Mike Farley writes from Red Lodge, Montana, where he lives with his wife Shirlee on a hay and cattle ranch. He is 68 and has six grown children and fifteen grandkids. Mike's poetry is rich with the images of the mountains, plains, weather and animals with which he is daily surrounded.
He was introduced to haiku in 2002 by fellow haijin and long-time friend Darrell Byrd, and although he has contributed his work to many online haiku lists, he has not yet been published in print.
Mike's favorite haiku poets are those who have inspired him over the years, including Naia, Cindy Tebo, Tom Clausen, George Swede, Timothy Russell, Earl Keener and Johannes Manjrekar.
1. Why do you write haiku?
I write haiku for the sheer pleasure of it. I absolutely love reading good haiku and I've saved quite a long list of my favorites from other poets. Writing my own haiku, however, really good ones, is not easy for me. Juxtaposition and the images that can (and should) spring unspoken from between the lines is the key to the whole thing (for me anyway). It's so hard to do and so delightful when it happens.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I enjoy almost all forms of poetry, but haiku is my favorite and the only form I've seriously attempted to write myself.
3. Of the many haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three?
I've gone through the several hundred I've written over the years, and tentatively ear-marked 50 or so I was really pleased with thinking that I would then pare down that group to "my three favorites". I'm delighted and surprised to report that it was impossible to do. There are many that I found to be my favorites, but here are three that are close to my heart and which I feel "do what they're supposed to do" as haiku.
lupine
a darker blue
in the hoofprints
uprooted iris
the muddy puppy
wags its body
spring snow
the warm spot where
the dental nurse leans
And here are my three favorite senyru . . .
blues
remembering
when I used to smoke
Jack Daniels
just a splash
at the river's edge
rustling leaves
just a glimpse
of her thigh
Peggy Heinrich will be our Haiku - Three Questions guest next week.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
A quick update and news
Between work, school, and an unforeseen hard drive crash, the last two weeks have been a busy time for me. For my technical poet pals out there let me say briefly that PCLinuxOS came to my rescue. I was able to run the Live CD GNOME version on my laptop (it found and configured all of my devices!). When it came time to save my work, I used Google Docs or a flash drive. Pretty cool, eh?...to continue using a computer with a slew of applications minus a hard drive? When the new hard drive arrived, I set aside a partition for PCLinuxOS. I'm currently dual booting PCLinxOS and XP.
Okay, that's enough of my nerdy side. :)
I received an email this week from Adelaide B. Shaw. She invites you to visit her White Petals blog. You may recall that Adelaide was our guest for a round of Haiku - Three Questions on June 29th. Please note that she's enabled a nice feature that will allow you to "follow" her post. Look for the feature on the right-side of her blog (you may have to scroll down a little).
Dave Russo over at the North Carolina Haiku Society Blog has some exciting news about Lenard D. Moore, poet and President of the Haiku Society of America. Congratulations Lenard!
It's stew season in Mayodan! Here's a slice of small town Americana for you (perhaps the pictures will inspire a poem):
I had two bowls of Brunswick stew for breakfast this morning, topped with several drops of Texas Pete.
I've been playing with my digital camera. The video quality is poor (a camcorder upgrade is in the works) but you'll get the idea for what may become my next side project.
I'll be back later today with the weekly Haiku - Three Questions post. I'm off to get another bowl of stew!
Okay, that's enough of my nerdy side. :)
I received an email this week from Adelaide B. Shaw. She invites you to visit her White Petals blog. You may recall that Adelaide was our guest for a round of Haiku - Three Questions on June 29th. Please note that she's enabled a nice feature that will allow you to "follow" her post. Look for the feature on the right-side of her blog (you may have to scroll down a little).
Dave Russo over at the North Carolina Haiku Society Blog has some exciting news about Lenard D. Moore, poet and President of the Haiku Society of America. Congratulations Lenard!
It's stew season in Mayodan! Here's a slice of small town Americana for you (perhaps the pictures will inspire a poem):
I had two bowls of Brunswick stew for breakfast this morning, topped with several drops of Texas Pete.
I've been playing with my digital camera. The video quality is poor (a camcorder upgrade is in the works) but you'll get the idea for what may become my next side project.
I'll be back later today with the weekly Haiku - Three Questions post. I'm off to get another bowl of stew!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Stephen Addiss - Three Questions
Stephen Addiss is the author of many books on East Asian art and culture, including A Haiku Menagerie, Haiku Garden, Haiku People, Haiku Landscapes, Haiku Humor, Haiga: Takebe Socho and the Haiku-Painting Tradition, The Art of Zen, and Zen Sourcebook. A painter and calligrapher whose works have been frequently exhibited and published, he teaches at the University of Richmond and co-edits South by Southeast: Haiku and Haiku Arts Journal.
