This week: George Swede Haiku! Edited by: eyestar~* More Newsletters By This Editor
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Hello readers. I am honoured to be your guest editor this week! Continuing in my study of Haiku I found another passionate Haiku writer to share with you!
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George Swede is a major figure in English-Language Haiku and known for his poignant, wry observations. He also distinguished himself with experimental poetry, tanka, and longer free-verse poetry.
His first Haiku published in 1977 won an award:
still noticeable
among the bare trees
a TV antenna
http://www.americanhaikuarchives.org/curators/GeorgeSwede-essay.html
Born on November 20 1940 in Riga Latvia he now lives in Toronto, Canada. After the war in 1947, he and his mom and step-dad moved to his grandparent's fruit farm in Oyama, B.C. After his step dad died in 1950, they moved to Vancouver, where he finished high school, graduated with a B.A in Psychology in 1964. He worked as a psychologist in New West Minister Penitentiary. He has a MA and worked as professor of Psychology and then a school psychologist in Scarborough and then on to a Director of Psychology at Ryerson. He retired in 2006 and was awarded Honorary Life Membership by the Canadian Psychological Association in 2007..
Along the way he became a writer! He began writing poetry in 1968 and published his first poem in 1969. His first poetry book in 1974 was Unwinding He has been published in many journals both haiku and psychological articles and children's poetry books.
He has been an officer of the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers as well as the Writers’ Union of Canada.
His serious involvement as a Haijin began in l976 when the editor of the Canadian Book Review Annual asked him to comment on Makoto Ueda's Modern Japanese Haiku (University of Toronto Press 1976).
tidal pools
the growing gaps
of memory
around the eyes
of the old fisherman
permanent ripples
In an article he reflected about why he became so passionate about haiku form when he found it.It was sparked by the work he did with Ueda's work. He grew up in nature in an area in BC where Japanese were once held. He would look into old homes where the decor fascinated him. In his early days he would often meet Asian friends and arts, even studying Chinese and Japanese history in school and his first wife's family was influenced by Asian elements. He found the simplicity and clarity of the form so in contrast with is heavier psychological thinking. He mentioned his isolated childhood and wandering in the nature, interested in all of the elements and how this for spoke to him! He wrote thousands of haiku, and published in many journals and books.
He was the co-founder of Co-founder, Haiku Canada (1977) with Betty Drevniok and Eric Amann, When its 30th anniversary was celebrated in Ottawa in May 2007, Haiku Canada awarded Swede an Honorary Life Membership..
He has also been a Guest Editor for (i}Brussels Sprout 5:2 (1988); Columnist for Simply Haiku (2005-2008); Assistant Editor, Red Moon Press (2000-08); and the first Canadian Editor of Frogpond the journal for Haiku Society of America from 2008-2012.
From 2008–2009 he was the first Canadian chosen to be the honorary curator of the "American Haiku Archives" at the California State Library in Sacramento. In recognition for his extraordinary service to the North American haiku community through his poetry, personal inspiration, and publications, which have included numerous books of poetry for adults and children as well as haiku anthologies (Canadian Haiku Anthology in 1979 and Global Haiku in 2000).
Here he reads his own work: three haiku and a tanka.
Notice the three different ways of writing a haiku.
https://livinghaikuanthology.com/readings/haiku-readings/3737-george-swede.html
One of his Interesting articles about Western DEATH Haiku:
https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/8ec35c1deb56b4765e88025f...
includes this tanka that rose after his half-brother's suicide:
I re-read
my brother's
suicide note -
tomatoes ripen
on the sill
I really enjoyed reading his variety of haiku and hope you will enjoy the links to his works as well.
passport check
my shadow waits
across the border
Thanks for reading!
eyestar
From Modern American Haiku Poets website, some of his works.
https://terebess.hu/english/usa/swede.html
http://www.americanhaikuarchives.org/curators/GeorgeSwede-essay.html
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Happy Haikuing!
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So, do you have any favourite haiku, or haiku resources or mentors that inspired your haiku journey? Why do you think you write haiku or have a calling to it, if you do? Feel free to share your thoughts and haiku right here!
Thank you kind readers for your comments on "Poetry Newsletter (November 13, 2019)"
Uncommonspirit
Being a poet of haiku form, I enjoyed reading about this interesting poet. Thank you for highlighting her and I look forward to taking a look at her work! |
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