Ion Codrescu - Three Questions

Ion Codrescu is a Romanian poet and artist born in 1951. He lives on the Black Sea coast and is the author of eleven haiku books. Some of his awards include: Tokyo Museum of Haiku Literature, This is Yomiuri, Itoen New Haiku Contest, Bashō International Haiku Contest, Constantza Haiku Society Award, Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award and Grand Prize for Renku, Croatian Haiku Association Award, Sparrow Prize for the Best Book, Mainichi Daily News, International Congress on Arts and Communication Excellence Award Oxford, Niš International Poetry Competition Award, Nagoya City Prize for Haiku, The Kokushikan University Medal, International Kusamakura Haiku Competition Prize, Orion Award, Novi Sad University – YU’98 Award, Prize of the Romanian Writers’ Association – Dobrogea Branch, World Haiku Festival London-Oxford Prize for Essay, Nobuyuki Yuasa International English Haibun Contest Prize, Haiku International Association Special Prize, Bulgarian Haiku Club and Radio Bulgaria Award, and Kikakuza International Haibun Contest Prize. He is the founder of the Constantza Haiku Society in Romania, the Albatross and Hermitage – two international haiku journals. His graphic works are in private and state collections in many countries. Ion has illustrated more than one hundred books, journals, newspapers, and calendars. Art and poetry are two sides of the same way in his life and will continue to be two lighthouses in this world of pragmatism. You can see his watercolors, ink paintings, haiga and read his poems listed under archives at:

http://nc-haiku.org/galleries/codrescu/gallery2_0.htm

http://www.tempslibres.org/sites/ion/en/Ionpage.html

http://simplyhaiku.com/SHv2n1/ioncodrescu/pages/imagegallery.html

He welcomes any feedback at: ioncodrescu@yahoo.com

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1) Why do you write haiku?

Composing a haiku is similar to creating an ink painting or a watercolor: Each word has the power of a brush stroke. Juxtaposition is a technique used in all three art forms. Through haiku, I discovered renku, haibun, and haiga. To make a painting or a poem we need harmony, contrast, rhythm, accents, ideas, and emotion. As a poet I write haiku to better understand myself and the world around me. I compose haiku because I do not want to forget some of the wonderful moments in my life. Haiku is a way for me to share those moments with other people.

Haiku poetry has changed my life. I now follow a simple path where the present moment is very important to me. It is said that “a poem is a translation” of something which evoked an emotional response in the reader. I work on this “translation”, to have a poem as a clear dewdrop that can be understood by readers from different parts of the world. Feedback of my haiku from people all over the world inspires me to continue writing this small poem for the joy of being together on the haiku path.

2) What other poetry forms do you enjoy?

I like to read tanka and short poetry of all forms. I enjoy writing renku when all the poets involved in the writing session are in the same location. I also enjoy writing haibun as this gives me the opportunity to develop haiku poetry in many ways, perspectives, and directions. Writing essays on different themes has become an activity at my desk.

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



a chrysanthemum lights
the darkened garden
all alone

(Drawings among Haiku, Muntenia Press, 1992, Romania)




house for sale –
the apricot tree in bloom
as never before

(Unsold Flowers, Hub Editions, 1995, England)




each
drop
of
the
icicle
takes
with
it
the
moon-
light

(Haiku Troubadours 2000, Ginyu Press, Japan)

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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 Ion answered. You must be a published poet to participate.

Saturday updates 1/30/2010

I apologize for not spending much time with Tobacco Road this week. As the old saying goes, I've had several "irons in the fire". Let me start with a little belated news:

Terry Ann Carter had five of her haiku featured on the Electronic Poetry Network this week. Her poems are available through the weekend. Click on the link below to read Terry's poems:

http://www.shreve-lib.org/poemofday.htm

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This just in from Penny Harter:

I'd like to pass on Tracy Koretsky's invitation to contact her for either a 108-page-perfect-bound paperback copy of her first collection of free verse, Even Before My Own Name, for only $5.00 (which will cover the cost of printing and shipping) at http://www.tracykoretsky.com/EBMON/html/order_paperback.html; or for a free download of the book at http://www.tracykoretsky.com/EBMON/html/free_e-book_.html .

The widely-published poems in this collection have earned prizes ranging from haiku to prose poem, including two Pushcart nominations. Tracy's Japanese genre-related work has appeared in Acorn, Haibun Today, Haiga Online, Lynx, Moonset, SimplyHaiku, tiny words and more. These poems, written over the course of more than twenty years, constitute a powerful and moving collection that really holds together in terms of sequence. Their styles range from haiku to prose poems, with an accompanying range of emotional timbre, and I admire her skillful use of these different genres. In strong and energetic poems, she brings the powerful truths of her childhood world to light, and to life. She reveals times, places, and persons---some happy, some sad, and some even ugly and frightening. She gives us that love / hate/ fear thing that goes on with parents, and the intense inner landscape of the child and young woman she once was. And she not only captures her younger selves, but also, in the last poems, brings us into her present life. It's a stunning book!

Also, as one who has recently been exploring the haibun form, I recommend your visiting the following URL on the blog Haibun Today: http://haibuntoday.blogspot.com/2008/01/tracy-koretsky-on-hill-over-haifa.html. And here is Tracy's web site should you want to contact her: http://wwwTracyKoretsky.com.

~Penny Harter

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The deadline for the The Haiku Calendar Competition 2010 is tomorrow. Visit the link below for more details:

http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/haiku_competition_details.htm

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Here is a reminder from moonset:

Hello from moonset.us. Moonset is no longer in tabloid newspaper format, we are back to journal size. Since we were unhappy with the cover presentation last issue… and as a result of generous donations, our next issue will have a light-colored heavy cover.

To subscribe or renew your subscription, you can visit our website at http://www.moonset.us/subscribe.html

or, you can mail us at: moonset, POB 3627, La Pine, Oregon USA 97739.

Thank you for supporting moonset; we are now “non-profit”!

Submissions and contest entry deadlines are 1 February, for the next issue, visit the website for editor information.

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Charlotte Digregorio sent this:

The Midwest Chapter of the Haiku Society of America is planning a free program, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 20 along Chicago's North Shore at the Winnetka Public Library, 768 Oak St. There will be six presentations on a variety of haiku topics, plus readings and critique. The public is invited.

The presentations are broad ones, dealing with the style and content of haiku, and will be of interest to both beginning and experienced haiku poets. There will also be time for participants to read a haiku they’ve written and get it critiqued.

Among presenters are: John Han, Professor of English and Creative Writing/Chair of The Humanities Division at Missouri Baptist University, and haiku poet. He will speak on “What Is Haiku?” He will also act as moderator for our discussion, “What Inspires Us to Write Haiku?” Other presentations include: “Season and Other Aesthetics/Poetics in Haiku,” by Poet Heather Jagman; “The Silence Between Haiku Images,” by Poet Joe Kirschner; “What is Sumi Art and Haiga?” by Artist and Poet Lidia Rozmus; and “Haiku in Korea Today,” by Poet Sung Kyu Kim.

