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Frogpond 37.3 • 2014

Museum of Haiku
Literature Award

Haiku & Senryu

Essay Buson 100

Haibun

Haiku Sequence

Renku

Book Reviews

From the Editors

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From the Editors

For me a part of the genius of haiku lies in variations on a common theme, just as each of our faces is unmistakably different even though we share the same features in more or less the same position.

~Paul O. Williams

With Chris Patchel’s exquisite “potpourri” cover of twenty-two different kinds of flowers, herbs, and spices (including one he still can’t name) we think of all the sights, textures, smells, tastes, and sounds that make up our experience of here and now. As poets, we have all these sensations and perceptions to draw upon, in endless combination, to express ourselves and bring our voices alive. And it may well be that what we contribute to the poetic conversation of our times has less to do with originality as novelty than it does with originality as variation on those images and themes that speak most deeply to us all. As Paul O. Williams observes, it is not just a haiku “face” (disjunction, brevity, “the thing in itself”) that defines what we fashion, but certain thematic content, certain approaches to the poetic transcription of the world. With this in mind, we celebrate the 766 haiku and senryu, 40 linked forms, 70 haibun, 10 essays, and 41 long and brief book reviews that it has been our pleasure to publish in 2014—each an indispensable piece of the potpourri of haiku arts right here, right now.

In this autumn issue we are also very pleased to feature the new HSA logo (designed by our own Chris Patchel) on the spine and title page. We thank Ignatius Fay, who reminds us to hold steady through the end of the year with his captivating frog art, “Cling-on.” And as always we are grateful to the HSA for their support; to all who send their work for our consideration; to Charlie Trumbull and Bill Pauly, who catch our errors; and to Noah Banwarth for technical assistance. As we close the pages on this issue, we look forward to the next.

Francine Banwarth, Editor
Michele Root-Bernstein, Associate Editor

Francine Banwarth, Editor
985 So Grandview
Dubuque, Iowa 52003

<fnbanwarth@yahoo.com>

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