A couple of quick items: HNA & The Mule

Haiku North America 2009 has its own blog. It's located at:

http://haiku09.wordpress.com/

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Also, in reference to the recent post about The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature's call for Snow Poems, I neglected to mention that poems should be over three lines.

I apologize for my error.

Gina - Three Questions (tanka)

Gina is Hungarian born in South Africa now living in Tasmania with a cat, an outdoor fish pond, a peacock that visits and a garden where roses support tomatoes and various peppers grow among perennials. She is an award winning artist with works in collections around the world and since discovering poetry in 2005 has over 60 poems published in 21 journals (online and in print) such as Lynx, The Herons Nest, Modern English Tanka, moonset, 3lights gallery, Ribbons, Simply Haiku, Haibun Today, Tasmanian Times, Burst and Haigaonline, amongst others.

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1) Why do you write tanka?

I love the form. I found it while in the midst of discovering, learning and struggling with haiku. After 3 years and many haiku published i still find it a difficult form for me, but i like its discipline. With tanka I begin with that haiku discipline forcing myself to be observant and steeped in everyday language until the pivot line and then i bring in the poetic, the emotion. I love the pivot line and use pivot words often too ... i love the use of line breaks and sometimes poetic devices aiming for the emotion.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

i write free verse which takes me much longer - sometimes months but i recognise my short form experience in them and spend time hunting down the right phrase, word, observed image or emotion. The challenge is not to become a diary entry. I write senryu, haiku, tanka, cinquain and I LOVE haibun and most recently i have come to love and be published in haiga - a perfect culmination of my art pursuits and words ...

3) Of the many wonderful tanka you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide publication credits.)

hmmm let me see ...


distant thunder
tall gum trees perfectly still
before the storm
i waited, as promised
and watched the tide ebb away


Ribbons - March 2006


~

our dreams grow
grey among the flotsam
and dead fish
lying on the rocks
with clouds in their eyes


3lightsgallery jan-march 2008


~

under leafless boughs
forget-me-nots self seed
with vigour
after all this time
do i still cross your mind ?


Modern English Tanka January 2007

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If you've been enjoying this weekly series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response (whether it be for haiku or tanka) to the three little questions that Gina answered. You must be a published poet in order to participate.

Desiree McMurry will be our guest next week.

Boston Haiku Society Anthology

This just in from Raffael de Gruttola:

The Boston Haiku Society has a new perfect bound anthology out: wind flow i.e. 66 pages with 22 poets. It includes haiku, senryu, tanka, haibun, haiga, and one renku. It can be ordered from me for $10. + $2.50 for p & h. i.e. Raffael de Gruttola, 4 Marshall Road, Natick, MA 01760.

Thanks,
Raffael

Three publication notes

Helen Losse, editor of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature:

Wanted: Snow Poems

We’re looking for poems about snow and snowstorms for the December issue. It’s all right, if the poems mention the Holidays but not necessary. Deadline: November 1. Send them now, if you have them.

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This just in from Jeffrey Woodward:

Dear Curtis,

Can you be so kind as to pass the word to your readers about the long interview with Michael McClintock, “Wheeling through the Cedars,” (pp. 145-160) which is available in the current issue of Modern Haibun & Tanka Prose online at

http://www.themetpress.com/modernhaibunandtankaprose/digital/mhtp1.html

Thanks.

Jeffrey Woodward

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And from Billie Wilson:

The Haiku Foundation reports the addition of a new interactive forum which, according to its creator Peter Yovu, is “devoted to presenting questions for discussion and debate on the nature and possibilities of haiku.” So, check out Peter’s introduction to Sails and then be sure to add your response to lst Sail, which asks “Why do you read haiku?”

Also, for readers who would like to print out a checklist of submission and contest deadlines, the Foundation regularly updates its Event Calendars (one of which is a contests-only version).

Kate MacQueen reads bird poems

Let's close the week with the lovely Kate MacQueen:

Francine Banwarth - The HSA Henderson and Brady Contests

This just in from Francine Banwarth:

Greetings from Iowa, which seems to have cooled off as we head into July.

