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A very warm welcome from the whiptail Team. Tell us a little about yourself - your family, your hobbies, your dreams, or anything else you want the readers to know about you, apart from being a haiku poet. After living 50+ years in Ohio, I married fellow haiku poet, Dan Schwerin, and moved to Wisconsin in 2020. After 8 months near Milwaukee, we were called to another move across the state. I have three children who are grown and a cat, Spooky, who is not. I enjoy gardening, hiking, kayaking, suminagashi, and exploring my new surroundings. What is something that people don't know about your poetry or poetry practice, process, or inspiration that you'd like to share? While I applaud those who have a disciplined writing practice, I'm afraid I am not one of those people. My mind is no longer wired that way. I gather images and “haiku halves” as they come—from books and hikes and daydreams—and place them in a document. Then when my poetry mind is ready to get to some dedicated writing, I pull out those notes and mull them over until something snags and I can't let it go - then I write. What made you decide to try out haiku and/or tanka in one line versus their more popular enjambed formats? How does it feel different to you? I've been writing haiku since 2009, not a horribly long time in the scheme of haiku poets. But what that time has taught me is how much I don't know and how much more there is to explore with this little form. I think my participation with the Haiku Waukesha group led by Dan Schwerin was where I really started experimenting with one-line haiku and more gendai techniques. There was a kindness and openness to that group that allowed for a boldness of creativity. Group members could find positive aspects in each others' poems that may not have even been intended. Those discussions expanded the possibilities for all of us and the freedom to try new things was exhilarating. The one-line format felt fresh and elicited aha moments in different ways. Many poets still struggle with the dilemma of whether a particular poem will work better as a one-line poem than the enjambed form and vice-versa. What is the deciding factor in your practice? I think there has to be a reason for a haiku to be placed in one line. It may be the way the words enjamb or the pacing that begs not to be interrupted or sometimes it is the need for a landscape presentation that represents a river or horizon or long journey. Or maybe it's too short for line breaks. A one-line poem should really be several poems in one, depending on how it is read and where the pauses are placed. It would be a great help to our readers if you could walk us through your writing process from the conception to the eventual birth of a one-line poem. You are most welcome to take a one-line poem or two of yours to discuss how it came to be and/or process. Do you have any tips for aspiring poets of one-line forms? Most of my haiku start as three lines. Then I try to cut to the bare number of words and arrange those words in a variety of ways. I read them aloud, listening for rhythm and musicality. Sometimes just the rearrangement sparks other possibilities to explore. And sometimes they just beg to be condensed into one line. These are examples of some of my one-line poems that demonstrate the various reasons they end up as such. ENJAMBMENT if he stops the needles of an evergreen two ends of a circle missing you birdsong editing my dream diary just before dawn the barn swallows the bats TOO SHORT FOR A LINE BREAK horrormones w(rest)le A WORD WITHIN THE POEM in the air we’ve breathed for centuries complicit LANDSCAPE PRESENTATION each day rebuilding the skyline rising sun glacial grooves slipping into the back pew summer day the length of a dog’s tongue between waxing and waning first contraction PACING ripples reach the edge of the pond grows smaller and spring beginning with a conjunction all my irons in the fire out vertigoingnowhere REPETITION OF WORDS FOR EMPHASIS out of the blue blue again still the same winter pond still inside the frozen waterfall water falling the silence not at home at home My advice is to read other one-line poems and discuss them with a poetry group so you can hear what others glean from the poem and its construction. Take it apart, place the “line break” in different places, read it a number of different ways, hold it up to the light, and see what it looks like from all angles. And enjoy the journey! Julie Schwerin (she/her), author of What Was Here (Folded Word Press), was the founder/facilitator of the Ohaio-ku Study Group and the Ohio Haiku Facebook Group and served five years as Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America. She was one of seventeen poets featured in A New Resonance 9 (Red Moon Press) and has co-edited, along with Jim Kacian, Echoes 2, A New Resonance 11, and A New Resonance 12 (Red Moon Press). Schwerin was instrumental in establishing several haiku installations in the Midwest to feature the work of other poets and bring further awareness to haiku. Schwerin is an associate editor at The Heron's Nest and a member of the Red Moon Anthology Editorial team. 
