Our Seabeck Haiku Getaway featured Penny Harter. The evening she arrived, I had her as a featured reader at the monthly SoulFood Poetry Night (http://sites.google.com/site/soulfoodpoetrynight/) that I curate in Redmond, Washington.
Penny read a mix of her longer poetry, with a few haiku and haibun as well.
Penny Harter.
Penny Harter reads at SoulFood Books in Redmond, Washington on 15 October 2009.
Welcome to the Seabeck Haiku Getaway!
Our haiku retreat at Seabeck began with a rainbow on the afternoon of Friday, 16 October 2009.
This view is looking north from Scenic Beach State Park, just near Seabeck, where those of us who arrived early enjoyed a few hours outdoors before the retreat began.
Tanya McDonald gets a better view of the rainbow.
Shafts of sun after rain lit up the multicoloured bark of an old madrona tree.
Years ago, someone must have carved a heart into the tree.
If one heart is good . . .
. . . then two are better!
At Scenic Beach State Park near Seabeck.
Angela Terry photographs some of the oyster shells littering the beach. Across the sound are the foothills of the Olympic Mountains.
I'd never seen so many beautiful leaves and shells and stones on a beach like this before.
A pool at the end of a creek at Scenic Beach State Park.
The fall colours really added to the weekend.
Someone had left a bouquet of flowers on a log at the beach.
We wondered what the story was behind this bouquet of flowers.
The wetness of leaves, stones, and shells made for lovely beach details.
Another leaf close-up.
More leaves and shells on the beach.
I think we could have spent all day taking pictures of beach details!
Another leaf detail.
A close-up.
Another close-up view.
This leaf inside an oyster shell caught my eye.
Another view.
More beach details.
Angela Terry and Tanya McDonald.
Yes, the slugs were out!
Go, baby, go!
Don't step on me!
The slug hits the wall.
One of the paths through the woods at Scenic Beach State Park.
Doesn't this photo just beg to have a haiku added in the corner to make it a photo-haiga?
Crossing a bridge.
Leaves on the bridge.
Moss on a tree.
Close-up of the moss.
Another view of the mossy tree.
Another view of the bridge.
Trees at Scenic Beach State Park.
Moss on the trees.
Ferns on a mossy tree.
Leaves on a picnic table.
The historic Emel House at Scenic Beach State Park has a large bell. I think the bell was used to summon guests for dinner.
A close-up of a garden path at the Emel House.
Another close-up of a garden path at the Emel House.
Here's the front of the Emel House that faces the sea. This is where Alice Frampton (nee Emel), one of our retreat attendees, grew up.
There's that rainbow again, across the sound.
The last of the rainbow.
Leaf details. This photo could do with a haiku added to it, too, don't you think?
More leaf detail.
Fall colours everywhere!
This is a sort of lichen, I think, blown down from a tree.
Leaves in the barbecue.
The tide was high!
Not sure what these steps were in aid of, but if you wanted to, you could have walked right into the water.
Angela Terry.
Ferns and fall colours.
Wet ferns.
More wet ferns.
Tanya McDonald and Angela Terry.
A snail on our path.
The woods at Scenic Beach State Park.
This photo needs a haiku added to it too. How about this: overcast sky— the way here marked on the map
We have such wonderful trees in the Pacific Northwest.
Angela Terry and Tanya McDonald. We've now left Scenic Beach State Park to visit a boat ramp further east along the water.
Tanya McDonald contemplating oyster shells.
An old crab shell in a mong the leaves and beach detritus.
Looking west along the beach.
Clouds cover the Olympic Mountains.
Unlike last year, when we had clear blue skies all weekend, this year we never had a view of the Olympic Mountains.
Tanya McDonald writing her next prize-winning haiku.
A few of the seven or eight deer we saw on our way back to Seabeck.
Here we are at Reeser House at Seabeck Conference Center. This is Penny Harter, our featured guest for the weekend, with Nancy Dahlberg.
Penny Harter and Nancy Dahlberg.
Penny Harter (from New Jersey) talks with Vicki McCullough (from British Columbia).
Tanya McDonald, Karma Tenzing Wangchuk, Carmi Soifer, and Christopher Herold.
Christopher Herold.
Karma Tenzing Wangchuk.
Tanya McDonald.
Carmi Soifer.
