I’m excited to be hosting another Soulard Haiku Walk this Saturday, January 25th at 9:30 a.m. I know that many of the people who read this blog are not local to St. Louis, but if you know someone in the area who might be interested, feel free to forward them this post.
The Soulard Haiku Walk is a quarterly series that is beginner- and family-friendly. The aim is to introduce haiku to people who have limited to no knowledge, though experienced haijin are still welcome to attend.
The walk begins at the Soulard Garden Co-Op, progresses to Pontiac Square Park, and ends at Soulard Market Park. Attendees are free to enjoy the Soulard Market and surrounding restaurants after the event. At each stop on the walk, I’ll give some instruction on haiku as well as a bit of local history. You’ll have plenty of time to write, and the event will end with a Q&A period as well as an optional chance to share your work. (No critique involved.)
The January hike will provide a review of syllables in English-language haiku and give an introduction to season words (kigo). You can get more details via the Soulard website. If you have any questions, the fastest way to get in touch is email me at allyson[at]allysonwhipple[dot][com].
I look forward to sharing my love of haiku with you!
For the past two years, I’ve collaborated with haiku friends on what I call the Midwinter Day Renku. I created this renku variation in response to one of my all-time favorite works of literature, Bernadette Mayer’s epic poem Midwinter Day.
The story behind Midwinter Day is that Mayer composed the entire thing on Friday, December 22nd, 1978, the date of the winter solstice. The title refers to the fact that many older, lunar-based calendars consider the solstice the midpoint of the season rather than the beginning, which is the designation of the astronomical calendar we use today.
Midwinter Day is a 100-ish page poem about the day in the life of a young family (Mayer, her husband, and their two children) living in Lenox, Massachusetts. Largely free verse, this poem is highly allusive, contains numerous lists, and frequently incorporates poetic devices such as rhyme. In Midwinter Day, poetry is not separate from parenthood and grocery shopping; it’s intertwined. There is no distinction between art and the rest of life; they are one and the same.
Since first reading this poem in 2015, I wanted to create some sort of homage to it. But my attempts to truly imitate Bernadette Mayer fell flat, and didn’t feel true to the way I like to approach my own poetry. Once I went deeper into studying haiku and learned about the various forms of linked verse, I began experimenting with a linked form that I wrote solo throughout the day. But while you can certainly write a renku or other linked form alone, I found I didn’t really enjoy that. I wanted to collaborate. Midwinter Day might have been written by a sole author, and yet she is anything but alone.
After a couple of years of noodling around ideas, I finally settled on a shorter version of the renku. I wrote the first one with my friend Claire, a poetry friend from my Austin days. Last year, I tried with a larger group: six people in three time zones emailing back and forth. Tomorrow, I will write the third-ever Midwinter Day renku with my friend Dan, who lives in another country. It’s the first international Midwinter Day renku! I’ve kept it just the two of us because juggling such disparate time zones is going to be a bit of a challenge, and I decided a smaller size would help navigate that.
This approach to the form is still a work in progress. Not only do I keep learning more about renku, but I keep wanting to adjust the specifics of the structure itself. I’m already thinking of adjustments I want to make for next year, but I didn’t want to make more changes at the last minute and throw off this year’s game. The parameters for 2024 and 2025 will be different, but that’s just fine. I’m excited to see how this form evolves over the next few years, and look forward to the eventual feeling that I’ve gotten it just right.
A traditional kasen renku has 36 verses, though shorter variations exist as well. My first renku was an 18-line version because my in-person group didn’t have enough time to do a full 36.
The Midwinter Day Renku has only 24 verses. Since the lore behind Midwinter Day is that it was written in the span of a single day, the 24 verses stand for each hour of the day in which it is written.
The writing process does not have to span 24 hours (unless you have a lot of energy and ambition), and each verse does not literally have to correspond to a specific hour, either. Just as Midwinter Day is not a literal accounting of hour by hour, this poem should not be a ponderous notation that happened in each block of time. Rather, the decision to use 24 verses is a nod to the time span of the original Midwinter Day epic poem.