After the meeting, participants may attend an informal dinner at the Celtic Knot Public House in Evanston.

To pre-register or for more information, contact Charlotte Digregorio, Midwest Regional Coordinator, Haiku Society of America, 847-881-2664.

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Jim Kacian sent this:

Hi All:

It's that time of year again: time for the new Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku to make its appearance. This year's volume, titled where the wind turns, contains 161 haiku, 12 linked forms (haibun, rengay and renku), and 6 critical pieces on the reading, writing and study of the genre, as selected by the Red Moon Editorial Staff—John Barlow (United Kingdom), Roberta Beary, Ernest J. Berry (New Zealand), Randy M. Brooks, Dee Evetts, LeRoy Gorman (Canada), Maureen Gorman, Peggy Willis Lyles, Kohjin Sakamoto (Japan) and Max Verhart (Netherlands), along with Editor-in-Chief Jim Kacian.

This is the 14th entry in the most decorated serial volume in the history of English-language haiku, and we’re sure you’ll find much to enjoy and appreciate here. To order, go to our website www.redmoonpress.com and either order from the shopping cart, or else print out the downloadable order form and mail it in. [Note: If you had work appear in where the wind turns and have not yet ordered your copies at the contributors’ discount price, please reply to this email and we’ll help you make this happen.]

The Red Moon Anthology is the flagship volume for the press, but hardly the only thing we do: here are several other volumes we’ve recently completed, and a few more to be available within the next couple weeks—

[Click on the link to order.]

Live Again—haiku by John Stevenson

John’s third full-length volume of haiku and related forms (you’ll also find his Some of the Silence (1999) and quiet enough (2004) on our website).

**

seeds—haiku by Yu Chang

Yu's long-awaited first full-length collection of haiku doesn’t disappoint.

**

Haiku Wars—a novel by David G. Lanoue

David’s third haiku-themed novel, in his inimical style and including the usual (by now) hallucinatory time-trips back and forth between old Japan and modern New Orleans. You’ll find his two previous novels, Haiku Guy and Laughing Buddha, here as well.

**

Ksana—haiku by John Martone

John’s distinctive poems have had a profound influence on both the content and the shape of contemporary haiku. Unfortunately his earlier volume, dogwood & honeysuckle, is sold out, as will this one be soon, so order soon.

**

a gate left open—haiku by Alice Frampton

Alice’s debut full-length collection has received critical raves and gained her many fans. Not many left.

**

the nether world—haiku of Claire Gallagher

This volume appeared just after Claire’s death, and many have said it has gladdened them because it reminds them of her—a strong voice in a form she mastered. Not many left.

**

Coming Soon:

more wine—haiku by William M. Ramsey

A kind of sequel to Bill’s earlier volume, this wine, seeks to combine the quietistic tradition of haiku with the ecstatic tradition of mystical writing, with electric results. Available March 1.

**

long enough—Jim Westenhaver

Jim’s first chapbook of haiku is elegiac and chastening, a strong new voice you’ll want to get to know. Available March 1.

**

contemporary haibun 11

More than a decade of bringing you the best haibun and haiga written and published in English, with more than 60 pieces and 24 graphical works. Available April 1.

**

And of course there’s a lot more on the site, so please have a look www.redmoonpress.com. Thanks for your continued patronage, and the best to you all in 2010.

Red Moon Press

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And finally on a weather note, the sleepy little town of Mayodan is waking up to the white stuff this morning. Here's an east and west shot from my front porch. It's suppose to snow for several more hours. Looks like a good day for homemade soup!




I'll return tomorrow morning with this week's Haiku - Three Questions poet.

Poets and Poems - Felicia Mitchell

Oconee River, Athens

It has been a year now
since I saw a hawk
resting on a tree branch
overhanging the riverbank
while I walked at dusk
with an old friend who talked
about this bird and other hawks
and about kayaking the river

and about how brown water flows
from the Oconee to faucets in town,
pumped from a river’s basin
into our mouths, into my mouth,
where it can be as hard to shape words
to describe a hawk on a riverbank
as it is to spot a red-shouldered hawk
perched in a tree by a river in a city—

but sometimes words flow
like a river and you find
a hawk resting there.

Felicia Mitchell will participate in the Poetry Hickory reading series in Hickory, NC on February 9th. Click on the Poetry Hickory link below for a schedule and directions.

Poetry Hickory - February 9, 2010

Photo of Felicia Mitchell (on the laptop) by Bunny Medeiros

Photo of the desk and window by Felicia Mitchell

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If you would like to participate in this series, send a photo of yourself composing a poem or writing or a picture of a location where you enjoy writing, along with one of your poems (the type/genre of poem doesn't matter). This series will allow us to see the various locations that inspire us or where we go to write.

Tuesday updates - 1/26/2010

Hidenori Hiruta has a three part blog post on the Akita International Haiku Network featuring a number of poets and their haiku about the new year.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

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Gillena Cox maintains the Caribbean Kigo Kukai Results blog. View recent and past winners of the Caribbean Kigo Kukai by visiting:

http://caribbeankigo.pbworks.com/Caribbean-Kigo-Kukai-Results

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M. Kei sent this:

Pirates of the Narrow Seas Now in Print

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And finally, here's a video of Collin Barber reading his excellent haibun entitled Sea of Stars:

Susan Antolin - Three Questions

Susan Antolin co-edits Mariposa, the membership journal of the Haiku Poets of Northern California, edited the newsletter for HPNC for the past couple of years, and will be taking on the job of newsletter editor for the Haiku Society of America in 2010. Her first individual collection of haiku and tanka, Artichoke Season, was published in July 2009 and can be purchased by contacting her at susantolin@gmail.com. She also has a web site where she posts haibun and other haiku-related musings on a weekly basis at www.artichokeseason.wordpress.com

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1) Why do you write haiku?

The former U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser, wrote, “The poem is the device through which the ordinary world is seen in a new way—engaging, compelling, even beautiful.” He was referring to free verse poetry, but his words are just as applicable to haiku. When I first began reading haiku and tanka while living in Japan twenty years ago, the thing that got me hooked was the very ordinariness of the subject matter. That a few simple lines about the everyday stuff of life could stop the world for a moment was amazing—and still is.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I also write tanka, haibun and have co-written a few rengay. I read, but do not write, longer poems and am a huge fan of Billy Collins.

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



the tablecloth
shaken over the lawn
starry night

Artichoke Season (Spare Poems Press, 2009)




and so I agree
not to die before she does—
the sound of crickets

San Francisco International Contest for Haiku 2008 (second place)
Artichoke Season (Spare Poems Press, 2009)




Independence Day
I struggle to free myself
from a wet swimsuit

Brady Senryu Contest 2005 (third place)
Frogpond, Volume XXIX, Number 1, Winter 2006
Artichoke Season (Spare Poems Press, 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 Susan answered. You must be a published poet to participate.

