Happy Holidays

Although I’ve just sent many e-mail holiday cards, I may have missed some friends across the country and the planet. I’ve been working on a new desktop computer, and struggling to keep track of it all between my former Thunderbird e-mail program and my new web-based program. If you’re reading this and are a friend I missed, please let me hear from you.  May everyone who visits my blog enjoy a wonderful holiday season.

Below, I’m sharing a haibun I wrote recently, “passing forward” a neighbor’s unexpected gift:

———————-

Winter Stars

My neighbor fills her winter garden with oaktag cut-outs of red and yellow stars—hangs them from her bird feeder or glues them atop the planting sticks she’s left in the dirt between withered blooms. Yesterday, she knocked on my door, and I opened it to find her hands overflowing with stars—each hole-punched and threaded with yarn—a new constellation for these days of early dark.

“These are for you to hang places,” she said simply, knowing of my need for joy this Christmas season. As we smiled and hugged one another, I received them in my cupped hands. Now stars dangle from my doorknobs and brighten shadowed corners—an unexpected gift of light.

moon splinters
on the river—the glint
of ice floes

New Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition of “The Haiku Handbook” Arrives

About ten days ago I got my first “author” copies of the new edition of The Haiku Handbook. I’m thrilled to say that the book is beautiful. Barry Lancet, our / my editor at Kodansha International had told me that books would be available in Japan in November, and in the states early in 2010. The book is in a trade paperback format (larger), with a lovely new cover and an inviting new Foreword by Jane Reichhold. In addition, a few other poets have offered new blurbs—including X. J. Kennedy and Jane Hirshfield. I am blessed by their generosity.

It is a wonder that the book has been in print for twenty-five years, now. How well I remember Bill’s serendipitous meeting of Bonnie Crown at the New York Bookfair (Bonnie later became his agent, and now is mine);  the years of Bill’s writing the book  (with me both helping and cheering him on); Bill’s buying us our first Kaypro computers so he could edit it down when, after he submitted the manuscript,  McGraw Hill told him they wanted a Handbook, not an Encyclopedia; and our exciting  publication party at the Armory in Manhattan. How very pleased and excited I know Bill would be to see this book come out in this handsome new edition—as am I.

“Recycling Starlight” Chapbook Accepted by Mountains and Rivers Press

I’m delighted to announce that my chapbook Recycling Starlight, consisting of some eighteen poems I wrote over the past year while processing my grief over Bill’s death,  has been accepted by Ce Rosenow for publication next year by her Mountains and Rivers Press.

http://mountainsandriverspress.org/Home.aspx

I mentioned in my earlier post about my trip to the Pacific Northwest that I had shared poems with Ce on our three-hour drive down from Seabeck, WA, to Portland, OR. I read through the grief poems to her, and she was very interested in publishing them. I had already submitted the chapbook manuscript to a contest, so at first told her that I’d have to wait to see how it did. And that if it didn’t win, I’d certainly give the collection to her.

But Ce and I kept e-mailing back and forth about the book—discussing the poem sequence, where to integrate a couple of haiku and a new tanka sequence, how the book might best be designed and produced, etc.—and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted Ce to do the book. Also, since she is well-known in the haiku community, many of whom miss Bill and know me, it seemed a blessing that she wanted her press to bring out this collection. So yesterday, I sent a message to the contest folks withdrawing the manuscript from consideration (they accepted simultaneous submission and just wanted to be notified if a submission was accepted elsewhere), and Ce and I are a go for working together on the book. I feel so right about this, and I know Bill would be happy to have Mountains and Rivers Press do it. I’m sure it will be a beautiful book.

My First Copy of “The Beastie Book” arrives–and is now available

The Beastie Book, my hardcover alphabestiary of rhyming poems for totally imaginary creatures, illustrated by Alexandra Miller, has just been published by Shenanigan Books. I’m so excited!

http://www.shenaniganbooks.com/beastiebook.html

Last August in an earlier post, I announced that the book had gone to print. Well, last week the publisher called me to say that she’d gotten six advance copies, and one was on its way to me. Then, Monday afternoon it arrived via FedEx. It is absolutely beautiful, and I’m thrilled. The illustrations are marvelous and full of brilliant color. The design and presentation of the text—plus the whole layout of the book—remind me of the old fairytale books.  It’s on lovely paper and has sewn signatures. (Please see below for updated ordering information.)

