Poets and Poems - Bouwe Brouwer

Nepal


a stray dog
chases his own tail
prayer wheels rattle


sunset
losing time
at every toll booth


village square bustle
the flies
on my balcony


buddhist chants
far above the stupa
a direct flight


devotion
the flies in the temple
on the light bulb


--Bouwe Brouwer

[Photo by Christa Bouwmeester, taken while traveling through Nepal this winter at a temple in Kirtiput, Kathmandu Valley.]

http://www.deoudezeeman.web-log.nl/

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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 - 3/31/2010

Darlington Richards are proud to announce the launch of their first title, containing 115 haibun from this master of the poetic form which combines distilled, essentialised prose with haiku:

The Plenitude of Emptiness
hortensia anderson : collected haibun
with an introduction by Jim Kacian

"If haibun didn't exist, it's possible that Hortensia Anderson would have had to invent it" - Jim Kacian

"[Hortensia's] haibun are executed in brief, delicate brushstrokes that skilfully weave the ethereal and wistful through the harsh realities of life" - Maria Steyn

This title is available now from Lulu.com at
http://bit.ly/poe-haibun

Best wishes
Norman Darlington
Moira Richards

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Robert Moyer sent this:

Here is a link to a book called HAIKU I reviewed in the Winston Salem Journal. Not many mainstream mysteries deal with poetry let alone haiku. The conceit here is centered around what we might call a "death" haiku, which takes on more meaning in a mystery novel. Vachss is a master of searing detail that has been known to make many a reader cringe.

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2010/mar/21/sensei-sums-life-in-a-few-phrases/

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Saša Važic

sent this:

The Mainichi Daily News Haiku in English Annual Selection 2009

Judge's Comments: 'Haiku in season'

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A new issue of Roadrunner is online:

http://www.roadrunnerjournal.net/

Mark Brooks - Three Questions

Shimi (Mark Brooks) lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and two boys. Mark was very active in the haiku and renku communities in the early 2000s, eventually launching the popular haikai journal, haijinx, an international web-based affair that focused on the hai in haiku. haijinx suspended activity from 2003 through 2009.

In 2010, Mark's haikai twitter feed @haijinx started up and the blog portion of haijinx relaunched in March 2010. The archives of the original issues of haijinx are being converted for the new site and will be back online soon. http://www.haijinx.org/ and http://www.twitter.com/haijinx

Mark's poetry has been published and anthologized worldwide, including several editions of the Red Moon Anthology. His haiku and renku have often been honored with awards, including the Mainichi Haiku Contest (first prize), the BHS's James W. Hackett International Haiku Award (highly commended), the HSA's Bernard Lionel Einbond Renku Competition (multiple firsts and seconds), the Snapshots Haiku Calendar Competition (winner and runners-up), and the Penumbra Haiku Competition (finalists).

Mark's first manuscript won The Snapshot Press Haiku Collection Competition in 2002 and was published as A Handful of Pebbles (Snapshot Press, 2006).

Mark has used the haigô Shimi (silverfish) for haikai since 2004. Earlier haiku and renku are signed Mark Brooks.

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1) Why do you write haiku?


That's a tricky question for me having disengaged with the haikai community for a few years.

I have always loved haiku, ever since working through Bill Higginson's (with Penny Harter) The Haiku Handbook in high school. When I came to renku, I really dove into haiku. And even while not active in the community the last few years, I kept writing and sharing haiku privately.

And that's my answer. I write haiku to share my experience by creating a new experience for the reader.

For me, the best haiku search out key elements of a drop of experience, juxtapose them, and thus encapsulate the whole glorious happening for others. These are not faux shasei moments of scientific “objectivity”. Emotions, implicit or explicit, permeate the best haiku and there is always a mixture of self and other. When such a happening is related well, haiku create a new drop, a new experience for the reader, one that hopefully moves them in some way.


2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Oh, all types.

As a poet, I love renku, the communal aspects especially.

Old Japanese and Chinese poetry, particularly collections and poets that influenced haikai, are of particular interest. Han Shan (Cold Mountain) is a personal favorite, especially the Red Pine translations, though I love Gary Snyder's work. I enjoy Billy Collins, Frank O'Hara, Allen Ginsberg, etc. Eliot, Cummings, Blake, Rimbaud. I'm naming poets not forms, oh well. I'll stop.