Sunday updates 1/24/2010

Atlas Poetica 5 Deadline Approaching

M. Kei sent this:

A reminder to tanka poets: the deadline for Atlas Poetica is January 31, 2010. We have received a great many sequences this time around, but we are in need of short sequences and short tanka prose, and especially individual tanka. Topics for themed tanka include vacation/recreation, rainy weather, and women.

~K~

--
M. Kei
Editor, Atlas Poetica
A Journal of Poetry of Place in Modern English Tanka
Published by Modern English Tanka Press, Baltimore, MD

Atlas Poetica
TheMETPress.com
AtlasPoetica.blogspot.com

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Information about the 2010 World Haiku Festival in Nagasaki is available at this link:

http://tobaccoroadpoet.com/docs/WHF2010.pdf

Poets and Poems - Melanie Faith

Pastoral

If I had a yellow dog, I’d live in the country,
I’d have an Appaloosa I’d ride on Sundays.
I’d call the dog Buttercup, the horse Prize or Champ.

I’d plant honeysuckle and lilac on the right bank
where graze the cotton ball sheep bleating low
by the pond with the two ducks who’d mate
for life, Bessie and Gussy, round and round

lapping their blue-sky circumference, content.
I’d carry my basket to market on Saturday,
fennel and sorrel and honey from the comb

then back home to my stone and ivy bungalow.
Fire-side, spine-to-spine, Herbert and Yeats,
letters I’d pen with quill and gooseberry ink
I made myself in rinsed out bottles shining

like quartz by the window desk by morning
light. Summer I’d simmer my jams of berry
I grew, winter I’d wait for the ice and wind

to subdue, by autumn the oranges and umbers
I’d succumb to their crisp and crackling crunch
underfoot, but Spring’s green glad I’d like best.
Before May Day, all the budding most bright,

and I’d never be lonely, never pick any fights. Never
wish I was anywhere other than where I was home.
If only I had a yellow dog, I’d live in the country alone.

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If you would like to participate in this series, send a photo of yourself composing a poem or writing or a picture of a location where you enjoy writing, along with one of your poems (the type/genre of poem doesn't matter). This series will allow us to see the various locations that inspire us or where we go to write.

Wednesday updates 01/20/2010

The 2010 Anita Sadler Weiss Memorial Haiku Awards

The deadline for the 2010 Anita Sadler Weiss Memorial Haiku Awards Competition is fast approaching. See the guidelines below and get your entries in. We want to have as many participants, from as many locales around the world, as we possibly can!

Deadline: IN-HAND by JANUARY 31, 2010.

Sponsor: The Haiku Poets of Central Maryland.

Eligibility: Open to the public, aged 14 and up. (Only the contest coordinators are prohibited from entering.)

Awards: Total of $300.00 in prize money: First Place, $175.00; Second Place, $75.00; Third Place, $50.00. Five ranked Honorable Mentions will also be awarded. (Contest coordinators reserve the right to lower the prize money if sufficient entries are not received to cover the stated awards.)

Submissions: All entries must be the original work of the poet, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere.

Entry fee: $1.00 per poem. Poets may enter up to 15 haiku. Entry fee must accompany submission.

Submission Guidelines: Print or type each individual haiku, in English, on three separate 3-inch x 5-inch white index cards. On the back of ONE CARD ONLY print or type your name, address, and email address (if one is available). Include a No. 10 (business-size) SASE (or SAE plus US$1 for return postage for entries sent from outside the U.S.) for notification. Also enclose your entry fee in U.S. currency or check or money order payable in U.S. dollars to “HPCM/Elizabeth Fanto.” ENTRIES NOT FOLLOWING THESE GUIDELINES WILL BE RETURNED OR (IF SUFFICIENT POSTAGE AND/OR ENVELOPE ARE LACKING) DISCARDED. Entries without SASE or SAE + return postage will not receive winner notification.

Send entries to: Haiku Poets of Central Maryland, c/o Elizabeth Fanto, 51 Gerard Avenue, Timonium, MD 21093 USA. DO NOT EMAIL ENTRIES.

Notification/publication: Winners’ list will be mailed on April 6, 2010, to commemorate Anita Sadler Weiss’ birthday. Notification of winning poems will be sent to all competition participants and made available to the public for an SASE while supplies last. The winning poems also will be printed in The Dragonfly, the newsletter of the Haiku Poets of Central Maryland. All rights remain with the poets.

Adjudication: The name(s) of the judge(s) will be announced concurrently with the winning haiku.

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This just in from J. Zimmerman:

Dear Haiku and Tanka (and other) poets -- and readers of books:

I just came across an interesting new book blog with a project of reading women authors in 2010, so far with emphasis on poetry, specifically haiku and tanka:

http://readingwomenin2010.blogspot.com

One entry is on Peggy Lyles' haiku collection To Hear the Rain [Peggy is an associate editor of The Heron's Nest.] A cited haiku by Peggy is:

reaching for green pears -
the pull
of an old scar

Shortcut is:

http://readingwomenin2010.blogspot.com/2010/01/to-hear-rain-peggy-lyles-poetryhaiku.html

Another entry is on the new-to me tanka poet Akiko Baba: Heavenly Maiden Tanka. The blogger adds helpful background on relevant Japanese customs and includes the Romaji: "The Romaji allows non-Japanese readers to appreciate the lyricism of the originals, and through her imagery, Baba lets the natural world speak to human concerns." An example:

like snow
like leaves of a tree
as light as
the click click of collecting
the bones of my mother

Wow!

The blog has a brief paragraph explaining the motivation for the project.

Joan

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Ann K. Schwader mentioned an interest in writing speculative haibun during her Haiku - Three Questions visit here on June 21, 2009. One of Ann's haibun was published recently in the online poetry journal Goblin Fruit. To read Mount Pacho, visit the link below:

http://www.goblinfruit.net/2010/winter/poems/?poem=mountpacho

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Saša Važić sent this link:

THE 8th INTERNATIONAL HAIKU POETRY CONTEST IN ITALIAN LANGUAGE - 2010

Monday updates - 01/18/2010

moonset is looking for baseball haiku for their "edge of the moon" page. Please send your baseball haiku to Johnny Baranski at:

jbsgarage@aol.com

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This just in from Deborah P Kolodji:

Haiku Society of America, 1st Quarterly Meeting
Hosted by the Southern California Haiku Study Group
Organizers: Deborah P Kolodji and Naia

Friday, Feb 19, 2010.
5:30 p.m. Dinner at Burger Continental, 535 South Lake Ave, Pasadena.CA (Don't let the name fool you - the menu includes an assortment of Greek, Armenian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean entries.)
7:30 pm. Haiku reading at Ten Thousand Villages, 567 South Lake Ave Pasadena, CA.
Urban Haiku performance, "Basho meets Spoken Word" performance. Poets include Victor Ortiz, Michael Dylan Welch, Eric Morago (reading Basho).
Open Haiku mic.

