Regrets are often neither helpful nor healthy, but I’ve nevertheless been bemoaning my failure to live up to our only resolution last January: to visit Tom Clausen‘s Cornell University Mann Library Daily Haiku Page frequently throughout 2007. At his Mann Library website, Tom features one guest poet a month, posting one haiku or senryu each day.
In January 2007, Tom Clausen finally focused on his own fine poetry (which you can also find in quantity here at f/k/a), and then presented a stellar group of haijin friends throughout 2007: Frank Robinson in February; Pamela Miller Ness in March; Cor van den Heuvel in April; Ruth Yarrow in May; Vincent Tripi in June; Carol Purington in July; Michael Ketchek in August; Philomene Kocher in September; Ed Markowski in October; J.W. Hackett in November and December. [Go here to subscribe to the Main Library’s daily haiku feed; and here for Friends of Mann Library]
Whether you’re hoping to see the work of one of your favorite haiku poets, or looking to make the acquaintance of a haijin who is new to you, the Mann website is a good place to visit often. Seeing what Tom has posted day by day is enjoyable, but so is catching up on a month’s worth of a poet’s haiku through the Mann archives. [My only complaint (other than my usual lament over the creeping presence of “tell-ems”): the original publication credit should be given for each poem featured at MLDH. Giving that credit is part of the deal we haiku poets make with our publishers.]
new field glasses-
a house I’ve never noticed
at the end of my block………………………………………. by Carolyn Hall
Mann Library’s Daily Haiku page, Jan. 24, 2008
As mentioned here a few days ago, Tom started 2008 auspiciously by featuring the work of Carolyn Hall all this month at MLDH. As you can see from her f/k/a archive page, the work of Carolyn Hall has been regularly gracing this weblog since Dec. 14, 2004. We’ve noted (with much more admiration than envy) that “Carolyn has been winning so many haiku awards that we can’t possibly list them all.” She’s now the editor of the biannual haiku journal Acorn.
Snapshots Haiku Calendar 2008 (August)
a butterfly
so long at my window
summer dusk…………………………………………………………. by Carolyn Hall
– The Heron’s Nest 9:1 (2007); Winner, The Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition 2007 Winner
Carolyn’s book Water Lines (Snapshot Press, 2006; see cover), which can be ordered here, was the 2007 HSA Merit Book 2nd Place winner (see our discussion), and was one of three joint winners of the Snapshot Press Haiku Collection Competition 2004 (see our posting). You’ll find many poems from Water Lines at Mann. Here, to whet your appetite further, are a handful of poems that have already appeared at MLDH in January 2008:
seafaring story-
the book rises and falls
on his chest
first night home from college
click of the latch
on her bedroom door
creek grasses
bent seaward
winter raindog days
my gardening gloves
finally softened
first freeze
the birdfeeder spins
in the wind
……………….. by Carolyn Hall, Mann Library Daily Haiku (Jan. 2008)
“first night home” – A New Resonance 2; “creek grasses” – The Heron’s Nest (Feb. 2001)
“fireplace glow” – The Heron’s Nest (VII:4, Winter 2005)
You can find another poem each day by Carolyn through January 31st at MLDH, and all of them by using the “previous” link or going to her MLDH archive page.