When one contemplates the unopened envelope or box containing a new book, there is always the trembling hope that one will like it. When I pulled this book out, I literally jumped up and down in delight.  I’m in love with it and hope reviewers and readers everywhere will also like it, and want to order it—not only for the children in their lives, but also for the children still alive inside them. (Obviously, the child in me wrote the poems ).  I am extremely fortunate to have an extraordinarily talented illustrator, and a publisher who knows how to match text with artist and design a gorgeous book.

**UPDATE**As of the week of December 7th, the publisher is now sending out copies as she receives orders. Below is a link to a PDF file you can print out and fill in for ordering the book — and get it before the holidays :

http://shenaniganbooks.com/RETAILORDERFORM2009.pdf

And here’s a link to a page from which you can order it on-line from the publisher:

http://shenaniganbooks.com/ordering.html

**FURTHER UPDATE: 12/18/09: Also, you can now order it through amazon.com and get it by December 24th,”standard shipping,” if you order it soon.  Just put in The Beastie Book:** And if you click on “larger picture” on the book page at amazon.com, you’ll get a really good photo of the cover .

Have fun!

Three Poems Just Published in “International Psychoanalysis”

I’m happy to announce that three of my poems: “At Ninety, My Father,” “The Door in the Sun,” and “Last Night I Woke Crying,” are featured for the month of November in the “Poetry Monday” column of the journal  International Psychoanalysis, edited by Irene Willis.

http://tinyurl.com/yb6kbnc

The first two poems are from my book Buried in the Sky (La Alameda Press, 2001). “Last Night I Woke Crying” is a new poem from my chapbook manuscript, Recycling Starlight,  a cycle of about 18 poems that I’ve written over the past year since Bill’s death. (I’m currently talking with a publisher who would like to publish that chapbook. More on that when it becomes definite.) Many good things are happening with respect to publication these days, and I feel both blessed and grateful.

Memories of My Week in the Pacific Northwest, October 15th – 22nd, 2009

1.

On Thursday, October 15th, I got up at 3:15 a.m. Eastern Daylight Savings time and was picked up for the ride to the Philadelphia Airport at 5:00 a.m. I’d packed mostly the night before, but I wanted to take my time getting ready. There’s always something else to think about. My getting through security and the flight, itself, went fine. I flew US Air, and since the flight was lightly booked—perhaps because it left at 7:30 a.m.—I had the three seats in my row to myself. That allowed me to stretch out, though I couldn’t sleep. Too excited!

When I landed Ruth Yarrow, who had kindly volunteered to pick me up, and I found each other after a bit of wandering around SeaTac, and Ruth drove me to her home where Michael Dylan Welch was to join us and take me to that evening’s reading at Soulfood Books in Redmond, WA (please see link in earlier post anticipating this trip), followed by Tanya McDonald’s home where I would stay for the night. Ruth had made a wonderful barley soup / stew and homemade bread, and it was a joy to see her again, as well as to meet her husband and son. The food was manna after the flight, and shortly Michael joined us.

After an all too brief visit with Ruth, Michael drove me around the Seattle area, and we visited Open Books, a great poetry-only bookstore, had dinner in a restaurant in the mall in Redmond where Soulfood Books was, and then I participated in the reading Michael had set up with Bob Redmond and Arthur Tulee. I enjoyed hearing their work and having a chance to share some of mine. There I also met Lana Ayers whom I really enjoyed talking with. (She came to Seabeck, too.) After the reading, Michael drove me to Tanya’s. How kind of Tanya and her husband to volunteer to house me Thursday night. It was a pleasure to meet Tanya and spend time with them both—as well as their cat . By the time I went to bed that night, given Pacific time, I’d been up 22 straight hours.

