Our Project

“Towpath country” spans the Chesapeake Bay watershed, reaching from the salt-rich tidal estuaries of the coast to the Blue Ridge peaks of the Virginias. This varied landscape is the place we poets call home. Though many of us reside within the bustle of the DC/Baltimore metropolitan area, we remain rooted in the region’s geography and history, finding our deepest inspiration in the shifting light and seasonal rhythms of our local lands.

Seasonality encompasses the deepest roots of haiku, expressed in the concept of kigo and codified in the saijiki of early haiku poetry. While we do not have such a guide for our specific region, we live, write, and read our seasons all the same. We know the scent of honeysuckle in summer, the endless gray sunrise of the winter coast, and the seasonal rhythms of our bird populations.

   wide water …
   flight of an osprey
   shapes the evening light

      ~Ellen Compton

This poem was written by Ellen Compton, who led Towpath for many years. In her essay, “Finding the Seasons in Our Haiku: One Group’s Experience,” she used this osprey as an example of a seasonal reference that resonates with local truth. We continue that tradition with this project, in which Towpath poets submitted works seasonally referent to our region, and then voted on their favorite among each poet’s submissions. The top-voted poem for each poet is presented below.

Our project is a continued exploration of local seasonality in our haiku. As Ellen noted, “season words, like haiku, are a matter of discovery.” At their best, they are like her osprey, not merely pretty or striking or inspiring, but shaping the poem into its truest and deepest expression of place.

towpath —
a blue heron shifts
the twilight

  ~Roberta Beary

her ink strokes,
feather light…
swamp wren on a reed

  ~Elizabeth Black

honeysuckle scent—
the golden theodicy
of childhood

  ~Jonathan English

summer attraction—
a display of vintage
oyster plates

  ~Elizabeth Fanto

summer rambles
a latchkey lunch
of honeysuckle

  ~Sean Felix

gray sunrise
the endless horizontal
and a skipjack

  ~Robert Forsythe

joyful noise
shatters morning silence
chorus of birdsong

  ~Gabby Gilliam

after the rain—
partly cloudy
with scattered frogs

  ~Julie Bloss Kelsey

waves of goldenrod bid summer adieu

  ~C. A. Robinson

sails collapse
atop quicksand water —
Chesapeake doldrums

~Rita Shade

December sky
watching hawks
disappear

~Jeff Walthall

Credits

Some of the poems above were first published as follows.

Ellen Compton’s poem was first published in late walk, Jack Stamm Anthology, 2003. Chapel Hill, Queensland, Australia: paper wasp, 2004

Roberta Beary’s poem for Lenard D. Moore, published in Carousel (Snapshot Press, 2024)

Jonathan English’s poem published in Mariposa spring 2024

Julie Bloss Kelsey’s poem published in brass bell: a haiku journal, September 1, 2017