I'm writing on behalf of the HSA and the annual Henderson Haiku and Brady Senryu contests. The in-hand deadline for both contests is July 31. Send only previously unpublished haiku and senryu to me:

Francine Banwarth
985 So Grandview
Dubuque, IA 52003

Any questions or concerns, email me at frantic647@yahoo.com

All details and procedure can be accessed on the HSA website:

http://haikusocietyofamerica.com

All the best,
Francine

Marc di Saverio - Three Questions

Marc di Saverio, an English major at McMaster University, hails from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His poetry and translations have appeared in The Dalhousie Review, Modern Haiku, Haiku Reality, Moonset, Frogpond, Maisonneuve Magazine and Haiku Scotland (he was the "featured poet" in issue 19). He is currently working on SALAMANDER-CIRRUS, his debut book of haiku, haiku translations, tanka, haiga and objectohaiku. An article regarding his work will be appearing in the forthcoming issue of Moonset.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I write haiku for the following reasons: 1) because haiku naturally occur to me (inside and outside the "now") during mindfully-experienced moments transpiring out in the world, but also during dreams, during altered states, during abstract thinking, during wild and tamed imaginings, during third-eye meditation (a.k.a. Trataka), in short, during purely inner experiences, as well. Though most of my haiku are born in actual moments of mindful experience in the real world (as most haijin's 'ku are born), I believe that by blazing new trails toward the haijin's "a-ha!" will result in both new and more ranging epiphanies, and new and more ranging forms (of haiku), both of which may result in attracting new and more ranging readership; 2) because if haiku-readership can be increased and varied this potentially powerful, misunderstood form (or should I say genre, or even way of life, or way of revolt) can be instrumental in reversing the evolutionary direction of nature-estranged, computerizing, roboticizing, fashionably passionless, kitsch-hearted, camp-hearted western humanity -- this misunderstood form can hopefully succeed in charging shriveling souls with the verve and lust to not only seek out experience and understanding and union and commonalities with the natural world, but to also inspire a strong and sincere drive to revolt against nature's destroyers, and to ACTUALLY inspire revolt 3) because I love reading and contemplating haiku...I think I have learned more from single haiku than I have from entire epics; 4) because haiku compliment my daily meditations, which compliment my haiku; 5) because i want to share the subtle links and "hidden correspondences" (as Baudelaire put it) between humankind/human nature and mother nature's kind/mother nature's nature; 6) because a haiku is, verily, "a moment's monument", and I want to create these monuments.


2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Sonnets, epigrams, tanka, prose poetry, ojectoverse/objectohaiku, and verso d'oggetti

3a) my top choice would be "blue bloom haiga"




3b) my second favorite is "objectohaiku and objecto in blue", which are meant to be displayed together as one visual statement as displayed on the Haiku Reality gallery where it first appeared (crickets bought dead).






3c) For third favorite it's a tie between these two:


twilight --
as I strike my match the fireflies
scatter

(Haiku Reality, 2009, third place)



first rain --
all these finger-graven
flowers in the snow

(Haiku Scotland # 19, 2009)

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If you've been enjoying this weekly series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response (whether it be for haiku or tanka) to the three little questions that Marc answered. You must be a published poet in order to participate.

Gina will be our guest next week.

Prune Juice and a video

The summer issue of Prune Juice: Journal of Senryu and Kyoka is available.

One of the poets published in the summer issue is an old friend of mine. Stan Siceloff and I worked together in a textile mill during the 90s. We have since reconnected. Here's a video of Stan reading senryu, one poem just published in the new issue of Prune Juice:

Peter Yovu - Sails

This just in from Peter Yovu:

Many readers of “Tobacco Road” may have already had a look at “Troutswirl”, the blog of The Haiku Foundation. If you haven’t, I highly recommend you check it out, and to all I hope you will consider posting comments under any of the various sections. I will be heading up a new section entitled “Sails”. This will be an open forum where questions central to the writing, development, and appreciation of haiku will be presented and discussed. Like other sections of the blog, its health will depend on the willingness of readers to participate. It could be seen as an extension of “Tobacco Road”.

If you would like to receive, as a preview, a few questions and subjects which are likely to be offered in the coming weeks and months, or if you have any thoughts about “Sails”, please email me at

pyovu(at)comcast.net

And keep checking the site http://thehaikufoundation.org/

for updates. Hope to see you there.

