Honorary Curator Marlene Mountain
Marlene Mountain (deceased)
Honorary Curator, 2014–2015
Appointment Announcement
The American Haiku Archives advisory board is pleased to announce the appointment of Marlene Mountain as the 2014–2015 honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives at the California State Library in Sacramento. This honor is in recognition of her uninhibited long-term devotion to and exploration of haiku and related arts. Her innovations have shaken its practitioners out of complacency in the craft of haiku for many decades, and have also engaged and moved readers where no complacency needed to be shaken. Marlene Mountain’s voice is unlike any other in the history of English-language haiku poetry. Examples of her groundbreaking and influential poetry can be read in depth at her website.
In response to a November 2014 discussion on Facebook about pseudonyms in haiku, Marlene wrote, “i’ve always thought i’ve been on the merry road of haiku—even tho i’ve been critical of lots of things. of course there’ve been those who said i wasn’t on it. but i’ve not been able to help what comes from inside—it just bursts out like tears. many reflections had come years or days before the words. the words would bring on the reflections. yet the reflections and words often were not related. of course in there somewhere is the image. a question i’ve had for years: are we timid. i’ve not found that haiku itself is. it is always good to pause without thought. celebration is possible too.” We are pleased to celebrate Marlene Mountain, and to bestow this honor from the American Haiku Archives, which seeks to preserve and promote haiku and related poetry throughout the North American continent.
Marlene Mountain was born December 11, 1939. She received a BFA in painting from University of Oklahoma (Norman) in 1962, and an MA in painting (with a minor in literature) from the University of North Dakota in 1965. She was married to haiku poet John Wills (who died in 1993), and she currently lives in Hampton, Tennessee. Marlene maintains a website that features ample selections of her essays, reviews, paintings, and poetry, including one-line poems, visual poems, unaloud haiku, dadaku, tearouts, and other creative mischief. Her photos at Flickr focus primarily on close observations of the natural world around her home in the woods.
In 1996, Raw Nervz 3:2 published the following interview with Marlene Mountain:
| yet another interview
I: It’s been a while since I’ve asked, have you come to any definition of haiku? M: Yes, it’s relatively short. I: Your definition? M: No, haiku. |
The American Haiku Archives, which includes the Haiku Society of America archives, is the largest public collection of haiku materials outside Japan. Each year since the archives were established on July 12, 1996, the AHA advisory board, currently chaired together by Garry Gay and Randy Brooks, appoints a new honorary curator (an idea suggested by the former California state librarian, Dr. Kevin Starr). Past curators, in order starting from the first year, have been Elizabeth Searle Lamb, Jerry Kilbride, Cor van den Heuvel, Robert Spiess, Lorraine Ellis Harr, Leroy Kanterman, William J. Higginson, Makoto Ueda, Francine Porad, Hiroaki Sato, H. F. Noyes, George Swede, Stephen Addiss, Gary Snyder, Jerry Ball, LeRoy Gorman, and Charles Trumbull. The AHA advisory board is delighted to pay tribute to Marlene Mountain as the eighteenth honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives.
—Michael Dylan Welch
Books by Marlene Mountain
the old tin roof
haiku senryu & dadaku; & unaloud haiku not yet termed, 1976, 97 pages, right side only, plastic-coil bound, 3.5 x 8.5 inches, self-published, Tennessee
new bridge
one-line haiku, late 70s/abandoned [matsu allard, editor]
aware becoming
haiku sequence/visual haiku, c 1977/78
moments/moments
unaloud haiku, High/Coo Press 1978
naturenotes
unaloud haiku, mid-1970s
preying mantis
unaloud haiku, poemcard #11 High/Coo Press 1979
femmarks
3 sets of bookmarks, self-published 1981/82
solstice cards
1981 to present
equal hell, art
haiku, untamed haiku & beyond untamed haiku, booklet and 40 cards, including 4 bumper stickers,1982, self-published, Tennessee
a poem, women
poems and haiku, early 80s/abandoned [hal roth, editor]
tonight i am mountain
one-line haiku sequences, mid-80s/abandoned [rod willmot, editor]
pissed off poems and cross words
haiku sequences & 13 sketches for painting series, 1986, 32 pages, saddle-stitched, 8.5 x 7 inches, self-published, Tennessee
intimate posters
haiku with images c. 135 images, self-produced/published 1990
