Editor’s Note: On Electricity and the Contrapuntal Poem Waves, currents, the movement of time and actions. 2015 was charged with many moments that felt big. Here, those currents surge up into poems, assert their energy, spark memory. Looking at the submissions for this year’s haiku, the conversation among the stories and issues—from natural disasters to climate change talks to the refugee crisis to Black Lives Matter and broader questions of social justice and responsibility—began to …
NOTE: Inspired by Carrier’s Addresses and a deep commitment to public art, the HYIR is a special feature that debuted at Broadsided in 2010. Artist Caleb Brown created work in response to events that, for him, dominated each season of the past year. We placed an open call for submissions of haiku that did the same. The art and the poems selected as finalists were posted online, and we asked you to vote on the winning combinations.
ArtistCaleb Brown, a storydrawer, lives in northwest central Massachusetts with his wife, twin boys and a big black dog named Pickles. Writer Beth Feldman Brandt is the author of SAGE and her poems are featured as part of the upcoming exhibition, Bartram Boxes Remix, at the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia. Writer Michael Rutledge Riley is a Writing teacher sometimes, sometimes a writing teacher, and has spent the last fifteen years re-taking Eighth grade. Writer Catherine R. Cryan is a writer, farmer, and educator living in Rhode Island. She also sometimes works as a greenhouse manager and college sports statistician. Writer Ron Levitsky is a retired social studies teacher who lives in northern Illinois.
