Our current guest is Terry Ann Carter. We know her as an artist
with words, visual media and music. And we suspect she is an
artist in other life endeavors, including her work as an educator. We have loved her haiku for many years and enjoyed her
company at numerous North American haiku gatherings. This
year she has served as co-chair for the Haiku North America
conference, an especially complex task in this time of public
health issues.
The selection period for this issue found us meeting in live
sessions again. While we have loved this and have suffered
no adverse consequences, we continue to take precautions.
Mary and I were able to attend the Wild Graces gathering in
August. All of us hoped or planned to attend that event but
last-minute issues interfered for some. We made up for this, to
some extent, by enjoying an “Onawa West” renku session over
the long Labor Day weekend. We have so named it in honor of
the annual renku retreats we enjoyed for many years as guests
of Paul MacNeil in Onawa, Maine. Our western sessions have
taken place at Hilary’s home, the historic Marshall House in
Schuylerville, NY.
The biggest group project of recent months must be the creation
of our new website. The old website had fallen into disuse. Mary
and Yu have worked on closing the old site out and creating a
new one, for which Mary will now serve as administrator. The
address is: https://upstate-dim-sum.com/. Please consider giving
it a look and letting us know what you think.
In other news, Tom Clausen’s My Own Heart: 25 Years of Tanka
has just been released by Michael Ketchek’s Free Food Press,
and a selected haiku collection of my work, My Red, is now
available from Brooks Books.
js
Sample poems
the row of tea bowls
in winter light
potter’s studio
Terry Ann Carter
leaves of grass
the lineup
of raindrops
tc
clear morning
my feet in a stream
of sunlight
ms
mesquite shadows
on the ochre cliff
I add my own
yc
wildfire
the roof burnt off
a secret
js
broken chords
the guitarist lets them
ring to heal
ht
Upstate Dim Sum 