The next morning at 8 a.m., Michael picked up Tanya and me for the journey to Seabeck. Michael was kind enough to have helped set up a meeting between me and June Cotner, an editor of many anthologies who had used my poems a number of times, but whom I’d never met. Since she lived in Poulsbo, we arranged to meet for brunch /early lunch at a restaurant on the way to Seabeck. It was lovely to finally meet her, and after a good visit, we were once again on the road—and ferry, which ride I loved! (And Michael, Tanya, and I wrote a rengay together, my first attempt.)

2.

Since Debbie Kolodji has already given a thorough and detailed account of each day’s Seabeck presentations and activities on her blog—

Friday -  http://dkolodji.livejournal.com/302989.html
Saturday - http://dkolodji.livejournal.com/305399.html
Sunday - http://dkolodji.livejournal.com/305447.html

along with all her great photographs, I’ll concentrate more on my personal memories:

The Seabeck Haiku Getaway was among the most enjoyable haiku events I’ve attended, and I’m so grateful to Michael Dylan Welch for inviting me. The facility is in a beautiful setting, and the poets attending were all so welcoming that I hope to not only go back next year, but also every year that I’m able to do so. I loved every minute of it—even the first two days  of rain , though a little sun peeked through the clouds now and then.

During the course of the retreat, I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to give a reading of some of Bill’s haiku and then my own work—both haiku and haibun, and a handful of my longer poems. I also appreciated sharing my process of turning longer narrative poems and/or prose into haibun—and soliciting input for the group about what to do with a particular haibun when comparing it to the original poem. And I especially loved sharing a number of the Hubble telescope photos with the group, inspiring them to write some amazing haiku. I also helped—a little bit—Christopher Herold and Karma Tenzing Wangchuk with the renku session—which became a tan-renga session because there were no tables in the room.

Here is a photo link from Michael Dylan Welch’s wonderful Seabeck photo gallery that show folks participating in the Hubble photo haiku workshop:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaeDylanWelch/SeabeckHaikuGetaway2009#5400123697068596434

But even more than the professional parts of the Getaway, I enjoyed the personal: Michael Dylan Welch’s opening the retreat by playing “Bread and Roses”, sung by Judy Collins. Seeing again old friends from the Northwest like Tenzing and Christopher; getting to know better some friends that Bill and I had only met in passing before—at Port Townsend, WA, for HNA four years ago, or at even longer ago haiku-related conferences in the West; and meeting some wonderful new folks who are already becoming good friends. And I’m so grateful for the internet and e-mail which allow all of us to continue to be in touch—our friendships growing in the process.

Some beautiful memories: Tall cedars touched with “rust” in autumn. A blue heron whose cry sounded like that of a raven to me—my memories of raven calls from having lived eleven years in Santa Fe. I’d never heard a heron’s cry before, and it was startling and haunting. Walking by the water with Debbie Kolodji, Ce Rosenow, Michael Dylan Welch, and Michael Evans—and his teaching me to skip stones on the Sound—or was it the Canal—doesn’t matter. Talking with friends both old and new in front of the huge fireplace in the main building, or at a round table in the dining hall.

This photo by  Michael Dylan Welch shows how happy I was to be there:

And the next several are down by the Canal where Michael Evans taught me to skip stones , which I’m about to try in the following three photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaeDylanWelch/SeabeckHaikuGetaway2009#5400122994551397138

http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaeDylanWelch/SeabeckHaikuGetaway2009#5400122991794866066

http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaeDylanWelch/SeabeckHaikuGetaway2009#5400123003958372114

And while down by the Canal, I found and picked a California poppy. Here are two photos Michael Dylan Welch snapped of that poppy in my hair.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaeDylanWelch/SeabeckHaikuGetaway2009#5400123387278449554

http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaeDylanWelch/SeabeckHaikuGetaway2009#5400123396784555218

Sunday midday, after my “Reach for the Stars” Hubble workshop, the results of the silent auction,  and some closing business, Michael again played “Bread and Roses,” and we all stood in a circle and held hands. Such a loving feeling among us—tears in some of our eyes, including mine, at not wanting to let go of such a wonderful sharing time. Then there was the final lunch together, many farewell hugs, and time to go. I was blessed when Billie Dee, who had outbid me on two vibrant knit scarves, gifted me with one of them in deep hues of purple, plum, and magenta.