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

I have a very hard time with this top three concept. I'm always partial to things I've written recently and then startled by something from long ago. The following older haiku tend to be well received and were reprinted here and there. All are included in my collection, A Handful of Pebbles.



heat lightning
an armadillo skitters
into a ditch

The Heron's Nest — Volume III, Number 3 (March, 2001), editor Christopher Herold



withering wind
the fence-builder pulls a nail
from his lips

5th Annual Mainichi Haiku Contest, International Section - 1st Prize, judge Toru Haga, 2001



rainy day
a tattered saijiki
holds open the door

Acorn 9, editor A. C. Missias (2002)

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

New HSA Regional Information and Other Web Site Updates

The Haiku Society of America is pleased to announce that it has created new pages on its Web site featuring each of its regions. Visit http://www.hsa-haiku.org/regions/regions.htm to see an interactive map showing HSA regions. You can click each region on the map to be taken to a page presenting a historical overview of haiku activity in that region, along with the name, contact information, a photo, bio, and sample poems of the regional coordinator for that region. Also included are regionally focused haiku links, and news items related to that region. The pages for some regions are still under construction, but most regions provide complete information that you are invited to explore.

In addition, the site also features a new "Meet Your HSA Officers" page at http://www.hsa-haiku.org/officers.htm, which includes photos and contact information for all current HSA officers. You can click each name and photo to read a bio and see sample poems of each officer.

The HSA hopes these changes will put a warmer and more personal face on the HSA Web site. We have also added changing photos to the home page at http://www.hsa-haiku.org/. The Haiku Society of America welcomes new members from across the world. HSA membership includes subscriptions to its flagship journal Frogpond, and its newsletter, recently retitled Ripples (currently being sent to members), as well as other benefits. For more information about joining the HSA, please visit http://www.hsa-haiku.org/join.htm.

The next Haiku Society of America meeting will take place June 25-27, 2010 in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. For more information, please e-mail WelchM@aol.com.

Michael Dylan Welch
HSA First Vice President

Poets and Poems - Christopher Herold

One Drop of Rain

Beneath an azure sky
I enter a stand of maples
on a path concealed
by fallen leaves.
There
a leaf full of holes
stops me.

One round hole
through a leaf full of holes
on a path concealed
by fallen leaves
in a stand of maples
stops me
beneath an azure sky.

The stone
seen through a hole
in a leaf full of holes
stops me
on a path concealed
by fallen leaves
in a stand of maples
beneath an azure sky.

The slight impression
in a stone
under a hole
through a leaf full of holes
on a path concealed
by fallen leaves
in a stand of maples,
stops me
beneath an azure sky.

I stoop
and discover the raindrop
from last night’s storm
which filled an impression
in a stone
under a hole
through a leaf full of holes
on a path concealed
by fallen leaves
in a stand of maples
beneath an azure sky.

It stops me.

Reflecting
from a raindrop
which filled an impression
in a stone
under a hole
in a leaf full of holes
on a path concealed
by fallen leaves
in a stand of maples . . .
There!
The azure sky.

—Christopher Herold

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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.

Call for Submissions - 3/24/2010

Mark Brooks sent this:

hai there
haijinx quarterly
call for submissions

March 20, 2010
the equinox

In celebration of the equinox, Mark Brooks, Alan Summers, and Carmen Sterba today continue the relaunch of haijinx with haijinx quarterly, a journal focused on putting the hai back in haiku. The hai found in the word haiku (and haikai) means “playful” or “humorous” and haijinx highlights this particular feature of haikai poetry. There is simply no hai in haiku without some sense of humor, lightness, or playfulness.

And what is this haikai? Broadly speaking, haikai includes haiku; renku (haiku-like linked verse); haibun (haiku-like prose that is often combined with haiku); and haiga (illustrated haiku). Although senryû (satirical poetry in the same rhythm as haiku) are sometimes classified as haikai, haijinx does not publish senryû. Indeed, clarifying this split between haiku and senryû remains one of the missions of haijinx.

The new haijinx quarterly, also known as hai-Q, returns to haijinx’s web-based multilingual roots, integrating haiku and haiga on the page, publishing poetry in native languages with English translations, featuring regular columns from world-class haijin, and including articles in multiple languages from multiple perspectives.

We accept original, unpublished haiku (preferably between 5 and 10 at a time), haibun, haiga, renku, and sumi-e. We will also accept previously published work, but please include the publication information at the time you submit your work and do not submit work currently under consideration elsewhere. Please make sure that each submission contains a majority of unpublished work. Non-English works may be submitted with translation. We will publish them in both English and their native language. If you do not have a translation, contact us to see if we know of a translator who might work with you.

We are always looking for articles on haiku, even from authors who disagree with us. Please contact us with your article ideas beforehand.

haijinx quarterly (hai-Q) normally publishes around the solstices and equinoxes each year. In 2010, those are March 20, June 21, September 23, and December 21. The deadlines in 2010 are the twentieth of the month prior to the issues release. For the three 2010 issues, submissions then are due by May 20, August 20, and November 20 respectively. We normally respond to email submissions within three weeks.

The deadline for the June issue of haijinx quarterly is May 20th and submissions may be sent to our central address

submissions at haijinx dot org

For more details, please visit our submissions page at

http://www.haijinx.org/

hai again!

