September 8 through 11, members and friends of the Society enjoyed their 2011 annual Retreat at the Asilomar State Beach and Conference Center. The retreat began with a wildlife safari by boat on Elkhorn Slough. The participants had close-up views of plentiful sea lions and sea otters and over 30 species of birds, and enjoyed the nature lore related by the guide on board. That evening Society President Alison Woolpert led an introductory round of haiku reading, then each participant related how he or she had come to the art of haiku writing. Christopher Herold, featured presenter, introduced his theme for the retreat, Feathering the Moment, encouraging the poets to acutely observe and incorporate in their poetry what is around them at any time.
On Friday morning Anne Homan described the Society’s recent publication, San Francisco Bay Area Nature Guide and Saijiki, and encouraged the attendees to write haiku to expand its collection of poems. Later in the morning the poets participated in a ginko on the grounds and beach, and returned to the conference room to share their poems. Just before lunch Joan Zimmerman provided the attendees with the treat of seeing their copy of Wild Violets, the Society’s 2011 members’ anthology.
Friday afternoon Linda Papanicolaou led the poets in a craft workshop. Linda described and provided examples of artist’s cards, hand-made trading-card size graphics which artists create and trade. In the workshop each participant produced a set of cards with a graphic image and a haiku on each, and used them in trade to acquire others cards. Friday evening events started with a flute concert by Elaine Whitman, using a variety of her collection of indigenous flutes. Deborah Kolodji, the 2011 Tokutomi Memorial Contest chair, presented the roster of winners. The winning poets present read their poems.
We were fortunate to have present during all our sessions the esteemed Tokyo haiku poet and translator Emiko Miyashita, through the generous sponsorship of the Japan Foundation. Emiko and Paul Watsky, co-translators of a book of haiku by the 20th century down-and-out poet and failed-monk Taneda Santoka, presented readings of Santoka’s poems and related the major phases of his life.
On Saturday morning Emiko Miyashita conducted a kukai in the manner of the haiku group she belongs to in Japan, Teni, led by Dr. Akito Arima. After lunch and free time for writing, we convened again and Emiko gave us each a gift from Japan Airlines, a collection of children’s haiku and art from around the world. We took turns reading from the book. At the close of the afternoon Christopher Herold led us in an exercise in which we made manifold observations and wrote them down in fragments that could be expanded into haiku. Which observations we were happy to write and share.
Saturday evening the poets enjoyed the traditional renku writing party. Newcomers had the chance to see and participate in the excitement of renku. During the evening Billy Dee provided a tea party featuring selected exotic teas to the writers. On Sunday morning the renku were read aloud, each poet reading the verses they had contributed. The formal closing of the Retreat acknowledged the contributions of those who helped plan and conduct the retreat and provided thanks to them. For those poets that cared to stay on through Sunday afternoon, Patricia Machmiller provided a workshop to allow discussion of poems written at the Retreat.
Retreat participants are invited to add their comments on the retreat below.
