George Klacsanzky: 1956–2003

Edmonds, Washington

June 3, 1956 – December 31, 2003

George Klacsanzky was an early organizer of English-language haiku publishing and events in the Seattle area. In 1984, he started a haiku journal called Haiku Zasshi Zō (which may be translated as Haiku Magazine Image)—the second haiku journal in the Pacific Northwest. Besides editing this pivotal journal, he organized many haiku walks, conducted haiku meetings, shared haiku news, and sponsored haiku contests. He also published several books and anthologies of haiku by other poets. George published his own haiku in Brussels Sprout, Frogpond, and Poetry Nippon, and in anthologies such as Haiku Moment (Tuttle, 1993) and No Longer Strangers (Haiku Northwest, 2014). He also had his haibun featured in Journey to the Interior (Tuttle, 1998). In 2017, George’s son, Nicholas Klacsanzky, published Zen and Son: Haiku from Two Generations, pairing many of his father’s haiku and senryu with his own poems on matching themes. See “Coloring in Winter” on the Colorado Boulevard blog for poem selections by George and Nicholas.

early morning

fishing boat full of

pelicans 

with each receding

wave—the sound of

pebbles

barking all the way

down the street—the

dog catcher’s truck

dead seagull

on the beach—eyes still

looking for fish

floating past

on this gray day

sumi-e duck

The following poems are all of George Klacsanzky’s poems that appeared in Brussels Sprout (V:2, September 1988; X:3, September 1993; and XII:3, September 1994):

empty elevator

one purple

sock

   street person

tears on his face

       tattooed

   dead loon on the beach

its head nods as each wave

         comes and goes