Wednesday updates

A Hundred Gourds

The first issue of A Hundred Gourds: a quarterly journal of haiku, haibun, haiga and tanka poetry is now online.

http://ahundredgourds.com

The Editorial Team of A Hundred Gourds extends warmest thanks to everyone who submitted their work for consideration for this, our inaugural issue. Thanks to your enthusiastic welcome, it’s a bumper edition.

As well as haiku, tanka, haiga and haibun you’ll find essays, interviews and a review in the Expositions section. There is also a memorial Feature dedicated to the late Janice M. Bostok, Australia’s haiku pioneer.

Please join us in welcoming three new editors to the AHG team:

William Sorlien, of St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, is Renku Editor, already organising A Hundred Gourds’ first renku section, which will be published in AHG 1:2.

Susan Constable, of Vancouver Island, Canada, is the new Tanka Editor. Susan’s first tanka section will be published in AHG 1:2.

Mike Montreuil, of Ontario, Canada, is the new Haibun Editor. Mike’s first haibun section will be published in AHG 1:3.

A Hundred Gourds welcomes your submissions to the New Years’ editions.

·        Special notice for tanka & renku submissions to AHG 1:2 & 1:3

The submission period for tanka and renku only has been extended for the March issue, AHG 1:2. Submissions of tanka and renku received up to the 31st December will be considered for AHG 1:2. Tanka and renku submissions received between January 1st and March 15th will be considered for AHG 1:3. Please read the submissions guidelines page on the AHG website for further details.

The deadline for haiku, haibun, haiga and for the Expositions section of AHG 1:2 remains at December the 15th.

Lorin Ford, haiku editor,
for the Editorial Team
A Hundred Gourds

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Haibun Today (December 2011) is now online.

The winter quarterly issue of Haibun Today is now online for your reading pleasure at http://haibuntoday.com

Contributors to this issue include Melissa Allen, Deb Baker, Dawn Bruce, Owen Bullock, Steven Carter, Marcyn Del Clements, Glenn G. Coats, David Cobb, Anne Curran, Tish Davis, Cherie Hunter Day, Eduardo N. del Valle, Lisa Fleck Dondiego, Claire Everett, Jeffrey Harpeng, Ruth Holzer, Ken Jones, Robert W. Kimsey, Gary LeBel, Marie Lecrivain, Chen-ou Liu, Bob Lucky, Victor Maddalena, Marian Olson, Kathe L. Palka, Carol Pearce-Worthington, Stanley Pelter, Dru Philippou, Patricia Prime, William M. Ramsey, Ray Rasmussen, Bruce Ross, Cynthia Rowe, Miriam Sagan, Lucas Stensland, John Stone, Charles Tarlton, Diana Webb and Rich Youmans.

This issue also features reprints of historically and critically important documents on the art of haibun from difficult-to-find out-of-print or limited edition publications; these reprints include three essays by David Cobb that span the period 2000-2010 as well as an interview conducted by Rich Youmans with William M. Ramsey. In addition, Dru Philippou and Charles Tarlton in separate articles focus upon contemporary tanka prose while Tish Davis reviews the recent highlight of the same in special issues of the journal Atlas Poetica.

Writers are now invited to submit haibun, tanka prose and articles for consideration in the March 2012 issue of Haibun Today. Consult our Submission Guidelines at Haibun Today.

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Sunday Dec 4 Free Music, Dance, Poetry, Food

Sunday, December 4th, 3 -4pm 

Quail Ridge Books, Wade Avenue, Raleigh

Fleur de Lisa Vocal performances by Durham’s award-winning female vocal group (Best Original Song Competition, Harmony Sweeps Mid-Atlantic Regional Finals) Performing original compositions with poetry as lyrics.

Laurece West celebrated Durham jazz singer(International Women in Jazz). 

Stephanie Levin, Smoke of Her Body (Jacar Press)
Sensuous and precise, these poems explore the boundaries and transgressions between parents, children, lovers: the ways we confine one another, the ways we break free. 

“This one just has that punch in the stomach, ‘wow, who the f#!% wrote this’ factor going for it. I like how the poems are strong, yet understated, loud and quiet at the same time.” 

