The Solitary Daisy Issue 33

The Wilderness Around Us

Michele’s Musings

What a summer it’s been! For those of you asking, Frithjof’s broken ankle is healing well after surgery. He recently graduated from a cast to a Roboboot but still no weight-bearing. We rented a knee scooter and he is enjoying zipping around on that. He is using the extra time to do more drawing and painting.

I had a small stroke (not my first one) but it has taken a bit more recovery time than before. I have been using the extra time to watch the Olympics. I love to watch rock climbing and the newly added sport of breaking. You would think I would be using the extra time for writing haiku but they are just not coming. Instead I have been jotting down quick notes so that later I will be able to craft some haiku based on this summer’s events.

I’m pleased to run a member spotlight this issue on member Anna Dean of Australia! Remember, we will reach out to you for this spotlight based on how often you respond to the issue prompts. Might take a while to get to you with almost 400 members and fifty or so regular contributors.

Member Spotlight – Anna Dean

I live in Brisbane/Meanjin (place of the blue water lilies) with my musician husband Christopher and not too far away, my two musician children, Emma and Tony. I can’t remember a time when I haven’t been surrounded by their beautiful music. I think it nourishes the words that become my poems and haikus as I respond to this world in all its many colours. Haikus are very dear to my heart. I used them as a teaching tool with reluctant readers and writers at the hospital schools where I worked as a special education teacher for almost thirty years. The kids loved watching their words fall into a haiku as they told their stories. During this time I also had a children’s picture book published with Penguin Books Australia. More of a poem than a story, Meggie’s Magic looked at death and dying through the eyes of a child. Poetry and haikus can do that – capture the essence of something complex in words that speak to the heart and soul.

lavender scents
floating over the bay
into memories

listening
to the dawn chorus –
leaf blower off key

all the colours
of sunset –
bird of paradise

starlings
knife-edge passing –
sunset airshow

bathing
in sunset’s final blush –
so many thoughts

Member News

Debbie Strange had this haiku, originally published in Mariposa, No. 40, Spring/Summer 2019 and republished on Charlotte Digregorio’s website, August 2, 2024

summer fair
our dog retrieves
a lost boy

Lakshman Bulusu, Monica Kakkar, Paul Callus, Ruth Holzer, and Tracy Davidson were all long-listed for The Haiku Foundation’s Going For a Walk on the Top of the World. Congratulations!

Michele Rule and Jerome Berlund each had two haiku published in the Edmonton Japanese Community Association’s 2024 Anthology.

Sally Quon had this haiku appear on Café Haiku – The Elements on August 5:

wildfire smoke-
the moon
draped in red

Tracy Davidson had this haiku, first published by the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association, Jan. 2024, republished on Charlotte Digregorio’s website on Aug. 8, 2024.

making mischief
another slipper suffers
death by schnauzer

Just as an aside, Michele and Sally took first and third place respectively in the Wine Country Writers Festival International Contest poetry category. The festival is held at the end of September and we would love to see you there in beautiful Penticton, BC.

Sally’s Notebook

It’s been a hot, dry summer here in the Okanagan. We are fortunate enough to live in an area with dozens of lakes, the main one in my area being Okanagan Lake, home of the famous Ogopogo, or Naitaka, in the language of the Syilx people. I rarely go to the beautiful beach near my home. It’s park-like setting with lush grass and trees, popular with both tourists and locals alike. I prefer something a little quieter. There are several spots with beach access along the lake, but the one I’ve been enjoying lately is not far from where my son works. It’s perfect. I drop him off at work and less than five minutes later, I’m at this cute little beach with free parking, a good amount of shade, and a short step from my car to the water. I take a blanket to sit on, a book of haiku to be inspired by, and my haiku journal. I write about everything I see, hear, smell, and feel. Almost everything is a tercet – a three-line poem according to my friend, Michele. Some of them come out as haiku, some of them come out as little more than an observation, and some of them are outright trash. The thing is, I write them. Some of them I like. Some of them I will edit into a proper haiku later. Some of them will never see the light of day. But I write them. I guess the point I’m trying to make here, is that it doesn’t matter what you write so much as just getting used to being present in the moment. In Mary Oliver’s Instructions for Living a Life, she says,

“Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”

That’s what these little beach moments are for me – a time to sit quietly and notice what’s around me. The more I practice this, the more I connect with nature, and myself. I hope you, too, have a special place to practice quiet sitting, and feel the world around you. Let it fill you with peace.

entering the lake-
the slow adjustment
of body parts

Upcoming Deadlines, Stuff, and Things

Things are a little quiet in the submission department at this time of year, but we still have a couple for you.

The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press now has a Haiku Nook. Submissions close on the 15^th of August.

The Culinary Saijiki is looking for food/holiday related haiku and senryu from around the world.

Jacob Salzer recently shared his interview with Ion Codrescu at this link. And while you’re at it, check out Jacob’s own website here.

Here is an awesome look back at 1987 Haiku Canada Holographic Anthology

There’s still time to get in some Haiku Girl Summer

And finally, this came to me through Haiku Canada:

Hi!

I have some haiku news. I am working on a haiku game and would love to have some playtesters! If anyone would like to try it out for free, they can check out my game here: https://battlepoet.itch.io/the-haiku-contest-ashcan

In this game, you are a poet walking to Edo to attend a haiku contest. As you walk through the seasons, you write haiku. Choose your best haiku to see if you win!

This game is accessible to newcomers to haiku while also offering a hard mode for long-time practitioners.

If you’re a fan of yokai, or monsters from Japanese mythology, you may encounter a few along the road. 

Playtesters can share their thoughts with me here: https://oliverlporter.wordpress.com/contact/

Thanks very much.

Best,

Oliver Leon Porter 

Sounds like huge fun! I will definitely be checking it out.

There are tons of deadlines coming up for the end of the month, but I’ll share those with you in our next newsletter.

This Week’s Prompt

Write one or two haiku about a waterfall and send them to us at sally_quon@yahoo.com or kelownalady@hotmail.com. If you are planning to respond to this week’s prompt, please be sure to send your haiku to us by Wednesday, August 21st, so we have time to consider it for the next issue. We look forward to reading your work!

“The love of nature is
religion, and that religion is poetry; these three things are one thing. This
is the unspoken creed of haiku poets.”

-Reginald Horace Blyth

Michele Rule

Michele Rule is a disabled writer from Kelowna BC. She is especially interested in the topics of chronic illness, relationships and nature. Michele is published in the Asahi Shimbun Haikuist, Pine Cone Review, the Enchanted Garden, Five Minute Lit, Shadow Pond, WordCityLit, and the anthologies F*ck the Patriarchy, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and To Live Here, among others. She is an associate member of the League of Canadian Poets and Haiku Canada. Michele has been awarded honourable mention twice for the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational and also for the Haiku Northwest Porad Award. Her first chapbook is Around the World in Fifteen Haiku. Michele lives in a beautiful garden surrounded by people who love her just the way she is.

michelerule.ca/

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Sally Quon( Writer / Poet )

Sally Quon is a disabled poet and photographer living in the Okanagan Valley of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. She is an associate member of The League of Canadian Poets and a member of Haiku Canada. Her work has been published in numerous journals including The Heron’s Nest, Modern Haiku, Frogpond, First Frost, and Time Haiku. She is currently working on her first book of haiku, haibun, and haiga, tentatively titled, “My Valley, My Home.”

Featherstone Creative

featherstonecreative.wordpress.com/

• Ginko Walk at Munson Pond
• Maude Roxby Ginko
• Interview with Michael Dylan Welch