Michelle V. Alkerton

Born 1965, Canada
Living in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
Michelle V. Alkerton (formerly Lohnes) is an internationally published poet who cannot contain her excitement when inspired. She thrives best when close to nature and enjoys the therapy her writing, art, photography and other creative outlets provide. She is pleased that her English language haiku and related forms continue to be published in both print and online journals.

Eric W. Amann

(16 January 1934 – July 2016)

One of the most influential figures in the formative years of the haiku movement in Canada was Toronto medical doctor and poet Eric Amann. He was born in Munich in 1934. In 1952 Eric and his family emigrated to Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1953, Eric was drafted for the Korean War and escaped to Winnipeg where he stayed with family friends from Munich. He earned his medical degree in 1961.

As many other poets in the 1960s Amann's interest in haiku was sparked by the six volumes written by R.H. Blyth. After reading and writing haiku for several years, Eric Amann edited and published the first Canadian haiku magazine Haiku from 1967-1970. Under Amann’s editorship Haiku rapidly became one of the most influential North American periodicals, publishing experimental as well as classical work. After a hiatus of seven years, during which he engaged in other kinds of writing, in 1977 Amann returned to haiku with a new magazine Cicada (from 1977-1982) which immediately achieved a similar status. The same year Eric Amann, Betty Drevniok and George Swede founded the Haiku Society of Canada, which later in 1985 was renamed to Haiku Canada. Eric served as its first president during 1977-79. In 1979 Eric Amann also published one issue of konkret [a journey into the concrete and visual].

In the preface to the 1986 edition of The Haiku Anthology, Cor van den Heuvel wrote that “Haiku and Cicada [were] perhaps English language haiku's most influential magazines [and that they] are still unsurpassed for excellence in both content and design, though both have ceased publication.”

Eric W. Amann sadly passed away in July 2016 and left a huge void in the international haiku community.

While writing about the significant achievement of one of the pioneers of English-language haiku, Richard Stevenson states: “For Eric Amann, the ideal is to capture the ‘ah experience’ or ‘a mood of serene calm and beauty.’ The form may vary from the traditional three-line, 5-7-5 syllable count to the one-line portrait; it may even be stretched to include the "mutational possibilities" of senryu, vertical, visual, and sound haiku.” – (Richard Stevenson in Canadian Literature, Spring 1985)

Publications:

• Plastic Flowers [a collection of poems] (1964);
• The Wordless Poem , Toronto: Haiku Society of Canada, 1969;
• No More Questions, No More Answers, [a collection of one-liners], 1980;
• Cicada Voices: Selected Haiku of Eric Amann, 1966-1979. George Swede, Editor. High/Coo Press, 1983;
• The Space Between, George Swede, with Eric Amann, LeRoy Gorman, (Glen Burnie, MD, USA: Wind Chimes, 1986);
• Eric Amann’s work appears in all three editions (1974, 1986, and 1999) of Cor van den Heuvel's The Haiku Anthology.

Selected haiku:

Winter burial:
a stone angel points his hand
at the empty sky

(1978 Eminent Mention Award, Modern Haiku)

Withered winter tree;
its barren boughs reflected
in the sick man’s eye

(1979 Eminent Mention Award, Modern Haiku)

*

Anaesthesia:
the last deep breath
takes the whole world away!

(Cicada Voices: Selected Haiku of Eric Amann 1966-1979, (High Coo Press, 1979)

*

A morning of snow:
listening to the muffled sound
of the blind man’s cane

(Modern Haiku 10:1, 59)

last day of autumn:
and still the sunset lingers
in a one-way street.

(Modern Haiku 1:1, 6)

New Year’s morning:
a sober newsman
repeats the casualties.

(Modern Haiku 2:1, 18)

Softly falling
on the names of the dead:
spring rain …

(Modern Haiku 1:2, 5)

The long walk back:
— A tiger lily
Points the way …

(Modern Haiku 6:3, 9 (a)

The old Ford truck —
still clinging to it:
last summer’s leaves …

(Modern Haiku 1:2, 17)

*

deep inside your mouth      no more questions no more answers

(Cicada Voices: Selected Haiku of Eric Amann, 1966-1979; High/Coo Pr (Jun. 1983); p.50)

deep penetration       the bedside candle quivers lightly in the moonlit room

(Ibidem, p.51)

wild raspberry taste       on the tip of your tongue

(Ibidem, p. 52)