Susan and David Constable looking at some of the Haiku Northwest display posters created in 2008 by Connie Hutchison.
Susan and David Constable looking at some of the Haiku Northwest display posters created in 2008 by Connie Hutchison. Susan and David came from Nanoose Bay, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island.
David Constable doing his best Elvis Presley imitation. Seriously.
Alice Frampton, and Susan and David Constable in Reeser House (where most of us stayed).
Alice Frampton, and Susan and David Constable. More Haiku Northwest display posters appear in the background.
Here are close-ups of some of the Haiku Northwest display posters. There's one about Francine Porad, the group's founder, and then one for each of the group's coordinators since then, since the group's founding in 1988.
More Haiku Northwest display posters.
Yet more Haiku Northwest display posters. You can click the Zoom tool to zoom in on any of these photos.
Yet more of our Haiku Northwest posters.
Penny Harter, Lana Hechtman Ayers, and Christopher Herold.
A stained-glass window by the front door of Reeser House.
Now we've moved from Reeser House to the Inn lobby, awaiting dinner. Here's Angela Terry, Donna Moore, Nancy Dahlberg, Karen Havnaer, and Dianne Garcia (facing away).
Naia, visiting from Southern California, and Cecila Runkle, with David and Susan Constable in the background.
The haiku crowd begins to gather.
Michael Evans and Penny Harter. It was wonderful to see Penny glowing like this!
Cecilia Runkle and Christopher Herold greeting each other, with Karma Tenzing Wangchuk between them, with Naia to the right.
One of the fun things we did for this retreat was to have everyone make their own creative name tags. Here's Tanya McDonald's name tag.
David Constable's name tag.
Susan Constable's name tag.
Penny Harter's name tag advertised her new children's book.
Cecelia Runkle's name tag.
Lana Hechtman Ayers' name tag. I think she likes cats!
Angela Terry's name tag.
Alice Frampton's name tag on an oyster shell.
Donna Moore's name tag resembled a tanzaku poem strip, complete with her chop.
Karen Havnaer's name tag.
Carole MacRury's name tag. She had a different name tag later.
Nancy Dahlberg's name tag, from her latest mission to outer space.
Karma Tenzing Wangchuk's Zen name tag was truly wordless. (Okay, it fell out and got lost.)
Michael Dylan Welch's name tag, from a moment of inspiration.
Naia painted her name tag.
Carmi Soifer's name tag.
Terran Campbell's name tag.
Dianne Garcia's name tag.
Vicki McCullough's name tag.
Richard Tice's haiku name tag.
Karma Tenzing Wangchuk's new name tag. I kinda liked the "lost" one better!
Joshua Beach's name tag.
I thought Joshua's name tag was by far the funniest. Read it closely!
Debbie Kolodji's name tag.
Christopher Herold's name tag. Naia did this watercolour illustration for him at the retreat. I think Christopher had forgotten to bring his name tag, so Naia came to his rescue (I may just have to forget my name tag myself next year, especially if Naia will be there!).
Michael Evans used his 2005 Haiku North America conference name tag to remind us who he was.
Ce Rosenow wins the prize for most frugal name tag.
Ida Freilinger's name tag.
Connie Hutchison's name tag.
Margaret D. McGee's name tag.
Billie Dee's name tag. It was great to see so much creativity in everyone's name tags!
Carmi Soifer, Nancy Dahlberg, and Carole MacRury.
Alice Frampton (who lives in Seabeck) chats with Donna Moore (who lives nearby on Bainbridge Island).
Christopher Herold and Lana Hechtman Ayers.
Naia (visiting from Southern California) looks up from a proof copy of Penny Harter's new book of children's poetry. Unfortunately, the book wasn't quite out in time for our retreat.
Michael Evans and Penny Harter.
David and Susan Constable.
Penny Harter still glowing!
A map of where we were. That's Seattle on the right, with Bainbridge Island to the west. Then, further west, northwest of Bremerton, is a fuzzy black dot where Seabeck is, near the left edge of this photo. This map was on the wall of the Inn lobby.
Being early for dinner gave us lots of time to introduce ourselves and get to know each other.
Now we're in the main dining hall for dinner. Our group had four or five tables, each with seven people.