I received several other gifts, too, from various books to an orange Copper Canyon poetry button, and they all mean much to me.

Here I am with that scarf around my neck and the poetry button on my jacket, looking at the loving thank-you card Michael Dylan Welch had everyone sign for me:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaeDylanWelch/SeabeckHaikuGetaway2009#5400124026108676130

Well, sad though I felt about leaving, after lunch it was time to accept Ce Rosenow’s gracious offer to drive me down to Portland where I would be spending four days with Maggie Chula and her husband in their new house, so off I went.

3.

Ce and I talked non-stop—well, I talked more than she since she wanted me to read through my new and recently completed manuscript of poems to her as we drove down. The ride was through beautiful country, and we so much enjoyed learning more about one another. Before we knew it, we were pulling up to Maggie’s new house which overlooked the city of Portland. What a lovely house! And what a view. Ce and I went in and had a tour—Maggie and John had just moved in two weeks ago—and we both said we felt like we were at a spa. I continued to feel like I was at a lovely Bed & Breakfast. They were both generous and loving hosts during my four nights and three days there.

I was still pretty tired on Monday, so we mostly relaxed. My throat felt a bit sore so I went with Maggie to a local shopping center and bought some echinacea and cough drops. That and more rest chased away whatever was nibbling at me, and I was fine by Tuesday. Monday night, Maggie took me to her local poetry critique group, a fine group of women poets who shared and critiqued one another’s work. I was honored to be welcomed into the group by the Paulann Petersen, at whose home it was, and by the other poets participating that night— including Penelope Scambly Schott, an old friend from New Jersey years ago. She and Eric, her husband, had come through Santa Fe when Bill and I lived there and shared a long meal with us. It was a joy to see her again, and to hear some of her fine work. I offered for the group’s critique a poem I was not satisfied with, and they helped me edit it. I hope my suggestions for their work helped them, too.

Tuesday night, October 20th, Maggie, Penelope and I read reading at Looking Glass Books (again, see earlier post for a link). The audience was very appreciative and each of us sold a few books. It was a pleasure to read with them, and among us there was quite a spread of different kinds of work.

Penelope read from her book  A is for Anne: Mistress Hutchinson Disturbs the Commonwealth—a narrative poem in the voice of Anne Marbury Hutchinson, 1591-1643, an influential woman in Puritan Boston who was convicted of heresy and banished from the colony of Massachusetts. (Turning Point, 2007), and from her new book,  Aretha’s Hat: Inauguration Day, 2009 (Kathryn Stripling Byer and Penelope Scambly Schott. In collaboration with Ash Creek Press, Portland Oregon, 2009), a collection of powerful personal poems of, among other things, childhood memories and about her mother and grandmother.

Maggie read from her new book What Remains: Japanese Americans in Interment Camps (Katsura Press, 2009. Poems by Margaret Chula and Quilts by Cathy Erickson.) This is a stunning book of persona poems in the voices of Japanese speaking from the internment camps during WW II, along with beautiful photographs of quilts that beautifully complement them. The poems represent experiences and memories of all ages and both genders, and are very moving.

I read from several of my books, but mostly from my newest collection The Night Marsh (WordTech Editions, 2008). One nice thing for me was that the Portland-based daughter of one of my NJ neighbors came with a friend. It was good to have someone I’d met before in our audience.

After the reading, Penelope had invited us back to her beautiful home—not that far at all from Maggie’s—for dessert and more visiting. She’d gone to the trouble of getting a delicious cheesecake and even writing on it “Welcome Penny.” So very kind of her! I enjoyed more visiting, including getting to know Eric a bit more than I had previously.