Mark Brooks
Alan Summers
Carmen Sterba

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Patrick M. Pilarski sent this:

Submission are open for DailyHaiku Cycle 9!
Just over one week left to submit your work.
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 5, Cycle 9, Spring/Summer 2010). If selected as a contributor, you will be responsible for providing a total of 28 haiku over a six-month period.

Submission Period: March 1st--31st, 2010 (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

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Robert D. Wilson sent this:

Dear poets,

Professor Richard Gilbert is currently soliciting haiku for our upcoming April issue. We've been on a short hiatus and are ready to start up. Send your haiku to Professor Gilbert at the address below. Send your best haiku; there is no set number to send, nor do you need to send a short bio
and photo.

Submit to Professor Gilbert at simply.haiku.editor@gmail.com

Haiku on,

Robert D. Wilson

Cherie Hunter Day - Three Questions

Cherie Hunter Day is the author of the award-winning haiku collection “The Horse with One Blue Eye” (Snapshot Press, 2006) as well as the award-winning tanka collection, “Early Indigo” (Snapshot Press, 2000). A book length collaborative tanka sequence “Kindle of Green” with David Rice was published in 2008.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I agree with many of the wonderful responses from other poets on this web site and there isn’t much more I can add. I recall my first impression of reading a translation of Basho’s autumn crow haiku in the Norton Anthology when I was in grade school. The eloquence of those three short lines surrounded by so much white space. The meaning came just as much from what was said as what was not said. In high school to fulfill a journaling assignment for English class I picked haiku but truly haiku had already picked me. I’ve been writing haiku ever since although my first decade of attempts weren’t really haiku. It took meeting other haiku poets to accelerate the process. I’m now approaching my fourth decade and the perfect haiku still eludes me but the form is as tantalizing as that first glimpse.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I’ve written tanka since 1993 and have won a number of awards for my tanka. I also write mixed genre including haibun and haiga, and participate in collaborative forms of renga, rengay, and linked tanka sequences. I’ve published a number of free verse poems as well as flash fiction and prose poems, several of which have won Editors’ Choice awards.

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

It is difficult to pick favorites because the list changes daily so just for today I have to go with these three.



sharing my plan
to travel the world—
dandelion

Haiku World/Shiki List online kukai: May kigo 2008, Second Place




warm rain
a dragonfly shedding
its wingless skin

Modern Haiku 30: 1 (1999)




a splinter comes out whole       winter moon


Modern Haiku 36: 3 (2005)

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

Friday updates - 3/19/2010

Dave Russo sent this:

North Carolina Haiku Society

This Saturday March 20: Poetea V in Winston-Salem

Teas from around the world, poets from around North Carolina—join us while we brew up the best tea and haiku for our reading and tasting at:

2:00 to 3:00
Golden Flower Center
612 N. Trade Street
Winston-Salem, NC

Poetea is a combination haiku reading and tea tasting. NCHS members read about 3-5 of their own haiku or the haiku of others, then tea is served as our host, Julie Reynolds, describes the qualities and background of the tea. We have several rounds like that, and then we all go to lunch. It's an enjoyable, low-key afternoon reading with a friendly, receptive audience.

Here's some video from Poetea IV.

Please Note: If think you might come, please reply to this email so we can plan how many chairs we'll need, etc. So far, we know that Bob, Curtis, and I will read.

Hope to see you there!

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This also from Dave Russo:

Photos of Rebecca Ball Rust

Rebecca Ball Rust founded the North Carolina Haiku Society over 30 years ago. Those of you who attended Haiku Holiday last year will remember the quilt project we commissioned in response to Rebecca's recent collection of haiku, In the Night Shallows (2009, Rosenberry Books). (Thanks to Diane Katz of Rosenberry Books for this idea!) Lenard and I delivered the quilts to Rebecca this past weekend. Here are some photos:

Rebecca Ball Rust: March 13 2010

If you would like to write Rebecca, here is her address:

Rebecca Ball Rust
608 Heron Lake Trail
Aiken, SC 29803-9252

Dave

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Merrill Gonzales sent this:

I just finished a series with Carol Purington who sent me four tanka. I created "The Seasons at Woodslawn Farm" from her tanka and they are presently published at Haigaonline

http://www.haigaonline.com/gallery-latesnow/purington-gonzales/album/entry.html

It was a wonderful experience in that I felt like I'd been invited to the farm where Carol and her family live.

Check out the other fine exhibits from the winter issue here:

http://www.haigaonline.com/gallery-latesnow/gallery.html

Poets and Poems - Naia

All That Remains

Of all the seasons
it is, perhaps, winter
that seeps in the deepest
holds on the longest
faces the struggle to let go
with a tenacity for staying,
the lakeshore a self-portrait
sculpted with her icy fingers-
one of the last she relinquishes-
waning now in these
lengthening days.