For lunches and dinners, we had a great salad bar, with drinks, breads, fruit, or vegetables on each table, not to mention desserts, with entrees brought to us, depending on our dietary preferences (such as vegetarian, vegan, and so on).
Terran Campbell, and Susan and David Constable.
Haiku Northwest is equivalent to the Washington State region of the Haiku Society of America. The Seabeck Conference Center is available for use only by nonprofit organizations, so our retreat is technically a Haiku Society of America retreat. It was nice to have signs on the tables welcoming us!
Our meeting room was in a building called The Lounge, where I had written this welcome sign.
Looking at retreat handouts on our first evening. Tanya McDonald, Lana Hechtman Ayers, Karen Havnaer, Nancy Dahlberg, and Susan Constable. I started our retreat by playing the song "Bread and Roses" by Judy Collins, to remind everyone that although we need bread in our lives to sustain us, we also need roses.
Carmi Soifer, Terran Campbell, Donna Moore, and Carole MacRury.
Angela Terry and Dianne Garcia.
Richard Tice, Christopher Herold, Vicki McCullough, and Karma Tenzing Wangchuk.
Dejah Leger prepares to play her guitar.
Joshua Beach, Karma Tenzing Wangchuk, and Dejah Leger. On the bottom half of the flipchart are some of the topics we covered as we went around the room to introduce ourselves—we shared where we lived, one or more of our passions, why we were there, how we came to haiku, and a recent haiku or senryu.
Naia, Christopher Herold, and Lana Hechtman Ayers.
Dianne Garcia, Cecelia Runkle, and Richard Tice.
Karen Havnaer, Nancy Dahlberg, Susan Constable, Carmi Soifer, and Terran Campbell.
Karma Tenzing Wangchuk, Dejah Leger, and Penny Harter. Penny is about to give a featured reading, titled "Haiku Hopscotch: From Haiku, to Sequences, to Haibun," with musical accompaniment by Dejah.
Penny reading her haiku and senryu, plus a couple of longer poems and haibun.
Penny Harter, Richard Tice, Genie Nakano, Debbie Kolodji, Vicki McCullough, and Joshua Beach. Debbie is sharing a favourite haiku for one of our evening sessions where we each brought a poem to talk about.
During our "favourite haiku" sharing session.
A break before our next session. Christopher Herold, Karma Tenzing Wangchuk, Tanya McDonald, and Carmi Soifer.
Debbie Kolodji and Lana Hechtman Ayers. To the left, Tanya McDonald carries the "haiku hat." Okay, it's a curled up snake bucket thingy, borrowed from my son, who had just turned six a week before, but we called it the haiku hat, and it's where we put poems for anonymous workshops or for other purposes.
Joshua Beach and Alice Frampton.
Alice Frampton is endlessly jovial, except when she's happy.
I don't have pictures of it, but Carole MacRury presented her multimedia slide show, using a digital projector, titled "Haiku Moments: Seeing into the Nature of Things." Then Tanya led our first late-night anonymous haiku workshop for diehards who weren't ready to go to bed yet.
Tanya writes another anonymous haiku or our flipchart. About eight or ten of us stayed up well past midnight discussing one poem per person.
Breakfast the next morning included oatmeal and pancakes, along with fruit, sausage, and other choices. Tanya McDonald, Angela Terry, and Terran Campbell.
Richard Tice, David Constable, Susan Constable, Alice Frampton, and Vicki McCullough.
Karma Tenzing Wangchuk and Penny Harter in the foreground. Mealtimes were one of the highlights of the weekend.
Christopher Herold and Carmi Soifer in the foreground, with Penny Harter (facing away at the far left), Karma Tenzing Wangchuk, Carole McRury, Cecelia Runkle, and Nancy Dalhberg in the background.
Lana Hechtman Ayers, Joshua Beach, and Dianne Garcia.
Dejah Leger (at right) brought her husband Devon along, as well as their two adorable girls.
Christopher Herold led an early-morning meditation session at 7:00 a.m. Then, shown here, we began our main Saturday program with a "show and tell" session. On the right in this picture is Ida Freilinger, who was among several people who joined us for the day on Saturday.
Carole MacRury's show-and-tell item was a small cup inside of which numerous poems were inscribed in Oriental script. Richard Tice takes a closer look to see if he can read them. On the far left is Connie Hutchison who joined us for the day, as did Margaret D. McGee (third from the left), and Kathleen Tice (fourth from the left).
