Poet Profile

Ann Atwood

Ann Margaret Atwood was born in Heber, California. She received her Bachelor's degree from the University of the Redlands in1934, and was a student at the Art Center School in Los Angeles in 1935. She was co-owner of the Ann Atwood Studio Children's Portraiture in Riverside, California (1937-1940), San Marino (1940-1960), and South Laguna (1960-1967). She was the founder and director of the adult education class in poetry writing in Riverside (1938-1940). She taught poetry at the Hollywood (California) High School (1943-1944). She was also a member of the Sierra Club. In addition to the books she published, she made four films for Lyceum Productions, La Puente, California as writer and photographer (1971-1978).
    More of her haiku – with examples of her photography – appear in The Haiku Foundation's Haiga Gallery.

Awards and Other Honors: Some of her awards and other honors include: Awards for New Moon Cove (1969 and 1970); Silver Medal, International Film and Television Festival, for The Little Circle (1970); Award, Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People, for The Mood of Earth (1971); The Chris Award, Columbus International Film Festival, for Photographic Interpretation (1971); Silver Medal, International Film and Television Festival New York, for The Gods Were Tall and Green (1972); Gold Medal, Atlanta Film Festival, for Haiku: The Hidden Glimmering (Lyceum Productions, 1973); Gold Cindy Award, Informational Film Producers Association, for Inscape: The Realm of Haiku (1976); Best of Year, Previews, for Haiku-Vision in Poetry and Photography (1977); an American Library Association Notable Book, for Haiku-Vision in Poetry and Photography (1978); Award of Merit, Modern Haiku (1979); Honorable Mention, Modern Haiku (1980); Eri Nakamura Haiku Award (1985); Museum of Haiku Literature Award for Best of Issue, Frogpond (1988); work selected for Haiku Moment: An Anthology of Contemporary North American Haiku [Bruce Ross, editor] (Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1993); work selected for Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years [edited by Jim Kacian, Philip Rowland, and Allan Burns] (W.W. Norton and Company, 2013).

Books Published:     [some as author-illustrator/photographer, some as photographer, some as translator] Being Made of Earth [Photographic Studies] (San Pasqual Press, 1940); New Moon Cove [Text and Photographs] (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1969) [awards 1969, 70]; For All That Lives [with Erica Anderson and the words of Albert Schweitzer] (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975); Haiku: The Mood of Earth (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971) [reissued in soft cover in 1980]; The Wild Young Desert (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970); My Own Rhythm: An Approach to Haiku (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973); The Little Circle (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1967); The Kingdom of the Forest (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1972); Haiku-Vision in Poetry and Photography (Atheneum, 1977); Fly with the Wind, Flow with the Water (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1979).     Photographer: [with author Elizabeth B. Hazelton] Sammy, The Crow Who Remembered (1969);     Translator: Day Into Night [with author Günther Klinge] (1981); Im Kreis des Jahres [with author Günther Klinge] (1982); Lebe den Tag [with author Günther Klinge] (1983).      Author-photographer and filmstrips: Sea, Sand and Shore series, 1969; The Making of a Desert (Lyceum Productions, 1970) [The Wild Young Desert (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970)]; Life Conquers the Desert (Lyceum Productions, 1970) [The Wild Young Desert (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970)]; The Gods Were Tall and Green [sound filmstrip] (Lyceum, 1972); Haiku: The Hidden Glimmering (Lyceum Productions, 1973).

So slowly you come
small-snail.… To you, how far
is the length of my thumb

Summer is over.
A horse walks its reflection
along the lake’s edge

Child's tombstone —
under my hand the roughness
of the angel's wing

Drawn into their light
as though the sun lived only
in the daffodils

Spring wind —
On the barbed wire fence
thistledown

the deer drinks the moon
     drinks the moon
          drinks the moon

In the pond
the old pine wearing
its fallen needles

Last night’s fading dream …
On the blue teapot birds drift
beyond the willows

The morning bleakness
A meadowlark crosses
the slant of the rain

dead center
in the center of her flowers
Georgia O’Keeffe

Credits: "So slowly you come" - My Own Rhythm: An Approach to Haiku (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973); Frogpond 1:1 [article, Raymond Roseliep, "A Time to Rime"] (February 1978); "Child's tombstone" - Award of Merit, Modern Haiku 10:3 (autumn 1979): "Spring wind" - Modern Haiku 11:1 (winter-spring 1980); "In the pond" - Modern Haiku 11:1 (winter-spring 1980); "The morning bleakness" - Honorable Mention, Modern Haiku 11:1 (winter-spring 1980); "Summer is over" - Frogpond 8:4 (November 1985); Haiku Moment, An Anthology of Contemporary North American Haiku [Bruce Ross, editor] (Charles E. Tuttle, 1993); "Drawn into their light" - Eri Nakamura Award (1985); Modern Haiku 17:2 (summer 1986); "the deer drinks the moon" - Modern Haiku 17:2 (summer 1986); "Last night’s fading dream" - Frogpond 11:2 (May 1988); Museum of Haiku Literature Award for Best of Issue (1988); A Haiku Path (New York: Haiku Society of America, 1994); "dead center" - Frogpond 12:1 (February 1989); Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years [edited by Jim Kacian, Philip Rowland, and Allan Burns] (W.W. Norton and Company, 2013).