Category: poetry

We’re in the final three days of preorder for the Cuttlefish Books Summer Book Launch! I’m grateful to all of you who have ordered copies so far. Earlier this month, I featured fellow Cuttlefish poet Lenard D. Moore, and today I want to feature the other member of my cohort: Julie Bloss Kelsey.

Julie creates the New to Haiku column for The Haiku Foundation, and also serves as the THF secretary. Her first collection, Grasping the Fading Light: A Journey through PTSD, won the 2021 International Women’s Haiku Contest. Julie is also a freelance writer, environmental scientist, and a mother.

You mentioned on Instagram that After Curfew  was inspired by Rowan Beckett’s Hot Girl Haiku. Can you say more about that inspiration, and how it helped you write and shape your collection?

Rowan held an online launch party on Facebook for their book, Hot Girl Haiku, in May 2022. My friend, haiku poet Susan Burch, reminded me to attend. I’d never been to an online launch party. It was fun! Rowan had posts and videos set up on a schedule. One of the prompts was to write our own “hot girl haiku.” It brought me back to that time in early adolescence and young adulthood when I wanted so much to be a “hot girl” but I was more of a “geeky girl.” I wrote this in the comments:

face-first
in a stranger’s lap—
tequila shots

Joshua Gage, of Cuttlefish Books, wrote back that he’d like to hear more of that story. I said there wasn’t much to tell — I didn’t think I had too many “hot girl” moments. But it got me thinking, which led to writing the collection. 

On a related note, I read online that you wrote most of After Curfew in one sitting. Do you usually write in big spurts? How was creating this collection similar to or different from your usual process? 

I rarely write in big spurts! This was very different than my usual plodding along. I just felt inspired. It was like Rowan gave me permission to write about my past. 

What was your editing process like? Did you have to cut any haiku? Was there a point where you found yourself needing to add some to supplement the original poems? 

I wrote the poems quickly at first, jotting them down as they came to me. When it came time to order them, I wanted to tell a cohesive story: of first love, of loss, of moving on. When I realized that I really did have a collection, I wrote a few poems to fill gaps in the narrative, and I dropped a few that didn’t fit. Originally, I had a few tanka in there too.

In English-language haiku, poets are often instructed to focus on composing from the present moment. After Curfew is written in the present tense, but concerns the past. Did you make a conscious decision to keep the poems in the present tense? Or did that emerge organically during the writing process?

I think the present tense brings an immediacy to haiku — writing in past tense puts some distance between the reader and the poem. I’d like to say something profound about how I wanted the reader to share in my awkward moments, but the truth is, I was reliving my memories as I wrote them.

What was it like to relive those awkward teenage years in such an immediate and compressed way? Did that awkwardness feel fresh, or has distance lessened it? 

Oh my goodness, reliving those years still feels awkward! But I can laugh alongside the discomfort now. I’ve read this collection aloud to friends and most laugh and nod along. We’ve all been there, but when you are living those years, it’s so tough.

Cuttlefish Books has been posting some of my haiku from the book on Instagram. I was really struck by the response to this one:

strangers at the bar
trying to remember
my fake name

To me, that was a funny memory of getting called out for using a fake name. But when I saw a hashtag about the patriarchy, I realized that’s true as well. I was using a fake name to keep myself safe. That experience was just so normalized for me that I never saw it that way. It adds a whole new dimension to the poem, and to the collection. Rowan wrote an Afterward for me that touches on this.

What level of vulnerability was required to not only write these haiku, but publish them in a collection? Is it similar to, or different than, the levels of vulnerability required in other areas of your work?

I’ve said that my first print collection, Grasping the Fading Light: A Journey through PTSD, was equally embarrassing, but for different reasons. This collection is much easier for me to see in print. I’m not sure I will ever publish anything that makes me feel as vulnerable as my trauma collection does.

I love that you used your 8th grade class photo as the cover image. What was the thought process that went into your cover design decisions?  

My best friend posted that picture of me on Facebook for my birthday one year! I saved it and reposted it to my Facebook wall in December of last year. Joshua Gage, of Cuttlefish Books, noticed it and asked if we could use it for the cover. 

Is there anything else I haven’t asked that you’d like to say about After Curfew, or about haiku in general? 

Reading over my answers, I realized that Facebook played a huge role in this book coming into existence! Social media, for all of its ills, can be a great tool for poets. I cut my teeth writing haiku on Twitter. 

Writing haiku can be isolating. Most of us don’t interact with other haiku poets in person in our daily lives. Helping new haiku poets find connection is a primary goal of my haiku column, New to Haiku, at The Haiku Foundation.

More from Julie Bloss Kelsey

Check out the New to Haiku series at The Haiku Foundation.

Order a copy of Grasping the Fading Light: A Journey Through PTSD.

Read more about Julie’s literary accomplishments in the Poets & Writers Directory.

If you’ve been following any of my social media this month, you know that I’m thrilled to be in the company of Lenard D. Moore as part of the Cuttlefish Books 2023 Summer Book Launch. Lenard is a military veteran, executive chair of the North Carolina Haiku Society, founder and executive chair of the Carolina African American Writers Collective, and the author of several books.

