Remembering Stuart Bartow
John Stevenson
Life Is Good
I was always glad to see Stu. I found his presence to be calming, always warm and relaxed. A particular pleasure was a leisurely conversation I enjoyed with Stu and Barbara (Unger) at the 2022 Wild Graces gathering. While it is always valuable to see the presentations and hear the readings at a haiku event, what I truly treasure is the opportunity to spend unstructured time with other poets. While I don’t recall any specifics of our Wild Graces conversation, I vividly recall that my feeling was “life is good.” As it happens, Tom Clausen took a picture of the three of us and, when I saw it recently, that feeling came vividly back to me.
From left: John Stevenson, Barbara Ungar, and Stuart Bartow. Photo by Tom Clausen.
About the Author & the Photographer
John Stevenson is a former president of the Haiku Society of America, former editor of Frogpond, and, since 2008, managing editor of The Heron’s Nest. His most recent haiku collections are My Red (Brooks Books, 2021) and This Once (Red Moon Press, 2023). He lives in Nassau, New York.
Tom Clausen’s haiku have been widely published and anthologized, and his most recent book, One Day, won a 2023 Touchstone Award. Retired from Cornell University’s A. R. Mann Library since 2013, he continues to curate a daily haiku feature on the library’s website. He lives in Ithaca, New York, in the house where he grew up.