Honorary Curator Cor van den Heuvel

Cor van den Heuvel
Honorary Curator, 1999-2000

Introduction

Cor van den Heuvel began writing haiku in a small cottage by the Webhannet River in Wells Beach, Maine, in 1959, after discovering the genre the year before in San Francisco during that city's celebrated poetry renaissance.

He published his first chapbook of haiku in 1961 and over the years has published his haiku and senryu regularly in the major English-language haiku journals. A past president (1978) of the Haiku Society of America, his honors include three Merit Book Awards from the society, a World Haiku Achievement Award at the World Haiku Festival in London in 2000, and in 2002 the Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Prize in Matsuyama, Japan.

He has edited three editions of The Haiku Anthology, and also coedited Baseball Haiku, published in 2007. In 2010, A Boy's Seasons: Haibun Memoirs, was published by Single Island Press, about his growing up in Maine and New Hampshire. In 2017 At The Top Of The Ferris Wheel was published by the Haiku Foundation, and featured a selection of his haiku from 1958 through 2008 along with autobiographical notes and an interview with Robert Wilson. His last book was Splashes published in 2023 featuring a collection of his haibun and some of his haiga sketches.

Cor van den Heuvel was born in Biddeford, Maine in 1931.He passed away on Sept. 12, at the age of 93, in Long Island, New York and was buried shortly thereafter in the family plot in Wells, Maine.

Selected Haiku by Cor van den Heuvel

snow
on the saddle-bags
sun in skull

                                                                          deep snow
                                                                          the amusement park lit
                                                                          by a single bulb

tundra

                                                                          the sun goes down
                                                                          my shovel strikes a spark
                                                                          from the dark earth

summer afternoon
the long fly ball to center field
takes its time

                                                                          changing pitchers
                                                                          the runner on first looks up
                                                                          at a passing cloud

an empty wheelchair
rolls
in from the waves

                                                                          a tidepool
                                                                          in a clam shell
                                                                          the evening sunlight

a stick goes over the falls at sunset

                                                                          November evening
                                                                          the wind from a passing truck
                                                                          ripples a roadside puddle

end of the line
the conductor starts turning
the seats around

                                                                           the shadow in the folded napkin

city street
the darkness inside
the snow-covered cars

                                                                          lingering snow
                                                                          the game of catch continues
                                                                          into evening

Books by Cor van den Heuvel

van den Heuvel, Cor. Splashes. North Carolina: House of Haiku, 2023.

van den Heuvel, Cor. At The Top Of The Ferris Wheel. Virginia: Haiku Foundation, 2017.

van den Heuvel, Cor. A Boy's Seasons: Haibun Memoirs. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Single Island Press, 2010.

van den Heuvel, Cor, and Nanae Tamura, editors. Baseball Haiku: American and Japanese Haiku and Senryu on Baseball. New York: Norton, 2007.

van den Heuvel, Cor, and Alan Pizzarelli. Haiku Cowboys. Garfield, New Jersey: Island Chant Books, 2003.

van den Heuvel, Cor, and Jim Kacian, editors. Past Time. Winchester, Virginia: Red Moon Press, 2000.

van den Heuvel, Cor, editor. The Haiku Anthology: Haiku and Senryu in English. New York: Norton, expanded [3rd] edition, 1999.

van den Heuvel, Cor. Play Ball. Winchester, Virginia: Red Moon Press, 1999.

van den Heuvel, Cor, and Alan Pizzarelli, editors. American Haiku: A Selection from Volume 5 (1967). Haiku Canada, 1998.

van den Heuvel, Cor. The Geese Have Gone. Pointe Claire, Quebec: King's Road Press, 1992.

van den Heuvel, Cor. Puddles. New York: Chant Press, 1990.

van den Heuvel, Cor, editor. The Haiku Anthology: Haiku and Senryu in English. New York: Simon & Schuster Touchstone, Revised [2nd] edition, 1986, 1991.

van den Heuvel, Cor. Dark. New York: Chant Press, 1982.

van den Heuvel, Cor, editor. The Haiku Anthology: English Language Haiku by Contemporary American and Canadian Poets. Garden City, New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1974.

van den Heuvel, Cor. Water in a Stone Depression. New York: Chant Press, 1969.

van den Heuvel, Cor. Bang! You're Dead. New York: Chant Press, 1966.

van den Heuvel, Cor. E07: or (Christ Should Have Carried a Pearl-Handled Revolver). New York: Chant Press, 1964.

van den Heuvel, Cor. The Window-Washer's Pail. New York: Chant Press, 1963.

van den Heuvel, Cor. A Bag of Marbles: 3 Jazz Chants. New York: Chant Press, 1962.

van den Heuvel, Cor. Sun in Skull. New York: Chant Press, 1961.

Web Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cor_van_den_Heuvel

http://terebess.hu/english/usa/heuvel.html

http://www.amazon.com/Cor-van-den-Heuvel/e/B001IOFH78

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cor-van-den-Heuvel/111974755486716

http://www.haiku-hia.com/snk_HEUVEL_en.html

http://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/MillikinHaiku/writerprofiles/CorvandenHeuval.html