{"id":3862,"date":"2005-05-25T14:33:12","date_gmt":"2005-05-25T18:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2005\/05\/25\/ups-and-downs-with-tom-clause"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:57:42","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:57:42","slug":"ups-and-downs-with-tom-clausen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/05\/25\/ups-and-downs-with-tom-clausen\/","title":{"rendered":"ups and downs with Tom Clausen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tom Clausen has been a Haiku Advocate for a lot longer than haikuEsq<\/EM>.   Circa 1990,<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the Cornell librarian and lifelong Ithacan started posting a daily haiku in the stacks <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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elevator where he worked (see <\/FONT>Cornell Chronicle<\/FONT><\/EM><\/A>, “In Mann Library, the graffiti is poetic,<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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thanks to one man,” March 14, 1996).  After a decade of elevator haiku, Tom started <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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placing his daily offering (by an extended community of haijin friends) at the Main Door <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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of the Mann Library Addition.  Those who can’t be there in person, can find Tom’s daily <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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haiku by clicking a link on the home page of the <\/FONT>Library’s website<\/FONT><\/A>. <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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\"ClausenMug\"  Tom’s also been co-editor of the esteemed <\/FONT><\/FONT>Red Moon Anthology<\/FONT><\/EM><\/A> of English <\/FONT><\/EM><\/DIV>
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Language Haiku <\/EM>since its launching in 1996.  More important for our purposes, however, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Tom has been writing haiku since the late 1980’s.  Thanks to his generous spirit, visitors to <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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this site will be able to see and feel for themselves why his work has been recognized and <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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highly respected for more than a dozen years.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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I connect with Tom’s haiku (and other short poetry, such as tanka) because his attitude<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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toward life’s vicissitudes seems to be much like mine.  The Red Moon Anthology<\/EM> says<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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that Tom Clausen “half accepts change yet is always grateful for the constancy of nature, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the seasons and haiku celebrating them.” In his essay “<\/FONT>America’s Haiku Future<\/FONT><\/A>,” Cor van <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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den Heuvel (Autumn 2003) notes:<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“Though he treats the ups and downs of marriage and being a parent, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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his experience seems to have been that the ups seem to make up for <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the downs.” <\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Tom gives us a glimpse into his haiku ethos in the essay <\/FONT>From Conflict to Poetry<\/FONT><\/A>, which <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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appears in the newest edition of Simply Haiku<\/EM> (Summer 2005, vol. 3, #2):  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“Haiku is the perfect worry stone. In my life I have found considerable <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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solace in being able to write about my personal conflicts, moments where <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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I felt moved to pause, reflect, regroup and recognize that even in conflict <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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and distress are silver linings and the potential for poetry that each of us <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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can find in our heart . . . and in turn move on from our conflict through the <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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poetry we create from it.” <\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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If you want to learn more about Tom and his poetry, I suggest the student papers  \"buddha\" <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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done at Millikin University by <\/FONT>Michelle Ground<\/FONT><\/A> and <\/FONT>Matt Whitsett<\/FONT><\/A>.  As with all my <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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honored guests, of course, reading 17 syllables or less written by <\/FONT>Tom is far more <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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telling than reading hundreds of words about his haiku.  So, I recommend that you <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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check out samples from Tom’s chapbook Homework,<\/EM> found at the foot of his Simply <\/EM><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Haiku<\/EM> <\/FONT><\/FONT>Conflict essay<\/FONT><\/A> <\/FONT>(you can order the book here<\/FONT><\/A>, from Snapshot Press<\/FONT><\/A>), and that <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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you enjoy another sampling of his work on the <\/FONT>TAO<\/FONT><\/A> website, along with selections <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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from Upstate Dim Sum<\/FONT><\/A><\/EM>, a journal created by the exclusive Route 9 Haiku Group. <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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First, however, I am most pleased to present a few of Tom Clausen’s haiku from  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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frogpond,<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/EM><\/A> the Journal of the Haiku Society of America:<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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left and right<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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he follows the way<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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of his kicked stone<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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old farmhouse–<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the pitch of the<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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patterned linoleum<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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having brushed off<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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several large ants<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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an extra large one . . . <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Halloween–<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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to a simple question<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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my life story<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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       \"froglegs\"<\/FONT> Tom Clausen<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A> from f<\/EM><\/FONT>rogpond<\/EM><\/FONT><\/A> <\/EM>(XXVII, 2004)                                                                <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Clausen has been a Haiku Advocate for a lot longer than haikuEsq.   Circa 1990, the Cornell librarian and lifelong Ithacan started posting a daily haiku in the stacks elevator where he worked (see Cornell Chronicle, “In Mann Library, the graffiti is poetic, thanks to one man,” March 14, 1996).  After a decade of elevator haiku, Tom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-10i","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13203,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions\/13203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}