The old jack pine bears
her touch still, the way
a lover might, yearning
for one last glimpse,
as if he alone
could keep her here,
the few snowy clumps
on his drooping branches
all that remains before
the first crocus.

[Poem written August, 2009 upon viewing "The Jack Pine" by Tom Thomson, oil on canvas, 1916, on display at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario.]

Photo credit: Deborah P. Kolodji

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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 - 3/16/2010

This just in from Norman Darlington:

The Plenitude of Emptiness
hortensia anderson : collected haibun

Preview of a title shortly available from Darlington Richards through Lulu.com, containing 115 haibun from this master of the poetic form which combines distilled, essentialized prose with haiku:

http://bit.ly/poe-preview

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Photography & Haibun: Canyonlands Personal Journal

Ray Rasmussen sent this:

Just sharing something that I'm doing with some of my published haibun pieces that focus on my annual trip to Utah's Canyon Country with a photography add in.

http://raysweb.net/canyonlandsjournal/index.html

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A new issue of Contemporary Haibun Online has been released:

http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/

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A new issue of Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka has been released.

http://atlaspoetica.org/

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an'ya sent this (Click to enlarge an image):

We are getting ready early for our HSA Oregon Regional Haiku Meeting. It's in Oregon in May, but we would like to extend an invitation for any haiku poets to join us. Of course, an RSVP would be required for food purposes and if anyone stayed longer than one day. love ya . . an'ya

Catherine J.S. Lee - Three Questions

Catherine J.S. Lee lives, writes, teaches, and gardens on an island on the coast of Maine near Canada, where she began her haiku journey after many years as a published short-story writer. All That Remains, her haiku collection, recently won the 2010 Turtle Light Press Haiku Chapbook Competition. Many online and print journals and a few anthologies have published her haiku and senryu; some of her poems have done well in competitions and kukai. She was one of six featured contributors to the Spring/Summer 2009 edition of DailyHaiku.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I write because I have to; it's my way of making sense of the world. After many years of writing fiction, I came to haiku in the summer of 2007 by a serendipitous route that would take too much space to recount here. Quickly, I was drawn to haiku as the polar opposite of story, focusing on the moment rather than the narrative, the essence rather than the epiphany. It was as if the world had opened anew in a startling and satisfying way.

Devoted to details, I find joy in the acute and accurate observation necessary for writing haiku and in the way the most fleeting moments can become lasting images on the page. Even when I don't succeed, I love the challenge of giving readers a moment of significance that resonates with something in their own lives. I love the fact that the haiku world is small enough that for the most part, we know each others' work and names, and I love the fellowship among us, even if it is by Internet. I am grateful every day that haiku and I found each other.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Most of my reading time not devoted to lesson planning and education issues is spent keeping up with haiku and its cousins in journals and anthologies. I also enjoy sonnets, especially those of my fellow Mainer, Edna St. Vincent Millay.

I’ve dabbled in writing haibun, tanka, and haiga, but none was quite the right fit. (I do like creating haiga, but as a photographer, I’m pretty much incompetent.) So I stick to haiku and senryu, and that is enough.

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

I hope I've written a few “wonderful haiku”, but I don’t believe I've reached “many” yet. Among what I have written, my preferences change daily depending on my mood, so take this not as a definitive answer but as a snapshot of one day’s choices.



cold snap
waking to the creak
of house timbers

The Heron’s Nest, December 2009



this hush
before the coming of crows
winter dawn

DailyHaiku, April 13, 2009



summer night
a freighter’s horn lengthens
through the fog

Shiki Kukai, August 2009, and
All That Remains, to be published in fall 2010 by Turtle Light Press


Thank you for all the work you do to make Blogging Along Tobacco Road what is, in my opinion, the most informative, inspiring, and entertaining haiku blog. It provides a wonderful sense of community as well as being a great way to keep current on contests, news, and calls for submissions. BATR rocks!

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

updates - 3/12/2010

Ed Baker sent this wonderful haiga in response to the one I posted by Angelee Deodhar yesterday. He writes:

attached is a "frog/pond poem... haiga that I did in 1999.
also

here is one that I sent to Cid in 2000 or so..
I think that it was published in Hummingbird, and/or Modern Haiku, and/or sketch book, and or moonset... I forget exactly.

so many frogs
in one pond
c r o a k i n g !

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This just in from Carole Macrury:

The 11th Tanka Society of America’s

International Competition Call for Submissions

Deadline: Postmark date of May 10, 2010.

Eligibility: Open to all, members and non-members alike, except TSA officers and judges.

Regulations: Any number of tanka may be submitted. Entries must be original, in English, unpublished, and not submitted for publication or to any other contest.

Entry Fee: $1.00 per tanka, U.S. funds only. Please make checks/money orders payable to the "Tanka Society of America."

