Contest Results and Publications

Saša Važić sent results to the:

International Haiku Contest in Romania

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Red Moon Press has several new books available:

Individual Collections

•   Stephen Addiss — Cloud Calligraphy
This volume finds Addiss at his most playful and features 6 of his inimicable haiga as well. “Stephen Addiss creates an interconnected meditation with both brush and ink. Each
poem starts on the page, but finishes in the reader’s mind! His poems are so full of movement they have the power to stop us, and put us back in the moment.” —Stanford M. Forrester, Editor, bottle rockets

•   Dimitar Anakiev — Rustic
Anakiev’s fourth book with RMP (At the Tombstone, Kosovo Peonies, balcony) features 50 recent poems, each reflecting upon a different keyword, and each with copious notes as to the origins of the poem and the concept at hand. ". . . a literary historian’s dream, providing the author’s statement of intent and detailed notes. Reading the individual poems in context shows them to be simple and profound, inviting the reader to join the poet in contem-plating culture, history, and our collective roots in the natural world, including chaos and war.” —Johnye Strickland, Professor Emeritus, University of Arkansas

•   Jim Kacian — where i leave off / waar ik ophoud
Produced by ’t schrijverke of the Netherlands in a bilingual (English / Dutch) edition, this is Kacian’s 15th book devoted to haiku. This one explores the one-line haiku, and includes a mini-essay on the subject, as well as more than 50 examples, along with a selection of his miniature “one-bun,” haibun where the prose is limited to a single sentence. "Kacian breaks new ground by systematically exploring the possibilities of one-line haiku in English.” Max Verhart, Editor, Vuursteen

•   Dietmar Tauchner — as far as i can
This is Tauchner’s long-awaited first full-length book of haiku in English, and he doesn’t disappoint. The book pivots about a visit to the Mauthausen Prisoner Camp, which provides perspective on the poet’s life and pursuits.  “Lean and quiet, the haiku in this excellent collection convey deeply felt connections with nature, other people, and the inner self. They  dignify the commonplace and affirm the unknown and mysterious within the familiar.” —Peggy Willis Lyles, Editor, The Heron’s Nest

•   Jim Westenhaver — long enough
This poet’s first book of haiku suggests he will be a name to watch. This elegiac meditation on the fleeting touch between two people will stay with you. “What is unsaid pulses through long enough, and yet this slim collection of 27 poems overflows itself. Each haiku speaks to the next; the white space between vibrates with increasing energy until the last poem ricochets back to the first, demanding the book be re-read wholly anew.” —Eve Luckring

Annual Publications

•   where the wind turns: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2009
The fourteenth volume of the most decorated series in haiku history, where the wind turns features 161 poems, 12 linked forms, and 6 critical essays on the reading, writing and study of the genre. “Simply the best thing out there.” —Charles Trumbull, Editor, Modern Haiku

•   contemporary haibun Volume 11
This eleventh volume of the only series devoted to the best haibun and haiga produced in English features 70 poems and 32 haiga.. “contemporary haibun has stood alone, for nearly a decade, as the chief vehicle and bulwark of the burgeoning haibun movement in English.” —Jeffrey Woodward, Editor, Haibun Today

Special Publications

•   Ruth Franke — Schwerelos Gleiten / Slipping through Water
This innovative new book combines short prose and verse (haibun) with visual artistic impressions by the renowned German artist Reinhard Stangl. The 22 haibun invite the reader to enter the atmosphere of the different scenes and allow the multi-layered content to take effect. English versions by David Cobb and Celia Brown. Preface by Jim Kacian. A magnificent production by Wiesenburg, distributed in North America by Red Moon Press.

Coming Soon

•   Carolyn Hall — How to Paint the Finch’s Song
Hall’s second major collection, out in June.

•   Robert Boldman — Selected Haiku
Boldman’s return to haiku after a 25-year hiatus. Publication date to be determined.

As always, thank you for your continuing support.

Jim Kacian
Red Moon Press

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And finally, moonset will cease publication. The final issue should arrive in mailboxes soon. I personally would like to thank everyone involved in bringing this quality journal to life.

