Poet Profile

Raffael de Gruttola

Attended Boston University (BA: in Philosophy & English 1960), Northeastern Univ. (MEd: in Educational Administration 1966). Occupation: bilingual and ESL teacher 1962 to 1970); Directed a Federally Funded Bilingual Theatre Arts Program in the Boston Public Schools [one of two such programs in the United States at the time, and included the presentation of workshops about the program at major conferences throughout the United States] (1971 – 1977); Director of Bilingual Education for the City of Boston (1978 – 1988); Director of the Counseling & Intervention Center, Boston (1989 to 1998). Founding member of the Boston Haiku Society (1988), Past President and Treasurer of the Haiku Society of America (1992-1999) First Northeast Regional Coordinator of the Haiku Society of America (1996). Review Editor for GUSTS Tanka Journal (ongoing), Modern Haiga (2008-2009), Organizing member of two renku groups: the immature green heron (2003) and renkubluz (2001). Renku Performance Group: sculling blackbirds (2009) [see: www.vimeo.com/10998813]. Edited the first American publication of new unpublished haiku entitled The Haiku of Nick Virgilio (Turtle Light Press April 2012)

Awards and Other Honors: First Prize: Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum, First English Language Haiku Contest (2009). Presentation at 3rd Mass. Poetry Festival: "Haiku and the Prose Poem" with Prof. Gian Lombardo of Emerson College (April, 2011). I was one of three participants in the American Literature Association's Conference in Boston (May 2011). I've been invited to Japan on three occasions. The first was for the 360th Anniversary of Basho's Birthday in Iga Ueno, My second and third visits were to Kyoto to participate in International Renku Conferences with haiku poets from China and Japan. At the October 2011 conference, the renku performance piece was one that I helped cross-adapt from the one-act play Haiku by Katherine Snodgrass was created. It was called sculling blackbirds, with music by Allen LeVines, piano, choreographed by Emily Beattie, modern dancer and sung by Emiko Matsuoka. Presentation at the Peabody Essex Museum for the 4th Mass. Poetry Festival: "The haiku(s) of Jack Kerouac" accompanied by cellist Peter Zay of the Hartford Symphony(April 21, 2012).

Books Published: Haiku: Recycle/Reciclo (Cordillera Press: Natick, MA, 1989); Mapplethorpe: Impressions (Cordillera Press, Natick, MA., 1991).    Portfolios of Haiga: Where Ashes Float (PiXeLaRt Press, Upton, MA, 2000); Echoes in Sand [with Wilfred Croteau] (Reeds: Contemporary Haiga online), which has been acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts; The Rattle of Bamboo Windchimes [with Peggy McClure] (piXeLaRt Press, Upton, MA, 2005).    Concrete renku [with Carlos Colón]: Circling Bats (Tragg Publications, Shreveport, LA, 2001); Wall St. Park (piXeLaRt Press, Upton, MA, 2005); and Autumn Leaves (Tragg Publications, Shreveport, LA, 2010).    Editor: four anthologies of the Boston Haiku Society: the ant's afternoon (1990), hands full of stars (1995), voice of the peeper (1999), wind flow (2008) all from Aether Press, Boston, MA.     Postcard Renku [with LeRoy Gorman, Dec. 1995 to June 2005]: Outside Lost In The Snow (Shutterfly, 2009); and the turning point [a collection of nine haiga with artist Peggy McClure] (published by Shutterfly).

violin player
the shape of the sound
in her arms

in Katrina's wake
the sounds of jazz
return to Basin Street

on a cement wall
in Harlem
Take-the-A-Train

Afternoon of a Faun
snow sparkles
in the arroyo

lost in the lights
the high fly ball that
never comes down

pawprints
disappear in the snow
wind under the hemlocks

Credits: "violin player" - dust of summers: The Red Moon Anthology of English Language Haiku 2007 (Red Moon Press, 2008); "on a cement wall" - Fusion Magazine Vol. 1:No.1 (Berklee College of Music, 2009); "lost in the lights" - Baseball Haiku (Edited by Cor van den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura, W.W. Norton & Co., 2007); Washington Post (May 25, 2008); "in Katrina's wake" - Frogpond 29:2 (2006); "Afternoon of a Faun" - The Heron's Nest VII:1 (2005); "pawprints" – First Prize: Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum, First English Language Haiku Contest (2009); Echoes in Sand [haiga portfolio with Wilfred Croteau]  (Reeds: Contemporary Haiga – an online anthology).