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e pluribus haiku 2017 is finished, ready, in print. It is on Amazon already, and is on its way on Kindle. I am exhausted after writing 1000 original haiku; it took me more than the year I'd planned, almost fourteen months. I was tired of being stuck in 1974, to the requirements I'd set for myself, in order to make it true to the trip. It was not, of course, entirely true to the trip, since I only hit 48 states, and hit some of them only at night, not to mention only in one season. I had to fill in the gaps with more recent experience, and physical knowledge that in some cases, I got from the internet. I use this site to talk honestly about my poetry, so that's what I'll do here. I'll use this somewhat crude, but personal, promo poster, then when the real thing comes out (above), I'll do a better job of actually promoting it.

To tell the truth, promoting it is sort of wearing on me. It doesn't sell like hotcakes. I do it entirely for my own personal expression. Next year, I'm going to weave in Trump (and the modern political condition) and Warhol - I'm kind of obsessed with Warhol, and want to do some research on him anyway. It will be more free of time constraints, and won't be bound to where I was in 1974. But I'll be lucky if I get a thousand in a year; it's already June 7, and it took me fourteen months to get a thousand last time.

I go through times when I'm weary, like now. I just put it down and work on my stories. Yet I think it's one thing that makes me unique, being the warhol of haiku (this is actually my goal - be ubiquitous, have six minutes of fame, and be able to say, "I am what I appear, I'm not hiding anything"....). It's a kind of unique niche in the modern world. But I've been reading about Jack London lately, and I don't really have the impulse to capitalize on the Yukon, train-hopping image that he did. I did that too; that's why I like him, but being trapped in that kind of image (in the public's mind), is not necessarily good for me, or even necessary.

e pluribus haiku 2017 is coming. It is the best I can do, and it has a thousand, best that I know. I have my own unique style, you have to grant me that. I hope you enjoy it. It is my own tribute to my own native country, which I still love, in spite of everything.