"Down East Haiku"
Haiku are nature poems. What better place to study nature haiku than the U.S. state of Maine? This installment of the Field Guide departs from our usual format in that we are not considering season words (snow, butterflies, etc.) or haiku topics (season, landscape, animals, etc.) but rather what we might call “haiku of place.” The place in the current case is the U.S. state of Maine.
The two most prominent Maine haikuists are probably Bruce Ross and Paul MacNeil, both of them “from away” (not natives) as they say in Maine. Born in Hamilton, Ont., Ross taught literature the University of Maine and several places out of state before returning to Maine with his wife, Astrid Andreescu, also a haiku poet, a few years ago. They live in Bangor, where Ross runs Tancho Press, whose first publication was A Scent of Pine, A Maine Haiku Anthology (2011). Ross also founded the Bangor Haiku Group, believed to be the only active haiku group in the state.
MacNeil’s mother also hailed from Bangor and, though Paul was born in Massachusetts and lives now mostly in Ocala, Fla., he spends the summer months at a camp on Lake Onawa in Monson, Maine, where he invites fellow poets to visit for R & R (relaxation & renku). Other Maine residents include Anne LB Davidson, who came from New York and now resides in Saco; British-born Kirsty Karkow, who retired to Waldoboro; and Tyler Pruett who lives in Augusta. Adam Traynor resides in Portland and Lynda True in Cape Neddick.
Natives of Maine include Marjorie Bates Pratt (born in Waterville), Cor van den Heuvel (Biddeford), Arizona Zipper (the White Mountains, now living in Fryeburg), and Catherine J.S. Lee (Eastport). Other haikuists born in Maine but now living elsewhere include Gary Hotham (born in Presque Isle), Robert Henry Poulin (Waterville), Gary LeBel (Bath), Dan McCullough (Old Orchard Beach), and Karina M. Young (Augusta). The work these haikuists do, however, is typically not specific to Maine.
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