*

Billboards
   wet
      in spring
         rain…

Snow falling
   on the empty parking-lot:
      Christmas Eve…

A night train passes:
pictures of the dead are trembling
on the mantelpiece

(The Haiku Anthology, editor Cor van den Heuvel, 3rd edition, Norton, 1999; pp.2-4)

*

The starlit sea

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(Cicada Voices: Selected Haiku of Eric Amann, 1966-1979; High/Coo Pr, 1983; p. 37)

More haiku at:

http://terebess.hu/english/haiku/amann.html

Sources:

1. http://performance.millikin.edu/haiku/writerprofiles/EricAmann.html
2. http://www.haikucanada.org/home/about.php?style=1&page=1001
3. http://www.brickbooks.ca/a-history-of-haiku-in-canada-in-two-parts-by-terry-ann-carter/
4. http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/poet-details/?IDclient=1804
5. http://www.litkicks.com/OnWesternHaiku
6. http://www.modernhaiku.org/MH-Archive/authorsA-D.html#a

Essays and articles on the works of Eric Amann:

• http://www.simplyhaiku.com/SHv5n2/tracks/tracks.html
• http://performance.millikin.edu/haiku/writerprofiles/WalschOnAmann.html

Marshall Bood

Born: 1980 Indian Head, Saskatchewan, Canada
Resides: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Marshall Bood’s debut collection is Spring Cleaning (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2021).

Susan Constable

Born 1943 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Living in Nanoose Bay, British Columbia, Canada

Sophia Conway

Year and Place born: 1995 in Wales, UK
Current residence: Vancouver Island, Canada
Website: www.sophiaconway.ca

Sophia Conway is an Irish writer and poet residing on Vancouver Island, Canada, with her husband and infant son. Her poetry has been published in multiple journals and in her spare time she enjoys creating haiga in new ways. She is a member of Haiku Canada, the Haiku Society of America, and Haiku Ireland.

Elizabeth Crocket

Country of birth: Canada
Currently resides: Ontario, Canada

Elizabeth is an award-winning Canadian poet, who has had two books shortlisted for the American Haiku Foundation Touchstone Distinguished Books Award. She won the 2nd annual Jane Reichhold Photographic Haiga Contest and won 2nd prize in the H. Gene Murtha Senryu Contest. Elizabeth has been featured in the Haiku Foundation Haiga Galleries twice, showcasing her collage haiga and photo-haiga. She was co-judge of the Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Contest in 2020, and had a photo-haiga commissioned by the City of Burlington for an outdoor art and writing display. She has been widely published in most of the leading haiku journals, including Modern Haiku, Frogpond and Mayfly.

Michael Dudley

Michael Dudley was born in downtown Toronto and reared in Scarborough, Canada. For 35 years he lived and worked in rural Southwestern Ontario. He is the father of three adults and the author of numerous poetry volumes, including pilgrimage (Red Moon Press, 2017), a revised, updated, and expanded volume of new and selected haiku.

Website:
www.michaeljdudley.com

Laryalee (Lary) Fraser

August 22, 1940 – October 16, 2013

Chris Gordon

Born 1966 in Toronto, Canada
Living in Eugene, Oregon, USA
http://antantantantant.wordpress.com
Contact the poet

Philomene Kocher

Dave Read

Born 1970 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
http://davereadpoetry.blogspot.ca

Carl Seguiban

Born in Zamboanga City, Philippines
Living in British Columbia, Canada

Debbie Strange

Born 1955 in Canada
Living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Debbie Strange is a maker of poems, music, photographs, and art. She has an affinity for birds and water, and feels most at peace when exploring nature with her husband. Debbie's creative passions are her solace and salvation, connecting her more closely to the world and to herself.
website: http://www.debbiemstrange.blogspot.ca

George Swede

Born 1940 in Riga, Latvia
Living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
http://georgeswede.com/
Contact the poet
Hear the poet read

(work from 1975 to 2010 inclusive)

Anna Yin

Born 1970 in China.
Residing in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
website: http://annapoetry.com

Anna Yin is Mississauga’s Inaugural Poet Laureate with six poetry books. Anna won the 2005 Ted Plantos Memorial Award, two MARTY Awards and the 2013 Professional Achievement Award from CPAC etc. Her poems have appeared on Arc Poetry, New York Times, China Daily, CBC Radio etc. She teaches Poetry Alive.