George Klacsanzky
(1956-2003)
Born in Budapest, Hungary, but living the majority of his life in Seattle, Washington, George was an early organizer of English haiku publishing and events. In 1984, George started a zen-centered haiku journal called Haiku Zasshi Zo--the first haiku journal in the Northwest of the United States. Besides being the editor of this pivotal journal, he organized many haiku walks, conducted haiku meetings, shared haiku news, and sponsored haiku contests.
Though he was focused on spreading haiku throughout the Northwest, he was a prolific haiku writer. He regularly went on bicycle trips--sometimes as long as from Seattle to Chicago. On these excursions, he would write haibun. He often infused humour in his haiku, though he definitely leaned towards darker topics as well.
Despite writing thousands of haiku, he rarely sent his haiku for publication. He was more content with the process of writing haiku and spreading the joy haiku with others. However, he had haiku printed in journals like Brussels Sprout, Frogpond, and Poetry Nippon, while also being printed in books such as Haiku Moment (Bruce Ross, 1993), No Longer Strangers (Haiku Northwest and Tanya McDonald, 2014), and Journey to the Interior (Bruce Ross, 1998) for his contribution to haibun.
He passed away on New Year’s Eve in 2003, after complications with a diabetic attack. He is survived by twin sons, Christopher and Nicholas Klacsanzky.
This profile was created with the kind help of George’s son Nicholas Klacsanzky using his personal archive. Nicholas is regularly published in haiku journals and is soon releasing a book called Zen and Son, which is a compilation of George’s and Nicholas’ haiku.
Selected haiku:
early morning
fishing boat full of
pelicans
orange carp
lost in the reflection
red maple leaves
with each receding
wave—the sound of
pebbles
с каждой волной
отступающей - ропот
гальки
(Haiku Moment: An Anthology of Contemporary North American Haiku edited by Bruce Ross)
*
barking all the way
down the street—the
dog catcher’s truck
(Poetry Nippon 75 (1986); Haiku Zasshi Zo, 1988 ; The Rise and Fall of Sparrows, Anthology (winter/spring), ed. Alexis K. Rotella, (1990)
*
empty elevator
one purple
sock
(Brussels Sprout 5:2 (September 1988); “Haiku Northwest Poets: In Memoriam,” Haiku Northwest, No Longer Strangers (Haiku Northwest 25th Anniversary Anthology, 2014), 117)
*
street person
tears on his face
tattooed
(Brussels Sprout 10:3 (September 1993)
*
dead seagull
on the beach—eyes still
looking for fish
(Haiku Zasshi Zo (winter/spring, 1988)
*
Some haiku translated in Hungarian:
as I wait
the clouds
also
még én várok
a felhök —
ugy szintén
*
incense
fills the cathedral square
game of chess
tömjén
betölti a székesegyház terét —
sakk játék
*
on the bus
woman carrying a naked
mannequin
today
one country fly became
a city fly
floating past
on this gray day
sumi-e duck
dead rat
on sidewalk—
teeth showing
rising from
the fire—sparks
stars
crab
shell filled
with sand
Additional sources:
https://academichelp.net/samples/creative-writing-samples/haiku-samples/george-klacsanzky.html
https://sites.google.com/site/haikunorthwest/Home/faq
https://www.questia.com/library/101605257/haiku-moment-an-anthology-of-contemporary-north-american
http://www.wowwi.orc.ru/cgi-bin/shuttle/summary.cgi?author_id=1144326766