update (Sept. 16, 2007): Breaking news from the HSA Annual Meeting: The Executive Committee voted on its slate of candidates to hold Association positions in 2008. It’s a great group of haiku poets and advocates, with North Carolina’s Lenard D. Moore at the top of the slate, for HSA President. f/k/a Honored Guest Tom Painting is nominated for 1st Vice President, and Paul Miller (a/k/a paul m) to continue as Treasurer.
Of special interest to all haiku poets, “our very own” George Swede has been nominated by the Committee to replace John Stevenson as editor of Frogpond, HSA’s journal. George’s inspired haiku and senryu have enhanced too many f/k/a postings to even try to count them. As a professor in Toronto (he’s recently and blissfully retired), George was an expert on the psychology of creativity. Two oft-repeated favorites of mine:
at the height
of the argument the old couple
pour each other teaThe beetle I righted
flies straight into
a cobweb
I had a great time yesterday at the Meeting and related meals. A highlight was meeting Sarah Painting, a delightful young lady, who was the only 9-year-old to read original poems at the evening session, and who also inspired the following poem several years ago by her dad, Tom:
winter hike
the baby’s breath
warms my neckI bet she was the star of this favorite of mine, too (but she won’t make that mistake again):
the toddler
runs to third base
first
No long-winded punditry from the f/k/a Gang this weekend (I promise). At most, I’ll be posting rushed out-of-town quickies from Rochester, New York — the city where I was born, but which I deserted for the likes of Washington, D.C. and Schenectady, NY, over the past four decades. There are two good reasons for me to be in my old hometown this weekend: first, is to celebrate my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary (see yesterday’s post); and the second is to attend the 3rd Quarter/annual meeting of the Haiku Society of America.
The City of Rochester‘s official website currently boasts of studies that have named the city “Best for Quality of Life” (metro areas of one million or more) and “6th Best Place to Live” in America. But, the HSA meeting is not being held there in order to take advantage of its amenities, nor because our Canadian haijin friend can merely take the (aborted) Toronto-Rochester fast ferry across Lake Ontario to get to Lilac City. We’re going to Rochester because the good folk in the newly-organized Rochester Area Haiku Group — poets like Jerome Cushman, Michael Ketchek and Deanna Thiefenthal — said they were willing to do the hard work it takes to put on such a meeting (despite the inherent danger of haiku wars that accompanies the gathering of strong-willed artists and genre ideologues).
.. I’m looking forward to meeting lots of haiku poets who I have admired from afar the past few years, including some of our f/k/a Honored Guests who I haven’t met yet, like Rochester’s own Tom Painting. Seeing Pamela Miller Ness again will be a treat, and Tom Clausen, too, plus my bocce and burritos buddy, John Stevenson, and hopefully many more.
“Just Fell Off the Haiga Truck” (Sept. 14, 2007) To celebrate my attendance at the 2007 HSA Annual Meeting, I’ve mocked up a little two-sided, one-page, trifold brochure called “Just Fell Off the Haiga Truck.” It is filled with haiku and senryu that I originally wrote for haiga created using my brother Arthur’s photography (and occasionally Mama G’s). The hope is that the poems will stand up on their own, as haiga poetry should. The brochure can be printed out if you click on the link above. It contains thumbnail images and hyperlinks to more than a dozen haiga.
haiku party . . .
I’ll cut
and you choose
……………………………. dagosan – similar haiga at MagnaPoetsJf
My car should have pulled away from the curb here in Schenectady at least an hour ago, so I won’t be able to discuss the law-news quickies I had intended to share with you. Maybe I will catch my breath by Sunday evening and practice some breathless punditry. For now, let me merely say:
- If, like f/k/a, you’re interested in the problems and possibilities that stem from our rapidly graying Bar, check out recent online musing in: “THEY LABORED LIKE LIONS AND PRODUCED A MOUSE,” at The Marcus Perspective, saying that the ABA missed the important issues when adderssing mandatory retirement.; the American Lawyer article“Desperately Seeking Seniors: Mandatory retirement policies have split the legal industry, much to the delight of firms that welcome older lawyers;” Rob Millard’s “70″ is the new “50” – Aging in the Professions;” Stephanie West Allen’s “Who are you calling old? With 104 being the new 80, graying doesn’t lead to grazing in some pasture,” at Idealawg; and “Marcus Speaks Out On Mandatory Retirement for Lawyers,” by Tom Collins at More Partner Income. [As usual, there is a great silence on the issue of age-related mental and physical deficiencies that put clients at risk.]
- Can you explain for me why law schools and similar academic institutions would — unless they intentionally want to acquire or maintain a radical image — consider hiring for their dean a person with controversial political or ideological reputation? See the Volokh Conspiracy and LegalBlogWatch to catch up on the large flap over UC Irvine’s decision to rescind an offer to Erwin Chemerinsky to take over as dean there.
While a large portion of the male middle-age America will be thinking about Major League Baseball standings this weekend (e.g., New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox), I’m hoping to be listening to some stirring reading of baseball haiku in Rochester. Four Upstate New Yorkers who will be there are avid baseball haikuists. Here are a selection of their poems. Many of them are from Baseball Haiku (Cor van den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura, eds., W.W. Norton Press, April 2007):
bases loaded
a full moon clears
the right field fence
all day rain bases loaded
on the playing field
a stray dog
the foul ball
in an empty seat
summer’s end
the sweeping arch
of the pitcher’s curve
summer solstice
. ……………………….. . by Tom Painting 
“the foul ball lands,” “all day rain,” “bases loaded” – Baseball Haiku (2007);
“bases loaded” – from the chapbook Piano Practice; “the sweeping arch” – 1st place, Shiki Kukai (June 2007)
extra innings
a runner’s shadow
down the third base linesting
of the old man’s
fastball
my so-called friends 
send in my sister
to pinch-hit for me
……………………………………………………………………… by John Stevenson
”extra innings” – Quiet Enough, Baseball Haiku
“sting” – Upstate Dim Sum (2005/II)
in the shoe box
attic light from one window
and the creased Willie Mays
full moon just rising baseballDiamond
we recount the best plays
on the drive home
bottom of the 8th
eight determined drunks
get the wave going . . .
from the train window
fans outside the ballpark
before the game
back to back walks . . .
the catcher takes the pitcher
to the top of the moung
…………………………………………….… by Tom Clausen – Baseball Haiku (2007)
“in the shoe box” – orig. pub. Bases Loaded, a renga chapbook
“the foul balls lands”- Modern Haiku 35:2
law office picnic –
the ump consults
his Blackberry
squinting to see him –
another generation
sent to right field
………………… david giacalone – Baseball Haiku (2007)
“squinting to see him” – Roadrunner Haiku Journal (V:4, Nov. 2005; tie Scorpion Prize)
p.s. Do not miss “introducing Sarah Painting” (Sept. 17, 2007), which includes two haiku by the terrific-and-prolific 9-year-old.