Saturday, Feb 20, 2010.
10:00 am. Museum tour, Pacific Asia Museum 46 N. Los Robles, Pasadena, CA
10:30 am. Southern California Haiku Study Group participation in a Poets- on-Site-style sampler performance. Haiku and haibun.
11:00 am. Lunch at Sitar, 618 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA
12:30 - 6:00 pm. A variety of readings, talks, and workshops at the Pacific Asia Museum, 46 N. Los Robles, Pasadena, CA
Presenters include Dr. Thomas Rimer, Jeanne Nakano (Interpretive dance and haiku), Susan Antolin, Ce Rosenow, and others.
6:30 p.m. Dinner at McCormick and Schmick's, 111 N. Los Robles, Pasadena,CA
8:00 pm. - Salon at a private home.

Sunday, Feb 21, 2010
10:00 am. Gold Line Ginko. We will catch the Gold Line in Pasadena to Union Station, Olvera Street, and Little Tokyo.
12:30 pm. (approx) Lunch and sharing of the haiku we write in Little Tokyo.

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Debbie Kolodji dkolodji@aol.com or Naia naia01@yahoo.com

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Robert Epstein sent this:

I am writing to invite you to submit poem(s) for a "death" poem anthology that I am editing. By death poems, I am referring to haiku or tanka that are written with awareness of one's own mortality (not someone else's), and which may reflect what Yoel Hoffmann, in JAPANESE DEATH POEMS, refers to as the essence of one's spiritual legacy (however you define that).

I would be most obliged if you would be willing to post the call for submissions. I'm thinking that it might help to post an example poem:

that's what
dandelions do . . .
blow away

-- Stanford M. Forrester, Poetalk

Thank you very much! And, I look forward to receiving a death poem... or more than one!

Warm regards,

Robert Epstein (taylorepstein@earthlink.net)

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The February 2010 issue of LYNX: A Journal for Linking Poets is online at:

http://www.ahapoetry.com/ahalynx/251hmpg.html

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3LIGHTS Journal of Haiku & Related Forms : Winter 2010 has been published. Visit http://3lights.wordpress.com/ to access the new edition. Our featured poet for this debut edition is Michael Dylan Welch.

Submissions of haiku and related poems on a theme of 'music' are now being considered for our Spring edition. Details are at http://3lights.wordpress.com/submissions.

Best wishes,
Liam Wilkinson

3LIGHTS : Journal of Haiku & Related Forms
Edited by Liam & Diane Wilkinson
http://3lights.wordpress.com

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And finally, many of you probably saw the photo my daughter, Alana, took of me and last month's snowman, an event that turned into our first haiga collaboration. Alas, here are the remains of our beloved snowman, Billy Bobb, a name given to him by my very creative daughter.

Robert Bauer - Three Questions

Robert Bauer lives with his wife, Debra, and three pups along Big Wheeling Creek in rural West Virginia. He works as a carpenter and electrician. Robert's haiku have appeared in numerous online and print journals. He is also co-secretary of The Shiki Monthly Kukai.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

Haiku, both reading and writing, keeps me in touch with and forces me to be constantly aware of the world as it is. It's an ephemeral moment placed into word.


2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Haibun, free verse, tanka, haiga and most all classic forms of poetry.


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




chill wind —
the heart of an oak
leaves the chimney

The Heron's Nest Volume VIII, Number 1




pear blossoms . . .
the farmer's wife
selects a chicken

The Heron's Nest Volume VI, Number 6




first snow
the gypsy slips some beans
into her mojo

New Resonance 5 Red Moon Press



Thank you, Curtis. I greatly enjoy reading all the Tobacco Road news.

Take care,

Robert

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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 Robert answered. You must be a published poet to participate.

True Haiku Stories: Haiku Rendezvous in Cary, NC

When Collin Barber informed me last summer that he was going to be in my state on business, I knew that I would have to set aside some time to meet this award winning poet. Collin, an MRI Technologist for a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, would be in a series of training classes in Cary, NC.

Collin was originally scheduled to be in Cary during the month of October, a time that was great for me. The fall 2009 semester would be well underway at the college where I work, allowing me to use a couple of vacation days to meet my friend. Due to project delays, October's trip soon became a November trip, which was fine; my job responsibilities would not hinder me from meeting Collin until the first and second week of January 2010, the start of the spring semester, a time that is very busy for me.

As November approached, I received an email from Collin stating that he would be in Cary during the week of January 11 which, unfortunately, fell right in the middle of the start of the spring semester. Thoughts of using vacations days to meet my friend vanished; there is absolutely no way I can ask for days off during the start of a semester.*

Undaunted, I checked my calendar and decided that I'd leave work early on January 14th and visit Collin. With camera, camcorder, laptop, and suitcase in hand, I departed Wentworth, NC at 3 p.m. for the nearly three hour drive to Cary, dodging deer along the way.

It may interest the reader to know that Collin and I have been friends for about five years. We met, as many folks do these days, via the Internet. I've followed Collin's rapid progress as an accomplished haiku poet via his web site and journals for years. Versatile, Collin does not limit his creativity to one genre. He writes senryu, tanka, haibun, rengay, and has had a number of haiga published. We have critiqued each other's work (though he seldom needs critiquing) and collaborated on a number of unpublished rengay. A selection of our poems appeared in A New Resonance 5: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, a Red Moon Press anthology.

I arrived in Cary at around 6 p.m., checked into my hotel room, unpacked, then phoned Collin's room. Not long after, we greeted each other in the hall and departed from the hotel for conversation and burgers at a nearby restaurant. Well, that's not exactly what happened, we became...misplaced amid the hustle and bustle of Cary's traffic on US Highway 1. I did not realize it at the time, but our collaborative sensibilities would come into play in getting us fed and back to our hotel.

lost —
a visitor to my state
gives me directions

With the fear of impending starvation behind us, we settled down for dinner at O'Charley's Restaurant. Conversation centered around our careers, family, and, of course, poetry. After dinner, we returned to my room where we sampled the goodness of Southern sake, drinking a toast to friendship and poetry. We talked about the poets who have inspired us, many of whom are undoubtedly reading these words. We read and critiqued new poems and exchanged stories about poems, events that inspired us, for some of our work that has already been published.

Exhibiting his vigilant "haiku eye", Collin reached for a pen and pad, composing the perfect poem for the occasion:

[Click the picture for a larger image.]

Time slipped away from us much too soon and by midnight we realized that sleep would be necessary for us to function the next day, Collin in his classroom and flight back to Arkansas, and me driving to my job.

A person can get to know someone through email and their creative works. Though Collin and I had not met prior to January 14, 2010, we experienced a sense of camaraderie and friendship in those few hours that will, undoubtedly, last a life time.

[Collin Barber and Curtis Dunlap photo by Barry Cochran.]

[Collin Barber displays his sense of humor about haiku.]

* Which, if you were at Haiku North American 2007, is why you saw very little of me. I would visit HNA events briefly, then go back to my hotel room and work via a laptop. One of the most difficult things I've experienced in my life is not being able to fully participate in that which I love. Still, I'm thankful to be working and for the time I spent at HNA 2007.