Peter Yovu

Two publication notes: The Mule and Summer of Love

The summer sabbatical issue of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature is available. Click on the image below to see the new issue:


3Lights Gallery has a special issue dedicated to the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Click the Summer of Love image to view the exhibit.

A request from John Stevenson and a reminder from an'ya

This just in from John Stevenson:

I'm going to be attending Haiku North America in Ottawa in August and I've volunteered to help with the memorial reading. While I am aware of many of those who have passed away since the last HNA gathering, in Winston-Salem, I'm wondering if I could ask your blog visitors to send me names (and perhaps a few favorite poems, or lines of remembrance) of anyone they know or know of whose loss, occurring in the past two years, has left parts of the haiku community with memories that might be shared with the wider group. If so, I'd love to hear from them (ithacan@earthlink.net).

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And this message from an'ya:

Now that it is almost July, just a quick reminder to have your submissions for our autumn/winter issue of moonset to us no later than 1 August. Please see the official website (URL) below for full details on how to submit haiku, senryu, haibun, tanka, and haiga to the appropriate editors. Old-timers and Newbies equally welcome.

Also please send any articles to an'ya and any news to Sasa; email contest entries, and/or dream-ku to peterB;. email addresses also listed at the website.

Thank you ever so much to a generous few, we are about 40% to our goal of becoming non-profit . . . also please update your subscription asap if need be so we can make certain that you receive our next issue . . .

love ya', an'ya
http://www.moonset-newspaper.com

Saša Važić - Three Questions

Saša Važić is a freelance journalist, astrologer, translator, writer of prose and poetry, essays, book reviews. Author of over 1000 articles on various topics which appeared in newspapers and journals, member of the editorial board of Haiku Novine, Niš, Serbia, Balkan Advisor and News Editor for moonset the Newspaper (Oregon, USA), and member of the World Haiku Club, her haiku have been included in over ten national and international haiku anthologies and in a number of national and international haiku magazines. They have been translated into English, Japanese, Chinese, Macedonian, Slovenian, Croatian, German, Czech, Bulgarian, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Norwegian, French, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian. She is the recipient of a number of awards and commendations in contests held in her country, in Japan (Water, Lake and Sea; Suruga Baika; Basho Festival; Ito en; Mainichi), Germany, Croatia, Bulgaria, Canada, the USA and France. Largely, through her translation efforts she has brought English language haiku poetry, articles and books to Balkan readers and vice versa. Važić is the editor of the bilingual Haiku Reality. She is the author of an e-book of haiku poetry entitled muddy shoes candy heart, edited by Anita Virgil and published by Peaks Press, USA.

She also writes tanka and creates haiga, some of which have been published at the World Haiku Association’s website and at Kuniharu Shimizu’s website See Haiga Here, as well as in Contemporary Haibun published by the Red Moon Press, USA.

She has translated more than 20 books of haiku poetry by Serbian and some foreign authors (into English), as well as David G Lanoue’s novels Haiku Guy and Laughing Buddha into Serbian.

Her many longer poems and short stories as well as some literary articles and book reviews have also been published in a number of journals, in her country and abroad.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I was forced to do that. How? You can read my answer at Simply Haiku (Summer 2005, vol 3 no 2. I). Robert Wilson interviewed me. I still agree with what I said:

RW: What is haiku to you, and why have you chosen it to express your soul?

SV: I must say that I've been spending very much of my time reading and writing about haiku, writing my own haiku, translating other poets' haiku and a whole lot of haiku for their books as well as articles on haiku for Serbian and some other Balkan haiku journals, and that I still don't feel it as an integral part of myself. Actually, it may not be a part of myself, but of nature, and should remain there. You take by glance, leave and go, but it is still there where it has always been, where it is and I hope will be. So, it seems that I have not chosen haiku but that I’ve been chosen by it. Or is it not by God or just by my parents and theirs . . .?

It appears easy to write . . . just three lines, two or one . . . that number of syllables or not . . . and difficult to express that what is essential, to hide yourself behind words, to show the meaning of every single particle within the universe of which it is a part, of which the universe is a part. A light breeze coming from the universe which stirs a curtain behind which a man is sitting contemplating in his solitude, in seeming emptiness, which makes him cast his glance in its direction . . . We are not alone. Every single thing and every single man is with us every moment. And we are with every single thing and every single being.

