Poet Profile

Christopher Herold

Christopher Herold is a teacher, a haiku poet, co-founder of The Heron's Nest (a quarterly Web and annual hard-copy haiku journal), and a Zen practitioner. Cor van den Heuvel describes him as one of the pillars of the development of haiku creativity in North America. Christopher wrote his first haiku in 1968 during a practice period at Tassajara Zen Center, where he took his first steps into Buddhist lay-monkhood. Then followed a ten-year career as a drummer in blues, rock, and jazz bands (including Kingfish, the top-selling new band in the United States in 1976). His haiku career includes teaching haiku in the schools (workshops for students in the LaHonda/Pescadero school district of Northern California (1987-1991); Co-editor of the Haiku Poets of Northern California (HPNC) journal, Woodnotes (winter 1991 through winter 1992); President of HPNC (1993 and 1994); Organizing Committee of first Haiku North America (HNA) gathering at Las Positas College, California (1991); Co-organizer of HNA 2005 in Port Townsend, Washington; Co-founder of The Heron's Nest, the first and still the only journal to publish its entire contents both on the web (with complete archives) and in hardcopy (1999); Managing Editor of The Heron's Nest (1999 through 2007). He has served as judge for the Haiku Society of America's (HSA) Bernard Lionel Einbond Renku Competition three times, and the HSA Harold G. Henderson Awards for Haiku twice. He has also judged haiku contests for the Washington State Poets Association, Hawaii Education Assn., National League of National PenWomen, the Haiku Poets of Northern California and the Japan Airlines International Haiku Contest.

Awards and Other Honors: Haiku Society of America's Harold G. Henderson Awards for Haiku: 2nd Place (1999) and Honorable Mentions (1991, 1994, 1998, 1999); Haiku Society of America's Gerald Brady Memorial Awards for Senryu: 1st place (1992); Haiku Society of America's Bernard Lionel Einbond Renku Competition: four Grand Prizes (2000--a double, 2001, 2009); an Honorable Mention (2005); and a lst Runner-up (2010); Haiku Society of America's Mildred Kanterman Memorial Merit Book Awards: 2001 (2nd place); Haiku Poets of Northern California San Francisco International Haiku Contest: several awards; Hawaii Education Assn. Haiku Contest: several awards in each of the three categories; NAACP Haiku Contest: First Place; The Heron's Nest Readers Choice Awards: Favorite poem in 2008 (2nd Runner-up), Popular Poets of 2008 (2nd Runner-up); Museum of Haiku Literature Award: Frogpond XVII:1 (1994) and Frogpond XVII:4 (1994); Biken Haiku Contest (Ireland, 2006): 3rd Place; League of National Pen Women (Florida): 1st place; Washington Poets Assn.: Francine Porad Division; JAL Contest: several Honorable Mentions; Tanka Splendor: several times; Kiyoshi Tokutomi Contest: 1st place and Honorable Mentions; Snapshot Press Manuscript Contest 2000: Runner-up; New Zealand Poetry Society Intl. Haiku Contest: Honorable Mention 1991, 1st place 1992, Honorable Mention 1993; Mainichi Daily News Annual Haiku Contest 1994 (Honorable Mention); Herb Barrett Award 2000; Itoen Tea contest: runner-up; Kaji Aso Studio contest.

Books Published: In Other Words (Jarus Books, 1981); Coincidence (Kanshiketsu Press, 1987); Voices of Stone [Haibun] (Kanshiketsu Press, 1995); A Path in the Garden (Katsura Press, 2000); In the Margins of the Sea (Snapshot Press, 2000); Inside Out (Red Moon Press, 2010).

foghorns
we lower a kayak
into the sound

bird shadow
     from tree shadow
           to fence shadow

just a minnow
the granite mountain wobbles
on the lake

almost dawn
cupped in the curve of the moon
the rest of the moon

dark, dark night
a leaf strikes the pavement
stem first

cherry petals
a child adds a handful
to the buskers cap

Credits: "foghorns" - Second Place, Haiku Society of America's Harold G. Henderson Awards for Haiku (1999); In the margins of the Sea (Snapshot Press, 2000); The Unswept Path (White Pine Press, 2005); "just a minnow" - A Path in the Garden (Katsura Press, 2000); The Unswept Path (White Pine Press, 2005); "dark, dark night" - The Unswept Path (White Pine Press, 2005); Inside Out (Red Moon Press, 2010; "bird shadow" - Frogpond XVII:3 (1994); Haiku Society of America's Frogpond Museum of Haiku Literature Award, Frogpond XVII:4 (1994); A Path in the Garden (Katsura Press, 2000); The Unswept Path (White Pine Press, 2005); "almost dawn" - First Place, Haiku Poets of Northern California San Francisco International Haiku Contest; The Unswept Path (White Pine Press, 2005); "cherry petals" - Runner-up, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (2007); Inside Out (Red Moon Press, 2010).