakuhachi performance by John and Elizabeth Falconer

For additional updates, see:

http://hometown.aol.com/welchm/Haiku-Northwest-2008-HSA-Meeting.html

For more information, please contact Michael Dylan Welch at welchm@aol.com.

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3rd Quarterly Meeting: September 20, 2008 - New York City, New York

Tenri Cultural Center, 43A West 13th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues). For information on hotels, email: jstrickland35@comcast.net or phone: 501-353-2794

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4th Quarterly Meeting: December 5-7, 2008 - Winston-Salem, North Carolina

The North Carolina Haiku Society will host the winter quarterly meeting of the Haiku Society of America from Friday December 5 to Sunday December 7, 2008 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This will be the second time that the NCHS has hosted an HSA quarterly meeting.

Workshops and Business Meeting will be on Saturday, December 6.

Conference Hotel: Brookstown Inn, 200 Brookstown Ave., Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Conference rate for Haiku Society of America (don’t ask for HSA): $89. Toll Free: 800-845-4262. Phone: 336-725-1120.

Closest International Airport (GSO): Piedmont Triad International (GSO). 30 minutes from Winston-Salem.
Please Note: If you let us know when you will arrive at GSO, we can pick you up. Contact Dave Russo about your arrival time at the airport: drusso1(at)mindspring.com

Additional details may be found on the website of the North Carolina Haiku Society, who will be host for the Winter Quarterly Meeting.

<http://nc-haiku.blogspot.com/2008/03/haiku-society-of-america-meeting-in-nc.html>