***

I'll try to explain . . . I first became acquainted with haiku («never heard» then) in 1997 as a program organizer for a Belgrade club. I happened to know a man called Ilija Bratic, a retired professor of philosophy, prose and poetry writer, including haiku, whom I interviewed on some other topics for a local magazine. In that interview he mentioned haiku he had written and afterwards I talked to the club people to invite Belgrade poets from their haiku club, Shiki, for a gathering and presentation of their work.

I can’t admit that I even listened carefully to their haiku, let alone understood what they were all about. When it was over, Ilija told me that I myself should start writing haiku. I refused. I didn't have that feeling for such a short, tender, «meaningless» form. Out of spite (yes, these are the right words), I just tried to find out what it was all about, and having spent hours and hours over typed pieces of a girl (14) who named them haiku (I saved a manuscript she gave me when I interviewed her regarding her first novel), trying to make out what that famous 5-7-5 was and . . . finally found out!

Then I started writing like mad. In a day I produced some 20 pages of what I thought were haiku. What I had written were but very good pieces of something else, Ilija told me, and started showing me haiku by various authors. I was still against it and ready to leave. Then he took down a book from a shelf, a small, bright-covered The Old Pond, and I stopped to take the last glance at what he «intended» to make from me. I stopped, looked, listened (thank you David Lanoue) . . . and felt ashamed:

Oh, Matcushima
Oh, Matcushima
Matcushima...

(This poem was not among Basho's hokku and haiku in that book).

As I said, I don't feel myself to be a poet and rarely read poetry books. Only particular poems, which I then read and reread until I get to know them by heart. Edgar Allan Poe's "Raven," Lord Byron's "Incantation" . . . and of course and first of all those written by Serbian marvelous lyric masters: Vladislav Petkovic´ Dis, Vojislav Ilic´, Jovan Ducic´, Djura Jaksic´, Aleksa Santic´. . . . It's a pity their words cannot be translated into any language and save the feeling they are able to evoke. There is always a danger I would leave out some of many world-class authors, but I must mention our Nobel Prize winner, Ivo Andric´, who wrote «as if he does not touch a paper» as another Serbian writer, Jara Ribnikar, said to me in an interview I had with her. Then my favorite and beloved "The Little Prince." In fact we all learn from everybody, from every single being, no matter whether he/she is a writer or not; from every single plant or animal . . . everything and everybody.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Lyric and mysterious, dark and out of space and time.

3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide publication credits.)

None. I am frightened by this question. :) How can I know? I don't write to appraise myself or to be appraised. A need to write? (as there is no other way, save to keep silent) appears of itself...from time to time and that's all.

A number of the poet's haiku are located on the following two web sites:

Page 1 & Page 2

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If you've been enjoying this weekly series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response (whether it be for haiku or tanka) to the three little questions that Saša answered. You must be a published poet in order to participate.

Marc di Saverio will be our guest next week.

Pamela A. Babusci - update

This just in from Pamela A. Babusci:

I wish to thank all of my haiku poet friends for their prayers, healing thoughts & good karma for my neck surgery. Dr. Paul Maurer, neuro-surgeon, did not need to fuse my neck and the operation was a success. I believe all the prayers, healing thoughts, good karma and going to a Healing Mass gave me a miracle. Your kindness and love will not be forgotten.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Love & God Bless! Pamela A. Babusci

Edward Weiss - bird haiku

Edward Weiss is doing something remarkable for haiku. Rather than tell you, perhaps it would be better for you to visit his blog, or watch the video below:


Inspired by Edward's poems, I thought I'd try my hand at creating a video haiku:



Now, if you're experiencing a really, really bad day, stop. Take a deep breath, and read or view a haiku.

Wishing you a beeeaaauuutiful weekend!

Curtis

July 12 - Salon at Musicoal!

On Sunday, July 12, at 7 pm, the Meymandi Theater at the Murphey School, 224 Polk Street, in Raleigh, NC will host a Salon of music, dance and theater.

