sometimes
I like to imagine
that she's
googled me;
she'll read
a few
of my poems
in an online
journal,
remember
the one
I penned for her
decades ago.
she'll rise from her chair,
retrieve an old shoe box
from a closet,
sit down
at the kitchen table
with a cup of coffee,
tenderly lift
and unfold
a yellowed scrap
of notebook paper,
read that love poem
aloud,
smile,
look wistfully
out the window
into
her rose garden
and say,
"I'm glad
I didn't marry
that poor bastard."
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.
This past year, the Executive Committee voted to bring back the HSA Education Committee. The Executive Committee has also been actively trying to get the HSA more involved with literary and academic conferences and festivals as part of our effort to educate people about haiku. To help support these projects, we have created the HSA Education Fund. I would like to ask you to consider making a donation to this fund. Contributions are tax deductible and will greatly improve the HSA's ability to develop educational materials, lead workshops, and participate in literary events. Please make checks payable to "The Haiku Society of America," note on the check that the donation is specifically for the HSA Education Fund, and send the donation to:
Angela Terry
HSA Secretary
18036 49th PL NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
Thank you in advance for helping us move forward with our education projects.
Additionally, if you would like to participate on the HSA Education Committee and/or volunteer at literary events next year, please contact me at rosenowce@gmail.com. I welcome the chance to work with you!
Thank you,
Ce Rosenow
President
Haiku Society of America
It is too cold for argument, and yet, teeth chattering,
You would have me, walking down this country road,
Explain the reasons for my silence. Winter’s last snowstorm
Lashes past the budtips on the trees, stinging my wrists
At the point between pocket and cuff,
The Achilles heel of all casual talkers caught
Empty handed, quite content to let a wincing eyelid
Become the numb imposter of response. Nevertheless,
A few words are in order, and I give them readily,
To resolve the differences, sticking the orange plug on
What for me was a snowman, for you, apparently,
A ghost without a tongue.
Forgive me. I would not presume upon the future
So confidently if this were October and the snow
Falling deeper than my boots. Then we must have talked
A life measured by the words. As it is, barely a tenth
Of an inch scuds like beachsand across the roadway,
Clings on the forsythia and the flowering quince,
Weighs upon their branches the ice sculpture of memory,
Melting – lightest of canvas – beneath the season’s warmer pigments,
Its yellow streams of sundrops, firepinks of read.
In this whirlwind of spring, how can you ask me for my word?
I verge near the surface, paying lip service
To the sedative of speech, choosing other than the sound
The certitude of blooms. There is no use for answers
When you and I both see this is winter’s last requirement.
Up the road a dog sniffs the shoulders, lean and lonely
For a bone.
"Winter's Last Snowstorm," in New North Carolina Poetry: The Eighties. Ed. Stephen Smith, Green River Press, 1982, p. 89.
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.
And finally, Pris Campbell's wonderful book of poems Sea Trails is available as a downloadable ebook at Lummox Press. Here's a video of Pris reading one of her poems from Sea Trails.
Zofia Kamila Krzemińska is our Haiku - Three Questions poet this week. She writes:
Hi Curtis,
I met Susan Diridoni some years ago in Santiago de Chile where I live but we started a very interesting correspondence only recently. Our main topic has been poetry and this is how I got to know your website to which Susan introduced me. Since then it has been a must in my daily poetry reading.
I started to write haiku a few years ago in my mother-tongue Polish, and last May some of my poetry (free verse) and seven haiku have been published in Akcent, a literary magazine in Poland. I also write in Spanish and English. And the three haiku that I enclose here are my translations of those published in Akcent done with an invaluable help from Susan Diridoni.
Best regards,
Zofia Kamila Krzeminska
Biographical Note
Born in Poland, Zabrze (May 1, 1949)
1970 - International Trade Diploma (College of Professional Studies - Katowice, Poland)
1971 - settles in Great Britain, London Proficiency in English Studies, West London College, Cambridge University; courses in the field of photography and drawing
1975 - settles in Venezuela, Caracas among others works as: photographic technician, teacher of English, translator
1995/8 - Course in Tiffany stained glass method
1999/2003 - member of a poetic group "Toconoma"
2001 - first poetry book-object (in Spanish) - " We all tasted that fruit"
2002 - first individual photographic exhibition - Polish Embassy, Caracas "The ground, just over the ground"
2003 - settles in Santiago de Chile
2003 - individual photographic exhibition - Fotocine Club of Chile, Santiago "The ground, just over the ground"
2003 - 43rd National Photographic Competition, Santiago, Chile
2004/10 - works as a translator and teaches English
2005 publishes six poems in Przeglad Polski (New York Polish language newspaper)
2007 second poetry book-object (Haiku/Haiga-photography in Polish and Spanish)
2010 publishes five poems and seven haiku in "Akcent" - Polish literary magazine, Lublin, Poland
1) Why do you write haiku?