1. Why do you write haiku?
I had been composing them occasionally for some years, but what got me fully involved was translating haiku for various book and catalogue projects relating to Japanese art. When I was in college more than 50 years ago, a poetry teacher named Edwin Honig told us that the great ages of poetry in English were also great ages of translation, and I believe that working tenaciously to get the meaning, sound, and rhythm across in another language, no matter how ultimately impossible, is a great way to develop one's own poetic sensibility and skills. My own haiku are the source and also the result of focusing my attention.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I used to enjoy and write sonnets, and now I occasionally work on tanka and linked verse, but aside from haiku my major interest has been free verse.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)
birthday snow—
stepping into holes
left by the postman
South by Southeast 7/1, A Glimpse of Red, Frogpond 23/2
the fisherman
nets
a fisherman
HSA Newsletter 12/1
old pond paved over
into a parking lot—
one frog still singing
Daily Yomiuri 2/5/96, Mainichi Shinbun, Haiku People
Next week, Mike Farley.
1. Why do you write haiku?
I had been composing them occasionally for some years, but what got me fully involved was translating haiku for various book and catalogue projects relating to Japanese art. When I was in college more than 50 years ago, a poetry teacher named Edwin Honig told us that the great ages of poetry in English were also great ages of translation, and I believe that working tenaciously to get the meaning, sound, and rhythm across in another language, no matter how ultimately impossible, is a great way to develop one's own poetic sensibility and skills. My own haiku are the source and also the result of focusing my attention.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I used to enjoy and write sonnets, and now I occasionally work on tanka and linked verse, but aside from haiku my major interest has been free verse.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)
birthday snow—
stepping into holes
left by the postman
South by Southeast 7/1, A Glimpse of Red, Frogpond 23/2
the fisherman
nets
a fisherman
HSA Newsletter 12/1
old pond paved over
into a parking lot—
one frog still singing
Daily Yomiuri 2/5/96, Mainichi Shinbun, Haiku People
Next week, Mike Farley.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Lynne Rees - Three Questions
Lynne Rees is a poet, novelist and short fiction writer who turned to haiku writing in 2006. Her work has been published in a number of anthologies and print and on-line journals, she's currently the haibun editor at Simply Haiku, and will be joint editor of The Biennial British Haiku Society Haibun Anthology in 2009. Lynne's website is www.lynnerees.co.uk and selected published haiku and haibun can be found at http://anopenfield.blogspot.com/. She lives in Antibes, in the South of France.
1. Why do you write haiku?
Most of the time I feel as if I'm 'trying' to write haiku. Some succeed, but most of them don't because they don't feel fresh enough, or they don't surprise me in any way so I doubt they'll matter to anyone else. But I love the process of 'making' them whatever the result, the feeling that I'm learning something about observation, sincerity, language and form.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I published a collection of free-verse before starting to write haiku, and I still write the occasional free verse poem, but mostly I write haibun now, though I've also written some tanka, and experimented at length with rengay with the poet Harriot West, an experience we both felt we learned a lot from.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)
I've chosen the following three (two of which dip into senryu territory) because I can still feel the truth of them now, some time after their making. They're also all connected in some way to Wales, where I was born, and my family, so of course that adds to why I feel fondly about them
sunlit garden
when did my father grow
an old man's neck?
Frogpond – Fall 2006
all this green forgiving the rain
http://tinywords.com/haiku/2008/03/13/
newborn
he stretches his legs into
all this space
Blithe Spirit 16/3
www.lynnerees.co.uk
http://applehousepoetryworkshop.blogspot.com/
http://anopenfield.blogspot.com/
Stephen Addiss will be our Haiku - Three Questions guest next week.
1. Why do you write haiku?
Most of the time I feel as if I'm 'trying' to write haiku. Some succeed, but most of them don't because they don't feel fresh enough, or they don't surprise me in any way so I doubt they'll matter to anyone else. But I love the process of 'making' them whatever the result, the feeling that I'm learning something about observation, sincerity, language and form.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I published a collection of free-verse before starting to write haiku, and I still write the occasional free verse poem, but mostly I write haibun now, though I've also written some tanka, and experimented at length with rengay with the poet Harriot West, an experience we both felt we learned a lot from.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)
I've chosen the following three (two of which dip into senryu territory) because I can still feel the truth of them now, some time after their making. They're also all connected in some way to Wales, where I was born, and my family, so of course that adds to why I feel fondly about them
sunlit garden
when did my father grow
an old man's neck?
Frogpond – Fall 2006
all this green forgiving the rain
http://tinywords.com/haiku/2008/03/13/
newborn
he stretches his legs into
all this space
Blithe Spirit 16/3
www.lynnerees.co.uk
http://applehousepoetryworkshop.blogspot.com/
http://anopenfield.blogspot.com/
Stephen Addiss will be our Haiku - Three Questions guest next week.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
bottle rockets new website
This just in from Stanford M. Forrester:
bottle rockets press has a new website: www.bottlerocketspress.com! The new site is very user-friendly and now it is much easier to order books and magazines on-line. (Please no longer use the old URL.) The website will also feature a bookstore where you can find new, used and rare haiku and haiku-related books. The new e-mail is: editor@bottlerocketspress.com. Come visit the new website & help us celebrate our 10th year in print!
bottle rockets press
P.O. Box 189
Windsor, CT 06095
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
WHC-German Autumn Issue 2008
Angelika Wienert would like to invite everyone to visit the WHC-German Autumn Issue 2008
You'll find 50 haiku and senryu in German and English.
