Alaska Haiku Society Billie's Page

Haiku by Billie, Haiga Artist: Kuniharu Shimizu

BILLIE'S PAGE

HAIKU BY

BILLIE WILSON

JUNEAU, ALASKA

Haiku by Billie, Haiga Artist: Kuniharu Shimizu

		Billie on the deck of her home overlooking Auke Bay. The tide's going out, so there's not much water in the slough. Below is how it looks when the tide's in. In addition to the haiku shared on this page, more of Billie's work can be found by clicking on the Recent Work button. Haiku by Billie. Haiga by Angelee Deodhar		I grew up in Indiana farm country in the 1940s and 50s, and fell in love with Juneau, Alaska, in 1962. I knew I was home. My husband Gary (a North Dakota boy) and I share 11 awesome grandchildren and one great-grandchild. I was introduced to haiku in the late 1960s when I took part in a contest sponsored by the Poetry Society of Alaska. The contest was adjudicated by Harold G. Henderson (co-founder of The Haiku Society of America). I now know that was a rare privilege, but it went unappreciated at the time. I also know now that most of what I submitted for that contest -- and wrote thereafter -- was just haiku-shaped poetry (see Whatever Happened to 5/7/5? on our home page). But a door opened into a world where my response to life began to thrum to an inner 5/7/5 rhythm. I knew nothing about juxtaposition, resonance, season words, or anything else involved in writing good haiku. I simply experienced and wrote my world in 5/7/5. It wasn't until the mid-1990s that I learned haiku was being published all over the world. I sent for sample copies of several journals and began sending submissions from the notebook I'd been filling for decades. To my shock, the rejection slips began pouring in. Fortunately, rather than discouraging me, those rejections became a challenge, and led me to an intense study of haiku - its history and its evolution. That made all the difference. Haiku, in its richest aspects, began -- and continues -- to deeply affect every area of my life. The more I learn, the more I realize I'll always be a student. And I wouldn't want it any other way. I have discovered that haiku poets are some of the most wonderful people on the planet. Fellow poets are almost always willing to offer suggestions for improvement, encouragement, and a special companionship on the haiku path that is priceless and beyond words. I'm especially grateful to my first mentor, Bob Spiess. If I ever write one truly excellent haiku, it will be because he took the time to guide me when it must have looked like a totally hopeless enterprise. Here are a few of my haiku, with publishing credits below. More can be found by clicking the Recent Work button to the left. whalebone from a beach near Savoonga-- winter rain the ferry slows through Wrangell Narrows-- meteor showers
		Haiku by Billie. Haiga by Angelee Deodhar See more of Angelee's work at tempes libre/free times		deep winter-- a man outside the market feeds crows from his hand gathering driftwood where the forest meets the shore wild violets an open book on the old porch swing-- first fireflies rumble of thunder- slicing just-picked peaches for the pie


		Credits for Billie's haiku: winter wind (2006 Readers' Choice Poem of the Year, The Heron's Nest VIII; Modern Haiku 38:3, 2007 (review of The Heron's Nest Volume VIII); echoes 1, Red Moon Press, 2007; The Heron's Nest Award for December 2006); Modern Haiku 38:3 (2007) (review of the annual anthology); mountain silhouettes (Haiku Cycles 2001); whalebone (First Place, Harold G. Henderson Award, 2003; The Haiku Society of America Newsletter XVII:4, 2003; Frogpond, 2004); echoes 1, Red Moon Press, 2007; ; Moonlight Changing Direction (HPNC Two Autumns Press, 2008 - Guest Reader); included in A New Resonance group reading at Haiku North America in Ottawa (2009); winter nears (The Heron's Nest Award for Issue IV:12, 2002; First runner-up, The Heron's Nest Readers' and Editors' Choice Valentine Award, 2003; HSA Members' Anthology, 2003; A New Resonance 3: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, Red Moon Press, 2003; "S ee Haiku Here" (website) Haiga by Kuniharu Shimizu); ; Moonlight Changing Direction (HPNC Two Autumns Press, 2008 - Guest Reader); deep winter (The Heron's Nest II:12, 2000); the ferry slows (Frogpond XXII:3, 1999); A New Resonance 3: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, Red Moon Press, 2003; Mann Library's Daily Haiku (Featured Poet, June 2008); gathering driftwood (Modern Haiku XXXII:1, 2001); an open book (Acorn #6, 2001); The Loose Thread: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, Red Moon Press, 2001); rumble of thunder (Mayfly 33, and chosen for the cover of Mayfly 34, 2002)