Poet Profile

Katherine Cudney

I retired from nearly 20 years of stuntwork the year my son was born and have happily spent the last decade or so up to my elbows in cheerios, spaghettiOs and laundry suds. During that time I was also gently reared in the way of haiku by one of my favorite haijin - Ferris Gilli - after submitting a few novice, misguided attempts to The Heron's Nest in 2002. I discovered the "it" of it during those wonderful days spent learning with her and since then I always keep a haiku butterfly net close by. Haiku and haibun have been great equalizers in my life and have propelled me to places I never would have imagined. These days, I'm working steadily toward the Summer '10 completion of my degree in psychology, with a minor in creative arts, at Prescott College in Tucson, Arizona. Cracking the books has left me little time for much of anything else, but my notebook is full of hastily jotted notes about fleeting glimpses, quirky realizations and seemingly disconnected, keenly observed moments. There are few things as enjoyable to me as coming across a really great haiku in a book or journal and having it continue to resonate for months, even years, later. Billy Collins' "Japan", his poem about a favorite haiku, says it best for me.

Awards and Other Honors: Featured in A New Resonance 4: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2005), followed by echoes 1 (Red Moon Press, 2007). Some of my work was selected to appear in tug of the current: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2004 (Red Moon Press, 2005), inside the mirror: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2005 (Red Moon Press, 2006), big sky: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2006 (Red Moon Press, 2007), dust of summers: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2007 (Red Moon Press, 2008), and white lies: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2008 (Red Moon Press, 2009). Selected works were included in Contemporary Haibun 7, 8 & 9 (Red Moon Press). Some of my other awards and honors include: The Heron’s Nest Award (2004); three Editors' Choice Awards, The Heron's Nest (2004); and Special Mention, Mainichi Daily News Best English Haiku Contest (2004).

sunlight
through a snail shell
and the snail

moonlight...
our newborn's tears
fill my breasts

waking to
his callused fingers
and the sound of rain

letter from Iraq
a birdsong spelled
phonetically

I am the age
my father never was
spring planting

half-moon light
          a stone I thought
was a frog
                                    is

Credits: "sunlight" - The Herons' Nest Award, The Heron's Nest VI:3 (2004); "waking to" - Frogpond 27:3 (2004); A New Resonance 4: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2005); "I am the age" - Editors' Choice, The Heron’s Nest VI:4 (2004); "moonlight" - Frogpond 27:1 (2004); "letter from Iraq" - Editor's Choice, The Heron’s Nest VI:6 (2004); "half-moon light" - Special Mention, Mainichi Daily News Contest [Best English Haiku of 2004] (2004) [Poet's note: the editor arranged the form - I submitted three lines flush left].