A traditional renku incorporates all four seasons, with certain verses assigned a seasonal designation. The Midwinter Day Renku, however, focuses on one season: winter. It’s written on a winter day and influenced by a different winter poem, so invoking additional seasons didn’t feel right. I wanted the whole poem to be fully grounded in the time of year.
That being said, 2024 is only the third year I’ve tried out this form, and I’m still refining the details. I’m not opposed to potentially putting other seasons in if I get to a point where it feels like the correct choice.
Most renku verses have a designated topic, and that topic is usually a specific season. The only other topic we occasionally see is love.
For the first two years, I tried this form, I did not use any topics. Since I’m not changing the season, I just kept every verse open. However, the original Midwinter Day poem is rife with topics that could be fun to use. Not only does the poem detail the events of a young family throughout the day, but it’s rife with cultural and historical allusions, as well as details of the current events at the time it was written.
This year, I decided to try assigning one topic for each verse. While in a renku some verses have no topic, Midwinter Day is so full of potential topics that I decided to try 24 topics. Again, this is only the third year of working with this form, so that might change in 2025. Right now I’m having fun and seeing what happens with each year’s iteration.
Verse 1: Dreams
Verse 2: People you know
Verse 3: Love
Verse 4: Children
Verse 5: Cultural allusion
Verse 6: Memory
Verse 7: Food
Verse 8: Current events
Verse 9: A discovery
Verse 10: Art
Verse 11: Incorporate rhyme
Verse 12: A book title
Verse 13: A store of some kind
Verse 14: Walking
Verse 15: Friendship
Verse 16: Cooking a meal
Verse 17: Religion
Verse 18: Music
Verse 19: Philosophy
Verse 20: Reference another poet
Verse 21: A list
Verse 22: Science
Verse 23: Love
Verse 24: The sun / light
While renku were traditionally written in-person at gatherings specifically designed for writing this type of poetry, long-distance renku have been written for a long time. Poets have written them slowly via postal mail, and in the internet era, people compose them via email or messaging apps.
I think that the Midwinter Day renku is well-suited to writing at a distance. The past two years, I’ve composed via email. This year, I’ll be composing via direct message in the Station of the Metro Haiku Discord. Just as the original Midwinter Day was written throughout the day, in between childcare and errands and the other facets of life, writing long-distance via email or another system allows you to go about your various activities and allow those to drift into the poem. If a verse comes in while you’re in the middle of wrapping gifts or feeding your kids, you can finish what you’re doing before writing the next verse. The things you do throughout your day have the potential to enrich the entire writing process.
If you want to write in person and you live with people or have friends/family visiting for the holidays, consider leaving a sheet of paper out on a table and come back to it throughout the day. Let the rhythms of your life guide the writing. Let the renku composition take place in those brief moments of pause throughout the day. (But if your life has a tendency to get hectic, maybe set yourself a few phone reminders to go work on it.)
Of course, if you want to sit down and write with another person in one session, that’s totally fine as well. And you can certainly compose by yourself, either throughout the day or in one shot. My goal in devising this form was to honor the Winter Solstice through one of my favorite poetic forms.
Beyond that, the only thing I would recommend is that you create an outline of the verse, topic, and the person who will be writing it. I think that’s especially important when you’re writing long-distance. Although this form is shorter than a standard renku, it’s still possible to get confused or lose your place. Having an outline and plan will help.
I posted the first-ever Midwinter Day Renku as a Haiku Girl Summer bonus post. If you would like to read what I first wrote with my friend Claire, you can view it here: https://haikugirlsummer.substack.com/p/midwinter-interlude-the-hidden-sun
Not only was this the first attempt at the form, but I also knew less about renku than I do now. So I hope that those of you who know the form well can overlook the stylistic issues of this novice attempt.