37 haiku poets from all parts of Germany, from Austria and Switzerland German haiku poets who live in the U.S.A., in Yemen and Japan.
Here are a couple of poems from the autumn issue:
verlassener Hof –
rot leuchten die Äpfel
im Gras
abandoned farm –
red apples glowing
in the grass
(Silvia Kempen)
vor sechzig Jahren...
in die Buche gekerbt
ein Name, ein Kreuz
sixty years ago...
carved in the beech tree
a name, a cross
(Helga Stania)
Happy reading!
Curtis
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Merrill Ann Gonzales - Three Questions
Merrill Ann Gonzales is our Haiku - Three Questions guest this week. She writes:
"My parents met in Grand Central Art School and Art Student's League studying under Arshele Gorky. My great grandmother taught art in Maine and I was married to the fine artist the late John L. Gonzales. I've worked in oil, watercolor, pen and ink, sumie, and have contributed drawings and cover designs for poetry magazines for more years than I care to remember (although I love remembering the editors!). I've published poetry, haiku, tanka, haiga and I've explored tanga. I created snowbird press on groundhog day in the snowy year of 2004/5.
"As you can see, art and poetry have almost been like breathing and waking and sleeping to me. It isn't something I do, it's something I exist in. It's my way of being part of the human race...where people are truly human."
1. Why do you write haiku?
I can't really say I write haiku, sometimes I think the haiku writes me. A haiku comes up from the deep as I'm doing other things and tells me something. Many times it will come while I'm drawing or painting and will enlighten the experience I'm trying to capture.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
Haiga and tanga are extremely gratifying to me. It's as if my whole being, emotional and physical, is joined as the two (the verse and the drawing) come together. I also write tanka. When I was a child I learned so much from ancient Chinese drawings and the mystery they revealed. I think Ikkoku Santo helped to explore some of those mysteries with new light.
I've had a renku and a renga published in the past, but the artistry of the poets I was working with, Alan Summers and John Stevenson, deserve all the credit for their merits. It was an extreme honor to have written with such accomplished poets. And I have also written western poetry in free verse which has been published over the years.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)
ocean breezes —
an awareness comes
in a thousand voices
originally published in REEDS: Contemporary Haiga 2005
new moon —
the path emerges
from darkness
originally published in HSA 2007 MEMBERS' ANTHOLOGY
stone in my pocket —
the brook cuts deeper
into the mountain
originally published as 2006 Harold G. Henderson Award Honorable Mention
in FROGPOND
These three haiku were seminal in my life with profound implications for my comprehension of the world I live in.
I would be most honored to be included with so many of the haiku poets who have given me so much throughout the years. As I look down the list of poets I see friend after friend. A spirit of unity that binds and enriches us. Thanks for a new way to join in the spirit of haiku.
In the river flow...I remain...yours, Merrill Ann Gonzales
Lynne Rees shares her response to three questions with us next week.
"My parents met in Grand Central Art School and Art Student's League studying under Arshele Gorky. My great grandmother taught art in Maine and I was married to the fine artist the late John L. Gonzales. I've worked in oil, watercolor, pen and ink, sumie, and have contributed drawings and cover designs for poetry magazines for more years than I care to remember (although I love remembering the editors!). I've published poetry, haiku, tanka, haiga and I've explored tanga. I created snowbird press on groundhog day in the snowy year of 2004/5.
"As you can see, art and poetry have almost been like breathing and waking and sleeping to me. It isn't something I do, it's something I exist in. It's my way of being part of the human race...where people are truly human."
1. Why do you write haiku?
I can't really say I write haiku, sometimes I think the haiku writes me. A haiku comes up from the deep as I'm doing other things and tells me something. Many times it will come while I'm drawing or painting and will enlighten the experience I'm trying to capture.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
Haiga and tanga are extremely gratifying to me. It's as if my whole being, emotional and physical, is joined as the two (the verse and the drawing) come together. I also write tanka. When I was a child I learned so much from ancient Chinese drawings and the mystery they revealed. I think Ikkoku Santo helped to explore some of those mysteries with new light.
I've had a renku and a renga published in the past, but the artistry of the poets I was working with, Alan Summers and John Stevenson, deserve all the credit for their merits. It was an extreme honor to have written with such accomplished poets. And I have also written western poetry in free verse which has been published over the years.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)
ocean breezes —
an awareness comes
in a thousand voices
originally published in REEDS: Contemporary Haiga 2005
new moon —
the path emerges
from darkness
originally published in HSA 2007 MEMBERS' ANTHOLOGY
stone in my pocket —
the brook cuts deeper
into the mountain
originally published as 2006 Harold G. Henderson Award Honorable Mention
in FROGPOND
These three haiku were seminal in my life with profound implications for my comprehension of the world I live in.
