Julie Schwerin
About 50 haiku poets will spend time in Mineral Point, honing their skills and sharing their work, during the Cradle of American Haiku Festival.
“Many will be coming from other Wisconsin towns and some will travel from Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Maine, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Many have attended Cradle events for many years and hold a deep affection for Mineral Point,” said Julie Schwerin, one of the organizers. “We feel grateful to be welcomed so generously by the community each time.”
Mineral Point became the cradle of American haiku because Jim Bull started the first English language haiku magazine. He and his wife Gayle, who owned Foundry Books and had a section of haiku books, hosted the first festivals.
Kelly Bull Green and Becky Bull Reich of Mineral Point are helping to plan this year’s event, along with Shan Thomas of Mineral Point.
The Bull children were very young when their parents and other festival founders sat around their kitchen table working on the magazine and festival.
“Mom was so happy to open her Mineral Point home to haiku workshops, retreats and first few ‘Cradles,” Reich said. “I know she is thrilled it has grown so much and that it continues to draw so much interest.”
The festival, held here every other year, started in 2008.
Part of haiku’s appeal is that it is written in the present tense, Schwerin said.
“It encourages me to stay in the moment and to focus on the here and now. Its focus on the small and everyday provides an appreciation practice for me. It has become a way of life to look for the wonder in the natural world around me and attempt to weave it into a small poem,” she said.
“Haiku are often called one-breath poems because of their brevity. Their diminutive size and simplicity make them a very accessible and inviting poem for all ages,” she said.
The Aug. 14 to 16 festival includes readings, workshops and book sales.
The Mineral Point Library hosts a sale of haiku books from the collection of Jerome Cushman of Mineral Point during the festival.
And Republic of Letters bookstore hosts a Midwest Haiku Traveling Rock Garden, with poems in black vinyl letters on smooth, flat rocks.