Because I love its precision.
Poetry is the precision of intangible - a friend of mine told me once. With haiku it is true even much more than with any other form of poetry, and that was what struck me most when I read haiku for the first time. Its concise form, and perfect concentration on just one single moment and subject which on the other hand transmit, I daresay, the whole universe, is something absolutely stunning. Like a lightning.
2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I'm still looking for an adequate form. There is always a lingering feeling of the inexpressible after having written a new text, and there were times when I just stopped writing because I felt the words so imprecise. I find free verse a possibility: freedom to get closer and listen to the internal matter, own rhythm without being distracted or impelled by the form.
When it comes to reading, just good poetry, this is all what matters.
3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three?
I'm not hungry
your letter just arrived
vessels are filled
Akcent 2/2010 - Lublin, Poland
resting in the shade
by a bubbling waterfall
downtown rush
Akcent 2/2010 - Lublin, Poland
you came from above
pale-pink petals
night's rain knocked down Akcent 2/2010 - Lublin, Poland
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 Zofia answered. You must be a published poet to participate.
Penny Harter's cycle of poems written during the eighteen months after Bill's death, Recycling Starlight, is now in print from Ce Rosenow's Mountains and Rivers Press. It has been published in a limited edition chapbook, beautifully designed by Jonathan Greene and elegantly produced by Swamp Press, with a letter-press cover, and hand-sewn signatures. Copies are available from Mountains and Rivers at:
I am very proud to announce the publication of How to Paint the Finch’s Song, my second full-length collection of haiku and senryu.
80 pages; perfect-bound. Published by Red Moon Press.
Commentary from the late Peggy Willis Lyles and Allan Burns:
“Carolyn Hall’s down-to-earth haiku are rooted in a life keenly lived and meticulously examined. She takes her experiences just seriously enough, revealing exactly what readers must know to share her wisdom and appreciation.”
Peggy Willis Lyles
Formerly Associate Editor, The Heron’s Nest
“Nature, relationships, and art figure among key themes in Carolyn Hall’s second full-length collection, which builds on the considerable achievement of her first. Hall excels at addressing each of these themes in isolation and at skillfully relating them together:
Mother’s Day
the commotion in the tree
becomes a heron
The intriguing title haiku provides another example with its kôan-like paradox; at the same time, it positions her work within a synesthetic haiku tradition dating back to Bashô’s wild duck with its faintly white call. Blending modern and traditional elements, Hall’s haiku range in subject matter and tonality from a candlelight dinner and a family tree to a military crackdown and a seal’s missing eyes. By virtue of her versatility and deft touch, Hall stands among the most notable contemporary haiku poets in English.”
Allan Burns
Editor, Montage: The Book
How to Paint the Finch’s Song is available from me at 122 Calistoga Road #135, Santa Rosa CA 95409. $12 plus shipping and handling ($3 US, $4 Canada, $5 overseas). Please make checks payable to Carolyn Hall. The book is also available from Red Moon Press at www.redmoonpress.com.
We are thrilled to announce that submissions are open for DailyHaiku's tenth publishing cycle! This cycle marks five full years of publishing as an online daily periodical. Over that time we've had the pleasure of featuring over 1500 poems by a wide selection of established and emerging poets; we've presented work that ranges from the traditional to the highly experimental; we've introduced new additions to the journal such as the yearly print edition, the special features section, and the invited poet position.
Now, we invite you to help us enter the double digits in style by submitting some of your best work for possible inclusion in our upcoming cycle (Cycle 10). If you are interested in becoming a Cycle 10 contributor, please see our submission call below. (And please feel free to forward this call on to any other interested parties.)
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 10, Fall 2010/Winter 2011). If selected as a contributor, you will be responsible for providing a total of 28 haiku over a six-month period.
