Kristin Card • Kristin's Haiku •

The Photography Haiku Artist: An Interview with Garry Gay April 26, 2002 Background Information Garry Gay was born in Glendale, California in 1951. He attended the Brooks Institute of Photography and graduated in 1974, and received his BPA in photography. Since then Garry has worked as a Professional Photographer and also has made an impact with his digital images. He currently resides in a small town in California known as Windsor, with his wife Melinda and his daughter Alissa. Garry is known for incorporating his haiku and photographs all into one specific moment for the reader to picture in their mind. Gay is a member of Advertising Photographers of America, Film Arts Foundation, Friends Photography, Artrails, and the Cultural Arts Council of Sonoma County. He is the co-founder of Haiku Poets of Northern California and was there first president and is currently residing as president in 2001 to the present, and was also the president of the Haiku Society of America in 1991. In 1991, Garry Gay was the co-founder of Haiku North America and created the video "Haiku Spotlight". He made an enormous contribution to the haiku world when he created the from called "rengay" in 1992. Garry Gay was also the co-founder of American Haiku Archive in 1996. Interview This haiku artist has steadily been constructing haiku since 1975, when he was inspired by Basho's book, "Narrow Road to the Deep North" on a bookshelf in a house that he rented at the time. He started out by writing long poems and as he kept coming up with new ideas his poems became shorter and shorter until he implemented the haiku tradition in his work. Garry has stated, "One of the most creative joys was combining my pictures and haiku." Implying they both have visual qualities, but are spoken in two different languages. When writing haiku he says good quality is when it displays "old emotion or brings forth a burst of enlightenment from a deep well of memories". In interviewing Garry Gay I asked him, "Why do you pair your photographs with your haiku?" His response to this question was, "Haiku and photography both capture a single moment in time and they have a lot in common." Emphasizing they are for the most part real moments and it is an instant of insight or a fragment of reality. He places the haiku and photographs together in hopes they will compliment each other and make a more profound impact to the reader. These two can add pleasure and the depth of insight to expand the feelings that he is trying to portray to the viewer/reader. He explains it as a modern haiga if you will. I also asked him, "What inspires you to write haiku?" Garry Gay responded, "Good Question", and then went on to say like any art form or any working artist there is a drive to be a creative individual. The need to express the way one can see the world around them and to capture a moment in an artistic way is what all of us want to do and some are more successful. All in all, though it is everything around me, and the people in my life inspire me. I asked him to tell me a little more about the Haiku Poets of Northern California and what the role of this association is. In reply, he commented I plan out most of the years programs with my fellow officers, run contests, and select judges for the contests. Setting up the Two Autumn readings is part of the job also. A big art of his work is promoting the organization so that the general public can get out and be educated on what a haiku is, and the amazing beauty of one. He declared that his personal interest in haiku is what drives him to share his creativity with others and the community. In the interview, I asked him to list all of the awards he has received since he started writing haiku. The year 1994 he received 1st place at the Nature Company "Haiku For The Earth" contest and the San Francisco International Senryu contest held by the Haiku Poets of Northern California. He won the Editor's Choice Award in Brussels Sprouts magazine in 1995. Garry Gay won four awards in 1999, "The Virgil Hutton Haiku Memorial Award" Chapbook contest, 1st place Tanka--Yellow Moon Literature Award--Australia, 10th Iteon Haiku Contest--Japan, and runner-up in the "Snapshot Collection Competition" for "Along The Way". Receiving Awards in 2000 were that of, 1st place--First postcard haiku contest and Organization of Supporters Award--Japan. He was rewarded with the Haiku Presence Award--2nd place, Haiku Presence Award--highly commended, BHS James W Hackett International Haiku Award in 2001, and in 2002 he received 1st place in the Postcard Contest. These are just some of the few awards that he has won as a haiku artist and writer. —Kristin Card Reader’s Responses to Garry Gay's haiku Here are some of Garry Gay’s favorite senryu or haiku from his collection. Midday heat; the ice cream melting faster than I can lick When I read this haiku I think of a hot summer day when I was younger and we would go to the little ice cream store down the road to get cooled down and to get a nice treat at night before we would head for bed. It portrays a really happy time in my childhood and probably for others also of having fun with friends and playing outside. This was a time when I was so carefree and I was a kid so I could eat all of the fattening ice cream that I wanted. Along the way an old oak branch becomes a walking stick This is a beautiful image that Garry Gay used to place in the reader’s mind of how calm the haiku is and what a thinking time this was for the individual. It makes me get an image of my house because I live out in the country and so when I would go on walks there would always be things that you would pick up along the way such as sticks or rocks and carry them with you until you return back home. In my perspective, his pictures make such a profound impact on the way that I interpret the haiku and it gives me a sense of being there. A box full of wishbones unbroken This depicts an image that gives me a sad feeling about someone who has so many wishes and dreams, but they are not answered or have never been heard or given the chance to be voiced. The box with only wishbones symbolizes an empty person who will not break out to give their opinions and views to the world so all of the wishbones will stay unbroken because they don’t want to come out of their shell. Old retriever; he opens one eye at the tossed stick I get a picture of an old golden retriever laying in the grass on a sunny day and there is a party going on around them so they are worn out from all of the children running around and playing with him. Then someone wants to play later and the dog is tired so they throw the stick and the dog doesn’t even think about getting up to chase after the stick. The trail forks. . . taking the one with wild flowers This gives the reader an image of a person walking down a path and they have to choose which road to take and they decide to take the path that is more colorful and flourishing. It may not be the right decision because I think the wild flowers are a symbol of many obstacles that will come in the way of this person’s life journey. They seem to choose this path because they are adventurous and want to explore new things that may come into their life. At the fence they sit on their tractors talking hay This takes me back to my childhood because I live on a farm and my father is a farmer, but he also has another job that he works at during the day. On summer nights he would come home and then go out and bail the hay in our fields. Our neighborhood is a very helping community where my dad would work during the day and then the neighbors that farmed also would come and rake the hay or bail it so my dad wouldn’t have to do so much work when he got home. My father would also return the favors for them. I can just picture them outside the neighbor and my dad, each on their own tractors, after the work is done they sit out there and talk about how the day was and what is going on, this would be about dusk or dark. Some other favorites that have come along through the interview is: Over looked a dandelion blooms in the window box Hole in the ozone my bald spot. . . sunburned used book store; the cat moves quietly among dead authors These are just some of the few great haiku and senryu that Garry Gay has written and he has published five books. Many incorporate his photography work into his art form. He loves to capture the moment with a picture and then give a theme to the picture with a haiku, and this is what he said gives him the greatest amount of joy. —Kristin Card