Renouncing the world --
The autumn leaves are falling
In my place of birth.

David Hoopes -- Alaska in Haiku, 1972

Alaska in Haiku was the first book of haiku I ever read. I was attending the...

A feather drifting.
A twig floating in the stream.
A wild goose flying.

Johnny D. - Poems One, 2008

Johnny D. is a British poet. As far as I know he has published only this collection. He...

The boys are in school;
fall leaves -- the only swimmers
in the swimming pool.

Margot Bollock -- Borrowed Water, 1966

For more information about 'Borrowed Water' see Hilda Aarons above. This...

Eating fish and chips,
two old sisters gently dab
ketchup from their lips.

Pat Boran - Waveforms: Bull Island Haiku, 2015

Pat Boran is an Irish poet. Bull Island is a small island near...

A winter sunset --
the day's unanswered questions
simply disappear

Priscilla Lignori - Beak Open, Feet Relaxed, 2013

Priscilla Lignori is a contemporary haiku poet living in New York's Hudson...

Emptiness -- you know
what I mean? Moonlight howling
in the room like snow.

Hayden Carruth -- Collected Shorter Poems 1946 - 1991

Hayden Carruth (1921 - 2008) was a well-known successful...

I also live outside of the Sebastopol city limits, but I work and shop in Sebastopol daily. Love the city. I think ranked choice voting is a good idea, for all elections.

room in the puddle
for your reflection, or mine
or maybe the moon

Susan August -- Haiku Distance, 2009

Susan August is a contemporary haiku poet living in the Bay Area. She has published...

Seeing the thin elm
this dismal sunless morning,
I think of yellow.

Hilda Aarons - Borrowed Water, 1966

'Borrowed Water' is the first anthology of English Language Haiku (ELH). It was...

Turning from the page,
Blind with a night of labour,
I hear morning crows.

Amy Lowell -- What's O'Clock, 1925

Amy Lowell (1874 - 1925) was born into a wealthy Boston family; some of her...

One bit of blue sky
then clouds over the city
twelve hundred years old.

Edith Shiffert -- The Light Comes Slowly

Edith Shiffert (1916 to 2017) was a well-known poet who published over 20...

On a withered bough
A crow alone is perching,
Autumn evening now.

Basho - Translated by Kenneth Yasuda, Japanese Haiku, Its Essential Nature and History, 1957

There are many translations of...

It has been a long time since I posted poetry here at Waccobb. My focus on poetry has shifted and these days I write, for the most part, haiku in the traditional three-line, 5-7-5, syllabic pattern....

Dear Friends:

At the moment there is major construction going on right in front of Many Rivers. I don't know how long it will last. It is part of major road repairs and storm drainage...

I think this is a link to the Measure:

http://www.sonomawest.com/full-text-of-measure-b/pdf_7e31f05e-21cb-11ea-b66f-47ded043ab66.html

I'd like more information about Measure B, Sebastopol; I think it is concerned with High School funding. Is that being voted on this coming Tuesday? And are there other Measures being voted on at...

Dear Friends of Maetreyi Nolan and Many Rivers --

The correct time for tonights event is 7:00 PM, not 7:30. Most of our events begin at 7:30; hence the mistake. But Maetreyi will begin her talk...

Tea 101: A Tea-tasting Workshop
Conducted by Many Rivers Staff
Saturday January 19th 2:00 pm

45705
Whether you are a long—time tea aficionado, or a newbie to the world of tea, it can be fun...

To Create and Sustain a Habit of Open-Heartedness
Rob Schmidt, Ph.D., and Stuart Goodnick, Many Rivers founders
Thursday January 3rd 7:30 pm
45677

The meme of our time is obsession with human...

Join Fran Carbonaro and guest musicians for an evening of poetry and music from her recently released CD: I'm Still Alive. This evening's presentation will focus on the "divine intervention" which...

On Thursday, April 13th, at 7:30 PM, at Many Rivers I will be giving a talk on English Language Haiku. This is a relatively new form for English poetry. It came to the U.S. in the early 20th...

Yes, I think it is richly deserved and very welcome. I have noticed that there are some in the literary community who are not thrilled about this, some are even angry about this. They say Dylan is...