a crone’s haiku highcoup
haiku criticisms via captions to “famous art” c. 255 images, self-produced, 1992
from the mountain
book of 20+ years of one-line haiku, etc., with annotations and visuals, 1992, self-published
? lined-paper blues
tear outs
femail boxes and junk male
development of a painting series, text and visuals, self-produced/published 1993
home away from home
development of a painting series, text and visuals, self-produced/published 1993
nature talks back
tear outs, etc., self-produced/published 1994
visualante
tear outs, etc., self-produced/published 1994
now you too
dadaku/high coup, self-produced/published 1994
when the mountain comes over the moon
tear outs, etc., self-produced early 90s
how to flounder and fiddle
the making of 2 unaloud haiku, self-produced
cur*rent
one-line linked with Francine Porad, 7 one-line linked haiku & 3 artworks, 1998, foreword by Randy Brooks, interview of Marlene Mountain by Jim Kacian, 28 pages, saddle-stitched, 5.5 x 8.5 inches, Vandina Press
other rens
[book one] 2000, Kris Kondo, Marlene Mountain, Francine Porad, one-line linked haiku & color artwork, 85 pages, perfectbound, 5.5 x 5.5 inches, Vandina Press
other rens book two & book three
[1 volume] 2000, Kris Kondo, Marlene Mountain, Francine Porad, one-line linked haiku & artwork, 116 pages, perfectbound, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, Vandina Press
trio of wrens
[book four] 2000, Kris Kondo, Marlene Mountain, Francine Porad, one-line linked haiku & artwork, foreword by Dennis H. Dutton, 64 pages, perfectbound, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, Vandina Press
other rens book five & book six
[unpublished], one-line linked haiku with Francine Porad and Kris Kondo, 2001
other rens book seven
[unpublished], one-line linked haiku with Francine Porad and Kris Kondo, 2001
other rens book eight
[unpublished], one-line linked haiku with Francine Porad and Kris Kondo, 2001
other rens book nine
[unpublished], one-line linked haiku with Francine Porad and Kris Kondo, 2002
other rens book ten
[unpublished], one-line linked haiku with Francine Porad and Kris Kondo
mother nature’s heat/a desert snake
one-line linked haiku with Jean Jorgensen, 16 one-line linked haiku, cover color painting by Marlene Mountain, 2001, introduction Carlos Colon, 44 pages, saddle-stitched, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, Four Corners Press
probably ‘real’ renga sorta
one-line linked haiku with Francine Porad, 13 one-line linked haiku, color cover, 2 sketches, 2002, 32 pages, saddle-stitched, color cover, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, Vandina Press
probably ‘real’ renga sorta 2
one-line linked haiku with Francine Porad
Selected Haiku by Marlene Mountain
pig and i spring rain
he leans on the gate going staying
at dusk hot water from the hose
one fly everywhere the heat
gosling following its neck to the bug
stick
my neighbor’s rooster hops the i throw
hoot
w
l
empty mailbox
i pick wildflowers
on my way back
sn wfl k s
a quiet day
an old man on his tractor
passes at dusk
haiku doesn’t have rules people have rules
seed catalog in the mailbox cold drizzle
winter night writing letters to get letters
in her old voice the mountains
Web Links
Personal Website
http://www.marlenemountain.org
Photostream
https://www.flickr.com/photos/marlenemountain
Biography
http://www.marlenemountain.org/mminfo/mi_background.html
Haiku Foundation Profile
http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/poet-details/?IDclient=104
Bibliography
http://www.marlenemountain.org/mminfo/mi_mmpublications.html
Anthologizations
http://www.marlenemountain.org/mminfo/mi_anthologies.html
Self-Interview, July 1981
http://www.marlenemountain.org/essays/sinterview_innerview.html
Essays
http://www.marlenemountain.org/essays/haikuessays.html
Selected Essays
http://www.tempslibres.org/tl/en/livres/mm00.html
Essay on Haiku Techniques
http://www.marlenemountain.org/essays/essay_jphaiandso.html
Defining Haiku
http://www.marlenemountain.org/essays/essay_letter_whatsthe.html
Essay on Marlene Mountain's haiku by Jack Galmitz
https://roadrunnerhaikublog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/then-i-must-go-to-the-mountain.pdf
Millikin University Reader Response Essays
Opposites with a Common Goal: Marlene Mountain & Masajo Suzuki by Danielle Berens
Marlene Mountain: a Pioneer of Poetry and Artistry by Nathan Bettenhausen
Visual Haiku of Marlene Mountain by Aubrie Cox
Marlene Mountain's Own Haiku Path by Stephanie Dietrich
Marlene Mountain: Naturally Visual Political Haiku by Amy Soderberg