Michael Dylan Welch, with Alice Frampton taking a picture of Tanya McDonald taking this picture.
Alice Frampton showing Michael Dylan Welch the photo she just took.
Our meeting room was called The Lounge, and had beautiful windows on either end. This end faces through the trees across the lagoon towards Hood Canal. We were very comfortable here, although we could have done with more table space.
For her show and tell, Lana Hechtman Ayers read a favourite children's book that described a seasonal progression.
Alice Frampton takes a closer look at "Daddy's Haiku Book," which was made by Michael Dylan Welch's son Thomas (this was one of Michael's show-and-tell items). Click the Zoom tool to zoom in more closely.
Genie Nakano performs the first of two dances for us.
Genie Nakano is having us try to make a flower with our hands.
Genie Nakano gets our lilies to open up.
Here are our flowering water lilies.
Genie Nakano's dance.
Now Genie is starting a second dance.
Genie's dance required a jangly waist wrapper, and a bright red shawl.
Genie's music is about to start.
The music begins.
Genie begins to swirl around . . .
. . . and around.
Genie's dance was captivating.
For a moment, Genie become a red batwoman!
These pictures can't do justice to the swirling and delicate gestures of Genie's hands, arms, head, and legs.
More swirling.
Genie put on a great show (she used to be a dance instructor).
Yet more twirling.
Genie's dance was the highlight of our show-and-tell session.
Round we go again!
And then it was time to doff the red shawl . . .
. . . and begin to retreat, to close down the petals.
And then a final reawakening.
Thanks to Genie Nakano for her inspiring dance.
For our next session, Christopher Herold led a generative group writing workshop titled "Feathering the Moment." He had done this at our previous retreat, and we enjoyed a compressed version of it, where we came up with descriptions of experiences happening in that moment that we could share together.
Carmi Soifer, Angela Terry, and Christopher Herold during his "Feathering the Moment" workhop.
Christopher Herold explains how the workshop will work.
We circled the room looking at phrases we had each come up with for the workshop (placed on each of our chairs), and began to compose poems using the lines and images we provided.
This workshop produced truly collaborative poems, but more in the sense of being authorless, or authored by all of us, in that they poems consisted of bits and pieces that each of us contributed, all compiled in differing ways.
It was also good to get up and stretch our legs!
Christopher wrote many of our collaborative phrases and poems on the flipchart.
Concentration!
After Christopher's workshop, Debbie Kolodji, visiting from Temple City, California, began her presentation on how the Southern California Haiku Study Group uses season words in their monthly meetings.
Debbie Kolodji's presentation on kigo—season words.
Here are all our guests from Southern California: Naia and Genie Nakano sitting in the front, and Billie Dee and Debbie Kolodji standing. They read selections of their seasonal Southern California poems from a handout that Debbie had prepared.
The SoCal Haiku Gang reads their poems.
Debbie Kolodji talks about how their environment, despite the subtle seasons, still provides much for them to write about in each season of the year. Meanwhile, this picture shows the view looking south towards the woods behind our meeting room.
Debbie asked us to brainstorm seasonal phrases or terms, which she wrote on our flipchart. They inspired a lot of poems for the rest of the weekend.
Here's one page of our list of fall seasonal phrases.
And here's a second page.
After Debbie's inspiring presentation, it was time for lunch. Here are Genie Nakano, Naia, Debbie Kolodji, Christopher Herold, and Billie Dee.
Joshua Beach, Ce Rosenow (who arrived at noon on Saturday), and Connie Hutchison.
Ida Freilinger, Karma Tenzing Wangchuk, and Penny Harter.
Nancy Dahlberg, Cecelia Runkle, and Angela Terry.
Carmi Soifer, Carole MacRury, and Alice Frampton, passing the last cookie.
Dianne Garcia and Margaret D. McGee.
The dining hall was very comfortable!
We shared the dining hall with several other groups for the weekend.
Kathleen Tice, on the left, joined us on Saturday, here with her husband Richard Tice, and Lana Hechtman Ayers.
Vicki McCullough attempts to start The Wave, apparently, with Karen Havnaer and David Constable on either side of her.
Margaret D. McGee and Christopher Herold.
