NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
Modern Haiku
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IL 60204-7046
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This page last updated: 14th December 2007. 		Modern Haiku Vol.33 #3

This issue is the Robert Spiess Memorial Issue. Robert Spiess died on March 13, 2002, after a pro-longed battle with cancer. Spiess was one of the key shapers of the way we in the west understand haiku. He had edited Modern Haiku since 1978 when he took over from Kay Titus Mormino.

Spiess worked with poet John Stevenson on a project "that was originally intended to be a selected works and biography." Stevenson presents Spiess's autobiographical sketch in this issue. In his own words Spiess tells us about his background, his military service during World War II, his variety of employment, his involvement with sailing, canoeing and kayaking and the way in which these occupations influenced his writing.

The autobiographical sketch is followed by a section of poems and prayers for Bob Spiess from contributors to the magazine. One that sums up Bob's love of water and water sports is from Michael Dylan Welch:

	scraping bottom
	on a sandy shoal
	bright red canoe
Michael Dylan Welch also contributes a remarkable five-page article on Spiess called THE HAIKU GATEKEEPER and follows it with an interview he conducted with Spiess through letters. These are obviously important historical documents highlighting the significance Spiess had to play in the formation of haiku in the west.

The new editor of Modern Haiku, Lee Gurga, presents a letter to readers outlining his requirements for the future of the magazine. He stipulates that a balance be maintained between quality and frugality and mentions that the summer issue

was printed on a higher quality paper than previous issues.
Gurga draws no differentiation between his presentation of haiku and senryu and also publishes the poems in alphabetical order of poets’ names. One example will suffice to illustrate the immediacy of haiku. From Carolyn Hall:
	war news —
	    the report
		of a neighbor's rifle
Eight haibun, varying from a brief poem by Jim Kacian BENEATH A WAXING MOON to a lengthier piece by Guy Simser RECESSES, follow this section.

HAIKU TRANSLATIONS by Hiroaki Sato follow: this is A BRIEF SURVEY OF MODERN JAPANESE HAIKU BY WOMEN. A review section by three superb writers, William J. Higginson, Michael Dylan Welch and Lee Gurga vary in length from a three-page review by Higginson on Bruce Ross's How to Haiku: A Writer's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms to a one-line review of Marc Thompson's Ordinary Time

A short haiku/haibun/tanka sequence on September 11.
The issue ends with Spiess’s long-running SPECULATIONS that have informed poets about some of the niceties of the haiku form for many years.

This issue of Modern Haiku can be touted as an important one for a number of reasons: its revelations and fond memories of a unique American writer and editor, its influential articles, haiku, other poems and informative reviews. In the end, though, the magazine deserves support because it is full of excellent haiku:

	   broad daylight of spring —
	not seeing the animal
	    but knowing it's there

			Robert Spiess (postmarked 2/23/02)

reviewer: Patricia Prime.