Peggy Heinrich - Three Questions (Tanka)

The Haiku - Three Questions queue finally ran dry this week. Just as I was about to scramble for something to post for my Sunday readers, my inbox alerted me to a message received from, well, an angel coming to my rescue. Peggy Heinrich, who participated in Haiku - Three Questions nearly two years ago, offers her thoughts in this addition to Tanka - Three Questions.

Peggy Heinrich's haiku have appeared in almost every haiku journal here and in Japan. Peeling an Orange, her collection of haiku, published recently by Modern English Tanka Press, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her mini-chapbook, A Patch of Grass, was published by High/Coo Press. Awards include HSA's Henderson Award and top prize in last year's Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest. In the last ten years, her tanka have been published by American Tanka, bottle rockets and other leading tanka journals.

Her longer poems have appeared in many small magazines and university press and in her collection, A Minefield of Etceteras (iUniverse, 2006).

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1) Why do you write tanka?

I had been writing haiku for years and had never heard of tanka until they began to surface a few decades ago. To learn more about the form, I studied the anthology Modern Japanese Tanka, edited and translated by Makoto Ueda and The Tanka Anthology, edited by Michael McClintock, Pamela Miller Ness and Jim Kacian. Reading the Ueda anthology, I was particularly drawn to Ishikawa Takuboku's tanka and later discovered Carl Sesar’s wonderful translations of Takubuku's work in Poems to Eat. I was drawn to tanka's offer of a chance to be more expansive and subjective than in haiku and after several attempts, I was hooked.

I was a charter member of Tanka Society of America and participated in a wonderful workshop organized by Pamela Miller Ness that met in New York’s Grand Central Station. The workshop helped me differentiate the essence of haiku from tanka, leading me to write an article on the subject, which I presented at a meeting of the Haiku Society of America's New York group.

When an idea for a poem is stirring in my head, I often find the five lines of a tanka offer me the best way to express it.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Longer poems in free verse, where I can call up many details and write until I surprise myself. Sestina, one of the forms in which the rules lead to exciting discoveries. Haiku, as I’ve mentioned above.

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

summer clouds —
from across the room
once, then again
the hollow sound
of the Indian drum

Tanka Café, TSA Newsletter V.4, No.4 12/03
Posted on TSA website as example of material from Tanka Café
A Minefield of Etceteras by Peggy Heinrich, 2005





for the first time
I find myself
alone
and yet . . . .
winter sun

Tanka Café Newsletter 9/04
A Minefield of Etceteras, 2005
moonset, June 2007 – republished




old home movies
Mother still dancing
the Charleston—
day-long snow
fogs the window

1st prize, moonset – Nov. 07
reprinted Ash Moon Anthology on aging 2008

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

Sunday updates - 5/9/2010

Bonnie Proudfoot sent this:

Riverwind, Hocking College's literary magazine, would like to publish 30 Haiku to celebrate its 30th edition. In return for publication, we will send out a copy of the magazine. We have won the CCHA (Community College Humaities Assn.) second prize twice for literary journals. The deadline for submission is May 15th.

Thanks
Bonnie Proudfoot
proudfoot_b@hocking.edu

Haiku are not required to be 5-7-5.

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This just in from Ed Baker:

http://thisisvisualpoetry.com/

sure is nice to be in such stellar company...


Ed

Ed also shared this link:

http://didiodatoc.blogspot.com/2010/04/visual-poetry-again.html

Wednesday updates - 5/5/2010

May 31 Deadline: Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival’s Fifth Annual international Haiku Invitational

While some cherry trees are still blooming, you are invited to write your haiku with fresh inspiration. Free to enter (up to two poems each). Poems will be judged by Michael Dylan Welch during the summer. Winning poems will be announced in the fall of 2010 on the VCBF website (www.vcbf.ca) and published in the Haiku Canada Review, Rice Paper, and Ripples, the newsletter of the Haiku Society of America. Top poems in five main categories (Youth, British Columbia, Canada, United States, and International) will also appear on TransLink SkyTrains and buses all over Metro Vancouver, receive celebrity readings by the conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra during a concert, and be featured in creative ways during the 2011 Festival in the spring of 2011. So don't delay -- submit your cherry blossom haiku by May 31. To submit, go to http://www.vcbf.ca/haiku/haiku-invitational-2010. (You can also read entries from previous years on the site.)

