f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

We’ve got big news for fans of bocce, snow and haiku: the
first-ever New York Capital Region Haijin Snow Bocce Festa
was held on Sunday, January 8, 2006, in Schenectady’s Central
Park. To our knowledge, it was the first all-Haijin Snow Bocce
event on this (or any) continent (or island).

[“haijin” are people who write haiku and related literary forms.]

Participants were

John Stevenson of Nassau, NY.
who is editor of Frogpond.

Yu Chang of Schenectady, founding
member of the Route 9 Haiku Group (along with
John Stevenson and Hilary Tann), and

f/k/a’s editor, David Giacalone [a/k/a dagosan],
also of Schenectady, NY.

Preparation for the competition portion of the Snow Bocce Festa
included a long lunch, at the home of Yu Chang, near the Park,
featuring Chinese dumplings that were prepared, along with other
delicacies, by Professor Chang.

The actual bocce competition was an adventure, as none
of the players had previous experience with snow bocce. Conditions
in a thinly wooded section of the park were optimal, with varying sur-
faces — both smooth and uneven ice and both powdery and ice-
crusted snow. There was three to six inches of snowpack, and little
wind.

Some observations:

– the game was, at the same time, very much like and
very much different from traditional “informal” lawn bocce.
– no special rules were adopted for play on snow
– the pallino was often difficult to see (except by John) 
– the bocce balls, as might be expected, skidded on
ice and made nice, round, deep holes in soft and ice-
crusted snow
– a passing bocce ball can often cover the pallina with
a spray of snow
– unlike play on lawns or courts, balls can sit atop
each other in snow bocce, raising interesting measuring
issues
– putting backspin on the ball was often useful
– it didn’t take too long to get used to wearing gloves,
and to playing with cold hands and feet

Yu brought a mini-video camera, which did nothing to improve the quality of play, but did memorialize portions of the contest, which dagosan eventually won.

Despite the participation of two veteran and one newbie journey-

man haiku poets, the competition has not yet inspired a rash of

poetry (or, perhaps, John and Yu are saving them for publication

in their Upstate Dim Sum journal). As they are produced by

dagosan and submitted by Yu Chang and John Stevenson, they

will be shared with f/k/a‘s audience and added to this posting.

Snow Bocce Festa –
my back remembers
more than my brain

dagosan

 

snow bocce —
left the pooper scooper
at home

dagosan at simply senryu

 

The Festa was unanimously declared a success, and future Snow

Bocce Festa will be staged. We hope to entice Hilary Tann, Tom

Clausen and other haikuists to join the fun — and the agita.

winter evening

a cafeteria tray

at the end of the slope

Yu Chang

Upstate Dim Sum 2003/I

 

 

first snow

what a racket

from the geese

John Stevenson

from Quiet Enough

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