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
My water bottle empty, I’m too exhausted
To haul my surfboard to the ocean.
Creatures persist; or don't.
Too many species already extinct,
Which alternate facet of energy
Will take their place -- ?
Could molten lava have shaped
Abundant water into a heart:
Vessel, vein, and chamber, bubbles for lungs . . . ?
Inside tree-like bellows flames roil.
( -- Would I dream the unrecognizable creature
From which I was produced . . . ?)
Feet not barefoot since summer
Submerge into the water, warmer than the air.
The cloud bringing a sudden chill,
A couple of seagulls glide
Beside my wind-sheared, tearing eyes.
My flimsy hat’s rim flaps as I stumble north. Impossible
To make headway like the gulls. I zigzag
Until a thousand invisible
Leg-biting sand piranhas turn me back
The direction I came from.
My legs like shock-absorbers, a gust of wind thrusts me forward.
The horde of surfers drips out
Of the white-capped chop.
I would glide, were I a gull,
Molt like an up-&-down-&-in-&-out sun.
~ ~ ~
Read about Steve's collection of poems entitled Another Word for Home via the link below:
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.
Hi Curtis - heres a link or everyome to send a haiku to the London jaona matsuri - if they do it today tomorrow we will put it up on the haiku wall in the Matsuri!
I'm writing to let you know that I started a blog a little while ago. The subject, like the anthology, is on death awareness--one's own and that of others. It bears the same title as the collection of poems on the subject of one's own mortality. I thought I would send you a link to the blog; if you think it worthy, I would be most grateful to you for posting an announcement of the launch for this blog, so that other poets might find their way to the site to share their death awareness poetry.
Howard Lee Kilby sent this news about the upcoming HSA South Regional Conference:
The 14th annual Haiku Society of America South Regional Conference in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas will be held Friday and Saturday, November 5-6, 2010. Poets from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas will attend. This may be the largest gathering since HSA President Kristen Deming honored Hot Springs by setting the 1998 2nd quarter business meeting in the Spa City.
Our program is chaired by Celia Stuart-Powles of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Remember to bring a $10 haiku related gift for the White Elephant exchange. Dr. Susan Delphine Delaney of Plano, Texas is the inspiration for this event. It's always a hoot.
Here is information about our hotel accomodations:
The Arlington Hotel, 239 Central, Hot Springs, Tel: 1-800-643-1502 www.arlingtonhotel.com as a rate of $79.95 Single or Double with a charge of $15 for each additional person.
To better explain that, one or two people = $79.95; 3=$94.95; 4=$101.95 Please use the confirmation code HAIKU SOCIETY OF AMERICA. They have set aside five rooms. When those rooms are sold, they will set aside another five rooms and so on.
The Springs Hotel and Spa, located at 135 Central Avenue, offered a rate of $69.95 for 20 rooms. When I told Virginia Williams the hotel manager that I couldn't guarantee 20 rooms she said that she couldn't offer that price. She then gave me a rate of $79.95. She did say that if we filled 20 rooms that she'd give us the lower rate.
Keibooks Announces Catzilla! Tanka, Kyoka, and Gogyohka About Cats
13 September 2010 —Perryville, Maryland, USA
Keibooks announces publication of Catzilla! Tanka, Kyoka, and Gogyohka About Cats. Edited by M. Kei, the anthology features the work of forty-five poets from around the world. The poets have written tanka, kyoka, and gogyohka—five line poems originally from Japan—in homage to our funny, friendly, and infuriating feline companions. Covering the full range of personality and behavior, the cats of Catzilla! are by turns endearing, heartbreaking, funny, and tragic.
The cover cat, Timmynocky (Swedish for ‘thingamabob’), is a ship’s cat serving aboard a tall ship on the East Coast of the United States. This summer ‘Timmynocky the Sailor Cat’ achieved notoriety when the editor, M. Kei, detailed his exploits on his blog. The full account of Timmynocky’s adventures can be read at
<http://kujakupoet.blogspot.com/2010/06/adventures-of-timmnynocky-sailor-cat.html>.
waking to something
ominous . . . . . . I find
it’s just my cat
going for a late night stroll
on the keys below middle C
Sylvia Forges-Ryan
eros has stopped
by my garden and kindled
a little flame —
I’ve fallen for this cat
with the eyes of a prophet
M. L. Grace
instinctively
Gus, the rest home cat
sits on the bed
of the next one
to leave this world
André Surridge
“Cats are highly evolved, intriguing, mysterious, ruled-by-no-one beings who are mischievious bringers of unwanted gifts. Cats off to M. Kei for bringing us a collection of tanka that tears at our heartstrings one moment and has us giggling the next.”