I would be most honored to be included with so many of the haiku poets who have given me so much throughout the years. As I look down the list of poets I see friend after friend. A spirit of unity that binds and enriches us. Thanks for a new way to join in the spirit of haiku.
In the river flow...I remain...yours, Merrill Ann Gonzales
Lynne Rees shares her response to three questions with us next week.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Cor van den Heuvel's Baseball Haiku Talk now on video (free)
This just in from Cor van den Heuvel:
Dear HSA Member,
In case you've not heard, my talk and reading from Baseball Haiku given at the Chautauqua Institute in June with Al Pizzarelli and Ed Markowski is now on line as a video at www.fora.tv.
When you get the home page, just click Culture, then click Sports and you will get a Sports features page with the talk as one of the spotlighted features. You can then click on to the video for highlights or for the complete talk and readings.
This is an important website, famous people from all fields are presented giving talks, interviews, or readings in a variety of impressive venues. (fora is the plural of forum). The talks are rated as to how many times they've been played (viewed), so please spread the word to anyone you think might be interested.
The video is now rated fifth among all the sports talks. If we can get it higher this could encourage interest in haiku and hopefully make publishers more receptive to our books.
This is not the same talk as the one I give on the Haiku North America 2007 Winston-Salem video. (That one includes readings by nine of the poets from Baseball Haiku.)
Thanks,
Cor van den Heuvel
Folks, we may all benefit from Cor's request. Please support Cor and the other poets in Baseball Haiku by visiting and watching the video.
Dear HSA Member,
In case you've not heard, my talk and reading from Baseball Haiku given at the Chautauqua Institute in June with Al Pizzarelli and Ed Markowski is now on line as a video at www.fora.tv.
When you get the home page, just click Culture, then click Sports and you will get a Sports features page with the talk as one of the spotlighted features. You can then click on to the video for highlights or for the complete talk and readings.
This is an important website, famous people from all fields are presented giving talks, interviews, or readings in a variety of impressive venues. (fora is the plural of forum). The talks are rated as to how many times they've been played (viewed), so please spread the word to anyone you think might be interested.
The video is now rated fifth among all the sports talks. If we can get it higher this could encourage interest in haiku and hopefully make publishers more receptive to our books.
This is not the same talk as the one I give on the Haiku North America 2007 Winston-Salem video. (That one includes readings by nine of the poets from Baseball Haiku.)
Thanks,
Cor van den Heuvel
Folks, we may all benefit from Cor's request. Please support Cor and the other poets in Baseball Haiku by visiting and watching the video.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Basho Haiku Challenge
Don Wentworth over at Issa's Untidy Hut has created The Basho Haiku Challenge contest.
Here's a snippet:
"So, here's the deal: for the next four weeks, send along up to 5 haiku to lilliput review at gmail dot com (spelled out to fend off pesky bots) and the best haiku wins the review copy of Basho: The Complete Haiku. Minimally, I will need your name and email to contact you with the results. In the subject line of your email, please put "Basho Haiku Challenge" so I can easily differentiate it from the scads of other things that come my way. The final date for submissions will be October 2nd and the winner will be announced in either the October 9th or October 16th posting. My definition of haiku is about as liberal as you can get: I follow no one particular method, school or theory and there is no seasonal requirement. Your haiku can be 1, 2, or 3 lines (over 5 would be a bit much, folks, but I will keep an open mind for experimenters). The one restriction would be that it be in the spirit of haiku (I've always liked the definition of English haiku as lasting the length of one breath, in and out and pause, but that's just me - and, oh yeah, I'm the judge, but, again, it's the spirit of the thing that counts) and that the haiku be previously unpublished in either paper or electronic form (ok, that's two requirements)."
Please visit Don's blog post for more information.
Have fun and good luck!
BTW, I'm currently reading Basho: The Complete Haiku. I'll post my review of this book soon.
Here's a snippet:
"So, here's the deal: for the next four weeks, send along up to 5 haiku to lilliput review at gmail dot com (spelled out to fend off pesky bots) and the best haiku wins the review copy of Basho: The Complete Haiku. Minimally, I will need your name and email to contact you with the results. In the subject line of your email, please put "Basho Haiku Challenge" so I can easily differentiate it from the scads of other things that come my way. The final date for submissions will be October 2nd and the winner will be announced in either the October 9th or October 16th posting. My definition of haiku is about as liberal as you can get: I follow no one particular method, school or theory and there is no seasonal requirement. Your haiku can be 1, 2, or 3 lines (over 5 would be a bit much, folks, but I will keep an open mind for experimenters). The one restriction would be that it be in the spirit of haiku (I've always liked the definition of English haiku as lasting the length of one breath, in and out and pause, but that's just me - and, oh yeah, I'm the judge, but, again, it's the spirit of the thing that counts) and that the haiku be previously unpublished in either paper or electronic form (ok, that's two requirements)."
Please visit Don's blog post for more information.