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Modern Haiku announces the winners for the Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award 2010

http://www.modernhaiku.org/spiessawards2010.html

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Atlas Poetica Announces New Special Feature: Canadian Tanka Poets in French and English

http://atlaspoetica.org/?p=185

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ukiahaiku 2010 Results

http://www.ukiahaiku.org/pdf/haiku2010_w_Cvr_b.pdf

Susan Diridoni - Three Questions

Susan Diridoni lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and works as a psychotherapist. In the last few years, her poetry has appeared in: Modern Haiku, bottle rockets, moonset, Mariposa, Modern English Tanka, Ribbons, 3lights, Roadrunner, MASKS. Forthcoming appearances in: Dimitar Anakiev’s (yet to be titled) “Anthology of War”, Presence.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I was a teenager interested in poetry and Zen when I discovered R.H. Blyth’s haiku books. Reading these books made me feel as if I would love Japan—never guessing that later I would travel there often and indeed love that land and its culture. At that time, I was also reading a good deal of other poetry, notably: Rilke, e.e. cummings, William Carlos Williams, paul reps, and contemporary poets of San Francisco. I also wrote poetry (very derivative) and was even published.

Much later, after becoming a psychologist, I began visiting a Trappist Abbey outside of Portland, Oregon. Occasionally I worked in the Pacific Northwest, and I would arrange to visit the Abbey. Then I began a decade of journeying there for Easter. It was being at the Abbey that brought me to the writing of haiku. I found the grounds of the Abbey beautiful—the foliage, trails going up into trees, ponds reflecting skies and the wind upon the water—all against the contemplative quiet and the welcoming community. Some of the guestrooms had long, slim windows which could transform at night in my mind’s eye, turning into real-time Japanese scrolls: moon reflected on a small pond, its surface broken by … koi, an insect, a frog. It seemed that all of this reached a critical mass of lyricism within me, and haiku began bubbling up. All of my initial attempts at haiku emerged from Abbey impressions—in nature, within relationships, and interior currents. After beginning to read contemporary published haiku, my haiku efforts gradually expanded to daily life and beyond.

Many answers given to this question have named dimensions that I, too, find true in writing haiku, especially the aspect of distillation. For me, haiku is the distillation of multi-faceted moments—moments that are exterior, interior, and dynamic.


2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I have less experience writing tanka, but enough to want to continue. In recent years I have been studying poetry with Diane di Prima, who is currently Poet Laureate of San Francisco. Diane’s passionate engagement with the Muse, and her liberal advocacy of the same in her students, make a compelling invitation to explore free verse as well as a wide variety of structured poetry. My readings in poetry are ever growing, including literary journals such as Jubilat and Black Warrior Review, to cite just two. Seems I’m wading into the wide, gossamer river of poetics!


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



patches of night
fill the western sky—
my jig-saw memories

bottle rockets #19 / 2008




Epiphany
the unsaid between us
extinguished

Modern Haiku 40.2 / Summer 2009




just east of our troubles the rainbow’s face



Roadrunner X:I / Spring 2010

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

Sunday updates - 5/2/2010

Happy 10th Anniversary, Haiku of Kobayashi Issa!

This month marks the 10th anniversary of David G. Lanoue's website devoted to translations of Issa's haiku.

http://haikuguy.com/issa/index.html

David has created a page/wall of comments left by fans of the web site and Kobayashi Issa.

http://haikuguy.com/issa/commentwall.html

Thank you for your hard work David and for your popular web site!

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Editors of Magnapoets are accepting submissions for their July 2010 issue. How to submit and a view of the July cover are located here:

http://www.magnapoets.com/

One contributor copy per poet.

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Saša Važic' sent this:

Matsuo Basho Poetry Offerings English Haikus wanted

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David Grayson sent this:

Hi Curtis,

I wanted to pass along info about a haiku/poetry/art event coming in June in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The O'Hanlon Center for the Arts in Mill Valley (Marin County, CA) is presenting the 7th annual Wabi Sabi celebration. Events include:

- Haiku workshop led by David Grayson. Thursday, June 17, 7-9 p.m. $22.
- Juried gallery exhibit
- Wabi Sabi poetry reading on Thursday, June 10 at 7 p.m. Readers include Duff Axsom, Karen Benke, Dick Brown, CB Follett, Abby Wasserman and Bernie Weiner.