—Alexis Rotella, author of Black Jack Judy and the Crisco Kids
List of Poets included in Catzilla!
Alexis Rotella, Amelia Fielden, André Surridge, Angela Leuck, Anne Curran, Beverly Acuff Momoi, Bob Lucky, Bruce D. Reed, Carolyn Thomas, Christopher L. Jorgensen, David Rice, Denis M. Garrison, Diane Mayr, Dorothy McLaughlin, Edward J. Rielly, Geert Verbeke, Geoffrey Winch, Hortensia Anderson, Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, Jamila, Janick Belleau, Joanne Morcom, John Martell, John Stone, Joyce S. Greene, Kath Abela Wilson, Kathy Nguyen, Kris Lindbeck, Liam Wilkinson, Lorne Henry, M. Kei, M. L. Grace, Miriam Sagan, Owen Bullock, Patricia Prime, Paul Mercken, Peggy Heinrich, Radhey Shiam, Richard Stevenson, Rodney Williams, ruinedXfinery, Sylvia Forges-Ryan, Taro Aidu, Vasile Moldovan, William Hart
About the Editor
M. Kei is an internationally known and award-winning tanka poet and editor. He has previously published two collections of his own work, Heron Sea and Slow Motion, and is the editor Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the anthology series, Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka that reads all tanka, kyoka, and gogyohka published in English each year to select the best for inclusion in the anthology. He previously edited Fire Pearls : Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart. Kei is currently employed as a sailor aboard a square-rigged ship. He is available for interviews by contacting the address below.
Catzilla! Tanka, Kyoka, and Gogyokha About Cats
ISBN 978-0-557-53612-2
Perfect bound, cover cover, B&W interior
136 pp
$14.00 US (paperback), $7.50 US (ebook)
Currently available from Lulu.com/Keibooks.
Forthcoming from Amazon.com and other major booksellers.
Raised in Illinois, Masat earned his Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska and is Prof. Emeritus, Rowan University. He has been a farmer, plumber, editor, carpenter, mason, marathoner, professor, and parent. He is still a 24/7 volunteer wildlife rescuer, having been active in feeding shut-ins, AIDS Help, and keeping up with Carol, his wife of 49 years. He has won prizes, honorable mentions; over 1000 of his poems appear in more than 100 journals and anthologies.
1) Why do you write haiku?
I write haiku to capture an instant, mostly for me. Often, though, I will share it in hopes of giving someone else the opportunity for insight and connection into that moment. For me, haiku occur without my planning for them. The energy in that spontaneity is long-lived and satisfying in its transcendence and connection to a universe in which I am a fortunate to be an observant but momentary speck. (I pay homage here to the Japanese masters [read, read, read] and also to the patience and early-on mentoring of Ferris Gilli, The Heron’s Nest, Lee Gurga, Modern Haiku, and Stanley Forrester, bottle rockets.)
2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I am enjoying publishing photo haiga. I have published in all forms, but believe that my forte is haibun. Its compactness and melding of prose and haiku provide me with tremendous opportunity to reveal and explore ideas and emotions on many levels at once. Overall, haiku has aided my ability to write poetry; poetry has aided my ability to write haibun.
3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)
Too many choices here: my list kept changing with the weather and time of day.
sudden shower
the first drops
raise dust
Mainichi Daily News, Best of 2006
evening shower
trees dripping
mosquitoes
Among the Lilies, White Lotus Anthology 2008, & Simply Haiku, 2.1, 2004
Francis (Fran) Masat, an old but forever neophyte haijin.
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 Francis answered. You must be a published poet to participate.
Bear with me while I endeavor to get Tobacco Road back on track. The hiatus was not intentional, but necessary due to my current schedule. I hope the pace will be less hectic in 2011.
Okay, I have a few updates and items for you today.
Penny Harter sent this update:
Hi,
Three poems from my book Lizard Light: Poems from the Earth are featured on the wonderful site "Poets for Living Waters" that was begun after the Gulf oil spill, and has continued since as an ecologically affirmative site. You can spend hours exploring the moving and provocative work there. I'm honored to be included.