Have fun and good luck!
BTW, I'm currently reading Basho: The Complete Haiku. I'll post my review of this book soon.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Willow Songs sampling
I've received a couple of request from readers who would like to hear a track from Fleur-de-Lisa's Willow Songs CD.
Fleur-de-Lisa's rendition of the haiku below (first published in Beneath the Willow Tree) can be heard by clicking on this link:
reading Shiki
in the morning dark
a rabbit's death-cry
--Dave Russo
I hope you enjoy this unique way of presenting haiku. There are many more beautiful songs on the CD.
Fleur-de-Lisa's rendition of the haiku below (first published in Beneath the Willow Tree) can be heard by clicking on this link:
reading Shiki
in the morning dark
a rabbit's death-cry
--Dave Russo
I hope you enjoy this unique way of presenting haiku. There are many more beautiful songs on the CD.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Angelee Deodhar - Three Questions
Angelee Deodhar is a poet, translator, and artist from India. A member of several haiku groups worldwide, her haiku and haiga have been published internationally in various books, journals and on the Internet. She has been an invited speaker at several international conferences. She has made the promotion of haiku and its related forms throughout the world her life's work. She has translated five books from English to Hindi as resource books for haijin in India.
Angelee is an eye surgeon, and has also been published in medical magazines. She lives in Chandigarh with her physician husband, her son and daughter-in-law and a cocker spaniel.
1.Why do you write haiku?
For me writing haiku is a way of life, of living in the now. I observe that each day my own nature unfolds in response to the changing seasons. I try to capture something each day, the essence of that day in a haiku. It helps me to simplify my life and live more fully and peacefully.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I enjoy all forms of poetry, but find shorter forms like the tanka, and the haibun are more attractive now.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)
pail in hand
I trace the muddy path
of childhood mushrooms
Haiku World, An International Poetry Almanac, William J. Higginson, Kodansha International 1996.
harvest moon
scooping it out of the lake
the rustle of leaves
Honorable Mention, haigaonline.com
rumors of war
up into a darkening sky
- a child's newsprint kite
Third Prize, The Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award for 2003
Merrill Gonzales will be our Haiku - Three Questions guest next week.
Angelee is an eye surgeon, and has also been published in medical magazines. She lives in Chandigarh with her physician husband, her son and daughter-in-law and a cocker spaniel.
1.Why do you write haiku?
For me writing haiku is a way of life, of living in the now. I observe that each day my own nature unfolds in response to the changing seasons. I try to capture something each day, the essence of that day in a haiku. It helps me to simplify my life and live more fully and peacefully.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I enjoy all forms of poetry, but find shorter forms like the tanka, and the haibun are more attractive now.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)
pail in hand
I trace the muddy path
of childhood mushrooms
Haiku World, An International Poetry Almanac, William J. Higginson, Kodansha International 1996.
harvest moon
scooping it out of the lake
the rustle of leaves
Honorable Mention, haigaonline.com
rumors of war
up into a darkening sky
- a child's newsprint kite
Third Prize, The Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award for 2003
Merrill Gonzales will be our Haiku - Three Questions guest next week.
Willow Songs
A new CD by the a cappella group, Fleur-de-Lisa, is available. The CD entitled Willow Songs contains 27 songs based on haiku by members of the North Carolina Haiku Society. Perhaps we are witnessing an exciting new way of blending art forms (think haibun or haiga).
The group is currently working on songs based on Japanese death poems and on haiku by Roberta Beary.
For more information about this fabulous new CD, check out Dave Russo's North Carolina Haiku Society blog post.
The group is currently working on songs based on Japanese death poems and on haiku by Roberta Beary.
For more information about this fabulous new CD, check out Dave Russo's North Carolina Haiku Society blog post.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Dave Russo - Three Questions
Dave Russo's haiku have appeared in Simply Haiku, Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Acorn, and other journals. He is included in big sky: The Red Moon Anthology 2006 and the 2007 New Resonance anthology (Red Moon Press). He is the Webmaster for Haiku North America, the North Carolina Haiku Society, and Red Moon Press. He was one of the local organizers for Haiku North America 2007. Dave won the head-to-head haiku slam competition held at that conference.
1. Why do you write haiku?
About 10 years ago, a friend gave me a copy of Robert Hass's Essential Haiku, versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa. This book swept away my assumptions about what haiku are and what they can express. It made me want to write poems that sounded like the poems in this book.
Yet, I was reluctant to write haiku because I had such a bad impression of haiku in English. Any haiku that I might have read by Gary Snyder or Jack Kerouac were drowned in a tsunami of pop-culture haiku about cats, spam, rednecks, and the like. Haiku in English seemed to be a kind of limerick, a verse form that was completely defined by the 5-7-5 syllable pattern, a kind of poetry game suitable only for popular contests and arts programs for kids.