Today Bob Dylan received the Noble Prize for literature. That is great news. No one deserves it more. My view of Dylan is that he is one of the greatest English language poets of the post WW II...

I don't see the analysis as compelling. To pick one example, he critiques the analogy to telephone polls and considers it ridiculous, like comparing apples to oranges. But he leaves out that the...

Thanks for posting this. My personal observation leaned towards this analysis; I've posted on this topic here at Wacco several times, particularly the housing aspect. I didn't actually think that...

I decided to delete my post as I don't think it will contribute to the discussion. Apologies if any offence was taken.

Best wishes.

Sonoma County is losing a lot of people due to the expensive housing. It is a serious problem and I don't see any of our elected officials addressing it. When I first moved to Sonoma County, in the...

Here's an article from the Washington Post about how Americans are drinking themselves to death.
...

One more comment regarding alcohol and its effects on society. I found Shepherd's post helpful; from my perspective Shepherd is acting in the great tradition of Wesleyan spirituality that is...

This is a response to Tommy's and then Shepherd's comment on Tommy's post. It is true that Jesus drank wine. And he turned water into wine. No argument there.

This issue has come up in...

Thanks, Shepherd, for posting this. A few times I have posted here at Wacco my belief that we need to look at our own complicity in alcohol consumption as this is the driver for winery expansion in...

Thanks, everyone (those who posted to this thread and those who sent me personal messages). The suggestions are useful and I am following through on several of them.

Jim

I'm looking for information on how to form a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization. The purpose of the organization would be to support the practice of syllabic poetry in English; focusing on...

Podfish, you raise good points. I understand that the comparison between driving and owning a gun is not perfect; but I think there is enough commonality to make the comparison useful. And I get...

I hesitate to bring this up because opinions regarding guns and gun control are intense; but I'm just going to put it out there. I would like to see the Second Amendment repealed. My reason for...

I will be giving a poetry reading on Thursday, October 1st, 7:30 PM, at Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol. I will be reading from my collection 'Hiking the Quatrain Range'. Quatrains are...

Hi Sandy:

You mentioned in your second post that there are a range of views on how we should approach environmentalism. You wrote:

"There are some interesting fault lines in the collective...

Interesting list. Like Scott, I think 1 & 2 are nobrainers. I'm wondering why George Washington isn't on the list?

The one President you included that I would object to is Woodrow Wilson. ...

A Ghazal for Our Dreams


I visited you in the land of dreams
I learned what is true in the land of dreams

A polluted stream, a nightmare, a fiend,
A distorted view from our waking dreams...

I would like to add a consideration to this intriguing thread -- sometimes it is reasonable to feel depressed. The culture seems to have adopted a position that depression is automatically a bad...

Over the years I have had a lot of fun with the Etheree. At one point I even thought of referring to myself as an Etheree poet; but I'm not quite sure what word to use. Those who focus on the...

Jonathan, you mention in passing that the populartion of Sebastopol has dropped by about 5%, or 400 people. That kind of surprised me. At the same time it made sense. I know several people who...

Good Morning:

Yesterday Larry posted a poem by Mark Nepo and it received a lot of positive comment and approval. I was surprised. I had a different take on it, a different response. I don't...

I'd like to echo Scott's previous post. I have also met Deepak Chopra. It was when I was working at Readers' Books in Sonoma. They had an author event and Chopra was the author. All of us found...

Several posts have remarked about the tendency to pack a post with links that support a point of view. What I want to suggest is that we, all of us, have yet to develop a methodology of discernment...

Good Morning:

I have been thinking about how to proceed with this thread. And I decided to start with one of the simplest of syllabic forms: the Etheree. The Etheree is named after Arkansas...

A few observations:

One month isn't long enough to see if the new structure works. I think it needs a longer trial as people get used to the structure. Some people stop by Wacco only now and...

Thanks, Shepherd, for keeping us all informed regarding these developments. This is an optimistic article, having these groups gathering together across county lines. I am wondering if the issue of...

Good Morning:

I often read the postings in the poetry forum here at Wacco. It is a rewarding reflection of the rich and vital poetic life found in West County. I have started several threads...

I want to second Scott's observation. If I am skeptical of the assertion that the earth is flat (and there are people who believe this) does that make me a 'follower'? I don't think so. This way...