Frogpond 34.3 • Autumn 2011 (pdf) - Haiku Society of America

Of 34:1
Merrill Ann Gonzales, Dayville, Connecticut on a haiku by
John Stevenson, Nassau, New York: weight of a sparrow /
shaking loose / a yellow leaf. Why does this haiku remind
me of my Father on his deathbed? As I read this haiku I have
the feeling that the author had something else entirely on his
mind when he wrote this... more to the effect of how lightly
one can free oneself from chronological age. And yet for me
the emotional content of a memory links itself to the weight of
the sparrow and my mind goes back to the report of my sister
regarding how terribly thin he had become in the nursing home
after breaking his hip. Links between haiku and the effect on our
awareness are not easily discerned. Reading this haiku allowed
me to revisit my loss with a new tenderness. How lightly he
shook off his life... as a sparrow might, the yellow leaf. I am
grateful to John for this one.
Of 34:2
John Dunphy, Alton, Illinois on a haiku by Anne K. Schwader,
Westminister, Colorado: when did it start / to be about loss /
Christmas lights. This is a brilliant work. Somewhere in middle
age, the Christmas season indeed becomes about loss—especially
the loss of family through death, divorce and estrangement.
The person who once enjoyed Christmas dinner at a table
that was barely large enough to accommodate everyone finds
himself/herself dining alone at a restaurant on December 25.
The season that was formerly anticipated with joy is now an
interval that one tries stoically to endure. For too many people,
Christmas is the loneliest day of the year.
Of 34:1
Re:Readings
Lynne Rees, Offham, England on “Privileging the Link: On a
Poetics of Haibun” by Bruce Ross, Bangor, Maine. Reviewers
are expected to express their critical opinion and I’d be the first
to discourage an author from defending their work, but when
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