The center is a beautiful facility located one mile from downtown Mill Valley on several acres of beautiful woodland. There are several buildings which provide space for our activities.

For more info, visit http://www.ohanloncenter.org/.

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Pris Campbell sent this:

Pris Campbell and Scott Owens collaboration:

http://www.mainstreetrag.com/Campbell_Owens.html

Click the link above to see the cover of The Nature of Attraction. It's a wow. Scott found the artist. The publisher is Main Street Rag Press. Also on that page are our photos, bios and three poems from the book. Right now and until July 12, the book can be bought for the pre-publication price of $3.50 (plus shipping). The number of books printed will depend on pre-publication orders, the number Scott and I buy, and then a certain number of extras for later sales at what will then be $7.00.

Books will be shipped in late July. You have the advantage of getting the low price by ordering early, but not the book in hand until later.

Anyway, I hope some of you will consider it. Working with Scott was fun. We did the collaboration spontaneously and at our leisure over a period of time. Now it's out and I hope you enjoy. The book is poems back and forth about the relationship between a repressed, wary-of-love Norman and wilde childe Sara.

xxPris

Visit my website at http://www.poeticinspire.com
and my blog, Songs To A Midnight Sky at http://poeticinspire.blogspot.com

My latest book, Sea Trails, can be purchased at www.lummoxpress.com for fifteen dollars, plus postage.

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Scott Metz sent this:

Roadrunner X:1 has now been retrofitted with MASKS III

http://www.roadrunnerjournal.net/

MASKS is a zine of haiku pen-names (haigo)

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Dave Russo has made his photos from this year's Haiku Holiday available. I contributed a photo or two but the majority are his:

http://lilaf.smugmug.com/Poetry/Haiku-Holiday-2010/11966658_dgZyd#847814795_LyJVb

Poets and Poems - Pris Campbell

Jump Start

You jump-started my heart.
It beats a forgotten rhythm.
Resurrected are old passions,
hid behind that fake indifference
I wore like a favorite dress.
Tossed are blindfolds I hastily tied
whenever couples kissed.

Aging now, my past
slid over the mountaintop,
a new sun has risen.
I imagine you inside me,
bodies creating our own
1001 nights as we shed
any veils left between us.


Pris Campbell

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If you would like to participate in this series, send a photo of yourself composing a poem or writing or a picture of a location where you enjoy writing, along with one of your poems (the type/genre of poem doesn't matter). This series will allow us to see the various locations that inspire us or where we go to write.

Wednesday updates - 4/28/2010

Full Bloom Renga

Paul Conneally sent this:

Our Web Renga for the Full Bloom Renga will run over the two weeks between our live renga session at Cotehele (Sunday 25th April) to Saturday 9th May when we perform the second live renga at Acorn Bank in Cumbria. We are following the wave of blossom from South to North through England.

We welcome submissions for the web renga from anywhere in the world.

Interactive Full Bloom renga page:

http://www.orchardnetwork.org.uk/renga/

I am master poet at the live renga sessions with 3 guest masters selecting the web renga submissions starting with Sheila Windsor, then Alec Finlay and finaly Martin Lucas.

Full Bloom Renga was devised by Anne-Marie Culhane with Jo Salter, Paul Conneally and Alec finlay

All that's best,

Paul

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An Invitation to Submit Haiku:

The HSA Members’ Anthology 2010

In 2010, for the 17th consecutive year, the Haiku Society of America (HSA) will publish a members’ anthology. Members are cordially invited to participate! (If you’re not a member, please visit http://www.hsa-haiku.org/join.htm for information about joining.)

This is a wonderful opportunity to examine the work of a cross-section of HSA poets, who are among the best writers of haiku and senryu in the English language, and to see your work in print. The HSA members’ anthology also makes a great gift for family and friends—please consider ordering several copies and give the gift of haiku!

The 2010 HSA members’ anthology will be edited by Scott Mason.