Saturday updates

This just in from Francine Banwarth:

The Haiku Society of America Einbond Renku Contest date for 2010 has been changed. The new in-hand deadline is April 30, 2010. All information and the 2009 winners and judges can be found on the HSA Web site:

http://www.hsa-haiku.org/hsa-contests.htm

Thanks again,
Francine

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Cindy Tebo and Gillena Cox collaborated to create a beautiful haiga dedicated to the reconstruction and regeneration of The New Haiti. Visit Gillena's blog to view this beautiful collaboration:

http://myblog-lunchbreak.blogspot.com/2010/01/cover-of-evening.html

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A new issue of The Asahi Haikuist Network is online:

http://www.asahi.com/english/haiku/100115.html

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Charlie Smith sent links to these stories:

American grad student works to bring late double A-bomb survivor's poetry to U.S.

New Year's Poetry Reading Ceremony held at Imperial Palace

Harley King - Three Questions

During his more than sixty years, Harley King has been gainfully employed as a carpenter, street sweeper, car hop, corn detasseler, hospital orderly, radio announcer, book editor, publisher, freelance writer, bus driver, sports writer, bookkeeper, policy and procedures writer, forms designer, marketing vice-president, corporate executive, professional speaker, facilitator, salesman, trainer, organizational development consultant, ad writer and communications executive. Some jobs he has held for a whole day and others he has held for years. He has also had more than thirty different bosses.

Harley holds a B.A. degree in English, a M.A. in the School of Hard Knocks and is working on a Ph.D. in the Survival of the Unknown Writer.

While Harley grew up in central Illinois, he has managed to visit forty-five states and has lived in five of them. He has been fortunate to step on the soil of Canada, Mexico, Jamaica and Venezuela. He is currently living in Ohio with his wife of over 35 years.

Harley King has been writing and publishing poetry for over 34 years. He spent 7 years writing only haiku. He has published 12 books of poetry and 2 works of non-fiction.

Harley has been speaking on leadership and customer service for over 20 years. He has delivered more than 4,000 presentations. For one nine year stretch, he averaged over 250 presentations a year.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I was first introduced to haiku in my freshman year of college (1967) when I read The Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau Roshi. During my college years, I carried a note book in which I jotted down my thoughts in haiku form. In 1975 when I began writing seriously, I focused exclusively on writing haiku. I wrote haiku initially because working full-time did not allow much time for writing. I spent seven years writing, reading and studying only haiku. In April 1976 my first haiku was published in Dragonfly:


on the rotted log

an old man sits — April winds

tug at his collar


Since that publication I have had over 200 haiku published in over 25 magazines, newspapers and books including: Dragonfly, Modern Haiku, Bonsai, Outch, Cicada, Frogpond, Gusto, High/Coo, Leanfrog, and Wind Chimes. My haiku have been collected and published in three books: Winter Silence, Empty Playground and Mother, Don’t Lock Me in that Closet! My first haiku to be published in Modern Haiku (Winter/Spring 1978) was:


the bearded old man

hand in hand with the woman —

full autumn moon


Over 200 of my haiku including my reading of my first book, Winter Silence, can be found on my website: http://web.mac.com/hgking


Japanese Haiku Poets who have most influenced my haiku: Basho, Issa, Santoka Taneda.


2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?


After seven years of writing haiku, I created a seven-line poem that had its roots in haiku.

I started with three haiku (9 lines) strung together and shortened it over time to seven lines. In 1984 I wrote over 400 of these seven line poems. In 1999 I began writing long narrative story poems. In 2002 I began writing the long narrative poems in response to works of art. In 2006 I developed a 20 line poem. I still write in all four forms today.


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



Illinois farmland —

pheasant scoots across the snow

the pickup heads home


Dragonfly, July 1977, Vol. 5 No. 3, p. 41.




the grave digger

smokes his last cigarette...

soft spring rain


Dragonfly, October 1977, Vol. 5 No. 4, p. 32.




unexpected —

an old friend

crickets too


Matrix Six, Red Herring Press, 1981, p. 1.

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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 Harley answered. You must be a published poet to participate.

Haiga & ukiaHaiku updates

This just in from an'ya:

The original founder and first Webmistress of HAIGAOnline was Jeanne Emrich; the second editor and webmistress of haigaonline was an'ya, and the third editor and current Webmistress is Linda Papanicolaou, who now keeps it alive and well as Haigaonline at www.haigaonline.com

From the very beginning and to-date, the "Poem this Painting" concept was and still is, a special feature of HO. With respect and in keeping with that fun tradition, and since moonset prints haiga also - we invite everyone to send in their submissions to us for this cheery spring "chickadee in pine" by resident moonset artist, Marje A. Dyck of Canada. Marje herself will choose the haiku she thinks best enhances her artwork, and the finished haiga (haiku painting) will be published in moonset's Spring/Summer 2010 issue.

Just submit your (one) haiku directly to moonseteditor@gmail.com with the subject heading "Author this Picture" any time before our next deadline of 1 February, 2010. Think spring! . . .

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A Wild Garden
A Visit with Haikumaster Jane Reichhold

Dear Friends,

The ukiaHaiku festival is now accepting submissions of haiku to the Jane Reichhold International Prize category (formerly the Contemporary Haiku category). Festival organizers thought you might enjoy reading the attached essay about a visit with Jane Reichhold. Please pass it, and the festival guidelines (below), to everyone you know who writes haiku, and to any and all haiku groups and organizations that you know of. Submissions to the competition must be post-marked by February 26, 2010.

Kate Marianchild

ukiaHaiku Festival and Competition

The ukiaHaiku festival and competition welcomes submissions of haiku to the Jane Reichhold International Prize category (formerly known as the Contemporary Haiku category) from poets across the planet.* Poems submitted in this category may be written in either the contemporary or the traditional 5-7-5 format.

Jane Reichhold is a haiku poet of international renown who has generously contributed her time and expertise to the development of the ukiaHaiku festival. She is the author of over thirty books, including "Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-on Guide." She is a two-time winner of the Museum of Haiku Literature Award (Tokyo), and three-time winner of a Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award. In 1998, in recognition of her contributions to haiku poetry, the Emperor and Empress of Japan invited her to attend the Imperial New Year's Poetry Party at the Palace in Tokyo. But more than anything else, Jane is a delight to be with. Her love of Haiku as an art form is a reflection of her love of the world. You can learn more about Jane and her wide-ranging interest in haiku and other forms of short poetry at her website www.ahapoetry.com and in the attached essay.


Website Address: www.ukiahaiku.org
Fee: $5 for up to three haiku.
Limit: Maximum 3 haiku per person.
Eligibility: age 19 and over.


Submission Guidelines:
If emailing: Follow instructions on website, or:

1) Send a separate email for each haiku to haiku@ukiahaiku.org. Send no more than three haiku. In body of email include:

a) author's name;
b) email address;
c) the category (Contemporary);
d) the poem;
e) alternate/additional contact information;

2) Send the fee by snail mail to ukiaHaiku festival, POB 865, Ukiah, CA 95482.

