The Blooming of Brussels Sprout

by Connie Hutchison

In the early 1980s, Francine Porad, an accomplished aqua media artist, decided she would like to be a writer. She soon found the short form of haiku and the quick replies of haiku editors suited her. She was published in haiku journals and wrote linked verse with many haiku practitioners of the time, including Alexis Rotella, who transferred the editorship of Brussels Sprout to Francine in 1988. That same year, Francine organized the first meeting of the group that became Haiku Northwest. This meeting took place on September 15 at the Bellevue Public Library. Reports of meetings and announcements about coming ones were included in Francine’s “Letter from the Editor.” These references to the group are the only written record of its early activities, which is why it’s exciting to have the issues archived at the University of Washington Special Collections and to have the scans of these issues available on the Haiku Northwest website.

Brussels Sprout, under Francine’s editorship, was published from May 1988 until September 1995, a total of 23 issues. To help ensure a smooth transition, Francine engaged three guest editors to select poems for the first three issues: David LeCount (May 1988), George Swede (September 1988), and Ruth Yarrow (January 1989).

I was associate editor, and Francine and I worked together, usually one day a week, at her home on Mercer Island. We actively sought haiku and senryu and published them without distinguishing them in separate sections. Each issue was paginated and contained an index of authors, book reviews and books received, haiku, senryu, haiku sequences, and essays. Haibun and linked verse were included beginning in January 1991, and tanka beginning with the May 1991 issue.

With her juried memberships in Women Painters of Washington, the American Watercolor Society, and the National League of American Pen Women, Francine had many friends in the arts, which enabled her to create a journal of haiku that featured a different artist in each issue, often with up to ten images. Featured artists hailed from the United States, Canada, Japan, and Norway with images in diverse media including linoleum cut and silkscreen, woodblock print, sumi, watercolor, pen and ink, and mixed media. The crisp, black images on dove-grey paper contributed to the uniqueness of this journal.

Here are some comments from readers as reported in the final issue:

“I’m sure I’m one of many who count your periodical as one of the truest pleasures of the years. I am thoroughly sold on the combination of visual with verbal offerings.”

—H. F. Noyes

“I do not fancy myself to be a writer, but the process of looking for, or stumbling upon a ‘haiku moment’ and then playing with words to capture that moment fascinates, sometimes frustrates, but ultimately leads me to viewing life in a special way.”

—Tom Painting

“. . . Brussels Sprout has the most elegant and professional format of all the [haiku] publications . . .”

—Phil Howerton

BS—

I thought I would put

up with it forever!

   —Carlos Colón

It is serendipitous that the scans of Brussels Sprout are available as we celebrate the 35th year since the founding of Haiku Northwest. My thanks to Michael Dylan Welch for his work in planning and implementing website content and posting scans of each issue along with data about each issue, which he vetted and expanded. Thanks to Bound Book Scanning for providing the scanning service, to Curtis Manley for refining many of the scans for our needs, and to Haiku Northwest members who reviewed issues, helped compile data, and selected five of their favorite poems from the issue they reviewed. We hope the scans of Brussels Sprout issues under Francine’s exemplary editorship will inspire haiku writers, historians, and general readers. A complete set of these issues will reside in the University of Washington Special Collections Library where you may enjoy the full tactile and visual experience of reading them in person.