Although Lenard and I only had the chance to meet briefly at HNA, I have long admired the depth, breadth, and skill of his haiku. His attention not just to the details of the present, but also to the stories of the past, reflects a sense of artistic discipline that’s worth emulating. In celebration of his forthcoming chapbook, A Million Shadows at Noon, I wanted to feature him here to learn more about his process with this new collection. Read on for the full interview.

Cuttlefish Books is currently in the preorder period for the summer 2023 chapbook series. You can reserve your copy of Lenard’s book, A Million Shadows at Noon, or buy the whole bundle of three!

AW: What is the thematic focus of A Million Shadows at Noon? What compelled you to create this chapbook?

The thematic focus of A Million Shadows at Noon is brotherhood, family, love and unity. I was compelled to create this project, because I drew inspiration from such a significant historical event. It was so powerful to see so many Black men come together and march for important issues. By now, I hope you know that I am referring to the Million Man March, which will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary in 2025. I wanted to do something innovative with the haiku form or a haiku sequence, an extensive of my poetic risks with my book, Desert Storm. Perhaps, I need to write one more book-length poem, employing the haiku form. To that end, maybe there is a trilogy in the making. Let’s see what happens with my future work.

AW: What are the particular challenges of writing a haiku sequence? On the flip side, what is it about writing sequences that you find inspiring?

The challenges of writing a haiku sequence are varied. Firstly, I had to ensure that all of the haiku resonate as individual poems. Secondly, I had to ensure that I was writing the same poem again and again, if you will, or similar poems. Thirdly, I had to ensure that all of the haiku linked some kind of way. Fourthly, I had to ensure that the poems worked in chronological order. At least, that is the way I saw the sequence developing. Fifthly, I had to ensure that the natural world played a major role in the sequence. Sixthly, I had to ensure that I infused rhythm or musical elements throughout A Million Shadows at Noon. Seventhly, I had to ensure that I employed strong verbs in the haiku sequence. Eighthly, I had to ensure that the contrasts were effective throughout the sequence. Ninthly, I had to ensure that the symbolism worked well. Tenthly, I had to ensure that the poems told a story. Tenthly, I had to ensure that the haiku sequence was original. Eleventhly, I had to ensure that the poems did not reveal everything. Twelfthly, I had to ensure that I employed vivid imagery. Of course, there are other elements and characteristics that I strove to employ in the sequence.

AW: How do you perceive the difference between a structured haiku sequence versus a less structured collection of haiku addressing common themes?

The difference between a structured haiku sequence and a less structured collection of haiku addressing common themes is that the structured haiku sequence unfolds like a novel. It must work as a whole work, reeling in readers and closing with a surprise ending. The sequence should address the five who, what, where, when and why. The less structured collection of haiku does its own thing.

AW: Was this chapbook one you worked on over a period of months or years? Or did it come to you fairly quickly?

A Million Shadows at Noon came to me quite quickly. I think I wrote the poems over a weekend. Of course, I worked on ordering the poem. I am sure I tweaked some of them. Many of the poems originally work, because I felt like I was in a writing zone.

AW: What was your editing process like? If you decided to cut poems, how did you make that choice?

My editing process was to cut out or delete any poems that I was might be weak or did not work with the sequence. I also take a close look at the musical elements and how the poems might do something new.

AW: In the English-language haiku world, we are often taught that haiku should come from a moment in daily life. The emphasis on the haiku moment is often overemphasized, even though both the classical and contemporary editions are filled with counterexamples. I imagine that when working on a narrative sequence, many of these haiku did not come from a specific moment. To what extent was your direct experience relevant to this collection? How did history, or the lives of other people, factor into your writing?

History certainly plays a role. Interviews play a role. What I see plays a role. For my book, Desert Storm, all of those factors played a role. With Desert Storm, photographs also played a role, though interviews mostly worked. Of course, I am a Veteran. To that end, I have had training, too.

AW: What went into the design process for the cover art? How did you use color and shadow to reinforce the thematic focus of the poetry?

The publisher did an excellent job with the design process for the cover art. I thoroughly like the colors red, black and green and what they symbolize. In the 1960s and 1970s, those colors were very important in the Black community. I do not go into what each color symbolizes. Maybe my readers, students and scholars will be inspired to do research. I hope so.

AW: Is there anything I haven’t asked that you would like to say about this book?

I hope the book will garner reviews and trigger discussions of it. I also hope the book sells well. In addition, I hope the book will be taught in classrooms and considered for book clubs and libraries.

More from Lenard D. Moore
Listen to Lenard’s interview as part of Grace Cavalieri’s The Poet and the Poem series: link to mp3.

Listen to “Gardening with Poet Lenard Moore” on the 27 Views podcast: episode link.

Read Crystal Simone Smith’s “Mentoring a New Generation of African American Haiku Writers: In Conversation with Lenard D. Moore”: Project MUSE link.

Lenard is the featured guest poet in Upstate Dim Sum Fall 2022. Read more here: issue link.

Read the news article about Lenard’s 1996 collection Forever Home: read here.