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A very warm welcome from the whiptail team. Tell us a little about yourself - your family, your hobbies, your dreams, or anything else you want the readers to know about you, apart from being a haiku poet. First, I would like to thank you and the whole team of whiptail for this chance to share a little bit about my journey in writing haiku. It’s an honor and I hope that this will interest and inspire your readers in their own haiku-writing journeys. I’m currently teaching English at Far Eastern University–Alabang campus, which is around 25 kilometers away from Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Born and raised in the province of Bulacan, I came from a family that struggled to make both ends meet, so early on I learned the value of hard work, family, and education. But difficult as my childhood was, I had fond memories of it from which I had drawn inspiration so many times in writing haiku. When not working, I enjoy taking trips around the country and explore the natural beauty of its many awe-inspiring sights. As you may know, the Philippines is blessed with 7,641 islands. Yes, so many to explore, but so little time… What is something that people don't know about your poetry or poetry practice, process, or inspiration that you'd like to share? In writing poetry, anything—and I mean anything at all—can catch my fancy and get me all worked up enough to grab my pen and start composing a line or two. I love to take a second look at ordinary things in my ordinary life, and somehow make a connection to what I am feeling and thinking at that moment. Recently, I was alone on a bus on a rainy day, and the image of the rain streaming down the bus window stirred a mix of emotions in me. For the next few minutes, I just got lost in that moment and then I began texting lines on my phone. The problem with me is that when I get in the mood of writing, it’s really very hard for me to stop. So, on that bus ride I almost missed my destination! Aside from my own personal experiences, I also get inspired by the experiences of other people. I am currently reading a book about the life and poetry of Santoka Taneda, Japan’s beloved modern haiku poet. He had a very difficult and painful life, yet this did not deter him from living the life he wanted–traveling and writing haiku until his last breath. What made you decide to try out haiku and/or tanka in one line versus their more popular enjambed formats? How does it feel different to you? When whiptail first announced that it would publish one-line poems, I got really interested. So, I did a little bit of research here and there, reading many one-line poems in different online journals. This was the time when I decided to push the boundaries in my creative writing and see where it would lead me… I think writing one-line poems is the most challenging of all in the sense that one has to really concentrate on one specific idea or emotion that he or she intends to convey. It’s like looking at an infinitesimal object using a microscope. As a poet one has to be able to use such a tool or skill in order to see that microcosm clearly. It would be a great help to our readers if you could walk us through your writing process from conception to the eventual birth of a one-line poem. You are most welcome to take a one-line poem or two of yours to discuss how it came to be and/or process. I would like to talk about the first two one-line poems that were published in whiptail. The first one goes like this: searching for my ikigai blue sky When I wrote this, I was reading a book about ikigai—the ancient Japanese concept of living your purpose in life. Being a Christian, knowing one’s purpose in life is at the core of my spirituality. This philosophy had struck me in a way that made me appreciate the culture and way of thinking of the Japanese people. So, I thought this would be a good starting point in my first attempt at writing one-line poems. And here’s the other poem: my assigned gender violets are blue About my inspiration in writing this particular poem, I have always wanted to tackle the theme of gender and sexual orientation in my poetry without the tendency to be too political or intellectual about it. So by working around the term “gender” I began writing a few phrases until finally I came up with what I thought was a perfect opening…“my assigned gender.” The last part of what turned out to be a monoku came almost naturally...“violets are blue” implying that the gender one was born with is not always how he sees himself. The labels we use to identify our gender are really not as important as the way we see ourselves. Do you have any tips for aspiring poets of one-line forms? I honestly think I am not the best person to offer advice on this subject matter. I am certain that I still have a lot to learn about writing one-line poems. But maybe for now all I can leave you with is this: Write about what really matters to you. That is always where it begins. Then, strive hard, trusting your instinct the rest of the way. Alvin B. Cruz is a writer, professor, and communication consultant. His early poems were published in The Philippine Graphic. His haiku, senryu, and tanka have appeared in different print and online journals and anthologies. Some of his works won awards, including the Haiku Society of America Senryu Award (Second Place), and Honorable Mention in H. Gene Murtha Senryu Award, Irish Haiku Society, Maya Lyubenova International Haiku Contest, and Setouchi-Matsuyama International Photo Haiku Contest. He is the author of Sunsets Are Sonnets & Other Poems and Written on Water: Haiku & Watercolor Through the Seasons. He owes—and offers—everything to God.  |
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