Creeksong – a Haiku Gathering at The Watershed Institute 

31 Titus Mill Road, Pennington, NJ

Saturday, June 6, 2026 

9:00am – 5:00pm

Join us for a day of communion in nature with this gathering of haiku poets on the 950-acre Watershed Reserve in central New Jersey. Under the influence of field and forest, wetland and farmland, and near the song of the Stony Brook, we will celebrate the muse, as we explore, expand and create through the practice of haiku.

Inspiring for seasoned haiku poets and newbies alike, this event will include workshops, readings, music, a haiku marketplace, an open mic and more. We will gather under the large tent at the Watershed Center with time spent on the trail, in the emerging gardens and Butterfly House as well as in the Watershed Center. Morning refreshments and lunch are provided.

Here is our lineup -

Welcome Music – Dan Kassel on cello

Spotlight – Twenty-five Years of tinywords – Kathe Palka and Peter Newton

Workshop – Brad Bennett – Pushing and Pulling: The Yin and Yang of Antonyms in Haiku

*Haiku book shop and swap (ongoing)

Reading – Rick Tarquinio – Senses of Place

The Art of Ginko – A haiku walk into the wild – Jeff Hoagland

Open Mic

Dan Kassel is an innovative cellist who blends classical technique with live-looping to create rich, genre-crossing soundscapes inspired by jazz, rock, electronica, and global traditions. Shaped by early orchestral training and transformative travels through India, he has performed at venues such as Times Square Summer Stage and World Cafe Live and collaborated with a vast array of musicians on stage and in the recording studio. Based in Hopewell, NJ, Dan is also a sought-after performer for weddings and private events throughout the Tri-State area, known for reimagining everything from Bach to Taylor Swift with emotional depth and originality.

Twenty-five Years of Tinywords

Through Twenty-five Years of Tinywords, longtime co-editors Peter Newton and Kathe L. Palka will offer a brief history of this international online journal of haiku and other small poems. As fellow poets, they will talk about the process of reading thousands of submissions and what's involved in their selection process. Established in 2000 by d.f. tweney as a simple e-mail and SMS mailing list, Tinywords has grown into the largest publisher of haiku in English by circulation outside of Japan with a dynamic website (tinywords.com)  and a searchable online archive going back 25 years.  This spotlight presentation will include a Q & A as well as a reading that will include poets in attendance who have published in the journal.

Kathe L. Palka writes in both Japanese forms and free verse poetry. Her tanka collection, As the Years Pass, won an eChapbook Award from Snapshot Press in 2011. She collaborated with Peter Newton on a book of tan renga, A Path of Desire, published by Red Moon Press in 2015.  Two poems from her long form collection Miracle of the Wine (Grayson Books, 2012) were featured on Garrison Keiller’s The Writer’s Almanac. She is a member of the Haiku Poets of the Garden State and has facilitated their annual haiku installation at the New Jersey Botanical Garden in Ringwood, New Jersey since its inception in 2017. She guest edited Tinywords 11.3 in 2011 and has co-edited the journal together with Peter Newton since 2012.

Peter Newton is a Vermont-based poet and the author of several award-winning collections in the Japanese short form tradition. Since 2012, he has served as co-editor for the online literary journal tinywords with Kathe. In 2024, he joined the Editorial Team of Contemporary Haibun Online, as Haibun Co-Editor. His newest collection, A Room Inside the Rain, was published by Red Moon Press in March 2026.

Pushing and Pulling: The Yin and Yang of Antonyms in Haiku 

Contrast is a common and powerful juxtaposition strategy in haiku, and the use of antonyms is one very effective way to achieve this contrast. When we use antonyms in our haiku, we create intriguing tension and drama, and we invite the reader in to experience the dynamism of those forces. In this workshop, we will first look at the use of opposites in haiku by studying some excellent examples. Participants will then try their hand at writing their own antonym-inspired haiku.

Brad Bennett teaches haiku to adults after teaching third grade for twenty-five years. He has published four collections of haiku with Red Moon Press - a drop of pond (2016), a turn in the river (2019), a box of feathers (2022), and a rush of doves (2025). He also recently published a book of his haiku craft essays, a few words in the right order. Brad served as an Artist-in-Residence at Acadia National Park, Maine in 2021 and as haiku and senryu editor of Frogpond from 2021-2023.

The Senses of Place 

Senses of Place will feature haiku demonstrating that we are connected to a place via our senses and how writing haiku can deepen that connection. The farm fields and woods of Southern New Jersey, where I was born and raised and later moved back to, provide the setting and inspiration for the haiku included. The reading will end with a description of the process behind and a reading from my latest book, a handful of huckleberries, featuring poems written during a year-long, unofficial Artist Residency at Parvin State Park.

Rick Tarquinio has been writing haiku for 30 years. His poems have won numerous awards, been translated into other languages, and anthologized both in the U.S. and abroad. He is the author of 5 books of haiku, including his most recent, a handful of huckleberries.  

The Art of Ginko – A Walk on the Wild Side 

This real world, the world of nature, surrounds us with a myriad of haiku moments. A breath of air ripples green grasses. A mason bee circles an apple blossom. Sidewalk ants spill over the curb into the road.  Encounter these moments during a ginko – a communal haiku walk where poets make observations, gain inspiration and encounter revelation. Jeff will introduce the art of ginko, shining a light not just on nature but on techniques that enhance the encounter. We will visit the butterfly house, walk the boardwalk trail or spend time with some ambassador animals. Armed with your journal and pencil, an attentive heart, a sense of wonder and your personal perspective, you too will discover the real world and its many surprises. 

Jeff Hoagland is the Founding Education Director and Naturalist at The Watershed Institute. A lifelong naturalist, he maintains an intimate relationship with nature, characterized by an inborn sense of wonder and an innate kinship with plant, animal and other life forms. This and his deep kithship with the piedmont habitats he calls home, are expressed in his haiku, found in journals, anthologies, his first book scent of juniper and on large stones within his community. His practice of haiku helps him stay connected to the “real” world.