Haikus by Philomene Kocher (remarks: Claudia Radmore)
H. Masud Tajlate evening a vase of red tulips on the kitchen table “This collection was born on Epiphany. For three days, snow has been lighting roofs and resting on branches. Ontario is in the middle of lockdown, and I have time to sit by my window. I am reminded of the kitchen windows in the farmhouse: if you couldn’t see the highway across the fields, then snow was drifting in from the lake; in the other direction, not being able to see the neighbour’s home at the near corner meant it was time to stay inside. One memory led to another. I completed this collection on Pentecost. January 2021 Ontario is still in stay-at-home lockdown. The apple blossoms have come and gone, and the lilacs are in full bloom. May2021” - Kocher, Philomene, “new boards on the barn,” The Haiku Foundation Digital Library ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Walking down the street where I had lived for nine years, something caught my attention: on my neighbour’s rosebush were rose hips, roses, and buds. It was late August, and I was amazed at seeing buds still. As a haiku poet, it is often when I am surprised that I am moved to write. It is also often true that this happens when I am walking, perhaps because I am closer to nature despite the sidewalks and traffic, and because I have slowed down. And so I wrote this poem: rose hips and roses and buds on the same bush August evening I recorded my awareness of a particular moment. Reflecting on it later, I realized how much this image spoke also to my life circumstances. I was only months away from my fortieth birthday, and I pondered the parts of my life that were mature, that were blooming, and that were still in bud. After almost two decades exploring haiku, I am still astonished at how much story can be distilled into such small poems. The potential of haiku to capture so much experience with so few words has always fascinated me.” - Inviting connection through the gap in haiku PHILOMENE KOCHER Language and Literacy Volume 11, Number 1, Spring 2009