Haiku and sketch by Emiko Miyashita

This haiku and sketch are from a note that Emiko sent me after Haiku North America 2001. (A revised version of this haiku will appear in a 2002 edition of Modern Haiku.) The suitcase is a reference to the fact that I carried Emiko's suitcase up three flights of stairs in the Boston Conservatory dorms when she first arrived—and down when she left.

I thought that the image of the suitcase and the evocative quality of the haiku would make a fitting end to these pages. It's a way to end things, as Raymond Roseliep, once said . . .

"So the reader keeps getting on where the poet got off."

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This concludes our little tour of Haiku North America 2001. Many thanks to Raffael De Gruttola, Judson Evans, and Karen Klein for organizing this conference.

Hope to see you in New York City for Haiku North America 2003!