Global
Haiku Festival Participant Responses
April
14-16, 2000
Decatur, Illinois
Some
thank you notes and responses from participants:
Dear Randy,
Thank you for the remarkable experience of The Global Haiku
Festival at Millikin University. I believe the weekend of April
14-16, 2000, will send wide ripples in both space and time as
a gathering of high significance and nurturing stimulation for
the worldwide future of poetry. May that poetry, especially
our haiku in its unassuming simplicity and depth, enrich individual
lives. If that happens, I believe it can simultaneously heighten
the quality of our shared humanity, and foster understanding
among diverse people.
Your careful
planning teaches by example that haiku is a local and regional
movement in poetry and a global one at the same time. The weekend
confirms my appreciation of English-language haiku as a warm,
accessible, often fine, and sometimes splendid part of our American
poetry. Our Japanese guests remind me that we have much more
to learn from their poetic heritage and contemporary experiments.
At the same time knowledgeable reports on the haiku of Canada,
Germany, France, the UK, and especially the Balkans show that
we can look to other countries, too, as we expand our enjoyment
of haiku and welcome every opportunity to become better poets.
Millikin's
campus is lovely. The people there and elsewhere in Decatur
who so smoothly and quietly helped you accomplish an amazing
feat are a credit to the city, University, and region. Please
convey my appreciation to them -- including those wonderful
young musicians and their professor.
For many
years now, you and Shirley have made valuable contributions
to haiku and the humanities. The Global Haiku Festival stands
well among them, along with your School's Out, making 1999 and
2000 banner years. But, as Bill Pauly encouraged in his note
in my copy of Global Haiku, "Excelsior."
Sincerely,
Peggy
Lyles
Dear Randy,
My wife
and I would like to express our gratitude to you for inviting
me to the Global Haiku Festival. We thoroughly enjoyed the conference
and learned a great deal about the art of haiku, which has inspired
non-Japanese writers. We also want to thank you for the latest
collection of your haiku. I've attended a number of conferences
here and abroad, but I've
never enjoyed them as much as I did yours.
Cordially
yours, Yoshi
Yoshinobu
Hakutani
Dear Randy,
I wish to
reiterate what must now been a flood of praises and congratulations
regarding the wonderful conference you and Lee Gurga organized
for us, and, without exaggeration, for the whole haiku community
in the world. In this sense, GHF can be said to be an epoch-making
event. I will make sure that we can follow it up and continue
the good precedence it
created with World Haiku Festival 2000 in August and the creation
of the World Haiku Association in September. Together, it is
really a (small) history in the making. What a year!
With
very best wishes,
Thanking
again for all you did for me and for haiku,
Susumu
Takiguchi
Sarah Alexander
MU Student
Dr. Ludwig's
readings of several haiku in German was highly enjoyable. His
explanation of how the German language requires more syllables
than English or Japanese to convey a given amount of information
made Rilke's apparent tendency to write verbosely more understandable.
Ms. Miyashita's
address was a refreshing break from the other speakers. Through
haiku, we may understand the way in which all things are united
by an ancient "DNA parent."
Professor Agostini's presentation . . . I have had the pleasure
of encountering the poems of Renard, Eluard, and de Voisin before;
however, I have never heard their work read with such a beautiful
accent.
Dr. Lee
Gurga's presentation brought up an interesting "haiku quandary."
How can the poet avoid sounding neither trite nor artificial
while not falling into the trap of "excessive individualism,"
which impeded the creation of "true" haiku? I suppose
that one must read Dr. Gurga's haiku to learn the solution to
this dilemma.
Molly McLinden
MU Student
Although
the speakers had completely different backgrounds and experiences,
I believe all were trying to tell us that haiku's purpose is
to communicate a familiar idea to an audience. . . . discussed
how different factors go into making a certain haiku special
-- it could be the subject of the haiku itself or even a particular
word that really grabbed the reader's attention.
All in all, I found the Global Haiku Festival both useful and
entertaining, and to hear haiku from real authors and not just
students with limited experience.
Kyle Curry
MU Student
I was very
impressed by the great turn-out of the Global Haiku Festival.
I enjoyed hearing the children speak and the different haiku
leaders from around the world talk.
April Romberger
MU Student
Attending
the Global Haiku Festival was a wonderful opportunity for all
of us, it afforded us a unique opportunity to both observe and
partake in a living, global, writing community.
The talks were enlightening, to be exposed to the differing
views of countries around the world on haiku, on one another's
versions of haiku, and the general attitude towards global unity.
The general atmosphere of community and creative energy added
to my experience.
I was particularly awed by the unexpected opportunity to hear
not only mature, but also children's attempts at haiku from
around the world. The haiku of the Japanese children was exceptionally
beautiful and complex.
Jennifer Richmiller
MU Student
The aroma
in the air of all the highly intellectual poets from all over
the world filled the room. There were a variety of people here,
not just culturally, but on what they believe haiku to be.
Sunday morning on the Ginko walk, everyone soaked everything
in like sponges. They noticed everything, even the tiniest detail
in a sudden moment. I feel like I took a lot away from the festival.
|