Poet Profile

Marco Fraticelli

A poet, educator, and musician, Marco Fraticelli has contributed as an executive member of Haiku Canada (1988-2014). As editor and publisher of the literary magazine, The Alchemist (1974-1987), he was one of the first to predominantly include haiku. Sensing a dearth of haiku books, he began creating chapbooks in the Hexagram Series (1991-2012). This important series presents exemplary haiku by 25 Canadian and international poets. He has dedicated time as editor on numerous Haiku Canada anthologies, including the holographic anniversary collections. Marco has been invited to provide keynote addresses, read at community events and poetry conferences, facilitate workshops, and judge haiku contests. He is currently working on his third book of haibun, as well as a children’s book about haiku that would be relevant for teachers as well as young readers.

Awards and Other Honors:

Early recognition of his haiku included a prize in the Fifth Annual (1990) International Haiku Contest (Ehime, Japan). More recently, his haiku have been acknowledged as winners in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku International Contest (Honourable Mention, 2008 & 2011; Best Canadian Poem, 2013 & 2015). A Thousand Years (catkin press, 2018) has received significant recognition: a Touchstone Distinguished Books Honorable Mention (The Haiku Foundation, 2018), and more recently, shared First Prize in the inaugural Marianne Bluger Book Award (Haiku Canada, 2020).

Books Published:

Three books of haiku were published by Guernica Editions: Instants (1979), Night Coach (1983), and Voyeur (1992). His haiku have appeared in publications including Haiku Canada Review, RAW NerVZ HAIKU, and Frogpond: The Journal of the Haiku Society of America.

His most recent books consist of haibun – a poetic form that combines story with haiku. Drifting (catkin press, 2013) was inspired by the found diaries of a woman who lived in the early 1900s in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, and excerpts from her diaries are matched with Fraticelli’s haiku. A Thousand Years (catkin press, 2018) unites imagined letters written by Fraticelli with haiku by an 18th century Japanese woman haiku master, Chiyo-ni.

Selected Anthologies: Haiku in Canada: History Poetry, Memoir - Ekstasis Editions, 2020; Wordless: Haiku Canada: 40 years of haiku - Claudia Coutu Radmore & Marco Fraticelli (Editors), Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2017; Erotic Haiku: Of Skin on Skin - George Swede & Terry Ann Carter (Editors), Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2017; The Touch of a Moth: The 35th Annual Haiku Canada Members’ Anthology - Claudia Coutu Radmore & Marco Fraticelli (Editors), Sudbury, ON: Scrivener Press, 2012; Lighting the Global Lantern: A Teacher’s Guide to Writing Haiku and Related Literary Forms - Terry Ann Carter, Township of South Frontenac, ON: Wintergreen Studios Press, 2011; Montreal: A Haiku Anthology / Une anthologie de haikus - Pamela Cooper & Monika Thoma-Petit (Editors), Montreal: Haiku Collective, 2010; Carpe diem: Anthologie canadienne du haïku / Canadian anthology of haiku - Terry Ann Carter & Marco Fraticelli (English-language Editors) and Francine Chicoine (French-language Editor), Éditions David & Borealis Press, 2008; The New Pond: An English-language Haiku Anthology - Emiko Miyashita (Editor), Tokyo: Hokumei-sha Press, 2001.

after the funeral
the children 
making snow angels

newly widowed
watering her lawn
in the rain

watching the cat
watching the bird
watching the butterfly

moonlight on ice
the farmer carries heavy rocks
in his dreams

halloween
putting on our masks
to make love

saying goodbye
our shadows
almost touch

Credits:

“after the funeral“ - Wordless: Haiku Canada: 40 years of haiku, Ekstasis Press (2017); “newly widowed” - Canadian Haiku Anthology, Three Trees Press (1979); “watching the cat“- Matrix Issue 107 (2017); “moonlight on ice“- Frogpond Vol 7:1 (1984); “halloween“;“saying goodbye“ - Erotic Haiku: Of Skin on Skin, Black Moss Press (2017).