My last day in Portland, Maggie treated me to a tour of the Japanese Gardens. They are extraordinary. All the leaves were turning and every new corner turned revealed gorgeous new vistas, new places to meditate. I could not resist buying a beautiful scarf in the gift shop to remember the place by. Then we went to the local Goodwill and both found some wonderful surprises. That night, Maggie and John treated me to a Kabuki lecture and performance downtown in the Winningstad Theatre: Kabuki: Backstage to Hanamichi. A Behind the Scenes Look at the Color, Magic and Drama of Kabuki was fascinating, and the dance mesmerizing. I learned a great deal from the lecture parts, and thoroughly enjoyed the dance.

All too soon, at 3:45 a.m. on Thursday morning, it was time to begin the journey home. I was picked up by the Portland to Seattle shuttle for the three-hour drive back up to Seatac airport, and then the 5-hour flight home, plus the hour-long ride back to Mays Landing from Philadelphia. It was a thoroughly wonderful trip. As I said above, I hope to go back to the Seabeck Getaway next year and subsequent years.

I felt so welcome in the Pacific Northwest, and found the landscape both at Seabeck and near Portland breathtaking.  I know that if I were to move out there, I’d find a warm and friendly community. But then I’d miss my children and grandchildren here in NJ. I also love living near the ocean now. As I said to Terry Ann Carter, my Ottawa dear friend, I wish I could clone and live several places at once, but since I can’t, I’ll just have to travel more. Much more. I need to see friends out across the country, Canada—even the world (dream on) more often. Or, perhaps, they can come visit me. I hope that my just released children’s alphabestiary, The Beastie Book—the very first copy of which I received on Monday—will become a classic and fund my travel. (Dream on ).

One-year Anniversary of Bill’s Death

Yesterday, October 11th, was the one-year anniversary of my husband William J. Higginson’s death. Although I felt subdued the last several days, I also felt embraced by both family and friends. All weekend, even continuing this morning, friends across the country and planet have been e-mailing me, offering me love and support. Thinking of this time last year, I sent a message to the haiku list “Blogging Along Tobacco Road,” thanking that community for their caring over the past months.

http://tobaccoroadpoet.blogspot.com/2009/10/message-from-penny-harter.html

And I deeply thank my loving family members for their caring. My sister called me from Texas to see how I was doing. My son Charlie came on Friday and stayed overnight, leaving Saturday afternoon for his three-hour drive back up to North Jersey. He helped me enormously with further migrating my files from my 10-year-old Compaq computer to my new Dell desktop. As he said, I’ve gone from horse and buggy to bullet train. And my step-daughter Beth made and mailed me the unexpected gift of a beautiful tapestry tote-bag which I’ll use for my books and manuscripts during my upcoming trip.

And yesterday, the day itself, my daughter and family picked me up late morning for a drive out into the country to a farm about an hour away. We drove on country roads through a tapestry of color—from burnished fields to brilliant trees just beginning to turn, and it was a quintessential fall day.  We bought pumpkins, gourds, cider donuts (wickedly good), and fresh cider. It was fun to watch the grandkids helping to pick out pumpkins. I found a little round one, and my daughter snapped a photo of me holding it.

We all felt Bill’s presence as we hugged one another good-bye when they dropped me off.

After I got home late afternoon, I was comforted by a caring phone conversation with a dear friend, then put on my walking shoes and took a twilight walk to a pedestrian bridge over a portion of the nearby Great Egg Harbor River. I paused a bit on the bridge to look down at the water and meditate. The sky was luminous and the water so still it virtually became that sky and the glowing trees that lined the river banks.  As I write this, I’m reminded of the “still waters” in the 23rd Psalm.

And so the day passed, and this morning I am focusing on getting further prepared for my trip to the Pacific Northwest (please scroll down for info on that).  I am deeply thankful for all the good things that have flowed toward me during the past months.  And as these days shift into autumn– some a panoply of vivid color under incredibly blue skies, others cold and gray with rain and wind, I continue my healing journey, grateful for the blessings of the ever-changing sky.