If snail mailing: Go to www.ukiahaiku.org and download the form. Follow instructions on the form.

Deadline: February 26, 2010 (postmark or email date).

Judging: Internationally famous haiku poet Jane Reichhold will judge the Contemporary Haiku category.

Awards: $100 first place, $50 second place, $25 third place, plus a small booklet of winning poems and publication in that booklet.

Festival and Awards Ceremony: Sunday April 18, 2010, 2 p.m. Winners are strongly encouraged to attend the festival to read their poems.

*The other categories, including a new Spanish-language category, are reserved for contestants from Mendocino, Sonoma, Lake, and Humboldt counties in northern California, USA.

Thursday updates

Tanka Online

Tanka Online is pleased to announce our latest update, featuring Indian musician and poet, Kala Ramesh. An interview with Kala by Amelia Fielden, "A Song in the Air: an Indian Musician's Path to Haiku and Tanka," recounts how Kala started writing the Japanese forms and also how her music background and the Indian concept of rasa shapes her poetry. Rasa, according to Kala, " means the aesthetic emotion — a flavor, the distilled essence of the mood created in the listener’s mind . . . the residue left in our minds after we appreciate a piece of art." Check out Kala's interview, her inspiring tanka, and also the latest verses of our regulars--Jeanne Emrich, Mariko Kitakubo, Michael McClintock, Maggie Chula, Amelia fielden, and Tom Clausen--at www.tankaonline.com.

Warmest wishes for a Happy New Year!

Jeanne Emrich

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Pamela A. Babusci sent this update:

Dear Tanka poets,

There has been a few changes in Moonbathing, so, please read carefully the below updated information.

I will be the sole editor of Moonbathing from now on and all tanka submissions should be e-mailed to me and all subscriptions and/or donations should be made out to me and mailed to my address below.

I now have the premier issue of Moonbathing and will be mailing them out to all subscribers this week. Anybody else who would like to purchase a copy(ies), of Moonbathing please let me know how many you would like to have.

In the future, I plan on making Moonbathing a larger all women's tanka journal, so, I can include more tanka by a greater number of fine poets and to expand its international readership.

If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail me at: moongate44(at)gmail(dot)com

Hope you had a Joyous Holiday Season & A Happy New Year.

Thank you for supporting Moonbathing.

Harmony, Pamela A. Babusci, Editor of Moonbathing

UPDATE ON MOONBATHING
A JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S TANKA

Founding Editor Pamela A. Babusci is proud to announce the first all women's tanka journal: Moonbathing.

Moonbathing will publish two issues a year: Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer.

For the Premier Issue and yearly (Fall/Winter 2009–10), the Editor is sponsoring a "moonbathing" tanka contest. Tanka poets may submit one tanka on the subject of “moonbathing”—whatever that means to you—for consideration, in addition to their regular submissions. The winner will be featured in the premiere issue of Moonbathing and receive two issues of Moonbathing as the prize. (Be sure to label your entry “moonbathing contest” if sending along with a regular submission.)

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Moonbathing will feature only women poets. Send a maximum of five (5) tanka per submission period. Submission deadlines:

Fall/Winter Issue: In-hand Deadline: November 1st. Fall/winter or non-seasonal themes only.

Spring/Summer Issue: In-hand Deadline: May 1st. Spring/summer or non-seasonal themes only.

No previously published tanka or simultaneous submissions; no tanka that has been posted on-line, whether on a personal website/blog or on a tanka discussion group; and no publicly workshopped tanka will be considered or accepted.

SUBMISSION ADDRESS:

Send your tanka IN THE BODY OF AN EMAIL to: Pamela A. Babusci: moongate44(at)gmail(dot)com PLEASE NO ATTACHMENTS. E-mail submissions ONLY.

Moonbathing is seeking to recognize, honor, and praise the unique "female voice" and perspective in tanka. The Editor is excited about being the first women editor to offer this type of literary venue to female tanka poets, and hope all women poets will feel honored and enthusiastic as well.

PAYMENT:

Unfortunately, at this time the Editor will not be able to provide contributors’ copies. Donations are most welcome.

Due to the current economic situation I hope that all tanka poets who have their work accepted will support Moonbathing by purchasing a copy or a subscription. If Moonbathing is to succeed it will need your support and I will be most grateful for it.

DISCLAIMER:

Moonbathing does not assume liability for copyright infringement or failure to acknowledge previously published tanka.

COPIES/SUBSCRIPTIONS:

Subscriptions: $10 for one year (two issues) U.S. and Canada; $5 for one copy (includes postage). International: $14 U.S. dollars. Make checks—or send cash or international money orders—payable to Pamela A. Babusci to: Moonbathing Editor
150 Milford Street Apt. 13 14515-1810 USA

These subscription prices will increase for issues three and four due to the cost of printing and S&H.

The Editor of Moonbathing is looking forward to receiving your best tanka. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail Pamela A. Babusci moongate44(at)gmail(dot)com

Respectfully submitted,

Pamela A. Babusci, Editor of Moonbathing

Poets and Poems - Kirsty Karkow

Lessons Along a Thorny Trail

A desert childhood
taught wariness.
I learned to search
for rattle snakes
warming themselves;
muted colors melding
with an arid landscape
of arrowheads and sand.

Once, at sun-up,
as I went to feed
the appaloosa,
a diamondback
sidled slowly
across the thorny trail
to the horse corral.
Silent, stealthy,
softly muscular
beneath my booted foot,
it taught me to jump
high, wide, and faster
than fangs could strike.

Even now, growing old,
I scan the ground ahead.


[Photo by Edward Karkow]

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If you would like to participate in this series, send a photo of yourself composing a poem or writing or a picture of a location where you enjoy writing, along with one of your poems (the type/genre of poem doesn't matter). This series will allow us to see the various locations that inspire us or where we go to write.

Wednesday updates

Haiku Now! Contest 2010

The Haiku Foundation, as part of its mission to expand opportunities for writers of English-language haiku, has created the HaikuNow! National Haiku Contests for 2010. The first contest, for poets of any age or experience, opens in early January and runs through the end of March. Prizes will be awarded for English-language haiku in three categories: traditional, contemporary and innovative. Descriptions and examples of such poems may be found in the How to Submit section below. Results will be announced during April, National Poetry Month, on this web site.

Prizes

First-prize winners in each category will receive $100. Honorable mentions will receive $25. All winning poems will be featured on The Haiku Foundation web site and permanently archived.

Judges

We will have five pre-selectors and two final judges: Billy Collins and Jim Kacian.

Billy Collins is the final judge for haiku in the Traditional category. He served as U. S. Poet Laureate from 2001-2003 and has been called “The most popular poet in America,” (New York Times). His book of haiku, She Was Just Seventeen, was published by Modern Haiku Press in 2006. He is Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College (CUNY). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Collins for additional information.