Wassailing Within
A Midwinter Day Renku written by Allyson Whipple (St. Louis, MO), Peter H. Schmidt (Lexington, MA), Eavonka Ettinger (Long Beach, CA), and Claire Vogel Camargo (Austin, TX)
Thursday, December 21st, 2023
iceless river
one prolonged blast
of a salvage barge (AW)
sideways sleet
maple javelins spear the earth (PHS)
the yearly
arrival of homemade
family stollen (EE)
how the time feels shorter
between holidays (CVC)
smell of snow due soon
silent slate blue clouds hover
soothe my solo heart (PHS
picking oranges from
the roadside farm stand (EE)
bare tree branches
reveal empty nests waiting
signals of green sprigs (CVC)
finding the long way
back to the office (AW)
wild parrots
flying against
el nino rains (EE)
the soup he makes
for me this cold day (CVC)
spotted tabby tum
smiling cat face sleeping
sun patch on blanket (PHS)
one last cigarette
at nightfall (AW)
moon frost
the chill in her words
after the smile (CVC)
crunching bubbles
fists deep in my pockets (PHS)
city walk
another fruitless
search for stars (AW)
lightning flashes
on the darkest night (EE)
dream waked
slip from bed unnoticed
drink in Christmas tree glow (PHS)
another cup of tea
to warm me from the inside (AW)
all the gifts
yet to be wrapped
or bought (EE)
the two weeks it takes
to heal from surgery (CVC)
one year in
a stack of moving boxes
still unpacked (AW)
glitter spangled envelopes
piled on the kitchen counter (PHS)
magnolia trees
rethinking landscapes and scents
to wake to (CVC)
wassailing within
as sirens wail outside (EE)
I’m thrilled to announce that next month, I’m launching a quarterly ginko (haiku walk) series around the Soulard neighborhood. The first event takes place on Saturday, October 26th at 9:30 a.m. It’s free, family-friendly, and open to anyone in the St. Louis area.
I’ve wanted to start hosting ginkos in St. Louis for over a year now, but with everything else I have going on, it kept getting pushed to the back burner. Finally, though, I realized I could start hosting them in conjunction with the Soulard Restoration Group Community Involvement & Events Committee.
Here are my goals for the series:
We will meet at the Soulard Community Garden and spend 90 minutes learning about haiku, walking, exploring, and writing. The event concludes at the historic Soulard Market, a great place to explore at the conclusion of events.
If you have any haikurious friends in the St. Louis area, forward this post along to them!
On Friday, March 24th, I’m teaching a class to benefit the Pilates Transparency Project and the fundraiser to cover the legal fees for Mary Kelly. This fundraiser is important to me not just as a Pilates practitioner, but as someone who has been a writer for most of her life. I’ve made the class available both in-person and via livestream, so anyone can join. This is a mat class; you don’t need any special equipment!
The lawsuit concerns the rights to share historic images of Joseph and Clara Pilates, as well as other archival materials. Let me be clear that I do believe in copyright. As a poet, I have friends who have had their work plagiarized. It’s terrible, overwhelmingly difficult to resolve, and it causes harm. I’ve witnessed how creators of all kinds are harmed by copyright infringement. However, looking at the available evidence, I genuinely believe that what’s happening here is that Pilates teachers are being sued and/or having their social media accounts for sharing photos and other documents that should, in fact, be free to share. I believe in intellectual property; I also believe that spurious lawsuits over sharable documents are unfair and need to be fought. That’s why I joined the list of teachers who are hosting classes all through the month of March to help fundraising efforts.
Class Details
When: Friday, March 24th at 5:30 pm CST
Where: At The Corner Reformer in Saint Louis or via Zoom
Price: Suggested donation is $34; contribute what you can
Registration for in-person: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/565833371847
Registration for livestream: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/565850302487
Description: This mat class will flow through a version of the classical mat Pilates order. At the end, we will practice some standing exercises from both Joe’s and Romana’s archival routines.
If you’re free, join me for a fun class, start your weekend off right, and help me support Pilates history!
Even with pandemic restrictions loosening, I’m still inclined to take precautions regarding large events. Most of the poets I know are still hosting readings online, and I’m not about to be the first one to push the status quo. But now that the spring semester is over, I’m getting that usual burst of creative energy, and I wanted to host an event. It’s definitely been a while.
I also wanted to collaborate with Zoe Fay-Stindt again. We edited the 2020 Texas Poetry Calendar together, and since then she’s spent time in Europe, and then returned to the USA to pursue her MFA at Iowa State University. When the idea for a virtual poetry road trip between Texas and Iowa popped into my head, I immediately messaged her, and then, it was on!