Submissions: Submit each tanka on three separate 3 x 5 inch cards, two with the tanka only (for anonymous judging), the third with the tanka and the author's name and address in the upper left-hand corner. Type or print neatly please.
Submit entries and fees to: Carole MacRury, 1636 Edwards Drive, Point Roberts, WA 98281-8511 USA

Awards: First prize: $100; Second Prize: $50; Third Prize: $25. Amount of prizes may be reduced if an insufficient number of entries are received. Winning poems will be published in Ribbons, the Tanka Society of America journal.

Adjudication: The name(s) of the judge(s) will be announced after the contest.

Rights: All rights revert to the authors after publication.

Correspondence: Unfortunately, entries cannot be returned. Please send a business size SASE for answers to queries or for a list of winning entries. For foreign entries, send a self-addressed envelope and one international reply coupon.

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2010 Bath Japanese Festival Info Page

Alan Summers sent this (only 61 days left!):

https://sites.google.com/site/bathjapanesefestival/welcome

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Photos from the 1st Quarterly Meeting of the HSA (2010)

This just in from Deborah P Kolodji:

I've posted photos from the 2010 First Quarterly Meeting of the Haiku Society of America on Flickr. It was hosted in Pasadena, California by the Southern California Haiku Study Group.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkolodji/sets/72157623473511245/

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Angelee Deodhar sent this link to several haibun by Geert Verbeke and friends:

http://haibungeert.skynetblogs.be/

Thursday updates - 3/11/2010

Angelee Deodhar sent this wonderful haiga in response to my note about the frogs singing in North Carolina. I love the wide grin on the frogs, which is the way I've been smiling lately.

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Richard Krawiec sent this:

A Salon of Music, Poetry, and Theater

Saturday, March 27, 7:30pm, Common Ground Theater

featuring

Fleur de Lisa, a female vocal quartet performing original music that blends elements of jazz, choral, blues, and folk, with lyrics based on poems by Kathryn Stripling Byers, Jaki Shelton Green, and others, will premiere their new CD, The Unworn Necklace (which includes songs based on poems by Roberta Beary). Fleur de Lisa is one of only 8 groups selected to compete in the Mid Atlantic Regional Finals for the Harmony Sweepstakes, a national competition for vocal groups.

Plus, Durham poet Grey Brown, Literary Arts Director of HealthArts Network at Duke, and author of two books of poetry, including the recent "When They Tell Me"(Finishing Line Press) will be reading her funny and inspiring poetry.

And! a staged reading of Cluck Variations, a play by Richard Krawiec, about a suburban white Southerner, and an African American from Chicago, who meet at a manmade pond in a gated community and try to overcome the barriers of race and culture to connect as women. There is a special cameo by a giant Jewish Duck. Acted and directed by members of PlayGround: A Theatre Co-operative.

Tickets $10
Fro more information, or to reserve a ticket - rkwriter@gmail.com or call 919-810-2863

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Colin Stewart Jones sent this:

Notes from the Gean is now accepting Haibun and Renga/Renku; Ray Rasmussen and Alan Summers are the respective editors. See our submissions page for details.

Kirsty Karkow will also be guest editor for issue five.

www.geantree.com

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A new issue of Shamrock Haiku Journal is online.

http://shamrockhaiku.webs.com/currentissue.htm

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Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine sent this:

"2009 MICRO-FICTION Competition" - Winners!

1st Place, Dustin Putnam "Liminal Realm"

2nd Place, Ruth Schiffmann "In Ink"

3rd Place, James Tipton "Summer Picnic"


Awards:

1st Place Prize - $ 200.00 (US) & Certificate
2nd $ 70.00
3rd $ 30.00

Honorable Mentions:

Dustin Putnam, "Back Country Bonanza"
James Tipton, "Lovers"
Grant Flint, "Once I Saved My Son"

The "2010 Haiku Pen Contest" is open!

Tuesday updates - 3/9/2010

The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature has nominated two poets, Anderson O'Brien and Curtis Dunlap, for the Best New Poets 2010 anthology. O’Brien's “Under the Quilt" (January 2010) and Dunlap's “On Momma Exiting the Denim Factory” (July 2009) are the nominated poems. My sincere thanks to the editors and long live The Dead Mule! :)

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A new issue of The Wild Goose Poetry Review is online. I have three poems, "love poem", "Bud Vernon's Arrest Story", and "Maggie Sands: The Way I See It" in this issue. The issue also includes poems by Malaika King Albrecht, Connie Post, Karla Merrifield, DB Cox, Helen Losse, Richard Allen Taylor, and reviews of new books by Tony Abbott, Joseph Bathanti, Glenda Beall, Jessie Carty, Tim Peeler, and Mike Smith.

http://www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com/files/winter2009.pdf