THEME

This year’s anthology will have a theme—BIODIVERSITY—in keeping with the United Nations’ declaration of 2010 as the “International Year of Biodiversity.” Each haiku or senryu must name a particular species of plant or animal (besides humans). Here are two examples by this year’s anthology editor, one apiece with a specific plant and animal reference:

wind-carved sand . . .
I crumble a bayberry leaf
to bring her back


(The Heron’s Nest, Volume X, Number 3, September, 2008) 


sundown:
rock wallabies return
to their Dreaming

(Paper Wasp Jack Stamm Haiku Contest, 2007) 


All terrestrial, aquatic and airborne species qualify. The more “diverse,” the better!

SUBMISSIONS

Each member of the Haiku Society of America may submit up to five haiku or senryu with a specific plant or animal reference. At least one—and possibly more—will be selected for inclusion.

All submissions must be sent by postal mail (no e-mail submissions). Send up to five haiku or senryu (no tanka, haibun, haiga, etc.). Please put all five haiku/senryu on one sheet with your name, address, and e-mail address (if any) at the top.

New work is preferred, but previously published haiku or senryu are acceptable. If a submitted poem has been published—or has appeared in the general results notification for any contest—please provide the type of information shown with the two sample poems above. You will be notified by e-mail which of your haiku or senryu has/have been selected. If you have no e-mail address but wish to be notified, please include an SASE (non-US residents should include an SAE and an IRC if you do not provide an e-mail address).

Deadline: IN HAND by June 30, 2010. Notifications will be sent by July 31, 2010.

PURCHASING COPIES

The number of copies printed will be determined by the number of copies advance-ordered. Thus, we strongly suggest that you order your copies when you submit your haiku or senryu. The cost is US$14.00 per copy postpaid in North America (add US$3.00 postage elsewhere). Remit in US-dollar checks made out to “Haiku Society of America” or cash.

SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

* One page with name, address, and e-mail address (if any) at the top.
* Up to five haiku/senryu, each naming a specific plant or animal (besides humans).
* Previous publication information where applicable.
* Number of copies of the anthology being ordered, along with your payment (ordering a copy is not required for inclusion, however).
* SASE to receive selection information
* All mailed to:

Scott Mason
P.O. Box 682
Mount Kisco, NY 10549 USA

QUESTIONS?

If these instructions are not clear, or if you have other questions, contact Scott Mason by e-mail at hsaanthology@gmail.com or at the post office box address above.

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Whirligig

In the second half of May 2010 the first issue of the bilingual (Dutch/English) haiku journal Whirligig will be published.


Objective

With Whirligig it is our intention to exchange haiku between the Dutch language area and the rest of the world. This will work in two ways:


* Through English translations of original Dutch-language haiku, interested people elsewhere will become acquainted with haiku written in the Netherlands and Flanders.

* Through Dutch translations of haiku originally written in other languages, interested people in the Netherlands and Flanders will become acquainted with haiku written in these other languages. (If the original language is not English, the original version may also be presented in addition to an English and a Dutch translation.)


The name

* Whirligig is the English name for the small water beetle Gyrinus natans, the Dutch name of which is schrijvertje or schrijverke (literally: ‘little writer’).


Practical details

* Whirligig will be published twice a year: in May and November.

* The scope will be about 60 pages per issue, the size being A5 (15 x 21 cm). Every volume will be produced as a book, including a title on the spine. The cover will be in full color.

* The annual subscription rate, including postage, will be:

For subscribers in the Netherlands: € 17,50

For subscribers elsewhere in Europe: € 21,50 (GB £19,00) (standard mail)

For subscribers outside of Europe: € 26,00 (US $ 35,00)

* The price per single copy, including postage, will be:

Within the Netherlands: € 9,50

Elsewhere within Europe: € 11,50 (GB £10,00) (standard mail)

Outside of Europe: € 15,00 (US $ 20,00)

* Payments can be made either by bank (Netherlands and Euro countries), through PayPal or in cash (all other countries). Further details will be sent along with the first issue.


Compilation and editing

* The content will consist mainly of haiku (including senryu) and short haibun. In addition, new publications will be noted. No, or almost no, essays or reflective texts will be included.

* In compiling Whirligig both old and new material will be used. Texts therefore will be drawn from earlier publications, while new and unpublished poems will also be included.

