Poet Profile

Joyce Walker Currier

Joyce (Walker) Currier-Neubauer, age 92, born in 1932 in Laguna Beach California, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, January 23, 2024.
Her life’s passage brought her to Illinois where she lived until her death. In the 1970’s after twenty-five years of raising her five children she took a writing class, which changed her life forever. Joyce was introduced to the Japanese art form—Haiku. In her journey through traditional and modern haiku, she experienced a heightened awareness of the rhythms of life and nature. In so doing, she found such joy and pleasure in writing Haiku. Joyce’s sister, Edwina Walker Amorosa, compiler of Joyce’s book Paper Ships noted that “Joyce can write Japanese poetry that can take me to silent places; travel dusty pathways; embroider shades of life along the way---all with soft simplicity, measured intensity, and emotional poignancy.

the sounds have all gone
but this small path grows louder
with my footsteps

Joyce Walker Currier

Joyce was a member of the Haiku Society of America, the World Poetry Society, Intercontinental, and the Modern Haiku Association. She was a former Vice President of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society and served as Associate Editor of Portals and Guest Editor of Modern Haiku. Her work has been appearing regularly in haiku journals for several decades, including journals published in Japan (Outch and Poetry Nippon), Australia (Tweed), India (Poet), Canada (Cicada), and the United States (Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Woodnotes, and the Midwest Haiku Anthology (High/Coo Press).

fog over the reefs
I can no longer see
the paper ships

Joyce Walker Currier, Paper Ships

Awards and Other Honors:

Some of her awards include: Best Haiku in Issue of Modern Haiku; Short-listed in World Millennium Church Bell Contest (Surry England, 2000); and Honorable Mention, the Harold G. Henderson Memorial Award (1979 and 1983). Some of her work has been selected to appear in William J. Higginson's Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac (Kodansha International, 1996), William J. Higginson's Haiku Compass: Directions in the Poetical Map of the United States of America (Haiku International Association, 1994), snow on the water: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 1998 (Red Moon Press, 1999), the loose thread: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2001 (Red Moon Press, 2002), and inside the mirror: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2005 (Red Moon Press, 2006).

Books Published:

Paper Ships - Red Moon Press (2021).
Work Anthologised:
A Haiku Path: The Haiku Society of America 1968 - 1988 (1994), Midwest Haiku Anthology (1992), Haiku Compass: Directions in the Poetical Map of the United States of America (1994), Haiku World: an International Poetry Almanac (1996), Snow on the Water: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku (1998), and Inside the Mirror: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku (2005).

Autumn afternoon:
I stand on the shadow
of the sparrow

veteran's day:
combat boots filled
with closet darkness

somewhere out in his lake
that muskie
he never caught

on the windowsill     widow’s jar of sunshine tea

there is no grave for it   the cold

the gift of a book
inside the jacket cover
his winter haiku

Full blackberry bush;
shepherd dog in the shadows
matches the shade

brittle maple leaves
tongued into river current
of a stream ago

The way of the conch—
blueing in the sea, and
echoing in the wind

how many autumns
this oak will drop its red leaves . . .
after I am gone

Credits:

"Autumn afternoon" - Honorable Mention, the Harold G. Henderson Memorial Award (1983); Frogpond 6:3 (1983); A Haiku Path: The Haiku Society of America 1968-1988(Haiku Society of America, Inc., 1994); "veteran's day" - Modern Haiku 35:2 (2004); Frogpond 28:2 (2005) [article]; inside the mirror: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2005 (2006) [article]; "somewhere out in his lake" - Midwest Haiku Anthology; Higginson, William J., Haiku Compass: Directions in the Poetical Map of the United States of America (Haiku International Association, 1994), Higginson, William J., Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac (Kodansha International, 1996); "on the windowsill" - Cicada 3:3 (1979); "there is no grave" - Cicada 4:4 (1992); "the gift of a book" - Frogpond 20:3 (1997); snow on the water: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 1998 (1999); “Full blackberry bush” – Frogpond 2.1 (1979); “brittle maple leaves” – Frogpond 1.4 (1978); “The way of the conch” – Honorable Mention: 1979 Henderson Memorial Haiku Award; “how many autumns” – Paper Ships, Red Moon Press (2021).