It’s not that it’s been a terrible year, in fact we’ve had the joy of a new grandchild, Callan, not yet two months old.
But there have been deaths, and sadness as well. Writing has taken a lower place on the ladder of life, but just for a while. I am proud to have published books and chapbooks with my Catkin Press, though fewer than usual.
‘Dérive’, by Marco Fraticelli is the French translation of his best selling ‘Drifting’, haibun based on the journals of Celesta Taylor, woman of many merits from the Eastern Townships of Quebec, whose story is unique and all encompassing. Copies of either are available from Marco. (marcofraticelli.com) (He’s also the author of ‘Dear Elsa’, another run-away best seller! ( The best introduction to haiku I know. It’s step-by-step clear, in a touching pen-pal correspondence between fifth graders, which will have you aching with laughter) (Red Deer Press | 2023/ $14.95. Available through Red Deer Press , or your favourite bookseller. His email is on his website.)
The next beautiful book, ‘Stone Garden,’ by Rich and Zo Schnell recounts the transformation of their garden into a spiritual place. As the second part of the title suggests, it is a place of meditation and poetry, with the work of many poets who write in Japanese forms. Truly beautiful in every way. Available at richschnell73@outlook.com
I asked Pearl Pirie if she had haiku lying around as I would like to do a chapbook, and of course, she did. This collection, so sensitive to her world, invites you in, and somehow you find yourself just settling in with the poems.
And Susan Atkinson was running out of copies of her haibun collection, ‘The Birthday Party: The Mariachi Player and The Tourist’, but asked for an edited version with her alternate choice of cover colour. It was ready for her to read from at the Manx, so many other fortunate people got copies.
I have been writing, writing, and meeting most weeks with the Ruby Tuesday poetry group. We have lost a dear member this year. I think of Jacqueline (Bourque) often. We miss her very much for many reasons, not least her poetry. Her posthumous collection will be coming out with McGill-Queen’s University Press, which made her very happy. She knew joy to the last.
I have been writing, though I can’t prove it as yet. My own book of wildflower poems, ‘Sweet Vinegars’ will be published in Devon, UK, in 2024, and editor Susan Gillis has been wonderful as I plow through the manuscript for ‘The House on Fanning Lane’. But I have been slow to send the second part. It’s all my fault.
Admitting this next project in a public blog will make it happen: a collection of haibun called ‘Désirée/ Life, Laughter, Loss’, (working title). It is written, in pencil, something I haven’t done for a while, and I hope I can read my writing in order to dictate it into Word. It was written day by day after my lovely little parrot died. It will be the third collection after ‘Désirée/ nude in sunlight’ and ‘Désirée/ air bone feather’. How much joy this gorgeous little lorikeet gave me and Ted over the past 23 years! (Is still giving us…)
I have also lost Cynthia French as a dear Poet friend in Nova Scotia. She was, with Les, a magnificent host, but more to the point, a lover of words who put them into poems I like to keep by my bed. ‘Remedy’ is a collection and a work of art ‘within and without’ to use the words of George Harrison, as it is printed on papers handmade by her daughter, Nancy French, (lindenleapapers.com).
I have been writing. I have. Keep checking this blog and please hold me to account.
I wish all of you a tremendous 2024 with a muchness of joy and creativity to help get through the harder bits.
À la prochaine…
claudia radmore 