        - Dorianne Laux, The Book of Men (W.W. Norton)

Lou Lipsitz, If This World Falls Apart (Blue Lynx Poetry Prize)

Quiet and deep reflections upon our inner struggles: loss, psychological change, the ways in which we are unknown to ourselves. Many poems focus on men’s issues.

Kathryn Kirpatrick, Unaccountable Weather (Press 53)

Honest, moving and uplifting poems about the woman who undergoes mastectomy, the woman who survives, the woman as mother, lover, goddess.

Richard Krawiec, She Hands me the Razor (Press 53)

A stunning collection about love, loss, moving on, and finding love and transcendence again. Poems performed with dancer Claire Constantikes, director Neck of the Woods, Wake Forest.

Food samples from The Sound of Poets Cooking (Jacar Press). 

Part of the proceeds go to the Angel Tree at Quail Ridge Books.

Also, we may plan a holiday drop in on Sunday Dec. 11, in the afternoon, so kids can come.  Might ask anyone who writes, paints, crafts, to bring items for display upstairs in case anyone wants to shop.  Are any of you going to be around/interested on Dec. 11?

Richard Krawiec,

Check out my websites!

http://www.press53.com/BioRichardKrawiec.html

http://www.rkeditor.com/

http://jacarpress.com/index.html 

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the Basho-ki Pages are completely up!

http://cliffordroberts.tripod.com/bk.htm

I want to thank you once again for contributing to basho-ki 2011.

I hope you enjoy an obsessive compulsive walk around the haiku frog pond through the years with us.

leaping
into the sound
of haiku

kawazu
aka
Cliff T. Roberts,
President, Fort Worth Haiku Society
http://www.facebook.com/FWHaikuSociety
basho-ki http://cliffordroberts.tripod.com/bk.htm

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Contest for College Writers

Dear Professor,

We are writing to let you know about the sixth annual Anthony Abbott Undergraduate Poetry Award, a celebration of student writing, sponsored by the Charlotte Writers’ Club. We welcome poems from college students all over North Carolina. This year’s deadline is February 1, 2012.  There is no entry fee.

Judge this year is the renowned poet and nonfiction writer Rebecca McLanahan. Rebecca McClanahan has published nine books, most recently Deep Light: New and Selected Poems and The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings, which won the Glasgow Award for nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, in anthologies published by Norton, Doubleday, Putnam, and Beacon, and in numerous journals. Past recipient of the Wood Prize from Poetry, the Carter Prize from Shenandoah, a Pushcart Prize in fiction, and fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts and North Carolina Arts Council, McClanahan teaches in the low-residency MFA programs of Queens University and Rainier Writers Workshop.

The contest winner will receive $150, and five honorable mentions will receive $50.  One special honorable mention of $100 will be given in honor of the founder of the contest, dramatist, poet, and art activist Louise Rockwell, who passed away last year.

Winners will be announced on April 17, at the Central Piedmont Community College Sensoria Event sponsored by the Charlotte Writers’ Club. Winning poets will have the honor of reading before a large audience of their peers alongside featured poet Dorianne Laux, in celebration of National Poetry Month.

This year for the first time we will accept online entries. Students entering poems must also provide proof of undergraduate status by having an instructors email a verifying statement to: lisa.williams.kline@gmail.com. Questions about the contest may be addressed to Terri Wolfe at twolfe900@gmail.com.

Complete guidelines appear on the Charlotte Writers Club website, www.charlottewritersclub.com.

Please urge your students to enter! And please forward this information to any other instructors you think might be interested.

Best,
Terri Wolfe                            
Lisa Kline
Co-chairs

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There will be a guest poet with a recipe and poem on The Frugal Poet web site soon.

Susan Constable - Three Questions

Susan Constable began writing haiku in 2006. Since then, she’s tried her hand at  haiga, haibun, and tanka. Her work has been published in over 30 journals as well as numerous anthologies including Montage: The Book, New Resonance 6, several Red Moon anthologies, and 57 Damn Good Haiku by Some of Our Friends. She enjoys chocolate on a daily basis, has learned to say no, never dyed her hair, and lives by the work motto: It’s not perfect, but better than it was. Susan lives with her husband on Vancouver Island, off the west coast of Canada.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