The Virtual Poetry Road Trip takes place on Friday, May 21st from 6:00-7:30 pm CST. This event is by donation, and you can still join even if you can’t contribute financially. We’re asking all attendees to register via Eventbrite. If you are unable to make a donation and have trouble registering, please contact me directly! We will work it out!
If you want to know more about our featured poets, read on! Otherwise, head over to our Eventbrite page to attend. And bring your own road trip snacks! (I’ll have two kinds of potato chips.)
Featured Poets
Cindy Huyser’s (TX) poems have received Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominations, and appear in many journals and anthologies. Her chapbook, Burning Number Five: Power Plant Poems, was co-winner of the 2014 Blue Horse Press Poetry Chapbook Contest, and her first full-length collection, Cartography, is forthcoming from 3: A Taos Press. She has edited or co-edited a number of anthologies, including Bearing the Mask: Southwestern Persona Poems (Dos Gatos Press, 2016) and several editions of the Texas Poetry Calendar. Cindy has been a juried performer for the Houston Poetry Fest, Houston’s Public Poetry series, and the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, and lives in Austin, Texas, where she hosts the monthly BookWoman 2nd Thursday Poetry Reading and Open Mic series.
Ken Hada (OK) lives in rural Pottawatomie County in Oklahoma. He has published eight volumes of poetry, including his latest, Sunlight & Cedar (VACPoetry, 2020). Ken’s poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac, and his work has been awarded by The Western Writers of America, The National Western Heritage Museum, SCMLA and The Oklahoma Center for the Book. Information available at kenhada.org.
Dottie Joslyn (MO) is a writer and poet living in Southwest Missouri. She is a retired Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator in the field of Poetry Therapy, Certified Journal Facilitator, and Journal to the Self® Instructor. Her poems have appeared in: American Tanka, Buffalo Bones, Poetry from the Trail Ridge Writers, Wellness & Writing Connections Newsletter, Beginning Again: Creative Responses to Poetry of Presence, and Gyroscope Review. She also has a poetry book, Just Show Up, published in late 2018. Her website, http://www.joslynpoems.com has more information and includes an interactive blog.
Jennifer L. Knox’s (IA) sixth book of poems, Crushing It, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2020. Publisher’s Weekly’s review called Crushing It, “Darkly inventive…This is a careful, thoughtful book about the complexities of identity and the difficulty of words.” Knox’s poems have been published in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Granta, McSweeney’s,five times in the Best American Poetry series, and the 2022 Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses anthology. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She received an Iowa Arts Council Fellowship for her crowdsourced poetry project, Iowa Bird of Mouth. Over 750 people from around the world contributed to the project; the code is open source and free to use in noncommercial projects.
I’m excited for the four poetry events I have in place for May. (There might be a fifth, but details are still in the works, so it’s too early to post about.) Scroll down to find out about my two workshop offerings, as well as two opportunities for collaborative poetry writing. As we are still dealing with COVID-19, all May events will take place on Zoom.
Hawks Don’t Circle: Accuracy and Expansiveness in Nature Poetry
May 26th, June 2nd, June 9th, and June 16th
7:00-8:30 pm Central time
Tuition: $233 early bird until Sunday, May 16th 2021; $333 standard rate
Register at the course page.
Description: This workshop is designed to help poets both create more accurate, precise images in nature poetry. In the first two sessions, we will study the ways in which errors in naturalistic descriptions can compromise a poem, and also look at ways in which to employ skillful depictions of nature. We will also draft our own poems in relation to course topics. In the latter two sessions, we will study poems that go beyond images of nature to make broader cultural, social, or political statements. We will take time to research and refine our drafts from class, workshop with peers, and experiment with expanding our depictions of nature into a wider context. There are weekly reading assignments and exploratory exercises between class sessions.
Haiku Beyond 5-7-5
May 29th, 2021
1:00-5:00 pm Central time
Tuition: $100
Register at the Year of Forms page
Description: Spend an afternoon studying and developing kireji (cutting word) and kigo (seasonal reference) in your haiku. Upon registration, you will receive two craft essays, one focused on kireji and one focused on kigo, to read before our workshop. You will also receive a series of haiku to read in advance. In addition to discussing the readings, we will have a workshop in which we practice improving our use of kireji, as well as incorporating kigo in an authentic way.
