Rengay Through the Seasons #12 [1]

by Max Verhart (mv), and Vaughn Seward (vs);
Rengay #12 (Nov 18-24) Verse 1 (of 6):

Hazy sunlight — a cloud of lapwings / practicing. /mv

This rengay was written with Max Verhart who was born in 1944 in the Netherlands. He has written and published haiku since approximately 1980 and has held the following haiku association positions:

• President of the Haiku Circle Netherlands (1999-2003).
• European director of the World Haiku Association (2001-2002).
• Member of the editorial staff of the Red Moon Anthology (USA) since 2002.
• Co-editor of the Dutch/Flemish quarterly Vuursteen (Flint), the oldest haiku journal in Europe (2003-present).
• Associate editor for Modern Haiku, USA (2007-present).

Translations of Max's haiku have been published in journals, e-zines, and anthologies in at least twelve languages. Individual volumes include:

• Zijn met wat is (To be with what is), 1993.
• Een beetje adem, 1998 (English version: some breath, 1999).
• Geen woord teveel/not a word too much, 2000.
• Om kort te gaan (to be short) 2005.
• With Betty Kaplan: smoke signals - nine rengay, 2003.
• With Horst Ludwig: twelve moons/zwolf Monde/twelve moons - a bilingual rengay series (with English translation), 2004.

Max started his own small private publishing house called 't schrijverke' (whirlywig) in 2005.

I first encountered Max's work in issues of the Outlaw Poet's Sketchbook. In each issue he and Betty Kaplan wrote Rengay that I found captivating and original. I was very pleased when Max agreed to participate in this Rengay series.

Click here for the previous rengay in the series.