The poems (along with comments) are also located on The Wild Goose Poetry Review blog.

http://wildgoosepoetryreview.wordpress.com

Hilary Tann - Three Questions

Welsh-born composer Hilary Tann lives in the foothills of the Adirondacks where she is a Professor of Music at Union College. She is a founding member of the Route 9 Haiku Group whose biannual anthology, Upstate Dim Sum, is entering its 10th year of publication. She treasures the monthly meetings with Yu Chang, Tom Clausen, and John Stevenson.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

In my composing life I spend most of my time imagining future worlds. Writing haiku brings me back to the present, back to the moment ... and I am grateful.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I enjoy reading many forms of poetry from many centuries. As for writing, for the past eight years I've had the pleasure of participating in the annual Onawa (Maine) renku retreat with Paul MacNeil, John Stevenson, and Yu Chang.

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

Here are three, one from each of the places I love -- Wales, Japan, and N.E. USA.



of the old church
oak, rhododendron,
and yew

Frogpond XXVIII:1, Upstate Dim Sum 2005/I



noh play –
watching the throat
behind the mask

Frogpond XXVII:1, Upstate Dim Sum 2004/I



mountain stillness –
the loon call
held by the lake

Red Moon Anthology 2006, Heron's Nest VIII:4, Upstate Dim Sum 2007/I

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

updates - 3/7/2010

Congratulations to Roberta Beary for being featured on Don Wentworth's excellent Issa's Untidy Hut blog. Roberta's haibun entitled The Doctor Is In was recently published in Frogpond.

Roberta will give a workshop about haibun at The North Carolina Haiku Society's annual Haiku Holiday. Details are available at the NCHS web site.

Roberta Beary photo by Curtis Dunlap

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Here's a link to a very entertaining reading by Norbert Blei that was recorded in June-July 2000.

http://nbcoop.outlawpoetry.com/2010/02/14/norbert-blei-reads/

Norbert Blei photo by Jude Genereaux

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2010 Haiku Pen Contest
2010 Think Tanka Contest
2010 Very Short Story Award

We Welcome Your Energy, Spirit & Wit

Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine is committed to publishing the very best Japanese short form poetry & microfiction.This young publication has launched writing contests for 2010 and are also witnessing a tremendous growth in their readership and support. Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine is also calling for submissions of poetry and short fiction for their webzine. There are no reading fees for the e-zine, they just welcome prolific writing of lasting literary value. Complete guidelines are available online at Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine.

Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine is proud to announce their 2010 Writing Competitions. Current prizes for writers total more than $400 dollars. They welcome snail mail and email submissions and have included the option of paypal processing online.

2009 World Haiku Competition Winners: Ernest J. Berry, James Tipton, Barbara A. Taylor & Sandra Simpson

2009 World Tanka Contest Winners: Paul Smith & Kathy Lippard Cobb

Visit Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine to learn more. Make 2010 a year to remember!

Blessings,

Raquel D. BAILEY, Founding Editor lyricalhitmakers@aol.com
Follow us on twitter - "FoundingEditor"
Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine, http://lyricalpassionpoetry.yolasite.com

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Scott Owens sent this:

Here is a writing prompt and a publication opportunity all rolled into one. The new online journal, Referential, has chosen my poem, "13 Ways of Angels," as their first featured poem. Now they are inviting writers to submit poems or short fiction that "refer" to that poem. Here are the basic submission guidelines from the website: "Once you have picked a piece you want to refer to (you can be responding to the piece as a whole or even an individual word etc) email your work to refermag(at)gmail.com."

Here is a link to the site where you can read "13 Ways" and the two other poems and a short story that "refer" to the poem: http://referentialmagazine.com/

Have fun.

Scott Owens
www.scottowenspoet.com
www.scottowensmusings.blogspot.com
www.poetryhickory.com
www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com
www.poetrycouncilofnc.wordpress.com

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Billie Wilson sent this:

This is the “last call” for this year’s Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards. The in-hand deadline is March 13. Details are available at Modern Haiku.

Many thanks!!

Billie

Poets and Poems - Paul MacNeil

HAIBUN

under the lotus

- Paul MacNeil

A river flows through the lake. One tributary joins very slowly through a broad delta called Duck Cove. There is no channeled entrance to this cove -- no sandbar from a heavy current. A mile across, the marsh is filled with silt from little streams and organic muck at least deeper than a paddle's length. Methane bubbles jostle but don't alarm the frogs.


cupped in white --
water lily perfume
floating


under the lotus --
salamander eggs
in jellied chains


I move the canoe through the outer screen of aquatic plants to an inner channel. Underwater, more plants wave in the current. Hiding there are schools of minnows, tails pointing back to the lake.


lost
behind pickerelweed walls
paddling through flowers


canoe’s slow glide
a column of gnats parts
and re-forms


Grasses in the middle of the cove surround rocks and the remains of trees, giants of past centuries.