Luckily, however, I happened to go to a literary festival where I heard Lenard D. Moore read his haiku and other poetry. It was clear that for Lenard, haiku were poems: not experiments with an exotic form; not trifles dashed off between stints of real work. They were American, yet they had an unmistakable family resemblance to the Japanese haiku I had read in translation. I think I started writing haiku in earnest after that.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I’m not the sort of person who wakes up in the morning and says, "I think I’ll write a sijo today. Or maybe a ghazal." But if I take "forms" to mean "kinds", I can say that I like many kinds of poetry, from many ages and many parts of the world.
I must confess that I have not yet made peace with renku. Renku sessions, with their rules, socializing, multiple sources of advice, shifts of perspective—and the pressure to write something while your partners are waiting—are quite confusing for an introvert like me. On the other hand I really enjoyed the small renku session we had with Paul MacNeil when he came for Haiku Holiday some years ago, so maybe there is hope for me yet.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)
Hmm. Well, excuse me for 100 years while I go and try to write some wonderful haiku! In the meantime here are some one-liners. I’d like to write more of these.
roasting a rattlesnake we talk about girls
walking alone ghost water down a dry creek
a duck's wake in blown pollen dad's voice weaker
Credits: “roasting”: New Resonance 5 (Red Moon Press: 2007). “walking alone”: Modern Haiku 37:2. “a duck’s wake”: Simply Haiku: Winter 2006, vol 4 no 4.
Angelee Deodhar shares her response to Haiku - Three Questions with us next week.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Bill and Penny need your prayers
Please keep Bill Higginson and Penny Harter in your thoughts and prayers. Bill has been hospitalized for two weeks, including having had minor surgery to get a sample of the quickly growing and inoperable tumor in the center of his chest. Today, the tumor was diagnosed as malignant but highly treatable. Since the mass has been pressing on the esophagus and, therefore, inhibiting Bill's ability to eat much, he has been getting adjunct nourishment, and will continue to do so until the tumor shrinks.
He will start chemo this Friday in the hospital, to be followed, after several chemo cycles to shrink the mass, with targeted radiation. His case was so difficult to diagnose that the hospital's tumor board, which includes several Sloan Kettering physicians, will discuss the case on Thursday. If all goes well, he may come home late next week and continue treatment on an outpatient basis. Here is Bill and Penny's address:
Penny Harter / William J. Higginson
P. O. Box 1402
Summit, NJ 07902
Penny's email address is penhart@2hweb.net
I know these two wonderful people would greatly appreciate your prayers, cards, and get well wishes.
He will start chemo this Friday in the hospital, to be followed, after several chemo cycles to shrink the mass, with targeted radiation. His case was so difficult to diagnose that the hospital's tumor board, which includes several Sloan Kettering physicians, will discuss the case on Thursday. If all goes well, he may come home late next week and continue treatment on an outpatient basis. Here is Bill and Penny's address:
Penny Harter / William J. Higginson
P. O. Box 1402
Summit, NJ 07902
Penny's email address is penhart@2hweb.net
I know these two wonderful people would greatly appreciate your prayers, cards, and get well wishes.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Matthew Paul - Three Questions
Matthew Paul has contributed haiku to journals in the United Kingdom and the United States for seventeen years, and many of these appear in his collection The Regulars (Snapshot Press, 2008). He is the reviews editor for Presence haiku magazine, has a poetry blog at matthewpaulpoems.blogspot.com and lives and works in London. His latest book, Wing Beats: British Birds in Haiku, written and compiled with John Barlow, is available from www.wingbeats.co.uk.
1. Why do you write haiku?
Because it's essential! I first encountered haiku at school, around 1982, and I came across some key haiku books, including Henderson's, when I was at university, so when the British Haiku Society started up in 1990, my interest soon became much more than a habit. Writing haiku is, to me, as natural as any other urge and I rarely go more than a day or two without coming up with at least a proto-haiku.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I enjoy reading most forms of poetry, although long lyrical poetry tends to bore me rigid. I write the occasional tanka and longer poems too, some of which I post at: http://matthewpaulpoems.blogspot.com.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)
As all your other respondents seem to have said, it's hard to pick out the 'best', but these are three of my favourites. The first is from the Blue Ridge Mountains after last year's Haiku North America conference.
evening heat
the unseen sapsucker
drums five times
Simply Haiku
crows muster
at the edge of the marsh
a patch of celandines
Blithe Spirit
the bistro chef
smoking out the back
misty rain
Moonset
All the best,
Matthew (Paul)
A couple of readers of this blog have suggested that Haiku - Three Questions be made into a book. Perhaps, someday, after contributor responses no longer drop into my inbox, I'll seek a publisher.
Which reminds me, if you haven't already participated in this little project, please consider doing so. Also, tell your friends about this blog. You can email me directly or use this online form to send your thoughts/answers to Haiku - Three Questions.
Dave Russo will be our guest next week.