You can read the poems, my "eco-statement," and see a photo of the beach cottage at Barnegat Light, Long Beach Island, that I remember from family vacations when I was a child. The photo was taken in 1933!
Hope you enjoy the poems, and that you're savoring these waning days of summer / early days of fall.
Moonbathing will publish two issues a year: Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer.
SECOND MOONBATHING CONTEST:
For the Premier Issue and yearly, 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 submission. The winner will be featured in issue 3 of Moonbathing and receive two issues of Moonbathing as the prize. Be sure to label your tanka “Moonbathing contest” if sending along with your regular submission.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Moonbathing will feature only women poets. Send a maximum of 10 tanka per submission period. Submission deadlines:
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 ADDRESSES:
Send your tanka IN THE BODY OF AN E-MAIL to: Pamela A. Babusci: moongate44(at)gmail(dot)com PLEASE NO ATTACHMENTS. E-mail submissions ONLY.
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 survive it will need your support and I will be most grateful for it.
DONATIONS MOST WELCOME.
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. International: $14 U.S. dollars; send cash or international M.O.—payable to Pamela A. Babusci to: Moonbathing Editor
150 Milford Street Apt. 13 Rochester, NY 14615-1810 USA
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
Saša Važic' sent two updates:
2010 Francine Porad Award for Haiku
Haiku Northwest is pleased to announce the seventh annual Porad Haiku Contest, cosponsored by Haiku Northwest and the Washington Poets Association. The contest is named for Francine Porad, founder (in 1988) of Haiku Northwest, former president of the Haiku Society of America, and editor for eight years of Brussels Sprout, an international journal of haiku and art. We welcome your haiku submissions!
We are starting a new paper review, Haiku Pix, devoted to haiku and other short forms of Japanese origin. Currently we are seeking submissions.
Haiku Pix, a new paper review, seeks brief poems employing 'word-pictures' to evoke emotion. Subscriptions: $20. Submit 1-10 poems. Your name, address, email on each page. Bio required. Deadline: October 31. Submissions: Haiku Pix Review, 11F, No.489, Tian-fu Rd., Hsinchu 30058, Taiwan. For more information, visit: www.haikupix.com/
ANNOUNCEMENT: Haibun Today (September 2010) is now online.
The autumn quarterly issue of Haibun Today is now online for your reading pleasure at http://haibuntoday.com
Contributors to the current issue include Dan Allawat, Roberta Beary, Nathalie Boisard-Beudin, Marjorie A. Buettner, Glenn G. Coats, Tish Davis, Cherie Hunter Day, Albert DeGenova, Phuoc-Tan Diep, Lynn Edge, Jeffrey Harpeng, Maureen Scott Harris, Michele L. Harvey, Ed Higgins, Ruth Holzer, Gerry Jacobson, Gary LeBel, Chen-ou Liu, Victor Maddalena, Francis Masat, Robert Moyer, Ralph Murre, Eduardo N. del Valle, Stanley Pelter, Dru Philippou, Patricia Prime, Ray Rasmussen, Mark Ritchie, Bruce Ross, Cynthia Rowe, Adelaide B. Shaw, Mark Smith, Richard Straw, Linda Jeannette Ward, Theresa Williams and Jeffrey Winke.
This issue also features an in-depth interview with Ruth Holzer by Patricia Prime, an article on "The Ghost in Haibun" by Jeffrey Harpeng and book reviews by Tish Davis, Dru Philippou and Mark Smith.
Writers are now invited to submit haibun, tanka prose and articles for consideration in the December 2010 issue of Haibun Today. Consult our Submission Guidelines at Haibun Today. Forward any submissions by email to Jeffrey Woodward, Editor, at haibun.today@gmail.com
For readers who do not have a Facebook account, here is a message I posted a few days ago:
Peggy Lyles' daughter, Leslie Middleton, added a message to Tobacco Road. Scroll down to the 10th reply to see her post.
I've received news from Dave Russo that Peggy Lyles passed away last Friday, September 3.
Peggy nurtured me as a poet, took me aside after a Haiku Holiday workshop to critique my poems. Words cannot convey the deep sense of loss I feel, the entire haiku community feels today. Peggy was a sister in the art of haiku, a mentor, and friend. My sincere condolences to Bill and family.
Thank God her poems live on and will continue to mentor future generations of poets.