Brief Essay and Three Poems just posted in “Dead Mule School of Southern Literature”

Well, this all came about because some weeks ago, Curtis Dunlap, host of “Blogging Along Tobacco Road,”

http://www.tobaccoroadpoet.com/

told me of this on-line journal and suggested I submit—because I had told him about my southern roots–through my father’s family in South Carolina.

The journal required a “Southern Legitimacy Statement” to validate one’s connection to the South. I had a great time writing that one–and there are things in it that probably none of my poet friends know about my own memories of trips “down south”, and from various tales my father told of his rural South Carolina past. Also, I added a few memories of visiting my parents after they had moved from NJ to Buda, Texas—outside of Austin. Here’s the URL for that page; scroll down to get to mine:

http://www.deadmule.com/poetry/

To submit, I selected poems that I thought would be appropriate from what I sensed of the journal. These three are not that recent, and I had not scooped them up yet for inclusion in an already published book or current manuscript. But I’ve always liked them and am glad to see them “in print” So I invite you to explore Curtis’s blog, my legitimacy statement, and the three poems.

http://tiny.cc/DLxGv

I was glad to get this piece of good news this morning, since I am feeling a bit more sad than usual this week. A year ago today began Bill’s sudden decline which brought him into the ICU, and to his death on October 11th. I plan to spend a portion of Sunday, the 11th, at the Ocean City Beach with my daughter and family. I’ll walk the tide line alone for a bit, meditating on the blessing Bill was in my life, and all the blessings that have come my way since—for which I am most grateful.

Before or after that, we may also go to a farm stand to pick out Halloween pumpkins—a small one for my front porch —and other things like corn sheaves, which my daughter wants to use in decorating her house for the season. (And suddenly, I’m remembering the scent of roasting chili peppers from our years in Santa Fe. Ah, time . . . . )

Getting Ready for October Visit to the Pacific Northwest

Between October 15th and 22nd, I will be on tour in the Pacific Northwest. I have been invited to attend and present at the Seabeck Haiku Getaway:

http://sites.google.com/site/haikunorthwest/seabeck-haiku-getaway

on the Washington state coast, where I will be reading my haiku and related genres, leading a writing workshop, giving a talk on the relationship between haibun (a Japanese genre, combining prose and haiku) and narrative poetry, and helping to lead a renku (linked-poem) session.

In addition, I will be a guest reader the night of October 15th at Soulfood Books in Redmond, Washington (in the Seattle area):

http://sites.google.com/site/soulfoodpoetrynight/future-readings/2009-10-15

and then travel down to Portland, Oregon, for a few days, where I will participate in a reading with Maggie Chula and Penelope Scambly Schott the night of October 20th at the Looking Glass Bookstore in Portland:

http://lookingglassbook.qwestoffice.net/

I’m really looking forward to this trip and am grateful to Michael Dylan Welch for inviting me to Seabec and arranging the Soulfood Books reading, and to Maggie Chula for hosting me in Portland and arranging our reading together at Looking  Glass bookstore. Exciting times!

*Brand New Review of The Night Marsh*

HURRAH!

Thanks to a “Congratulations” message from a former acquaintance who lives in Northern New Jersey (my previous home territory), I learned that a good review of The Night Marsh appeared in a number of local papers, yesterday. She helped me track it down on-line.  Here’s the notice I sent to my publisher, WordTech Editions:

http://www.wordtechweb.com:

Penny Harter’s The Night Marsh, is reviewed by Sherie Schmauder in “Out & About,” an Art & Leisure section published by Recorder Community Newspapers. These papers include: The Madison Eagle, The Observer Tribune, Bernardsville News, Morris News Bee and others.

And here’s the link to the review:

http://tinyurl.com/klc8mo

I am grateful that Sherie Schmauder chose to review my book, and I hope it results in some sales.  So, between The Beastie Book having gone to the printer; the forthcoming 25th anniversary edition of The Haiku Handbook coming out in Japan in November, and in the states in the spring; and several other publication-related projects in the works, things are going well. I know Bill would be (and is) so pleased.