Jim Kacian is the final judge for haiku in the Contemporary and Innovative categories. He is the founder of The Haiku Foundation and the author of 15 books of haiku. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Kacian for additional information.

Entry Rules

Contest opens: January 6, 2010.

Deadline for submission: In hand by March 31, 2010.

Contest results: Winners will be announced during National Poetry Month, April 2010, on The Haiku Foundation web site www.thehaikufoundation.org.

Who can enter: Anyone (other than Officers, Associates and Board Members of The Haiku Foundation, and their immediate families) may enter.

Fees: None. Free for all contestants.

Basic criteria: All haiku must be in English and must meet the criteria for the appropriate category, as described below. All poems must be the original, unpublished work of the submitter.

How to Submit

Each person can submit no more than one poem per category, for a total of three poems. All entries must be submitted using the online forms available from this page. See the entry forms and example poems for the following categories:

* Traditional Category, judged by Billy Collins
* Contemporary Category, judged by Jim Kacian
* Innovative Category, judged by Jim Kacian

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Masks III

This just in from Chris Gordon:

We are currently accepting submissions for Masks III and excitedly await them.

Masks is a journal of haiku written under the guises of pseudonyms (haigo, in the Japanese haiku tradition), personae, mirages, alter egos, hallucinations, and tricksters.

Like the transformation masks carved by the Kwakiutl people, where, for example, the raven mask is opened and a human face is revealed, surrounded by two serpents, Masks is a journal within a journal (Roadrunner).

Send as many poems as you like, using as many masks as you like.

All work must be accompanied by one or more mask.

For a look at what we've done so far, please take a gander at:

Masks One: http://www.roadrunnerjournal.net/pages93/MASKS_No_One.pdf

&

Masks 2: http://www.roadrunnerjournal.net/pages94/MASKS_2.pdf

With issue 2, we established the The Domino Award: http://thedominoaward.wordpress.com/


We'll be accepting submissions until the last day of January and will respond to them as soon as possible.

best of the tiger to you,

Chris Gordon
http://antantantantant.wordpress.com/
http://blackfoxstudios.wordpress.com/
http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/resources/poet-details/?IDclient=74

&

Scott Metz
http://lakesandnowwolves.wordpress.com/
http://www.roadrunnerjournal.net/
http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/resources/poet-details/?IDclient=61

Tuesday updates

The January issue of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature has been released featuring poems by Philip DeLoach, Warren Gossett, Charlotte Hamrick, Kevin Cutrer, Mark Folse, Patricia L. Johnson, Anthony Robbins, Donald Harbour, Scott Whitaker, Joseph Olschner, Anderson O’Brien and Lana Maht Wiggins:

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Shape of a Box

Issue 65 of Shape of a Box is online with poems by Rivka Keren.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBHNCxsTHJI

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Winter Moon Awards for Haiku 2009 Results

This just in from Carolyn Thomas:

First Prize $100


record heat

my mind full

of mistakes

Glenn G. Coats VA




Second Prize $50


   her sixty fifth

she shows us a rare iris

             deeply veined

John Parsons UK




Third Prize $25


autumn

the color of his hair

in the leaves

Marguerite Frarey NY




Zen Award $25


just enough snow

to show

the lines of the plough

John F. Ziemba MA




Honorable Mention


heat wave---

we rest on the shady side

of the tombstone

Carole MacRury WA




scent of straw

each hen

a different voice

Barbara Snow OR




late frost

the frayed seams

of his jeans

Barbara Snow OR




full moon---

she describes

the tumor’s size

Susan Marie La Vallee HI




lilac

I find reasons

to return

Jennifer Gomoll Popolis IL




autumn melancholy---

she hand paints

another comb

Pamela A. Babusci NY


Congratulations to the winners chosen from 374 entries. Thanks to all who entered. I wish you peace, joy and prosperity in the New Year.---Carolyn Thomas

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3LIGHTS

SUBMISSION CALL: 3LIGHTS Spring 2010

ISSUE THEME: Music

We are now accepting submissions of haiku and related forms on a theme of MUSIC for the 3LIGHTS Spring 2010 edition. Please submit up to ten haiku/senryu/tanka/kyoka with a musical theme, along with a brief biography, to threelightsgallery@yahoo.co.uk. The closing date for all submissions is March 1st 2010 - the Spring edition will be published in April.

For full submission details, visit http://3lights.wordpress.com/submissions

Issue 1 of the 3LIGHTS Journal will be released this month at http://3lights.wordpress.com

Best wishes,
Liam Wilkinson
Editor, 3LIGHTS

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moonset

This just in from an'ya:

Hi there folks, now that we've all survived the holiday season one way or another, just a reminder to submit your work for the Spring/Summer Issue of moonset before our 1 February 2010 deadline. Due to those kind and generous souls who were able to donate, we have filed for our non-profit and are now in process of applying for grants, (although of course, these things take time as you all know). Anyway please feel free to submit your works to the following moonset editors:

haiku and sequences, senryu, and any questions: please email an'ya at moonseteditor@gmail.com

tanka (individual or sequences): please email Amelia Fielden at: anafielden@hotmail.com

renku: please email Norman Darlington at: renkueditor@gmail.com

haibun: please email Bruce Ross at: dr_bruce_ross@hotmail.com

Entries for the moonset haiku contest : please email moonsetpublisher@gmail.com

photographic-arts: please email Jim Swift at: oston@shawbiz.ca

For postal addresses and more details, or to become a subscriber, please visit our website at: http://www.moonset.us

If you plan to send your book in for review, please contact an'ya first, at moonseteditor@gmail.com and I'll let you know where to mail them.

Any news, notes or announcements that you would like posted at the moonset website, please email Sasa Vazic' at: vazicsasa@gmail.com

In addition, attached is our "Author this Picture" painted by resident moonset artist Marje A. Dyck of Canada. Marje herself will choose the haiku she thinks best suits her artwork and we will publish this in our spring issue. It is not too late to submit your haiku before 1 February for this feature, so please email submissions to an'ya at: moonseteditor@gmail.com

Also attached here is a sneak-peak at moonset's new heavy journal cover (front and back) which we are proud to present with our Spring/Summer 2010 issue, again, as a result of donations received in 2009. We thank you ever so much! love ya', an'ya & very Respectfully peterB

Lorin Ford - Three Questions

Lorin Ford writes haiku and longer poems. She lives in Wurundgeri country, close to the city of Melbourne in drought-stricken Victoria, Australia. Her haiku have appeared regularly in Australian journals and anthologies and in haiku journals based elsewhere in the world since the beginning of 2005. 3 Lights Gallery featured what light there is, a collection of thirty of Lorin’s haiku, from September to December, 2009. Lorin’s haiku placed first in both the 6th and 7th paper wasp Jack Stamm Awards. Her haiku book, a wattle seedpod was awarded the great honour of first place in the 2009 HSA Mildred Kanterman Awards. Lorin is haiku editor for Notes From the Gean.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I came to writing haiku from writing longer poems. My interest began as late as 2004, on coming across Dhugal Lindsay’s


picking up a jellyfish. . .

my lifeline

clear and deep


In an instant, Dhugal’s tiny poem reconnected me to my early childhood via the sudden presence in memory of picking up washed-in moon jellies on Seaford beach. It also showed me, metaphorically, that haiku can work like a lens (as a small, stingless jellyfish on your palm does), focusing and magnifying the kind of experiences and connections in and with the world which are deeply formative and nourishing. This was my first ‘haiku moment’ and the beginning of my learning to read haiku. There are many haiku that’ve moved me similarly since.

