We continue to enjoy our monthly meetings at Tai Pan in Halfmoon, with the occasional “road trip.” Due to an unusually busy summer, we had our Maine meeting in June this year, rather than the usual late August. It is somewhat surprising to see no “black fly” poems in this issue. They certainly were plentiful in the early summer of the Maine woods!

Two recent CDs featuring the work of Hilary Tann may be of interest to our readers. "Songs of the Cotton Grass" (www.deux-elles.co.uk) is Hilary's first complete CD of chamber music and "New Dawn" (www.albanyrecords.com) contains Carson Cooman's setting for piano and voice of seven of Hilary's haiku. Other highlights of the spring and summer have included, for me, another opportunity to judge a student haiku contest sponsored by the Japanese Mission to the United Nations and to speak about haiku at the UN awards ceremony, participation in the first international haiku conference sponsored by the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and participation in the nineteenth annual Two Autumns readings. Cornell University printed an article about Tom’s Mann Library Daily Haiku feature in their alumni magazine. Yu and I have celebrated birthdays that have put zeros at the end of our ages, on August 30 and October 9, respectively. It’s a tremendous relief to have let go of being 39.

small craft warnings

on the radio

seagulls line up

on the jetty

I think that may be

where I left the map

settling into the rhythm

of my father's cane

a circle of friends

chewing squid