1. Why do you write haiku?
Because it's essential! I first encountered haiku at school, around 1982, and I came across some key haiku books, including Henderson's, when I was at university, so when the British Haiku Society started up in 1990, my interest soon became much more than a habit. Writing haiku is, to me, as natural as any other urge and I rarely go more than a day or two without coming up with at least a proto-haiku.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I enjoy reading most forms of poetry, although long lyrical poetry tends to bore me rigid. I write the occasional tanka and longer poems too, some of which I post at: http://matthewpaulpoems.blogspot.com.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)
As all your other respondents seem to have said, it's hard to pick out the 'best', but these are three of my favourites. The first is from the Blue Ridge Mountains after last year's Haiku North America conference.
evening heat
the unseen sapsucker
drums five times
Simply Haiku
crows muster
at the edge of the marsh
a patch of celandines
Blithe Spirit
the bistro chef
smoking out the back
misty rain
Moonset
All the best,
Matthew (Paul)
A couple of readers of this blog have suggested that Haiku - Three Questions be made into a book. Perhaps, someday, after contributor responses no longer drop into my inbox, I'll seek a publisher.
Which reminds me, if you haven't already participated in this little project, please consider doing so. Also, tell your friends about this blog. You can email me directly or use this online form to send your thoughts/answers to Haiku - Three Questions.
Dave Russo will be our guest next week.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Terry Ann Carter - Three Questions
Terry Ann Carter is a past vice president of Haiku Canada and Education Chair for The League of Canadian Poets. She has organized four conferences for Haiku Canada at Carleton University (visit this link for William J. Higginson's photo essay on Haiku Canada's 2007 conference) and will take on HNA (with the help of a local committee) next summer. She is co-founder (with Marianne Bluger) of KaDo Ottawa, a local haikai group that meets seasonally and launches a broadsheet each spring at the Japanese Embassy in Ottawa. (crimsonbamboo.ca)
1. Why do you write haiku?
Haiku came to me through my mentor and friend Marianne Bluger, the "godmother" of Japanese literary forms here in Canada. With her encouragement I began the slow process of trial and error. "Take a risk", she used to say. I write haiku as a kind of death poem for a particular moment, a moment I will never experience exactly the same way again. With Marianne's death in 2005, haiku is even more intrinsically bound to this notion, for often she is mystically present in the poems where I am reaching deepest into the core of nature, into the core of myself. I write senryu as a kind of comic relief, to find humour in the small spaces and chaos of my life. Together, these two approaches: death poems and comedy, inform and inspire my poetry. With two sons living in distant cities: Singapore and Vancouver, British Columbia, I often have opportunities to travel. I love writing haiku in small spiral bound notebooks as I move around the world...for no other reason than to simply say yes, I am here, and it is wonderful to be alive.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
As a member of The League of Canadian Poets, I have been writing free verse (lyric poetry) for many years, and have published two collections: Waiting for Julia, Third Eye Press, 1999, (now out of print) and Transplanted, Borealis Press, 2006. An example of a recent lyric poem can be found at the website for Tree Poetry, Ottawa's oldest reading series – http://www.treereadingseries.ca/TreeLeaves/100608-TerryAnnCarter.html. Just as my musical tastes run from opera to rhythm and blues and from Jazz to folk (depending on my mood and the weather) my poetry horizon is always stretching. I enjoy composing tanka, and haibun and creating haiga with travel photos and artworks from friends. My lyric poetry readings always include a recent haiku or senryu and as a poet-in-the-school under the sponsorship of The League, I try to give as many haiku workshops as I can. Part of the great experience of writing any kind of poetry is the tremendous pleasure in sharing what has been composed.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)
This is an impossibly difficult question to answer, (as other poets have noted) but I have come up with three favourites.
underground parking
no space
for the moon
R. H. Blyth "People's Choice Award" 2005
street hockey
young boys shoot cherry petals
into the net
Best Canadian Poem, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, 2007
winter dusk
in my mother's log cabin quilt
my father's red shirt
Carpe Diem: Anthologie Canadienne du Haiku/Canadian Haiku Anthology 2008
I would like to add a note of explanation to "street hockey". This poem was composed in Shaughnessy, a very affluent section of Vancouver, British Columbia, where homes sell for millions of dollars and celebrities from Hollywood and all over the world are often cited. This particular spring afternoon, I was with a friend who was picking up her daughter who attended a private school there. As I waited in the car, I happened to spy a few boys probably 6 or 7 years old. They had gathered a huge pile of cherry petals that had fallen onto the street into one amazing heap. Then they took turns whacking it with their hockey sticks. Street hockey is a culture unto its own for many young Canadian boys and girls (who often use regular pucks or frozen dog turds in winter) and it was an indelible moment as I heard their laughter in this simple old fashioned game that they had created with the resources around them. To watch the sprinkling of petals as they fell for a second time, earthbound, was indeed, an added pleasure. I was surprised that the poem went on to win an award a number of years later, for I had not written it for that purpose, but of course, I was pleased to receive the recognition which included an engraving on a large stone in the VanDusen Botanical Garden, Vancouver.
Thank you Curtis, for this opportunity to share some thoughts with my wonderful American poet friends, south of our border. The archive of other poets is also a treasure. Thank you for all your diligent work.