One of our tables in the meeting room featured haiku trifolds and other giveaways that each of us prepared to share with each other. These handouts gave us lots of poems to enjoy after the weekend was over.
Another view of the handouts (not to mention the bag of chocolates . . .)
Yet more handouts, plus a basket full of apples from Alice's garden.
Richard Tice and Dianne Garcia examining books displayed on our book table.
We raised more than $200 in our silent auction.
Thanks to everyone who donated items for our silent auction. All but one or two items had bids, often quite a few of them.
Another view of books on display. This includes books from Penny Harter and William J. Higginson, Naia, Debbie Kolodji, Michael Dylan Welch, Ce Rosenow, Lorrain Ellis Harr, Richard Tice, and Margaret Chula.
After lunch on Saturday, Richard Tice gave a short presentation titled "What Might Have Happened When Socho and Basho Wrote Linked Verse?" that described the renga parties of hundreds of years ago in Japan.
Richard Tice.
Richard Tice's presentation on renga.
After Richard's presentation, Penny Harter led us in a workshop titled "Shifting the Focus: To the Pine and Beyond with Longer Poetry and Haibun."
Penny shared longer poems that she had converted into haibun form, and discussed the nature of the changes by having us hear both versions.
We enjoyed a lively discussion in Penny's workshop, followed by time to write our own haibun either written for the occasion or repurposed from longer poems.
Penny had ready access to poems and haibun to share with us.
Everyone gets up to look outside. We were witnessing a rare phenomenon that lasted many minutes where it was raining at the other end of our meeting room, and brightly sunny and not raining at this end. It was magical! I'm sorry I don't have more pictures.
Coming back inside after the rain/sun phenomenon.
After Penny's stimulating workshop, we gathered outside for a group photo. Here we are beginning to assemble. Fortunately, getting everyone together was easier than herding cats!
Nearly together.
Okay, everyone smile!
Another shot.
Okay, I think this one's the keeper! And it even shows our happy little meeting hall too. Aren't we a jolly bunch?
This one's a keeper, too. Left to right, front row: Kathleen Tice, Connie Hutchison, Ce Rosenow, Angela Terry, Dejah Leger (in crimson), Tanya McDonald, and Vicki McCullough. Behind the front row, left to right: Michael Evans, Richard Tice, Penny Harter, Naia, Ida Freilinger, Susan Constable, Terran Campbell (way at the back), Billie Dee, Karma Tenzing Wangchuk (chin hidden, whereabouts known), Carmi Soifer, Nancy Dahlberg (back), Genie Nakano (her eyes at least), Lana Hechtman Ayers, Joshua Beach, Dianne Garcia, Christopher Herold (back), Alice Frampton, Karen Havnaer, Carole MacRury (back), Debbie Kolodji, Cecelia Runkle, and Margaret D. McGee. And Michael Dylan Welch is not in the picture because I took it. That's thirty of us, not counting spouses, plus Donna Moore who couldn't be there on Saturday. So our attendance for 2009 was slightly increased compared with 2008.
One more for the road.
Okay, time for our ginko (haiku walk). Connie Hutchison contemplates fallen apples, with Cecelia Runkle behind.
Billie Dee takes a photo with her iPhone.
The Lounge, or meeting room, awaits our return.
The sun came out for the afternoon, brightening all the colours. And what beautiful fall colours we had! They seemed to be particularly strong in the Pacific Northwest this year.
Yup, that's blue sky up above! Where did that come from?
I love the contrast between the bright leaves and the dark branches.
A fungi. And no, I'm not talking about myself.
Moss on a tree. The retreat center grounds include a lagoon, many trails in the woods, plus other attractions. Next year we'll schedule even more time for exploration!
A trail through the woods at one end of the retreat center grounds.
Yup, looks like some haiku poets at the far end of that thar trail!
Autumn leaves.
More autumn leaves.
Close-up of autumn leaves.
Another close-up.
Yet more autumn leaves.
And another close-up.
We walked out past the lagoon to the sound by Hood Canal. The tide was high again. This is Debbie Kolodji, Penny Harter, and Michael Evans.
Debbie Kolodji, Penny Harter, and Michael Evans. I think Michael is trying to encourage Penny to try skipping a stone.
Michael Dylan Welch, Penny Harter, and Michael Evans.