Renga Happy Hour
Thursday, May 20th
5:30-6:30 pm Central Time
Free Event
Register at Eventbrite for Zoom link
Description: Renga is a form of poetry that originated in Japan. It’s meant to be written collaboratively. Let’s socialize on Zoom and write renga together! The hour will start with a brief introduction to the conventions of the form, and then we’ll have plenty of time to write. All levels of poetry experience welcome.
Exquisite Corpse Lunch Break
Tuesday, May 25th
12:15-12:45 pm Central Time
Free Event
Register at Eventbrite for Zoom link
Description: The exquisite corpse is a poetry form in which every person contributes a line. Let’s take some time in the early afternoon to stretch our creative muscles and write a collaborative poem! This is a great way to connect with other poets even at a distance. All levels of poetry experience welcome.
While I mostly write in free verse, most of my poet friends know that I love form. In fact, even in my free verse, I usually incorporate some formal aspect… Something that my MFA thesis advisor and I butted heads about on a regular basis! Even though I don’t regularly write with rhyme and meter, I do enjoy incorporating some formal structure into my work. Sometimes that means only writing in tercets, or repeating a specific word, or making the poem fit a predetermined shape. I find the challenge a major source of inspiration.
Starting this April, I’m launching A Year of Forms. Whether it be meditation, writing, or some other endeavor, I’ve found long periods of practice and study to be invaluable. I’ve decided I want to spend the next year of my life studying form, and I want to study it with you!
While I’ve created a yearlong program, I know that might not work for everyone. To that end, I’ve divided the workshop into four themed series. That way, you can still get the benefit of some longer structured study. Single workshop sessions are also available. Finally, if you’re looking for one-on-one critiques, I’m offering optional private sessions to supplement the program.
Check out the program page for details. I look studying form with you this year!
A year ago, a good friend of mine took me to Modo Yoga Austin to try out a class. I had no idea I would be walking into a hot yoga session. I’d tried Bikram a few times and didn’t enjoy it, so if I’d known, my prejudice would have gotten in the way.
I was shocked to find that I loved hot yoga. I kept going back. Now, if I go more than a few days without a hot class, I feel like I’m missing something.
The Modo community is fantastic. I’m thrilled to be a part of it. And I finally have the opportunity to host a workshop I’ve wanted to run for years.
On Sunday, November 13th, I’ll be running “Embodied Creativity: Yoga + Writing” at the Modo Austin studio. In this workshop, we’ll use both asana and writing as a way to unblock our creative forces. The workshop is suited for all artists, whether you’re a designer, poet, dancer, actor, musician, writer, or anything else. All levels are welcome! The yoga sequence is designed for all levels, so even if you’re an absolute beginner, you can come enjoy the practice.
The workshop is $30 ($25 for Modo members), and you can register at the school. Space is limited to 15 people, so sign up soon!
Check out the workshop flier for details: workshop_flyer_2
In March 2015, I ran a two-week online writing workshop focused on revision. I had such a great time coaching poets on how to streamline their poetry, and I’ve been looking for opportunities to run it again. I’m happy to announce I have some extra time for workshops this summer, so I’ll be running the Online Revision Mission Workshop not once, but twice! I’m offering a session in June and a session in July. (Who knows? If I get enough interest, I might run it in August, too!)
Check out the details below:
Revision Mission Online Workshop (Sessions available in June or July)
Session 1: June 16th – June 26th
Session 2: July 11th – July 25th
Cost: $15 before May 1st; $25 between May 1st and the registration deadline
Registration Deadline: June 13th for session 1; July 9th for session 2
Description: It’s almost summertime! Forget all that talk of bikini bodies, and let’s focus on slimming down those poems! Join me for a repeat of this two-week online workshop that will get you revising those neglected poems in no time! With this workshop, you’ll get daily revision prompts. I’ll also send tips on how and when to let go of poems that aren’t coming together, and decluttering your hard drive or writing desk. In addition, you’ll get a one-on-one critique of two poems. Join me in making your poems sharp and lean! To sign up, please use the online registration form.
I’m also hoping to host some in-person workshops this summer. Stay tuned for more information!