| THE HAIKU POETS OF CENTRAL MARYLAND On August 4, 2004, Elizabeth Fanto and Cathy Drinkwater Better (Walker) founded a new haiku group, the Haiku Poets of Central Maryland (HPCM), to fill the growing need for a local group serving haiku poets living in the Greater Baltimore metro area and surrounding counties. The Haiku Poets of Central Maryland has not been formed in competition with, nor to supplant, any other regional haiku group, but to augment other groups for the benefit of those interested in writing and sharing haiku. The sole purpose of the Haiku Poets of Central Maryland is to foster and promote the art and enjoyment of haiku in the Central Maryland area. Meetings are held bimonthly, and HPCM also sponsors modest publications— including a regular post-meeting newsletter, The Dragonfly— readings, and other haiku-related activities in the community. In addition to meetings where members and guests can share and discuss haiku and “workshop” their poems, the Haiku Poets of Central Maryland sponsor an annual competition, The Anita Sadler Weiss Haiku Award, named for haiku poet and Baltimore- area haiku teacher Anita Sadler Weiss (see below). Everyone—regardless of city, state, or country of residence, or affiliation with any other haiku group—is invited to join the Haiku Poets of Central Maryland. Members living out of state or abroad, or local members unable to attend a particular meeting, still enjoy participating by email and "snail-mail." For more information, email haikupoetscentralmd@yahoo.com. |
| THE ANITA SADLER WEISS MEMORIAL HAIKU AWARDS The Anita Sadler Weiss Memorial Haiku Award, sponsored by the Haiku Poets of Central Maryland, is an annual poetry competition founded in August 2004 by the Haiku Poets of Central Maryland in memory of Baltimore-based haiku poet and teacher Anita Sadler Weiss. Award recipients will be announced each April in honor of Ms. Weiss’ birthday, and a kind benefactor has made a generous donation allowing us to award substantial monetary prizes. A woman of many talents—in addition to being a haiku poet who wrote both in English and in French, she was an accomplished sculptor, a poet, a social worker and a scholar—Ms. Weiss began her haiku journey relatively late in life; but she embraced the form with passion and delight. A tireless student of haiku, her thirst for haiku knowledge was unquenchable; her passion for sharing haiku undeniable; and her love of haiku unlimited by geography, style, or school of thought. Ms. Weiss knew that haiku was more than a poetic form, that it is, truly, a way of life. And she lived that life, being always open to and aware of the special “haiku moments” around her. She introduced countless others to haiku, as well. Though in her nineties, Ms. Weiss—armed with stacks of books and poetry journals and piles of research notes—she began teaching a class devoted to haiku at the Renaissance Institute, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. She also hosted haiku gatherings for her students at her Baltimore home, expressly for the purpose of sharing of poems and the exchange of ideas. When her health began to fail, Ms. Weiss encouraged one of her students to continue the popular course in the spirit of learning that she had fostered—although no one could ever take her place. A longtime member of the Haiku Society of America as well as towpath, the Haiku Poets of the Chesapeake Watershed, Ms. Weiss looked forward to haiku gatherings, with their give-and-take workshop sessions and stimulating discussions; and in spite of physical, logistical, and geographical limitations, she attended or hosted towpath meetings as often as possible and enjoyed to the hilt each and every one. Ms. Weiss lost her final battle with cancer on August 1, 2004. She will be missed in the Baltimore-area haiku community and beyond; and we, the Haiku Poets of Central Maryland, dedicate the Anita Sadler Weiss Memorial Haiku Award to her memory in hopes that her ever-youthful haiku spirit and her loving embrace of all things haiku will continue to live on. Iridescence on a blade of grass —dragonfly Anita Sadler Weiss 1908–2004 |
HAIKU POETS OF CENTRAL MARYLAND
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| LUNCH BREAK HPCM's 2008 Poemsheet--Copies Still Available! (Black Cat Press, November 2008) Copies of LUNCH BREAK, HPCM’s third annual poemsheet, edited by Cathy Drinkwater Better and Elizabeth Fanto, are still available. For information on how to receive copies, which are free of charge, click “Contact Us" and use subject line, “HPCM Poemsheet.” |