Mainly because I enjoy it. As soon as it stops being fun, I’ll move on to something else. In the meantime, I write at least one a day, no matter how bad it is . . . going by the philosophy that to write one good haiku, one must write a hundred bad ones. Writing haiku provides a wonderful incentive to observe nature (both human and otherwise) and to marvel at the intricacies of the world around us. I also write for the connection made with poets through reading and commenting on each other’s haiku and, to be honest, for the satisfaction of getting my work published.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

As I get older, my attention span seems to be shrinking so anything short is more likely to get my vote these days. Although I began by writing fixed forms, then free verse, all my writing now (and most of my poetry reading) is of haiku, tanka, and the occasional haibun. I thoroughly enjoy creating haiga and I’ve begun to dabble in some of the Japanese linked forms, but it’s still a bit of a struggle with anything longer than 12 verses.

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

What an impossible question! I have no idea what wonderful means, in this context, and doubt that I’ve written any such thing. However, here are three that I still like, even though they were published several years ago.


amber light
the time it takes
a leaf to fall

The Heron’s Nest, Vol X, 2008


no moon . . .  
the sound of leaves
catching rain

White Lotus Haiku Competition, “Commended”, #8, 2009


planting the garden –              
what to do with the rest
of my life

Simply Haiku, Vol 7 No 3, 2009


I’ve enjoyed your blog for quite some time, so it’s an added pleasure to share a few thoughts with you, along with some of my haiku. Thanks so much, Curtis, for all the time you spend on Tobacco Road, which is such a benefit to the haiku community.

Susan

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

Snapshot Press News

From Snapshot Press:

The Haiku Calendar 2012

The Haiku Calendar 2012 – the thirteenth annual calendar from Snapshot Press – is now available to order.

This attractive desk calendar features 52 haiku by 39 authors from around the world.

Not only is the standard of work in the calendar outstanding, but each year the press receives numerous comments on how effective the calendar is for introducing people to haiku (or vice versa) – all year long! Please consider supporting the press – and haiku! – by purchasing a copy for yourself and/or gift copies for friends, relatives, colleagues, etc.

Further details are available at http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/calendars/the_haiku_calendar/2012.htm

In previous years orders placed by December 17 have arrived at the majority of overseas destinations before Christmas. However, the last recommended order dates for delivery before Christmas are

UK: Friday December 16

Western Europe: Saturday December 10

USA, Canada and Eastern Europe: Thursday December 8

Rest of World: Saturday December 3

But order now to avoid disappointment!

* * *

All work included in the The Haiku Calendar is selected each year from entries to the Haiku Calendar Competition.

The deadline for The Haiku Calendar Competition 2012 (for work to be considered for the 2013 calendar) is January 31, 2012. Entries may now be sent by email as well as by post. Please see the entry guidelines at http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/thcc/entry_guidelines.htm for details.


About the press: Founded in 1997, Snapshot Press is committed to furthering opportunities for the publication and consideration of ‘specialist’ and ‘mainstream’ poetry on an equal footing. The press is Britain’s leading independent publisher of haiku, tanka and other short poetry, with titles honoured by the Haiku Society of America and the Poetry Society of America.

“Snapshot Press sets the platinum standard for design and production values among haiku and tanka books. Their quality is unsurpassed. Indeed, books from Snapshot Press are always a tactile and poetic delight.”

—Michael Dylan Welch in Modern Haiku

* * *

The Snapshot Press Book Awards

This is the final call for submissions of unpublished collections of haiku, tanka, short poetry and haibun to this year’s Snapshot Press Book Awards.

Up to four Award winners will have their collections published by Snapshot Press.

If sending entries and/or entry fees by mail the last date these may be postmarked is Wednesday November 30. This is also the last date for paying the entry fee online.

For this year only, providing the entry fee is paid online or sent by mail by that date, manuscripts in electronic format may be entered by email up to and including Friday December 23 (this being roughly the last date that postal entries are expected to arrive from overseas due to delays associated with seasonal mail). So, in effect, there are still 4 weeks remaining in which to prepare and submit manuscripts.

Please note that there is no extension for the receipt of entry fees: for administrative reasons the entry fee itself must be sent or paid online by the end of November. Confirmation of receipt will be sent when both the entry fee and manuscript have been received.

Please see http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/book_awards/guidelines.htm for guidelines and further details.

* * *

eChapbook Awards

The winners of the inaugural Snapshot Press eChapbook Awards have been announced. 

