Raymond Roseliep
(August 11, 1917 – December 6, 1983)
"Raymond Roseliep is the John Donne of Western haiku. . . . the wit, the conceptual nature of his haiku, and the tension between the sacred and the profane . . ." --Chuck Brickley (from Firefly in My Eyecup by Raymond Roseliep, High/Coo Press Mini-chapbooks, 1979)
Raymond Roseliep was a poet and contemporary master of the English haiku and a Catholic priest. He was born on 11 August 1917, in Farley, Iowa. In 1939 he graduated from Loras College with a Bachelor of Arts, in 1948 he received a Master of Arts in English from Catholic University of America, and in 1954 he received a Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature from Notre Dame University. He was ordained on 12 June 1943 at St. Raphael’s Cathedral, Dubuque, Iowa. During the mid-50’s Raymond Roseliep began writing poetry that is less that of a “Catholic priest” and more secular in nature. Widely published and recognized as a master of traditional English verse forms, in 1960 Roseliep began writing haiku, at first in the traditional 5-7-5 form, then in more experimental ways. His first book The Linen Bands was published by The Newman Press in 1961. Roseliep published over twenty books, including Rabbit in the Moon, Step on the Rain, The Still Point, Light Footsteps, and Firefly in the Eyecup. In 1964 he was the Poet-in-residence at Georgetown University. In addition to the major haiku journals which published his work regularly, more than ninety other magazines have printed his haiku, and he appears in many anthologies and in a growing number of textbooks. His haiku attracted critical praise from such poets as W.H. Auden, Josephine Jacobsen, Denise Levertov, William Stafford, X.J. Kennedy, and A.R. Ammons. In 1982 he was appointed Professor Emeritus at Loras College. Father Raymond Roseliep died on 6 December 1983 of an aneurysm.
For Raymond Roseliep the two most sacred themes were creation and love, so it was only natural that he would explore both in his haiku. In an interview first published in 1979, Roseliep was asked how a priest could be writing such evocative, sometimes erotic, love poetry. “To talk about that,” Roseliep said, “I should return for a moment to that Catholic-poetry period of mine, and I can briefly tell you how it was inevitable that I needed a fresh theme. In those early days I was writing about the Mass, the sacraments, parish experiences, religious encounters of all dimensions — in people, nature, anywhere.” He added: “I needed a new outlook. I knew that religious poetry and love poetry are the hardest of all to write, and since I hadn’t attained full success in one, I would try the other. And I have been exploring the love theme ever since. It’s wonderful. It keeps me alive and young and remembering; and always with feelings that are deepest and most sacred in all of us.”(Delta Epsilon Sigma Bulletin24:4 (December 1979);A Roseliep Retrospective: Poems & Other Words By & About Raymond Roseliep (Ithaca, N.Y.: Alembic Press, 1980), 13.)
Awards:
1934 - As a senior in high school, entered a dozen poems anonymously in poetry contest and won the three top prizes and all honourable mentions. He was asked to withdraw all entries but the one that won first prize.
1968 - Recipient Montgomery Poetry Award, Society of Midland Authors
1977 - He won the Haiku Society of America Harold G. Henderson award
1980 - Shugyo Takaha Award (grand prize) from the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society of the United States and Canada
1981 – His book Sailing Bones earned him first place in the Merit Book Awards from the Haiku Society of America
1982 - SecondHarold G. Henderson award
Bibliography:
- The Linen Bands- 1961
- The Small Rain- 1963
- Love Makes the Air Light- 1965
- Flute Over Walden- 1976
- Walk in Love- 1976
- Light Footsteps- 1976
- A Beautiful Woman Moves with Grace- 1976
- Sun in His Belly- 1977
- Step on the Rain- 1977
- Wake to the Bell- 1977
- A Day in the Life of Sobi-Shi- 1978
- Sailing Bones- 1978
- Sky in My Legs- 1979
- Firefly in My Eyecup- 1979
- The Still Point – Haiku of Mu- 1979
- Listen to Light- 1980
- Swish of a Cow Tail- 1982
- Rabbit in the Moon, Alembic Press (November 1983)
- The Earth We Swing On- 1984
Selected work:
In 1981, Roseliep's haiku sequence, “The Morning Glory”, appeared on 2020 buses in New York City:
takes in
the world
from the heart out
funnels
our day
into itself
closes
on its own
inner light
*
Love Poem
who will I give it
to
(Studia Mystica 2:3 (fall 1979), 21)
*
leave the dream
in the sand
where we slept
(Rabbit in the Moon(Plainfield, Ind.: Alembic Press, 1983), 43)
*
black raspberries
your name breaking
in the soft burst
(Frogpond 6:3 (1983), 24)
*
making love;
the oxeye
daisy
(Frogpond 1:2 (May 1978), 5)
*
in weeds where we love
sudden lantern
of a firefly
(Frogpond 6:2 (1983), 36)
*
grass
holding the shape
of our night
(Frogpond 4:3 (1981), 5)
*
sculpturing
her lover
coming forever
(Rabbit in the Moon, 58)
*
heart locket
its rise
and fall
(Frogpond 6:2 (1983), 36)
*
their small talk
after marriage
the wild strawberries
(Sailing Bones, 9)
*
autumn stillness:
the cracks
of your hand
(Listen to Light, 71)
*
after dusk
asleep
the firefly
is fueling
sparks
however small
light lovers
our bodies
listen
to light
(Listen to Light, 39)
*
inside
my days
the budding rain
(High/Coo poemcard #1)
*
Fuji
to
hill
Iowa footstep of light
(Step on the Rain, p. 21)
*
unable
to get hibiscus red
the artist eats the flower
(Step on the Rain, p. 27)
More from his haiku at:
http://terebess.hu/english/usa/roseliep.html
http://myweb.loras.edu/db000020/roseliephibiscus.htm
http://myweb.loras.edu/db000020/One_More.htm
http://myweb.loras.edu/db000020/JourneyThroughLight.htm
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Roseliep
http://performance.millikin.edu/haiku/writerprofiles/BorycaOnRoseliep.html
http://libguides.loras.edu/special/roseliep
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku_in_English
http://myweb.loras.edu/db000020/roseliepchronology.htm
http://www.modernhaiku.org/essays/BrooksRoseliepLoveHaiku.html
http://myweb.loras.edu/db000020/Where_are_you_going.htm