Young Leaves

 

Autumn Loneliness: The Letters of Kiyoshi and Kiyoko Tokutomi, July-December, 1967, translated by Tei Scott Matsushita and Patricia J. Machmiller, was recently published. The Tokutomis were the founders of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society. The book contains 300 letters of those exchanged between Kiyoshi and Kiyoko during a very difficult period in their lives. In 1967 Kiyoshi had just lost his hearing due to medication he was taking for tuberculosis. He traveled to Japan for a long hospital stay to undergo treatment that would attempt to recover his hearing. Kiyoko remained in the U.S. in San Jose’s Japantown with their 10-year-old daughter, Yukiko. The letters reveal their deeply respectful and loving relationship, how they dealt with grief and disappointment ”individually and together”and the empathetic and steadfast way they supported each other during difficult times. The reader will gain insight into the character and thinking of the couple who would become leaders in the English-language haiku world. The 360 page book has a selection of pictures of the Tokutomis in their early years. This soft-cover volume sells for $27.50. Please send your check, made out to Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, to Jean Hale, 5135 Cribari Place, San Jose, CA 95135

Deeper into the Seasons II: Four Haiku Workshops.  These workshops are for haiku writers who wish to deepen their haiku practice and gain insight into how the kigo, the seasonal reference, enhances the haiku. The workshop process will start with a discussion of relevant, local kigo appropriate to the particular season. The workshop is designed help participants delve into their experiences of the season(s) and reveal unconscious associations which they may have. Through group discussions we will examine how these often hidden associations can help us communicate the haiku experience in our writing. (This structure of the workshop is actually helpful in understanding one's own writing process no matter the form of the writing. In other words, you don't have to write haiku to benefit from the process.) There will be walks and writing sessions both in the morning and the afternoon to supplement the discussions, including and enhanced by the new writing of the participants. The workshops will be: Winter: Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010 Spring: Sunday, April 25, 2010 Summer: Saturday, July 24, 2010 Autumn: Sunday, October 31, 2010 They will be held at a beach house on Monterey Bay near Moss Landing. They will begin at 9:30 am and end at 4:30 PM. with a one-hour lunch break. Participants should plan to bring a bag lunch. Beverages will be provided. The cost will be $60 per day. Sign up for all four sessions for $200. Scholarships are available. Please inquire. If you are interested in attending any of these sessions, please contact Patricia at patriciajmachmiller@msn.com.

Each year the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society holds along-weekend retreat at Asilomar Seashore and Conference Center on the Monterey Peninsula, a beautiful natural setting on the Pacific Ocean. This year's dates are Thursday September 16 trhough Sunday september 19. The Society is happy to announce that the featured presenter for the retreat is Margaret Chula, one of the most accomplished English-language haiku poets. Margaret Chula started writing haiku while she was living in California in the early seventies before moving to Japan.  She studied haiku and other Japanese literature during the twelve years that she lived there.  Her collections of haiku, Grinding My Ink, and Shadow Lines have won first place for haiku in the Haiku Society of America’s annual National Book Awards. More information and a registration form are available.

The Yuki Teikei events calendar for 2010 is available. It shows our monthly meetings which include observances of Tanabata, moon viewing, and year-end holidays, as well as other special events.

Updated 24 April, 2010.

webminder: Patrick Gallagher