Congratulations to Chad Lee Robinson, Carole MacRury, Kathe L. Palka, Marian Olson, Vanessa Proctor, Lorin Ford, Penny Harter and Beverly Acuff Momoi, who will have their collections published online throughout January and February.

A print anthology of outstanding work by these and other authors will also be published in 2012. The full list of poets with work selected for the anthology will be announced in December.

For further details please see http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/echapbook_awards/results.htm

The Snapshot Press eChapbook Awards are international annual prizes for unpublished short collections of haiku, tanka, short poetry and haibun. Submissions are open from March 1–July 31 each year. Please see http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/echapbook_awards/guidelines.htm for guidelines and further details.

Unpublished book-length collections of haiku, tanka, short poetry and haibun may be submitted for print publication to The Snapshot Press Book Awards. Please see http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/book_awards/guidelines.htm for guidelines and further details.

an'ya - Three Questions (Tanka)

an'ya has been published numerous times, placed in and judged many contests. She is currently the HSA Regional Coordinator for the state of Oregon. She also practices the art of suiseki and exhibits stones with haiku and tanka. The photo is of an'ya and her friend Cynthia Timar taken at the Bend Haiku Weekend this past June.

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1) Why do you write tanka?

I write tanka because on occasion there is a need to express more emotion than will go into a haiku. I enjoy the fact that tanka is a very old form and I like its rhythmic feeling.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Haiku of course comes first for me, but I'm also a published mainstream poet. I have written everything from epic poems to pattern poems, and probably everything in-between before I settled on the Japanese forms.

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

Well there are 2 familiar ones that everyone else seemed to like (which I never want to hear again ):


cold cemetery
the long sleeves of your old coat
warm my fingertips
even from beyond this grave
you manage to comfot me



old memories
like tangled fish hooks
impossible
to pick up only one
without all the others



but my personal favorite is this one:


midsummer's eve
underneath a rose moon
I'll wait for you
until my hands are bloodied
from holding back the dawn

an'ya

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If you've been enjoying this series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response - whether it be for haiku or tanka - to the three questions that an'ya answered. You must be a published poet to participate.

Sunday updates

Aubrie Cox has made two excellent haiku ebooks available for download. Click on the titles to view/download.

Tea with Trolls

the backlit fog

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Charlotte Digregorio sent this:

Haikuists:

In the Chicago Metro area, we will meet Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Winnetka Public Library,  768 Oak St., Winnetka, IL.

This will be a critique meeting. More details to come as the date draws near.

Charlotte also sent this:

Recap of November 2011 HSA Meeting in Chicago Area

HSA members met for a haiku critique session at Skokie Public Library in Skokie, IL on Saturday, Nov. 12. They were joined by
guests Cynthia Gallaher and Felicia Kaplan.

Participants each received critique of four haiku. Charlotte Digregorio, Midwest Regional Coordinator, stressed that participants should focus on the beauty of haiku for its simplicity and economy of words. For the benefit of many beginners in the group, she spoke of valuable journals, websites, and blogs by HSA members that would assist them in learning the art, along with using HSA’s website and Facebook page for timely information.

Illinois Member Tom Chockley announced that he and Missouri Member Jeanne Allison seek more haikuists to network with by
email. They wish to share haiku, questions, and ideas. To join them, members may contact Tom @ sino_chockley@hotmail.com

Charlotte began the session by speaking about why haikuists love the art and write it. She quoted Midwest HSA members who had
recently responded to that question in her blog. Among responses were:

“In this fast-fleeting world, I find the moment even more momentous. Writing a haiku that captures the wonder of time in
my own words and thought is a tiny miracle of gratitude.”

--Donna Bauerly, Iowa

“The reason I write haiku is what I would guess most people would say is their reason. To set down a marker for the really
important things in my life. A walk in the woods is so much better to focus on than memorializing your fears about a global financial meltdown, or a terrorist attack or the coming hurricane, etc.”

--Mike Rehling, Michigan

“I write haiku because of the joy I get from paying attention and noticing what’s going on around me and within me. I feel each day offers gifts of insight and moments worthy of contemplation or prayers of thanksgiving. I feel more alive when I am writing haiku!”