Penny Harter. Here's a poem I wrote for Penny (it later got third place in our kukai: sunbreak— the widow skips her first stone
Debbie Kolodji, Michael Evans, and Penny Harter. Originally we had hoped Penny's late husband William J. Higginson could have been us at the Seabeck Haiku Getaway, too. Bill's spirit was certainly with us.
Wow, it's downright sunny. Given the weather forecasts we had for the weekend, we certainly weren't expecting this.
The owner of this boat left his drink behind! Maybe that's to fuel him for his trip back home.
Pilings and oyster shells.
A view of Seabeck Bay.
This photo just begs for a haiku in the corner, doesn't it?
Never did get to see the distant mountains this year, but it was nice that we at least had some sun!
The old pilings along the shore help minimize erosion.
This, folks, is downtown Seabeck—the side of the antique store, next to a general store and a restaurant, and a few other buildings, plus what's left of an old marina.
Alice Frampton's home is on the other side of this bay, in the background, and sometimes she rows her boat (not shown) to the shops here in Seabeck.
Downtown Seabeck even has a flagpole.
This is the wood bridge that leads across the lagoon into the conference center grounds.
Ce Rosenow, Penny Harter, Debbie Kolodji, and Michael Evans at the Seabeck Conference Center.
Ce Rosenow, Penny Harter, Debbie Kolodji, and Michael Evans.
The Seabeck Conference Center sign.
Another view of the bridge across the lagoon to the Seabeck Conference Center.
The Inn and dining hall at the Seabeck Conference Center.
Signs at the conference center identify where some of the accommodations are. Most of us stayed in Reeser and The Firs, plus a bit of overflow in the Inn and Madrona.
I love the leaf in this photo. I think I need to make a photo haiga out of this photo, with a haiku in the top-right corner.
The Inn and dining hall at the Seabeck Conference Center. From this picture you'd think we would have had gorgeous weather all weekend, but it didn't last long! It was great that the sunbreak timed itself perfectly for our haiku walk time.
Here's a tree that had already lost all its leaves.
A sign at the entrace to the Inn, welcoming all the groups at the conference center that weekend.
Our haiku retreat listed among other guests at the retreat center. The conference center seems to be used mostly by church groups, but any nonprofit organization can use the facilities.
Another view of the welcoming sign on the front door of the Inn.
Rocking chairs on the front porch. I love the colour in this photo. I wish I could retake it, though, so I could move the chair on the far left. Or maybe that's what Photoshop is for. I could see this photo as a haiga, too!
Rocking chairs on the front porch of the Inn.
Another view of the rocking chairs.
Our trusty meeting facility. We were comfortable here, but definitely at capacity.
Our meeting rom, The Lounge.
Time for our free coffee/tea service.
Penny Harter, Christopher Herold, and Karma Tenzing Wangchuk to prepare to lead our afternoon renku session.
As it turned out, Christopher decided to turn our session into a simpler tan-renga writing session. We didn't have enough space to split into two or three groups effectively, so we changed plans.
Christopher Herold leads our tan-renga writing session, discussing techniques of linking and shifting.
Christopher's attentive audience.
Karma Tenzing Wangchuk talks about the value of season words in renku and other collaborative writing, holding up a copy of William J. Higginson's Haiku World, the definitive reference book on season words outside Japan.
Connie Hutchison and Lana Hechtman Ayers.
Alice Frampton and Naia.
Carmi Soifer and Susan Constable.
Debbie Kolodji and Billie Dee, who looks slightly skeptical about something!
Writing starting verses for our tan-renga session. Genie Nakano, Vicki McCullough, and Ce Rosenow.
Season word reference books, and blank index cards for our poems. And it's a bit hard to tell, but there are some brownies, too. We have to keep our priorities in order!
Angela Terry and Michael Evans.
Nancy Dahlberg and Terran Campbell.
Ida Freilinger and Joshua Beach, with Nancy Dahlberg walking in between.
A poppy in Penny Harter's hair. The folks from Southern California were surprised to see California poppies up north.
Penny Harter and her California poppy.
Michael Dylan Welch.
Michael Dylan Welch and the "Haiku Hat."
Billie Dee tanks up on coffee.
Karen Havnaer. Earlier in the year, Karen enjoyed a trip to Japan, visiting Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Richard Tice, Kathleen Tice, Margaret D. McGee, and Alice Frampton.
