Meeting Reports

This page shares reports and photos of recent meetings and other news. Our meeting reports have been just occasional here lately, but we do continue to meet every month, and most meetings are at least represented by Zoom screen shots. For meeting reports and other news from 2021 and earlier, please explore our Haiku Northwest News Blog archive.

Haiku Northwest Monthly Meeting on August 12, 2023

August 31, 2023

On August 12, 2023, twelve haiku poets gathered at the Lake Hills Greenbelt Garden Shelter in Bellevue, Washington. The location features a garden tended by master gardeners with several miles of greenbelt and tree canopy with wonderful walking trails. We participated in a haiku walk and made weathergrams to share in our own neighborhoods. We also shared our own haiku and inspiration from the walk, and then considered the effectiveness of different line lengths and syllable counts in haiku.

Photos (above) from our August 12, 2023 Haiku Northwest meeting.

Some of our attendees at our July 13, 2023 Haiku Northwest meeting on Zoom.

Some of our attendees at our May 13, 2023 Haiku Northwest meeting on Zoom.

Some of our attendees at our April 13, 2023 Haiku Northwest meeting on Zoom.

Some of our attendees at our March 9, 2023 Haiku Northwest meeting on Zoom.

Some of our attendees at our February 11, 2023 Haiku Northwest meeting on Zoom.

Haiku Northwest Monthly Meeting on January 12, 2023

January 31, 2023

Twenty-five haiku poets joined via Zoom on January 12 for Haiku Northwest’s first meeting of 2023. Attending poets included Donald Bassman, David Berger, Aidan Castle, David Chandler, Antoinette Cheung, Ide Freilinger, Dianne Garcia, John S Green, Connie Hutchison, Emily Kane, Nicholas Klacsansky, Curtis Manley, Elaine Mannon, Helen Pelton, C. K. Petro, Michelle Schaefer, Elliott Simons, Ann Spiers, Larry St Pierre, Kathleen Tice, Richard Tice, Michael Dylan Welch, and three poets whose first names were Kerry, Anna, and Sayatani. Most of us brought three haiku or senryu to read around the room, focusing on the theme of social justice. The poems were at times critical and celebratory, and we learned from them. We asked: What makes this haiku powerful? Why does it work? What do we appreciate about this haiku? We followed this discussion with an anonymous critique workshop and later adjourned with best wishes for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Some of our attendees at our January 12, 2023 Haiku Northwest meeting on Zoom.

Haiku Northwest Monthly Meeting on December 8, 2022

December 29, 2022

At least fourteen persistent poets met via Zoom on December 8 for our last gathering of 2022, the Year of the Tiger. Tanya McDonald led a sharing and discussion of our work and shepherded helpful critique. This was Tanyas last meeting as outgoing Haiku Northwest president. Attendees included Judith Avinger, Steve Bahr, David Berger, Dianne Garcia, Connie Hutchison, Emily Kane, Carole MacRury, Curtis Manley, Tanya McDonald, Susan Lee Roberts, Michelle Schaefer, Elliott Simons, Kathleen Tice, and Michael Dylan Welch. Among other announcements, Michael mentioned the installation of 30 of his “Holiday Haiku” as part of Redmond Lights, held for a month at Redmonds Downtown Park, where his haiku are projected in a five-minute video four times an hour for six hours each night from December 1, 2022 to January 4, 2023. You can see a shortened version of the video on YouTube.

Some of our attendees at our December 8, 2022 Haiku Northwest meeting on Zoom.

Thirty of Michael Dylan Welch’s haiku were on display as part of the Redmond Lights installation at the Buoyant Pavilion at the downtown park in Redmond, Washington from December 1, 2022 to January 4, 2023.

Haiku Northwest 2023 Schedule Added

December 15, 2022

You can now check out the Haiku Northwest event schedule for 2023. Most dates are firm, but are subject to change, especially later in the year. The first few meetings will still be on Zoom, but we are looking into when and how we might resume having in-person meetings, so stay tuned for more details. To be notified of meeting announcements and other news, please join our private Mailchimp email list.

Haiku Northwest Monthly Meeting on November 10, 2022

Haiku Northwest president Tanya McDonald chaired our monthly Zoom meeting on November 10, 2022, with twenty poets attending. Inspired by Michele Root-Bernstein’s presentation at our October quarterly meeting, we read and discussed selected haiku. This was not a critique, but an appreciation, an attempt to continue along the lines of Michele’s “Reading to Write.” Many wonderful poems were presented for discussion. It was useful to take the poems apart, to discuss what makes them work, and learn how they enrich our understanding of haiku and the world.

