Meetings

On March 5th, 13 members of Towpath and spouses gathered to explore the beautiful Glenstone Museum in Potomac, MD. The same number of poets gathered on March 11th via Zoom, to share news and workshop poems. In April, the group plans to meet on Saturday the 15th to explore the Japanese Street Fair in Washington, DC (presented by the Japanese-American Society of Washington, DC), and again on Sunday the 16th to walk the towpath through rural Maryland. The next regular meeting will be in May via Zoom.

Publications and Announcements

Julie Bloss Kelsey won the British Haiku Society’s 2022 David Cobb Haiku Award for her poem:

  half-dressed
  at the bedroom window
  a red maple

Julie also placed “Haiku Excellence” in the most recent Little IRIS Haiku Contest on the theme of “crude oil”:

  oil field—
  a steel dinosaur pulls
  itself from the earth

Susan Burch received a runner-up in the British Haiku Society’s 2022 Linda Jeannette Ward Tanka Award for her poem:

  weird pains
  in my shoulder blades 
  how disappointing
  I’m not growing
  wings

Roberta Beary received a 2023 Da Vinci Eye Eric Hoffer Finalist Award for her work “One Breath: Notes on the Reluctant Engagement Project,” which pairs haiku with artwork by people with disabilities. Roberta also had a poem selected for display in the Golden Haiku Contest in Washington, DC:

  lit towpath
  a heron anchors
  the moon

Starting in May, Towpath member Ryland Shengzhi Li is teaching an introductory course on haiku and other short-form poems. The course is offered through The Writer’s Center, more information is available here.