| Oregon Haiku & Tanka Society |
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| February 2003 Poet's work inspires readers to look beyond her words by Rebecca Szymanski, Albuquerque Journal Albuquerque poet Ann Newell's acute observations reveal the connection between man and nature in ways that are best explained through her haiku: pregnant girl touching swollen lilac buds She always seems to have an uncanny way of connecting with people. Newell, 84, describes herself as a solitary person, not one to seek out others. But people find her. Several years ago, while living in Colorado, she received a mysterious postcard from a stranger who lived halfway around the world. "Tell me how to get to your house from the Denver Airport," wrote Kenichi Sato of Sakata, Japan. "I'm coming to stay with you for three days." "And I had no idea who this person was," Newell recalls with a smile. Through the Haiku Society of America, she learned the man was a translator, so struck by her previous work that he decided to travel to America to translate her poetry into Japanese. Their meeting turned out to be the beginning of an important association for Newell. Sato served as the translator for her recently released Mount Gasson's Slope, a book of haiku, senryu (poetry similar to haiku, but often humorous), and brush painting published by Red Moon Press. Mount Gasson's Slope is Newell's fifth book of poetry. It and a previous book, Moon Puddles, are in haiku. The unrhymed Japanese poetry contains about 17 syllables in three lines, although Newell says there is no word for syllable in Japanese. Twelve syllables, she says, more closely relates to the true Japanese form. "How it's stated is important," she says. "Not just 17 syllables. We want resonance and impact. In other words, it doesn't mean just the words." Making Connections On a recent morning, Newell sat with a visitor in the living room of her apartment at the retirement community where she lives, next to her books, her desk, and the simple tools she uses for her Japanese brush paintings. losing things day after day my journey gets lighter Jeanne Shannon, editor and publisher of the Wildflower Press in Albuquerque and a friend of Newell's, says the poet's work "makes us become aware of feelings that are deeper than words can express. Her haiku connect us with something real that shivers on the far side of language. outside the missile range an old tree dropping walnuts on a tin roof Newell's poetry led to another mysterious connection and friendship�this time with a woman in South Korea. |
| Albuquerque Journal�Ann Newell |
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