Monday updates

Now out from Modern Haiku Press.

Haiku 21: an anthology of contemporary English-language haiku
edited by Lee Gurga & Scott Metz
with an introduction by the editors
Perfectbound, 205 pages: over 600 haiku by more than 200 poets
Modern Haiku Press, 2011 (Lincoln, IL)
ISBN: 978-0-974189-45-1
$20 + $3 (shipping) in U.S.; $20 + $6 (shipping) in Canada; $20 + $12 (shipping) all other countries
URL: http://www.modernhaiku.org/mhbooks/Haiku21.html

In forms ranging from monostich to multilayer to interlinear spaces, Haiku 21 reveals a shift in haiku writing in English today. Along with typically haikuesque sensibilities come fleeting remarks, cosmic wonders, whimsies, dissonances, gritty and elegant meldings with nature, veritable koans. An eye-opening collection. —Hiroaki Sato

This is the most important anthology of English-language haiku to be published in decades. If you are curious to discover how this briefest form of literature has evolved in the 21st century into a novel and potent contemporary poetics, open this book! —Richard Gilbert

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Here's a haiga video by Donna Beaver, Al Pizzarelli, and Anita Virgil:

 EPISODE 22: HAIGA GALLERY

Haiga Gallery from Haiku Chronicles on Vimeo.

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Aubrie Cox sent this:

Dear friends,

Although many of you have already gotten wind of it via Facebook, I wanted to send out a semi-sort-of-kind-of official notice that the dragon/water/fire poems are now online!

http://yaywords.wordpress.com/projects/the-language-of-dragons/

But more importantly, thank you again for sharing your works with me and everyone else. I hope all of you are blessed with a warm, pleasant, and fruitful year!

Cheers,
Aubrie

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Ray Rasmussen sent this:

Hi Curtis,

Please announce the new issue of CHO, just released. I think that you've already announced the December releases of Haibun Today, A Hundred Gourds and Notes from the Gean.

http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/

And you may wish to consider announcing this haiku genre journal website. I just put together the list. I think that it's relatively complete, but there's also a spot for adding journals.

http://raysweb.net/haiku/pages/publicationvenues.html

Ray Rasmussen

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Dear Sketchbook readers and writers:

The Nov/Dec 31, 2011 Issue of Sketchbook is now on-line:
Sketchbook: Vol. 6-6: November/December 31, 2011

Please consider contributing to the Haiku and Haiga New Year’s Festival site.

The November/December 2011 issue of Sketchbook features Poetry and Art from 68 writers living in 18 countries.

The Sketchbook editors send New Year’s Greetings to each of you. Submissions are open for the January / February 2012 Issue. Read the complete submission guidelines.

Sketchbook editors: Karina Klesko and John Daleiden
kk / jd
Poetrywriting.org/Karina Klesko/Director
www.poetrywriting.org: Sketchbook
Karina Klesko, Senior Editor
John Daleiden, Editor/Webmaster

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Haiku and Tanka Harvest
Authored by Victor P Gendrano

Selected Haiku and Tanka poems, 2006-2011

A selection of over 200 haiku and tanka poems previously published in various online and print journals as well as book anthologies, written from 2006-2011.

Order Haiku and Tanka Harvest at the following URL:

https://www.createspace.com/3737478

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Penny Harter shared this interesting essay entitled More than the Birds, Bees, and Trees: A Closer Look at Writing Haibun by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Poets.org also has a Poetic Forms & Techniques page.

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Janak Sapkota sent this preview of his new book entitled Whisper of Pines.

Download the Whisper of Pines preview here.

When Empathy Leads to Haiku

The following article appeared in the Juxtapositions section of Modern Haiku - Volume 40.2 (Summer 2009):

When Empathy Leads to Haiku

The majority of haiku I write are taken from moments in my life. This is the way I learned to write these concise poems. Reading another person’s haiku, we might have a sense of the poet saying, this happened to me, or, this is what I witnessed; what do you make of my experience? The poem resonates within us, which ultimately leads to our interpretation of it. Haiku, perhaps more than any other art form, are about sharing a small part of ourselves.

But what about haiku that are not based on events in the poet’s life? Can the poet walk in another person’s shoes and write haiku from events in someone else’s life? By their very nature are poets not more sensitive and perceptive of their surroundings than the average person? Do we not feel the joy and—yes—pain of a family member, friend, or colleague more intensely?

This haiku of mine was written from another person’s perspective.

autumn rain
peppers the sand. . .
a missing toe’s phantom itch

Frogpond 27:3 (for Melvin Powers)

A few people have approached me to inquire as to which of my toes is missing; in fact, all my toes are intact. My father-in-law suffered a massive heart attack some years ago and, to complicate matters, also had diabetes. He eventually recovered, living an additional twelve years, but not without the loss of his right leg and a couple of toes on his left foot. In my mind’s eye I saw him walking a beach in the autumn rain, complaining about the phantom itch that he often felt years after the loss of his leg and toes. With the images of rain and sand and the sensation of a “phantom itch” in the season of autumn, the nucleus of a poem about a dear relative of mine presented itself to me. Here’s another:

empty house —
a whisper of mother’s voice
in the autumn wind

Frogpond 31:1 (for Hilda Ratliff)

People are usually surprised when I tell them that this haiku is not about my mother. It was written after a colleague spoke of having to go to the empty house of her mother, who was in the hospital, to retrieve a few items. We were sitting under a pine tree at the time. The wind began to blow gently, causing the pine to “whisper.” I imagined the wind to be her mother’s voice.

I like to call haiku that are written from another person’s perspective “empathy haiku.” Haiku should not only be about sharing a part of ourselves with the reader, but it should also be a means to share in the joys, triumphs, and sufferings of others. What better way to show someone that we truly care than to write a haiku about their experience from their perspective?

Curtis Dunlap
Mayodan, N.C.
January 12, 2009

[A special thanks to Charlie Trumbull for publishing this mini essay.]

John Dunphy haibun essay

John Dunphy has written an exceptional essay entitled Haibun: union of prose and poetry. John writes:

Some authors write prose, while others write poetry. A few try to distinguish themselves in both fields, with varying degrees of success. As a haiku poet, I have the option of writing works that successfully combine prose and poetry in one unique form.

Continue reading Haibun: union of prose and poetry...

I also recommend John's What is a haiku - and what isn't? essay.