--Dr. Randy Brooks, Illinois

Next, Charlotte reviewed her “Basic Elements of Haiku” list, including guidelines such as avoidance of making judgmental
statements, and limited use of adjectives, the latter which the beginning haikuists found challenging. She also explained that in a three-line haiku, it’s important to give readers a sense of season, time, or place in the first line, so the image is clear to readers.

Among haiku presented at the meeting were:

november rains . . .
leaves spiral
into sewers

--Ilze Arajs


at the beach
in september
sunbathers milk the rays

--Jim Harper, Illinois

During the session, participants, as a group, brainstormed for winter images, and wrote this haiku:

april thaw . . .
footprints lead to
the merry-go-round

Charlotte said a February 2012 meeting in the Chicago area will take place, with members notified of particulars beforehand by email and notice appearing on the HSA website.

Members may contact Charlotte at her new email address, c-books@hotmail.com, with questions or concerns about activities.

--Submitted by Charlotte Digregorio

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Lorin Ford sent this:

Dear Readers and Contributors,

The inaugural issue of A Hundred Gourds will be a big issue. We are on track for the publication date of December 1st.

Thank you to everyone who submitted haiku to me for A Hundred Gourds, 1:1.

As well as haiku, tanka, haibun and haiga, the December issue will contain a retrospective feature on Janice M. Bostok’s haiku life, essays by John Carley, Jack Galmitz and Chen-ou Liu and interviews with two haiku poets whose names we’re keeping as a surprise.

Submissions for A Hundred Gourds 1:2, the March issue, will remain open until the deadline of December 15th.

I welcome your haiku submissions for AHG issue 1:2 any time up to and including December 15th. After that date, all submissions received will be held over for consideration for the June issue , A Hundred Gourds 1:3.

Please include your name and country of residence directly beneath the last haiku within the text of your email. Further details about submissions to all of the editors are on the A Hundred Gourds temporary webpage, here:

http://ahundredgourds.haikuhut.com/

On December 1st, this same url will take you to the inaugural issue and the temporary webpage will be abandoned.

warm wishes,

Lorin
--
Lorin Ford, haiku editor,
A Hundred Gourds

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Susumu Takiguchi sent this:

WORLD HAIKU REVIEW

Re: Call for Submissions for the Next Issue

Dear Kuyu,

The next issue of World Haiku Review (WHR) is planned for December 2011.

As for haiku poems in English or in English translation, send in by e-mail anything you like, traditional or non-traditional on any topic, free or formal style, kigo or muki, up to ten poems which have not been published or are not considered for publication elsewhere to both: kalaramesh8@gmail.com AND susumu.takiguchi@btinternet.com Please use the font "Ariel", size 12 and present your haiku in the simplest and most straightforward format, all starting from the left margin, avoiding fanciful layout and formation. Please do not forget to write your country with your full name. Suggested themes: happiness, unhappiness and autumn and/or winter scenes

The only criterion for selection is quality. Please therefore send in your finest works as soon as you can.

There is no set deadline but we will announce when enough number of good works are received, and the submission will be closed soon after that. We ourselves will put selected haiku poems in either the Neo-classical, Shintai (or new style) or Vanguard sections according to their characteristics. You, as the writer, therefore need not worry abouth this classification. Just send what happens to come out best and we will do the rest.

As for other works relating to haiku (haibun, articles, essays, haiga or bookreviews on haiku etc.), just send in whatever you think would deserve publication in WHR. Once again, quality is the key.

If you have books which you wish to be reviewed, send a review copy to me.

I will mention some indications about our selection below for those who may be interested to know them. (For detailed explanation, visit the Editorial of WHR August 2011 at: http://sites.google.com/site/worldhaikureview2/whr-august-2011)

We wish to continue to endeavour to present a unique haiku magazine which, while deeply rooted in tradition, is full of new ideas, innovative features or critical views. It will continue to aim at the highest standards and top quality as always.