a snapping turtle
rests in the sun --
merganser leads her brood


Several permanent and many seasonal streams enter the cove from Barren and Benson Mountains. Taking a right fork of the channel leads to a stream from far up between the two. Again the current becomes unnoticeable as the shallows of the marsh give way to the bushes and trees of land. In the swampy woods, I walk past clumps of green rushes still depressed where deer rested beside the path. The ground rises a bit to a decaying clearing with the remains of a tarpaper shack. A retired railroad man, an accident victim, once lived here year-round. With only one arm, Louie wielded with good effect both an ax for his firewood and a shotgun for his poaching. The trail leads past a rusted stovepipe, elbow joint and cap toward the sound of moving water.


beyond the brook
pure tones of a hermit thrush
a flick of brown


Spencer Brook flows down the slope through moss-covered boulders, emerald, bathed by the water. Ferns fill the damp gullies entering on either side. It is not wide. I can usually cross it in one or two steps. The woods encroach and cover it well.


leaf canopy
the green light
of filtered sun


In the deepest pools I fish with the smallest hook in my box tipped with a little bit of earthworm. Instantly a brook trout attacks it. I lift a three-incher from the water. It wriggles off. The immature trout is beautiful with bright spots of color among its vertical, dark-blue bars. The bait isn't needed at all. Another strikes at the shine of the hook but is too small to be really hooked. A quick splash and right back to the spillway or in under the overhang. This small place is nursery for a race of wild trout; this water from the high mountainsides is purity itself. After climbing more than a half a mile with the brook, I find it forks several times -- each branch petering out within several dozen yards. A hunting trail continues on past the divide of the watercourse down to an unnamed deadwater bog and Indian Pond.


The Notch --
mountains come together
and change names


behind the mountains
more green ridges
becoming blue



*** ***

This haibun was first published in Modern Haiku, 29.1, 1998, slightly amended

photo credit: Yu Chang

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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.

updates - Contest, Pushcart Prize Nominees, Publications

Results: "A Little Haiku Contest by haiku magazine IRIS"

Theme: 2010 – International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures

Judge: Boris Nazansky

11 Equally graded awards

an'ya, La Pine, Oregon, USA

patchworked in this seamless sky -
bits of cloud bits



Rajna Begovic, Belgrade, Serbia

by an old temple
in different languages -
silence



Krysztof Kokot, Nowy Targ, Poland

Jordan's West Bank
rag doll
without one leg



Malvina Mileta, Nedešćina, Croatia

A suitcase from India
brought fragrance
the mediteranean.



John Parsons, Topcroft, Bungay, United Kingdom

Keralan roadside
under dry palm fronds
grandmother's break stone



Dejan Pavlinović, Pula, Croatia

playing their way
through foreign words
little strangers



Patricia Prime, Auckland, New Zealand

suicide bombing
yet still we celebrate
the Year of the Tiger



Zoe Savina, Pallini – Attikis, Greece

Demonstration in Sacramento

small cries
becoming stepping stones
for large ones



Sandra Simpson, Tauranga, New Zealand

lost in the souk -
a henna-stained hand
reaches for mine



Tatjana Stefanović, Belgrade, Serbia

a tiny rainbow
connects the clouds -
a rafter's song



Božena Zernec, Krapina, Croatia

joy at the museum!
early man’s relatives arrived
for Xmas - from Paris*


*On December 17, from Paris’ atelier of artist Elisabeth Daynes arrived the dolls of Krapina early men, for a new exhibition in the Museum of Krapina’s early man.

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Shiki Monthly Kukai

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the March 2010 Shiki Monthly Kukai. Please find below the topics for the March 2010 edition.

Submission deadline: Noon, EST,(UTC-5) Saturday, March 13.
Voting deadline: Noon, EST,(UTC-5) Saturday, March 20.
Results will be posted no later than Friday, March 26.

Participants may submit an entry for one or both sections of the kukai. Please do NOT enter any haiku previously published, work-shopped or shared.The haiku entries remain anonymous until results are posted.

Participants may vote in both sections of the kukai so long as they have submitted an entry to at least one section of the kukai.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

1) Address all Kukai correspondence to: st-kukai@haikuworld.org

2) PLEASE use the exact subject "KIGO ENTRY" or "FREE FORMAT ENTRY" for the subject line of each submission.

3) You MUST send entries in PLAIN TEXT FORMAT, and SIGNED*. Plain text reduces formatting changes and the inevitable clarifications required.

4) Please align your poem to the left margin. "Concrete" or "visual" haiku do not present well in an email format. Plain text, tied-to-the-left ensures that each haiku may be judged on content. One line, two, three, even four line haiku are accepted though final formatting on the web version may change line lengths. We can denote correct formatting with an (*) explanation.

