Readings, Meetings, Contest, and Publication News

This just in from Patrick Pilarski:

Submission are now open for DailyHaiku Cycle 8!
http://www.dailyhaiku.org

DailyHaiku is a print and daily online serial publication that publishes the work of Canadian and international haiku poets, blending contemporary, experimental, and traditional styles to explore the boundaries of English-language haiku. Through our special features section, we also aim to chronicle the diverse and ever-changing landscape of contemporary haiku-related forms. We're now looking for a new roster of six talented haiku poets for our upcoming cycle (Volume 4, Cycle 8, Fall 2009/Winter 2010). If selected as a contributor, you will be responsible for providing a total of 28 haiku over a six-month period.

Submission Period: Sept. 1st--30th, 2009 (closes 11:59 pm Mountain Standard Time)

How to Submit: Email submissions to desk@dailyhaiku.org

What to Submit: Ten unpublished haiku---no more, no less---your contact information, a 75 word publication-ready biographical note, and a digital author photo. We do not accept work published or under consideration by other journals or websites.

Payment: One contributor copy of the print volume featuring your work.

For specific submission guidelines and more information about this publication, please visit: http://www.dailyhaiku.org

---

Heron Sea, Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay, the first collection by well-known tanka poet and editor, M. Kei, is now available as a free e-book. Published in electronic form through Scribd.com, it is made available under the Creative Common Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Well-received when first published as a trade paperback in 2007, it contains a number of his well-known tanka, including:

the dawn puddles
around my house;
I rise
to sail the moon
in a paper boat

shaking the bats
out of the mainsail
a cloud of night
made homeless
by my hands

if only the leaves
were not so green,
this lover’s heart
might enjoy
a little emptiness

To view the work online, visit <http://www.scribd.com/doc/19436004/Heron-Sea-Short-Poems-of-the-Chesapeake-Bay>

To purchase the book online, visit <http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/heron-sea/736216>

To interview the author, contact kujaku (at) verizon (dot) net.

---

Carolyn Thomas sent the following contest results:

The Saigyo Awards for Tanka 2009

First Prize $100

wrapping herself
in a dragon kimono
her spirit
flies off like a kite
with an eternal string

Pamela A. Babusci, New York

Second Prize $50

weeping cherry
blossom threaded hair
brushes the earth…
this longing
to bear fruit

Margaret L Grace, Australia

Third Prize $25

the final crane
consigned to my waste-paper bin
offers up a rose
so I pluck it
…and the rose flies away

Helen Buckingham, UK

Unique, skillfully composed imagery causes me to choose the Babusci, Grace, and Buckingham poems. I experience these living moments with each re-reading. Extraordinary tanka, they set themselves apart by exquisite language that appears natural. Unable to adequately define everything I see in these poems, I bow in silent surrender and leave them, along with each Honorable Mention tanka, to the reader to enjoy.

Honorable Mention

what’s the name
of that bird singing
in the woods?
I give up
and just listen

Dave Bacharach, New York

early morning
in my courtyard
a crow caws
I expect a guest
or a letter today

Radhey Shiam, India

now scientists say
the human heart can grow
new cells…
I could have told them this
many love affairs ago

Kirsty Karkow, Maine

Changing
from the interview suit
to blue jeans
and a smile that doesn’t
need to hide anything

Carol Purington, Massachusetts

how slowly the rain falls
now that you’re gone
I’ve been wrong
about so many things
it could be snow

Peter Yovu, Vermont

The old wounds still here
waiting for me to cure them
before the winter —
gnarled fingers touching the tree
where once I carved your name

Eduard Tara, Romania

casting no glances
at me
Time is a hectic traveller —
I’ve greyed
inside out

Chen-ou Liu, Canada

I pick one stone
from the creek bed
to take home
it was like any other
until I touched it

Dave Bacharach, New York

more than the lift
of one sip of champagne
to a young boy’s head
it was the theft itself
that tasted like stars

Peter Yovu, Vermont

you left
for good, you came back again
despite everything
the season
already turned

Ruth Holzer, Virginia

my overweight cat
snores like a bulldozer…
changing
what was just another poem
about the moon

Kathy Lippard Cobb, Florida

Melville —
not the great white whale
but your restless heart
I’ll take with me and
bury in the sea

M. Kei, Maryland

bowing
to red ants
at the picnic…
I rise up with a poem
crawling out

Darrell Lindsey, Texas

clothes billow
by the side of the shed…
rolling up
each cuff of my jeans,
this sudden urge to dance

Michele L. Harvey, New York

A bow of gratitude to all poets who participated in this second Saigyo Awards for Tanka contest, and congratulations to the authors of the winning poems chosen from 241 entries.

Peace and joy,
Carolyn Thomas

---

Renee Owen sent the following information:

The Haiku Poets of Northern California's

20th ANNUAL TWO AUTUMNS READING

will be held on Sunday, September 13th, 2009

from 1 to 5 PM in Building C, Room 235 at Fort Mason in San Francisco


This year's readers are

Garry Gay

David Grayson

Carolyn Hall

Michael Dylan Welch

The Two Autumns Reading is the longest-running haiku reading series in North America. This 20th anniversary is an event not to be missed! The celebrated reading is accompanied by the release of a chapbook of poems of the poets who are reading at this event -- a must for collectors of haiku books. For more information about this event, their upcoming October event, or HPNC and its haiku journal, Mariposa, visit their web site at www.hpnc.org.

---

Carmen Sterba sent the following link/information: Haiku International Association (HIA) calls for Haiku for International Symposium of the 20th Anniversay of HIA and the Haiku Contest.