Kengin to all,

Susumu Takiguchi
Managing Editor and Acting Editor-in-Chief, World Haiku Review
Chairman, The World Haiku Club

* * *

INDICATIONS FOR HAIKU SELECTION

THOSE LIKELY TO BE REJECTED

1 Hackneyed, clichés, imitative or derivative;
2 'So what?' haiku;
3 Too short to be good;
4 Made artificially vague (false 'yugen');
5 Gimmicky as opposed to real skills;
6 Bad English;
7 Template-like, or ticking-box-kind factory haiku;

THOSE LIKELY TO BE ACCEPTED

1 New and/or original;
2 Have something to say;
3 Reflecting truths, sincerity and honesty;
4 Coming from your heart and soul;
5 Based on your real and deep experiences;
6 If products of your imagination, true, fine and deep at that;
7 Away from rules & regulations and yet good;
8 Good choice and order of words;
9 Have good rhythm;
10 Pictorial and/or musical feel;
11 Have some sense of humour;
12 Reflecting the grasp of the essence of haiku (a sense of brevity, humour, somewhat detached view or karumi)

INDICATIONS FOR SELECTION OF OTHER WORKS

Basically, many things about haiku would apply to them as well. Additionally:

THOSE LIKELY TO BE REJECTED

1 Repeating what others have said many times;
2 Trapped by and subservient to rules and regulations;
3 Uncritical parroting of received views or conventional wisdom;

THOSE LIKELY TO BE ACCEPTED

1 Critical (the more so, the better);
2 Innovative;
3 New contributions to the understanding of haiku;

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Keibooks Announces Atlas Poetica 10 : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka


Press Release – For Immediate Release – Please post to all appropriate venues

7 November 2011 – Perryville, Maryland, USA

Today Keibooks releases Atlas Poetica 10, the latest issue of the highly regarded journal. ATPO 10 continues to publish tanka, waka, kyoka, and gogyoshi, along with sequences, prosimetrum, book reviews, announcements, and non-fiction articles on a variety of topics.

This issue focuses on gogyoshi, and publishes the ‘Declaration of Gogyoshi’ by Taro Aizu, the foremost advocate of gogyoshi working in English, as well as examples of the genre by various practitioners. It also has a focus on book reviews, including an in depth analysis of Denis M. Garrison’s First Winter Rain, by Charles Tarlton.

In addition, in keeping with Atlas Poetica’s dedication to scholarship about tanka, kyoka, and gogyoshi in various countries around the world, we are pleased to publish an article by Margaret Dornaus about Carles Riba and Catalonian tanka, as international contributions by poets from around the world.

Contributors to ATPO 10:

Amelia Fielden, André Surridge, Angie LaPaglia, Aubrie Cox, Autumn Noelle Hall, Bruce England, Carmella Braniger, Carol Raisfield, Charles Tarlton, Chen-ou Liu, Claire Everett, Cody Gohl, David Caruso, Edward J. Rielly, Elizabeth Moura, Gary Severance, Gerry Jacobson, Guy Simser, Hinemaia, Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, James Tipton, James Won, Jeffrey Harpeng, 1Johannes S. H. Bjerg, Kath Abela Wilson, Luminita Suse, M. Kei, Margaret Chula, Margaret Dornaus, Margaret Van Every, Marilyn Humbert, Mark Burgh, Matt Esteves Hemmerich, Owen Bullock, Patricia Prime, Peggy Heinrich, Randy Brooks, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Sonam Chhoki, Sylvia Forges-Ryan, T. J. Edge, Taro Aizu, Taura Scott, Terry Ingram, Tish Davis, Tracy Davidson

Purchase online at: http://atlaspoetica.org/?page_id=84

or through your favorite online retailer.

Keibooks
P O Box 516
Perryville, MD 21903

AtlasPoetica.org

--
M. Kei
Editor, Atlas Poetica
A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka

Lucas Stensland - Three Questions

Lucas Stensland is the co-author of my favorite thing (2011), a collection of poetry from bottle rockets press. His poems have appeared in publications such as Frogpond, The Heron’s Nest, Mainichi Daily News, Mayfly, Modern Haiku, Presence Haiku Journal, Ribbons, Shot Glass Journal and Simply Haiku. He currently lives in Minneapolis with his cat, Townes Van Zandt.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

How and why I came to write haiku is one of my strangest memories. It happened a few years ago when I was staying at a tiny cottage inn in wintry rural Slovakia while on a poorly planned ski trip that I went on by myself. I was ungodly bored. Every evening I found myself staring into space or rereading my travel guide.