Cecelia Runkle, Dianne Garcia, and Nancy Dahlberg. We had much laughter all weekend!
Carole MacRury. See, she has a different name tag on now!
Carole MacRury again.
Dejah Leger.
Ce Rosnow takes a picture of me taking her picture. And someone else has a picture of us taking pictures of each other . . .
Debbie Kolodji and Carole MacRury.
Tanya McDonald, Connie Hutchison, and Lana Hechtman Ayers. Tanya is looking at a recent children's book titled Birds on a Wire, which presents a renga written by J. Patrick Lewis and Paul B. Janeczko (Michael Dylan Welch brought the book).
Christopher Herold and Karma Tenzing Wangchuk discuss starting poems submitted for the tan-renga writing session.
Christopher Herold considers poems.
Penny Harter and Christopher Herold discussing the starting verses submitted for our tan-renga exercise.
Richard Tice examines a book on our silent auction table, while Billie Dee looks on.
After dinner, Margaret D. McGee gave a short presentation on her new book, Haiku: The Sacred Art, about haiku as a spiritual practice, chiefly from a Christian perspective.
Margaret D. McGee. Her new book wasn't quite out yet, but we look forward to seeing it soon.
Margaret D. McGee.
Margaret D. McGee read a selection from her new book, whetting our appetites for the rest of the book.
Ce Rosenow gave a short reading of her haiku, titled "Knowing the Tide’s Change: Haiku from Pacific," featuring poems from her upcoming book, titled Pacific. This book, too, wasn't quite out yet!
Ce Rosenow also read poems from her previous haiku book, titled North Lake.
Ce Rosenow is the nominee for president of the Haiku Society of America for 2010.
Ce Rosenow.
After Ce's reading, Michael Dylan Welch gave a presentation on "Learning from Shugyo Takaha" (no pictures of that, as I was, shall we say, busy). We also had a kukai of poems written during the weekend, but I somehow neglected to take pictures of that too. After a break, I gave a slide show titled "Open Window," which included my haiku paired and photographs. Half of these photos are online at http://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/welch/.
Michael Dylan Welch and that old technological marvel known as a slide projector.
Once again, late Saturday night, Tanya McDonald led us in another anonymous workshop. Here she starts us off with a poem that turned out to be by Christopher Herold.
About eight or nine of us stayed up for the anonymous workshop. Dejah Leger, Vicki McCullough, Christopher Herold, and Debbie Kolodji.
Karen Havnaer and Nancy Dahlberg. We stayed up at least till 1:00 a.m., or even later, but we hashed out our poems in a wonderful learning session.
Now it's Sunday morning. This is a view of the Inn and the dining hall, on my walk from Reeser House just before breakfast.
The sky isn't so blue today, compared to a similar picture I took yesterday.
Breakfast! Terran Campbell, Nancy Dahlberg, Karen Havnaer, and Carole MacRury.
Angela Terry, Karma Tenzing Wangchuk, and Penny Harter.
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed—or at least Penny is! Maybe that's because she was still on east-coast time, and didn't stay up till the wee hours the night before at our anonymous workshop.
At our 9:00 a.m. session, this poem was still on our flipchart, written during Christopher Herold's 7:00 a.m. meditation period, before breakfast.
On Sunday morning, our first session was Penny Harter's generative haiku workshop, "Reach for the Stars: Creating a Haiku Galaxy."
Penny brought laminated photographs of outer space from the Hubble Telescope, and asked us to write haiku inspired by the photos. The poems ranged from literal to interpretive depictions of the images, sometimes including scifi haiku.
Penny Harter reading space haiku from a booklet she and William J. Higginson had prepared for an earlier version of this workshop in New York. Bill's presence was with us all weekend, through Penny.
Penny Harter was a wonderful featured guest for our second annual Seabeck Haiku Getaway.
Kathleen Tice reads the poem inspired by the space photo she chose. Sorry this is dark, but it helps you see how close the lagoon and the Hood Canal were outside our window.
Here's a better picture of Kathleen reading her poem, while Richard Tice, Carole MacRury, and Cecelia Runkle look on.
Carmi Soifer, Debbie Kolodji, Angela Terry, Terran Campbell, Dianne Garcia, and Naia. Debbie is reading her space poem.
