If Issue #110 was about innovation, I would say that Issue #111 is about gravity—and not without good reason. Many of us are dealing with health issues, caring for a loved one or perhaps grieving a loss of hope. War, deportation, human rights, the environment are on our minds. Within this issue, you wrote about them with a cutting wit as well as in earnest. I applaud you all for refusing to shy away from addressing that which is weighing on your minds and your hearts.

As always, the work contained within these pages does not necessarily reflect the views of Failed Haiku or its editor. There was one piece in particular that made me uneasy and disrupted my sleep. Albeit blindsided, I found pause in my apprehension.

Is there not something to be said for bearing witness to words we’d rather not read? I think so. If we close our ears and eyes to the unsettling, how can we determine where we are and are not safe? I, for one, want to know where someone stands before I make the decision to self-disclose. Mind you, the onus shouldn’t be on the one attempting to live authentically in spite of the risks, but in the current political climate, safety (both physical and emotional) is as much a concern as the longing for self-expression.

As someone with a debilitating chronic illness who is at “high risk for sudden cardiac death,” I don’t have the energy for drama in any guise; but, I want to be as transparent with you as you are with me, which brings me to my final thought.

During this last round of submissions, many of you shared aspects of your creative process with me, your insecurities and your accomplishments. Your work touched my heart and often made me laugh out loud or brush a tear from my cheek. You let me know that we are together in this journey, this life of writing our truths for a global audience and for posterity, perhaps. After all, every page upon which we scribble is an historical document. We are blessed to be able to share our voices and to have one another’s support along the way.

Please, friends, stay safe, stay inspired and stay true to that which resides within, even if you choose to do so quietly.

Yours,
Kelly

A WORD OF GOODBYE FROM MIKE:

Folks, this is the last issue of FAILED HAIKU. I have made that decision for two main reasons:

1. Both Kelly and I are physically challenged, to say the least. In the last four years, I have had surgery that had to rebuild my right shoulder due to a tick bite that led to Lyme Disease. My beloved wife, Abbey, had a massive stroke, and a year and a half later, after caring for her at our home, she passed from this world. As I was dealing with my grief, my own heart broke for more mundane reasons, and I have been in and out of hospitals, and heading back in a couple of months for procedures that may help me resume a more normal activity level. To add to the crazy nature of this time, I contracted Lyme Disease again a few months ago, but I am over it now, finally. In short, it is just too much to maintain Failed Haiku. My sincere thanks to all the poets who reached out to me with thoughts, prayers, and some wonderful presents that you sent to me. I love you ALL!!!
2. I just got really tired of the harping by some in the haiku community, most of whom seldom or never submitted to FH. There is upset from them arising from our policy of accepting for publication in FH of ‘previously published work’. That was set out from ‘day one’, and that we have said repeatedly and consistently that we WILL NOT CHANGE. Anyone I appoint as editor has to agree to keep our submission policies unchanged. No one should need to defend their submission policies or change them through pressure, and yet, it still continues, and I just don’t feel close to the genre anymore myself due to this behaviour. Some of the complainers, I feel, are ‘put up to it’ by others, and we bear no ill will to anyone, but as a last request, I would ask that the complainers simply leave editors alone in the future, and allow for experimentation and differing formats and guidelines of other journals to their own standards. I will be working on free verse and other forms in the future, although I will post haiku and haibun from older works on my personal site and possibly Facebook in the future.

You are all friends, and as both Kelly and I work through our health issues, we will both miss hearing from you, but then, you all know where to reach us. Please stay in touch and write your life in poetry regardless the genre.

Peace,

Mike

PS Kelly Moyer is the best editor and poet friend anyone could have. She and Bob will remain close to me for the rest of my life. We have written together, edited together, judged contests together, and she is a peach! The issue below is testament to her abilities as an editor and concern for everyone she interacts with!