One night the elderly woman who cooked our meals came to me and handed me the only book they had in English. It was Higginson's The Haiku Handbook, an old and ragged copy missing its front and back covers. Stranger yet, some equally bored child had once used it as a coloring book. The entire thing. For two solid nights I poured over this eye-opening and popping volume and decided that haiku would be a permanent part of my life. Haiku color my relationship with the world, and my haiku act as snapshots of me stumbling through it.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy? 

I also enjoy tanka, haibun, tanka prose and other short poems. Senryu is probably what I write most often. I'm a big fan of the writings of Collin Barber, Christina Nguyen, Aubrie Cox, Liam Wilkinson, Melissa Spurr and Melissa Allen, as they write beautiful works without pretension.  

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

strip club parking lot
puddles not reflecting
the true me

(bottle rockets)



one night stand
two
too many

(Frogpond)



a bartender
I don't recognize
knows my drink

(Prune Juice)

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

Monday updates

Terry Ann Carter sent this:

 Hi Curtis, I have permission from Patricia for you to post this review on Tobacco Road.

Thanks, again, for all you do!

Click the book title to read Patricia Prime's review of: Lighting the Global Lantern: A Teacher's Guide to Writing Haiku and Related Forms

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Bookin’ It On Main: A Celebration of Black Writers

http://lingolit.wordpress.com/bookin-it-on-main/

For immediate release
November 1, 2011


Contact:
Susan Levi Wallach
bookin.it.on.main@gmail.com
803 466 / 5458

Haiku is ‘a way of life’ for poet Lenard D. Moore

Columbia, SC:  As an award-winning poet drawn to formal structures, Lenard D. Moore writes in more than thirty poetic forms, from bop, free verse, and kwansaba to sestina, triolet, and villanelle. But the form he favors most is haiku. Perhaps it is the challenge of working with only three lines totaling seventeen syllables. Perhaps it is because he sees haiku as “a way of life.” It is one he enjoys sharing: Moore, who is the first African American as well as the first Southerner to become president of the Haiku Society of America, will lead a workshop on writing haiku at “Bookin’ It On Main: A Celebration of Black Writers.”

Though haiku is a Japanese form whose history goes back hundreds of years, it is also popular among American poets, who, Moore said, “appreciate how haiku depicts what is happening now, how it includes a
contrast of two unlike things and how the reader must participate in the experience of it.”

Moore, who teaches at Mount Olive College in North Carolina, has been writing and publishing haiku for almost thirty years. Many appear in his own books “The Open Eye” and “Desert Storm, A Brief History.” In
addition, he has several books of longer poems, including “A Temple Looming” and “Forever Home.” His work also has been included in more than fifty anthologies, including Kwame Dawes' about-to-be-released
"Home Is Where." Among Moore's many honors, he is a three-time winner of the Haiku Museum of Tokyo Award. “I am drawn to the precision of imagery and the conciseness of language in haiku,” he said. “I also
like the oneness of existence with the natural world.”

There is more to haiku than format. A traditional haiku also includes a “kigo” —words or a word describing a particular season— that Moore said “contributes to the deepening of a haiku.” Nonetheless, Moore added, “I think there is room for experimentation in haiku, though it is important to understand the haiku guidelines and know how they work. When I teach a haiku workshop, I start with the haiku guidelines and discuss how they work to help the poet write effective haiku.”

“Bookin’ It On Main” will take place on Saturday, November 12, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in and around the Columbia Museum of Art. The event will include free readings by sixteen poets, most of whom have poems included in Kwame Dawes’ new anthology, “Home Is Where,” along with ten writing workshops, live music, book signings, a vendor area, and for younger children, an all-day BYOB — Bring Your Own Book — during which children who bring in a picture book can have it read aloud to them. Workshop registration is under way at http://bookinitonmain.eventbrite.com/. For information on “Bookin’ It On Main,” please visit http://lingolit.wordpress.com/bookin-it-on-main or contact bookin.it.on.main@gmail.com.

Lenard D. Moore recently led a haiku workshop at the North Carolina Botanical Garden, in Chapel Hill. On November 12, he’ll give a public reading and lead a haiku workshop at “Bookin’ It On Main: A Celebration of Black Writers,” in Columbia. Photo credit: Dave Russo

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Bookin' It On Main: A Celebration of Black Writers

Columbia Museum of Art (Main and Hampton)
Columbia, South Carolina
November 12, 2011, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

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