I write haiku because I want to do what Dhugal and others have done: write in context of the natural world which has informed me from my beginnings and continues to inform me when I relax and acknowledge that this is continually happening. I like to write in relation to the things of nature, their presences which nourish and ground my inner life and my being in the world. There is a sacred duty among native Australian peoples that the stories of country and all that makes country must continue to be told or else all will slip back into the formless, the uncreated. There is immense human wisdom in this. Haiku, for me, offers a way of sharing in this continual remembrance and recreation of the world, which after all, is part of us as we are part of it. The communal aspect, mainly via the internet, for me, so far, is important to me, too.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

It isn’t primarily form that attracts me to a poem. I enjoy many kinds of poems, classic and contemporary, of many schools. The list (from Auden to Zukovsky) of favourite poems is far too long, but I can say that my favourite play is still Shakespeare’s last, ‘The Tempest’. Since discovering haiku, I’ve found much of what I value in haiku to be embedded in other poetry I like, too.

What kinds of poems I enjoy writing seems to be in constant flux. I wrote hit and miss ‘free verse’ in youth, then nothing ‘creative’ at all for thirty years. The multiple demands of life happen! I began again this century with ‘free verse’ and a few freely interpreted set forms. It seems I absorbed Denise Levertov’s idea that each poem requires its own form, way back when, in youth. I’ve been encouraged by unanticipated success in publication of my ‘long’ poems in Australian journals and anthologies, as I have been with my haiku. Haiku seems to have taken over my writing life almost completely over the past few years and I find that it influences what little other verse I write these days, though that influence mightn’t be apparent to others.

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

The openness of wonder is something I value in others’ haiku. I’m not at all sure which of mine, if any, achieve this. That’s not for me to decide. Like many poets, I usually like best the most recent thing I’ve written. . . for a little while. Anyway, Curtis, here are three that I hope your readers will find worthwhile:



rusted hinge

the butterfly’s wings

close, open . . .


(1st place, 7th paper wasp Jack Stamm Award, 2005)




on a bare twig rain beads what light there is


(Shamrock Haiku Journal #3)




slowly,

the earth moves –

snails in love


(Modern Haiku 40.3)

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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 Lorin answered. You must be a published poet to participate.

Helen Losse, Betty Drevniok Award & Kusamakura Results

Helen Losse, author of Better With Friends (published by Rank Stranger Press) and the Poetry Editor of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature will appear on The Jane Crown Show today at 5 p.m. EST. The Jane Crown Show is streamed live at blogtalkradio. An archive of previous shows is also available. Listeners can call in during the show at (646) 200-0176.

Tune in at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-jane-crown-show/2010/01/03/helen-losse

Break a leg Helen! :)

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The Betty Drevniok Award 2010

Haiku Canada established this competition in memory of Betty Drevniok, Past President of the society. With the exception of members of the executive of Haiku Canada, the contest is open to everyone, including Regional Coordinators of Haiku Canada.

• Haiku must be unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere.

• A flat fee of $5 Cdn (in Canada) or $5 US (for entries outside Canada) for up to 3 haiku is payable to “Haiku Canada”.

• Submit 2 copies of each haiku, each copy typed or neatly printed on a 3X5 card; one card in each set must include the author’s name, address and telephone number in the upper corner, while the other card with the identical poem must contain no identifying marks.

• Postmark Deadline: February 14, 2010.

• Winners will be announced at the Annual General Meeting in May 2010. First Prize $100; Second Prize $50; Third Prize $25 for haiku. The top eleven poems will be published in a Haiku Canada Sheet and distributed with the Haiku Canada Anthology.

• No entries will be returned. If you are NOT a member of Haiku Canada and wish a copy of the broadsheet with the winning haiku, include a SASE (business size, Cdn stamps) or a SAE and $1 for postage and handling.

• Send entries to The Betty Drevniok Award, c/o Ann Goldring, PO Box 97, 5 Cooks Drive, Leaskdale, Ontario, Canada L0C 1C0.

• Contest Coordinator: Ann Goldring

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14th International Kusamakura Haiku Competition

Winning haiku for the 14th International Kusamakura Haiku Competition are available here:

http://kusamakura-haiku.jp/backnumber/2009/english_e.html

Congratulations winners!

Prune Juice 3, Penny Harter, Atlas Poetica 5 & Haibun Today

This just in from Liam Wilkinson:

Prune Juice Issue 3 Published

Dear friends,

I am delighted to announce that issue 3 of Prune Juice: Journal of Senryu & Kyoka has been published. It is available online, free of charge, at http://prunejuice.wordpress.com.

The Winter 2010 edition features new poems from the likes of Sanford Goldstein, Alexis Rotella, M. Kei, Denis M. Garrison, George Swede, Patricia Prime and many other superlative writers of senryu and kyoka. I would like to thank all those writers who submitted work for issue 3 and invite you all to submit again in time for our summer 2010 edition, to be released in July.

Submission details for the next edition of Prune Juice can be found at our website - http://prunejuice.wordpress.com. The deadline is May 1st 2010.

Please spread this information widely, and thanks again for all your support.

Best wishes for 2010,
Liam Wilkinson
Editor, Prune Juice

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Penny Harter

Penny Harter will have five tanka (one per day / weekend) featured the week of January 4th, 2010, on Shreve Memorial Library's Electronic Poetry Network (EPN), running all day long on an electronic message board at the Main Library in Shreveport, Louisiana. Her poems will also be posted on the Library's main web site and sent to poetry lovers in the library system's 21 branches.

http://www.shreve-lib.org/poemofday.htm

In addition, six of her haibun: "Driving Home," "Estell Manor State Park, " "On Rumpled Sheets," "Low Tide," "Voices in the Rain," and "The Meaning of Life" appear in the on-line and print issues of Modern Haibun & Tanka Prose #2 - Winter 2009: http://tiny.cc/twyms

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Atlas Poetica 5 Deadline Approaching

Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place will close to submissions on January 31, 2010 for issue 5. Poets who are planning to submit should get their tanka, tanka sequences, tanka prose, and articles in as soon as possible -- the interest is high and competition will be fierce for issue 5.

Visit atlaspoetica.blogspot.com for more information.

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Haibun Today

Haibun Today is switching from a blog web site to an online quarterly journal publishing in March, June, September and December.

Visit haibuntoday.com for more information.