Some of our attendees at our November 10, 2022 Haiku Northwest meeting on Zoom.

Haiku Northwest had a great turnout for its October 8, 2022 meeting on Zoom.

Attendees at our September 8, 2022 Haiku Northwest meeting on Zoom.

HSA Regional Meeting on August 27, 2022

Haiku Northwest is pleased to share the news that the Washington region of the Haiku Society of America will hold an annual meeting on August 27, 2022. This free meeting will take place at the Breazeale Interpretive Center at the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, 10441 Bayview-Edison Road, in Mount Vernon, Washington, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with an optional dinner afterwards.

Haiku Northwest’s Zoom meeting on August 11, 2022.

On June 9, 2022, Haiku Northwest met again on Zoom.

Our May 12, 2022 Haiku Northwest meeting on Zoom.

Zoom screenshot of our March 10, 2022 Haiku Northwest meeting.

Happy attendees at our February 10, 2022 Haiku Northwest meeting on Zoom.

Haiku Northwest Receives Nonprofit Status

Haiku Northwest received official status as a nonprofit corporation in the State of Washington on December 13, 2021. Gratitude to Dianne Garcia for spearheading the effort to achieve this status, which 

July 2021 Quarterly Meeting

Haiku Northwest held its second quarterly meeting of the year on Saturday, July 10, 2021, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., welcoming (via Zoom) the following 37 participants: Chandra Bales, Anne Burgevin, Terran Campbell, Steven Carter, Janice Doppler, Gary Evans, Peter Fischer, Carolyn Fitz, Ida Freilinger , Patrick Gallagher, Dianne Garcia, Alan Harvey, Joyce Holgate, Connie Hutchison, Lynne Jambor, Emily Kane, Janis Lukstein, Curtis Manley, Elaine Mannon, Tanya McDonald, Joel Myer, Helen Ogden, Victor Ortiz, Linda Papanicolaou, Susan Roberts, Larry St. Pierre, Michelle Schaefer, Eliott Simons, Maggie Smith, Angela Terry, Richard Tice, Kim Weers, Michael Dylan Welch, Kathabela Wilson, Sharon Yee, Gideon Young, and Karen [last name unrecorded]. Our attendees joined us from Washington, Oregon, California, British Columbia, Utah, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and elsewhere.

Michael Dylan Welch hosted the meeting, which began with readings by Gideon Young and Anne Burgevin. Gideon Young, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina read poems from his new book from Backbone Press, My Hands Full of Light. Gideon is a member of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective with his poetry appearing in many publications, including several anthologies. His poems were well received by the group and generated much discussion and insights. He began and closed his presentation with improvised performances on his flute.

Anne Burgevin read next. She shared poems from her book, Frozen Earth, available from Red Moon Press. She also shared some of her wonderful graphic artwork. Anne is from Penn State College and is a writer is an elementary teacher, poet, naturalist, and environmentalist. Throughout her life she has fostered awareness and a sense of wonder in her children and students about the natural world. Her haiku are an expression of her passion and concern for every living being, for whom she has deep regard, including weeds.

After break-out room sessions where we could get to know each other better, we then enjoyed a featured presentation from Dr. Steven D. Carter, professor emeritus of Stanford University and a world-renowned authority on Japanese literature. His talk was “When and Why? Reading Bashō’s Hokku.” Dr. Carter discussed how Bashō revised his work all the time, even changing facts for poetic effect. Several versions exist of many of his poems. At times, these revisions were done to make a poem fit into a longer renku. Bashō also revised poems by other poets, and would sometimes also include earlier versions of his own poems in later works such as his travel journals. Researchers can be hard-pressed to pinpoint the exact time and place of Bashō’s poems. Finally, Bashō’s poetry, and renku verses in particular, were purposely open-ended so that the next participant in a linked-verse session had various points of entry for their contributions. Dr. Carter’s presentation was very well received, shattered some long-held misunderstandings of Bashō and how he worked, and elicited some good questions and discussion among attendees.

After a short break, the afternoon continued with our usual rounds of haiku critiquing. When we reached our normal ending time of 4:00 p.m., more than a dozen poets continued for an extra hour sharing and discussing poems, led by Michael.

Photos by Kathabela Wilson.