Terran Campbell reads her poem, while Angela Terry, Dianne Garcia, and Naia listen.
Our next session featured Ce Rosenow, leading a discussion on the future of the Haiku Society of America. I reminded everyone that Haiku Northwest was able to use the Seabeck Conference Center (reserved for use by nonprofit organizations) because we are a region of the Haiku Society of America. Thus it was good to remember our connection to the larger organization, whose future will be in Ce's hands as the incoming president. Ce took copious notes to help her and the rest of the incoming HSA officers plan for the year ahead.
We were fortunate to have Dejah Leger and her husband play a musical piece for us. Dejah took advantage of the fact that our meeting room just happened to have a piano.
And Dejah's husband Devon played fiddle. They played a traditional Canadian song titled "Maison du Glace" (ice house).
Devon Leger is Assistant Director of Programs for Northwest Folklife, the largest free folk music festival in North America, attracting an estimated 250,000 people each May (at which Haiku Northwest has performed haiku a couple of times).
Listening to Dejah and Devon Leger.
Tanya McDonald holds Kora Leger while Kora's parents perform. Tanya looks like a natural! And look at Kora's lovely kimono dress.
Dejah Leger proposed that she shoot a quick video of all of us reading one haiku each, so she could put the video online. She started up her camera and went around the room, while each of us said our name, where we were from, and read one poem. She turned the camera on herself at the end, and also spliced in Karma Tenzing Wangchuk who was out of the meeting room when she first filmed everyone. Here's Dejah filming Kathleen Tice.
Dejah filming Carole MacRury. You can see Dejah's video online at http://tobaccoroadpoet.blogspot.com/2009/10/seabeck-haiku-getaway-haiku-reading.html. In fact, right after Carole reads her poem in the video, you can see my flash going off as I take this picture.
Dejah Leger filming Ce Rosenow.
Thanks to Dejah Leger for filming the video of us reading our haiku. To close our retreat, we had several other rounds of reading, including haibun written during Penny Harter's workshop, and to close, Michael Dylan Welch again played the weekend's theme song, "Bread and Roses," performed by Judy Collins. Spontaneously, everyone joined hands, which was a lovely way to end the retreat.
Now it's time for lunch. Here are Penny Harter, Michael Evans, and Debbie Kolodji on the Inn's front port just before we ate our last meal of the retreat together.
Penny Harter, Michael Evans, and Debbie Kolodji.
Christopher Herold and Billie Dee.
At lunch, Ce Rosenow takes a turn signing a thank-you card for Penny Harter, our guest speaker.
Carole MacRury and Michael Evans.
Carole MacRury signs the thank-you card, with Terran Campbell behind her.
We began saying our goodbyes at lunch. Billie Dee and Angela Terry.
Susan Constable, Angela Terry, and Debbie Kolodji.
Penny Harter and Christopher Herold.
No, Chirstopher isn't about to shake Penny's hand . . .
. . . he's about to kiss it! I'm so sorry the camera got fooled and didn't flash properly on this shot!
Angela Terry and Naia.
Angela Terry and Debbie Kolodji.
Carole MacRury and Naia.
Debbie Kolodji, Michael Dylan Welch, and Karma Tenzing Wangchuk.
Michael Dylan Welch presents our group's thank-you card to Penny Harter, with our gratitude for her spirit and presence during the weekend.
Penny Harter, Richard Tice, and Michael Dylan Welch.
Penny Harter gets out her glasses to read her thank-you card.
Penny Harter reading her thank-you card.
Penny Harter glowing even more!
Susan Constable says her goodbyes to Alice Frampton, with Lana Hechtman Ayers and David Constable in the background.
Tanya McDonald, Lana Hechtman Ayers, and Billie Dee in our meeting room after we cleaned up. We left the Haiku Society of America Web site address on the flipchart for someone else to discover. What a great weekend this was. Afterwards, a few of us drove out to Guillemot Cove Nature Reserve, and then back to Scenic Beach State Park before dinner at the restaurant on the Seabeck Pier (I didn't take any pictures).
Our meeting room, all cleaned up after lunch. To see more pictures of the weekend, visit Debbie Kolodji's collection at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkolodji/sets/72157622519709971/show/, and the first of her three blog reports at http://dkolodji.livejournal.com/302989.html. What a great haiku weekend we had! Hope you can join us next year!
