2019 Haiku Year-in-Review
The HYIR: It’s a review, it’s a collaborative grab-bag, it’s a panoply of voices and visions… it’s the annual Haiku Year-In-Review (henceforth referred to as HYIR).
The purpose: to celebrate, examine, and honor the past year in poetry and art. The editors of Broadsided Press have come together to offer, in the spirit of the Carrier’s Address, a brief overview of 2019—it is eclectic, non-comprehensive, and heart-led—just as the work of Broadsided Press itself is.
2019 was… intense. Again and again, we’ve been seeing posts by friends talking about challenges and losses—personal, global—that they have faced. We feel it, too.
Looking back at the year’s top headlines, there were many grim stories about environmental degradation, the rise of despots, racism, and bigotry, airplanes crashing, Notre Dame’s devastating fire. But there was also the first-ever image of a black hole, Australia’s and Taiwan’s legalization of same-sex marriage, progress toward a cure for HIV, and the persistent advocacy for democracy in challenged countries.
In the HYIR, Broadsided editors share haikus of the stories that, for them, felt central to the year.
Now we’re looking ahead. Now we’re plotting ways to do better. Now—and always—we’re grateful to everyone who makes art, who looks at the world with imagination and seeks wonder, who values the truth beneath the truth.
Special thanks to former Broadsided editors Sean Hill and Mark Temelko for returning to join us in this year’s HYIR.