5) Please send each entry separately.

*SIGNATURE REMINDER: The name you use to sign your haiku will be the name listed when the vote tallies are revealed and in the archives. Please sign with the name you wish to be known by. We have several poets with the same first name. Please help us avoid confusion by not using a common first name as your only signature.

Further guidelines are available on our website: http://www.haikuworld.org/kukai/howitworks.html

KIGO SECTION

The KIGO SECTION requires haiku using the designated seasonal subject or keyword used with a seasonal reference.

Our kigo subject for March 2010 is "Planting/Sowing"

To: st-kukai@haikuworld.org
Subject: Kigo Entry

sunset furrow
the ebony sheen
of daylily seeds

George

FREE FORMAT SECTION

The FREE FORMAT SECTION requires a haiku on a particular object, theme, or setting that may occur at any time within a given year. This is a free format haiku, in that the writer can compose and include a season word or submit a poem without seasonal reference.

Our free format topic for March 2010 is "Cookies"(the edible type).

To: st-kukai@haikuworld.org
Subject: Free Format Entry

cabin fever
she triples a batch
of chocolate hermits

Robert

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

If this is your first time, please feel free to browse the archives to see how the competition works.

http://www.haikuworld.org/kukai/archives.html

If you have any questions, write to us at st-kukai@haikuworld.org

Thank you!

George and Robert

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daryl nielsen sent this 'news from bear creek':

Pushcart Prize nominees for 2009 by bear creek haiku were:

Andrea Blythe, poem India
Nina Buck for 'farmer lady'
Dave Church, poem Listening
Christopher E Ellington, poem It's An Old Story
Raymond John Flory for 'January snow'
Claudia Ullman, poem She Spoke of Beauty Parlors

A maximum of six nominations are allowed - if 60 were allowed, at least that many distinguished poems and poets would have been nominated.

Encouragement for visiting Bob King's blossoming online site 'Colorado Poets Center' - his hard work with this endeavor is lovingly self-evident.

Poems by ayaz daryl nielsen have recently found these homes:

Feb 15-21, Shreve Memorial Library Electronic Network (Carlos Colon is overdue for recognition/awards of all sorts)...also, poems online in Yellow Mama (one of my favorite sites), a poem accepted for Bob Bernstein's upcoming anthology (death poems), poetry accepted by Shemom (the editor, Peggy Dugan French, most favorite person), Atlas Poetica, and acceptances by Lyrical Passion Poetry ezine.

Much excitement about Don Wentworth's (Lilliput Review editor's) soon-to-be-released poetry anthology. Not only among the best of small press editors/nurturers/harbingers, Don's poetry has long been/is among the best being written.

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Lulu.com is offering a special promotion, allowing buyers to take 10% off the price of books and journals published by Keibooks during March. This discount can only be used once and applies to the purchase cost of the books or journals. It does not apply to shipping and handling or other expenses.

Visit Keibooks at <http://Lulu.com/Keibooks> and enter the code IDES at the time of purchase.

Titles included in this special promotion are:

Fire Pearls : Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart (tanka poetry) edited by M. Kei

Heron Sea, Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay (tanka and short poetry) by M. Kei

Pirates of the Narrow Seas 1 : The Sallee Rovers (gay nautical novel) by M. Kei

Atlas Poetica 5 : Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka (tanka poetry) edited by M. Kei (forthcoming March 15)

Happy Reading!

~K~

M. Kei
Publisher

Keibooks
publisher of literature for discerning readers

P O Box 1118, Elkton, MD, 21922 USA
http://Lulu.com/Keibooks
Keibooks (at) gmail (dot) com

updates - Poetea V, Publications, Blogs

Poetea V: Sat March 20 in Winston-Salem

Teas from around the world, poets from around North Carolina—join us while we brew up the best tea and haiku for our reading and tasting at:

1:00 to 2:00
Golden Flower Center
612 N. Trade Street
Winston-Salem, NC

Poetea is a combination haiku reading and tea tasting. NCHS members read about 3-5 of their own haiku or the haiku of others, then tea is served as a knowledgeable person (Julie Reynolds) describes the qualities and background of the tea. We have several rounds like that, and then we all go to lunch. It's an enjoyable, low-key afternoon reading with a friendly, receptive audience.

Here's video from Poetea IV.

Please Note: If think you might come, please reply to this post so we can plan how many chairs we'll need, etc.

Hope to see you there!

Dave Russo

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The March issues of the following publications are online:

The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature

Haibun Today

The Heron's Nest

Notes from the Gean

Sketchbook

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Robert D. Wilson sent this invitation:

Please visit my web blog, The Wonderland Amusement Park and become a member. It's a diary with original haiga, prose, and under that, haiku/tanka strings.

Warmly,
Robert D. Wilson