Falling Awake

$16.00

by The Haiku Workshop 

Each poem is a footprint in an ongoing journey. 

The Haiku Workshop is a group of Denver-area writers who meet regularly to read, write, and study this vibrant poetic form. Falling Awake is a celebration of shared learning and discovery. This is contemporary American haiku inspired by the masters, from 14th century Japan to today. 

Haiku began in Japan some 900 years ago. It was written by scholars, by saki-sipping party animals and by swashbuckling samurai. It’s very much alive today, all over the world. Falling Awake is a collection of contemporary American haiku written by a group of Colorado writers who revel in the restraint and freedom of this venerable form that has so many expressions–it can be delicate, meditative, deeply moving, startling, whimsical, laugh-out-loud funny, and sometimes, enigmatic. If you thought you learned all about haiku in 3rd grade, you’re in for a happy surprise.

crescent moon–
     bent to the shape
of the cold
–Issa 

Featuring poems by The Haiku Workshop: Cyndeth Allison, Judy Armstrong, Art Elser, Lynne Piat Hardy, Ginny Hoyle, Bonnie Kossoff, Jeanne Mitisek, Annie Soerensen, Sue Stephen, Jolene Thompson

Includes text and photography.

Paperback | 148 pages | The Haiku Workshop | 2022


The Haiku Workshop is a group of Colorado writers who meet monthly to read, write and study haiku. It began with a six-week haiku class at the Colorado Academy for Lifelong Learning taught by Ginny Hoyle, who soon recruited Art Elser to assist. Year after year, the same great students kept showing up. After 10 years, Ginny decided she had nothing more to share so she retired, and her students formed an independent study group. Art joined right away and, after a welcome sabbatical, Ginny Joined, too. Workshop members come from backgrounds in the arts, in teaching, in counseling and community services, in journalism and technical writing, in student financial aid programs, in corporate communications and other specialized business-to-business services. The group shares a reverence for the haiku way modeled by the Japanese master poets of the Edo Period, a creative process steeped in mindfulness and observation that is both close and fresh. Members work together to help each other strengthen and polish their work through respectful collaboration. Over the years, friendships have been forged that have been deepened in the process of creating this book. Individual bios can be found at the back of the book.

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