The evening will feature Fleur de Lisa, a group of four women singers who write and perform all original music, blending elements of art, jazz, classical and folk. At turns, playful, moving, and inspiring, Fleur de Lisa songs feature complex harmonies and rhythms, with lyrics based on poetry from Japan and the United States, including Piedmont Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Greene. For the July 12 show Fleur de Lisa will premiere a song based on the work of NC Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byers. Fleur de Lisa will also unveil a longer suite of songs based on poems by Roberta Beary.

Dance solos will be presented by Carol Finley, Artistic Director of Meredith Dance Theater, whose piece "Prelude to the Breakup" is the opening section to a suite she will perform in concert next Fall. Senior Dance Major Matney Murad will dance "Confession from the Bride Room."

Rounding out the evening, Director Johannah Maynard, BFA Tisch School for the Arts, will lead some of Raleigh's finest actors and actresses in performing favorite monologues.

The July 12 show is part of the Musicoal Series presented by Burning Coal Theater. Tickets are available only at the door, and cost $10, $5 for students and Seniors.

For more information call 919-810-2863, 834-4001, or email haikusongs@gmail.com

Poem - Wheel Jammin'

Ann K. Schwader - Three Questions

Ann K. Schwader is a Wyoming native relocated to suburban Colorado. Her haiku have appeared in Modern Haiku, Heron’s Nest, bottle rockets, Frogpond, Roadrunner, WHR, Simply Haiku, Mainichi Daily News, one cycle of DailyHaiku, and the Red Moon anthology big sky.

She is also a widely published speculative poet and writer of dark fiction, with multiple Honorable Mentions in Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. Her poetry chapbooks include Werewoman (Nocturnal Publications 1990), The Worms Remember (Hive Press 2001), Architectures of Night (Dark Regions Press 2003), and In the Yaddith Time (Mythos Books 2007).

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I’m both a formalist (most of the time) and a science fiction poet. Haiku appeals to both of these interests: it’s a strict yet evolving form which offers insights into a culture very unlike my own. Writing haiku demands a completely different mindset than writing Western verse forms; I think it improves my writing of both.

I also appreciate the way that haiku allows me to write poetry more frequently. I love the experience of writing a poem, but can’t always organize my life well enough to devote hours to a longer poem in progress. The impulse to write haiku can be answered much more quickly, and moments can be preserved before they evaporate in the day’s concerns.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I work in several of the standard Western forms, but my lifelong favorite is the sonnet. Like a haiku, a sonnet is a concise, evolving verse form spawned by a specific culture (or set of cultures), yet infinitely variable. Those fourteen lines can be packed with meaning until they explode.

I’ve also begun writing haibun as an alternative to prose poetry, and I think I prefer it. There’s a bit more structure to a haibun, though at the same time there’s more actual poetry involved. My haibun so far have all been speculative – science, science fiction, or dark – and a fair number have found homes in small press magazines in print or online. They haven’t been in the traditional “personal journal” style, but some editors seem to appreciate this way of telling a brief story.

3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three?



white breath
nothing between it
and the moon


(1st place, Shiki Monthly Kukai, Free Format Jan. 07)




deep winter
the sun is only
another star


(Frogpond, Vol. XXX No. 2)




razored through
to the void
raven


(Scorpion Prize winner for Issue VII: 3, Roadrunner)

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If you've been enjoying this weekly series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response (whether it be for haiku or tanka) to the three little questions that Ann answered. You must be a published poet in order to participate.

Sasa Vazic will be our guest next week.

A message from Angelee Deodhar

Dear All,

Please forgive the common mail. I am writing from Chandigarh.

My husband, Dr. Deodhar, had an external fixation operation of the left knee on Tuesday, 16th June at Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. His operating surgeon was Dr. Rajgopal.

He received 5 bottles of blood and was kept in the Intensive Care Unit till last night when he was transferred to the room...Room 105. He is on intravenous antibiotics.

His left leg has now become straight, as there is no knee joint, and the bones of the leg have been fused together. The external fixators will remain in place for 3 months, at the end of which they will be removed.

It has been a very long, painful, tedious, and frustrating three and a half years since his first bilateral knee surgery. I am grateful to all of you for your kind messages of support and for your prayers, which have given us the strength to carry on.

Right now his brother, Vasu, is looking after him in the hospital. We hope we can bring him to Chandigarh in a week's time.

We know you are all with us in thought and prayer. I will keep you informed,

With loving prayers for you and your loved ones,

angelee