Sincerely,
Terry Ann Carter
Ottawa, Canada
Matthew Paul shares his response to Haiku - Three Questions next week.
1. Why do you write haiku?
Haiku came to me through my mentor and friend Marianne Bluger, the "godmother" of Japanese literary forms here in Canada. With her encouragement I began the slow process of trial and error. "Take a risk", she used to say. I write haiku as a kind of death poem for a particular moment, a moment I will never experience exactly the same way again. With Marianne's death in 2005, haiku is even more intrinsically bound to this notion, for often she is mystically present in the poems where I am reaching deepest into the core of nature, into the core of myself. I write senryu as a kind of comic relief, to find humour in the small spaces and chaos of my life. Together, these two approaches: death poems and comedy, inform and inspire my poetry. With two sons living in distant cities: Singapore and Vancouver, British Columbia, I often have opportunities to travel. I love writing haiku in small spiral bound notebooks as I move around the world...for no other reason than to simply say yes, I am here, and it is wonderful to be alive.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
As a member of The League of Canadian Poets, I have been writing free verse (lyric poetry) for many years, and have published two collections: Waiting for Julia, Third Eye Press, 1999, (now out of print) and Transplanted, Borealis Press, 2006. An example of a recent lyric poem can be found at the website for Tree Poetry, Ottawa's oldest reading series – http://www.treereadingseries.ca/TreeLeaves/100608-TerryAnnCarter.html. Just as my musical tastes run from opera to rhythm and blues and from Jazz to folk (depending on my mood and the weather) my poetry horizon is always stretching. I enjoy composing tanka, and haibun and creating haiga with travel photos and artworks from friends. My lyric poetry readings always include a recent haiku or senryu and as a poet-in-the-school under the sponsorship of The League, I try to give as many haiku workshops as I can. Part of the great experience of writing any kind of poetry is the tremendous pleasure in sharing what has been composed.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)
This is an impossibly difficult question to answer, (as other poets have noted) but I have come up with three favourites.
underground parking
no space
for the moon
R. H. Blyth "People's Choice Award" 2005
street hockey
young boys shoot cherry petals
into the net
Best Canadian Poem, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, 2007
winter dusk
in my mother's log cabin quilt
my father's red shirt
Carpe Diem: Anthologie Canadienne du Haiku/Canadian Haiku Anthology 2008
I would like to add a note of explanation to "street hockey". This poem was composed in Shaughnessy, a very affluent section of Vancouver, British Columbia, where homes sell for millions of dollars and celebrities from Hollywood and all over the world are often cited. This particular spring afternoon, I was with a friend who was picking up her daughter who attended a private school there. As I waited in the car, I happened to spy a few boys probably 6 or 7 years old. They had gathered a huge pile of cherry petals that had fallen onto the street into one amazing heap. Then they took turns whacking it with their hockey sticks. Street hockey is a culture unto its own for many young Canadian boys and girls (who often use regular pucks or frozen dog turds in winter) and it was an indelible moment as I heard their laughter in this simple old fashioned game that they had created with the resources around them. To watch the sprinkling of petals as they fell for a second time, earthbound, was indeed, an added pleasure. I was surprised that the poem went on to win an award a number of years later, for I had not written it for that purpose, but of course, I was pleased to receive the recognition which included an engraving on a large stone in the VanDusen Botanical Garden, Vancouver.
Thank you Curtis, for this opportunity to share some thoughts with my wonderful American poet friends, south of our border. The archive of other poets is also a treasure. Thank you for all your diligent work.
Sincerely,
Terry Ann Carter
Ottawa, Canada
Matthew Paul shares his response to Haiku - Three Questions next week.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
International Kusamakura Haiku Competition
There is still time left to enter the International Kusamakura Haiku Competition. A contest description is available here.
As stated in the submission guidelines, the entry fee is free. Also note that if you submitted haiku between June 1st and June 10th, your poems could have been lost.
You may submit up to two haiku via their convenient online form.
Past winners in the English section (and poems) can be viewed here.
The web sites listed in this post have, at times, been unavailable. If you cannot access these sites, try again later.
Good luck! Perhaps you will win an all expense paid trip to the beautiful country that gave us haiku.
As stated in the submission guidelines, the entry fee is free. Also note that if you submitted haiku between June 1st and June 10th, your poems could have been lost.
You may submit up to two haiku via their convenient online form.
Past winners in the English section (and poems) can be viewed here.
The web sites listed in this post have, at times, been unavailable. If you cannot access these sites, try again later.
Good luck! Perhaps you will win an all expense paid trip to the beautiful country that gave us haiku.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Lenard D. Moore Radio Interview
Lenard D. Moore, President of the Haiku Society of America, was interviewed on North Carolina Public Radio yesterday. Lenard talked about his new book of poems entitled A Temple Looming. He also read a few poems from the book.
The interview can be heard in its entirety at:
http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0812c08.mp3/view
The interview can be heard in its entirety at:
http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0812c08.mp3/view
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