* To obtain as yet unpublished work the editor(s) will actively contact haiku poets.

* In compiling the journal and in translating the poems, editor Max Verhart has obtained the assistance of Klaus-Dieter Wirth (Germany), Norman Darlington (Ireland) and Marlène Buitelaar (Netherlands), all of whom have an above standard command of Dutch and English, besides which several other languages are covered by this team.


Submissions

* Unsolicited work may be submitted for publication, to be considered by the editor(s). However, no correspondence will be entered into concerning such submissions.

* It is not necessary to be a subscriber to submit material. However, when unsolicited work by a non-subscriber is published, the author will be expected to buy at least one copy of the issue in which it appears.


Submissions and subscriptions to be sent to:

By email: max@verhart.org

By snailmail:

Whirligig
p.a. Max Verhart

Meester Spoermekerlaan 30

NL-5237 JZ Den Bosch

Netherlands


It’s possible to subscribe from this moment on!

With the subscription please add the postal address where Whirligig should be sent.


Forwarding this mail to other potentially interested parties is highly appreciated.


Kind regards,

Max Verhart

Thomas Heffernan - Three Questions

Thomas Heffernan has been making haiku since the mid-1980s in Okinawa where he co-founded the bilingual haiku magazine Plover/Chidori. His English-language haiku have received a number of Mainichi awards and also Itoen and JAL (Japan Air Lines) prizes; he was awarded the 2006 Kusamakura Grand Prize for haiku. He has published ten books and chapbooks. His The Liam Poems about an ancestral kinsman, the Irish-language Jacobite poet William Heffernan the Blind (as W.B. Yeats called Liam Dall O’hIfearnain), received the 1982 Roanoke-Chowan Prize.

[Photo of Thomas Heffernan and Roberta Beary by Curtis Dunlap]

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1) Why do you write haiku?

To put into words traces of things I wonder at… to present what otherwise would be past.


2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Tanka. Ghazals. Sonnets: some are available on the Ploughshares website; others, here and there in my books.


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

Some haiku of mine, not necessarily favorites or even representative.

Such a being as this recalls the name of our Okinawan haiku magazine:



a one-legged plover
standing in the empty lot...
winter

Mainichi Daily News, “Haiku Column,” March 9, 1991



even after
the operation
the midnight tomcat

International Herald Tribune/Asahi, July 24, 2002



shop window
reflecting the other side
of the street

Frogpond, Spring/Summer, 2007



now and then
night air moves
the reed curtain


Included in a haibun in Christmas Gifts in South Japan. Laurinburg, NC: St Andrews Press, 2003, 43.

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

Monday updates - 4/26/2010

Raffael de Gruttola sent the wonderful reading below. He writes:

This is the piece that Judson Evans, Karen Klein, and I cross-adapted from Katherine Snodgrass' one act play called HAIKU. Katherine is the Director of the Boston Playwright's Theatre at Boston University. We took the dialogue of the play and adapted it as a renku for performance purposes. It was presented at the Mass Poetry Festival last year in October and was videotaped for the local Lowell TV Outlet. Katherine's play won the 1988 Heideman Award-Winning One-Act Play in the US.

Sincerely,
Raffael

Sculling Blackbirds from Eric Sack on Vimeo.

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Carole Macrury sent this reminder:

The 11th Tanka Society of America’s International Competition Call for Submissions

Deadline: Postmark date of May 10, 2010.

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

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

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

Submissions: Submit each tanka on three separate 3 x 5 inch cards, two with the tanka only (for anonymous judging), the third with the tanka and the author's name and address in the upper left-hand corner. Type or print neatly please.

Submit entries and fees to: Carole MacRury, 1636 Edwards Drive, Point Roberts, WA 98281-8511 USA

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

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

Rights: All rights revert to the authors after publication.

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

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Saša Važic' sent this update:

The 14th annual Mainichi Haiku Contest.

~ ~ ~

Yuki Teikei Haiku Society
Annual Kiyoshi & Kiyoko Tokutomi Memorial Haiku Contest

~ ~ ~

Apokalipsa magazine is issuing a call for

6th HAIKU COMIC OR COMIC OF HAIKU?

If a haiku is always derived from simplicity, brevity, and the use of least words possible – without redundancy, which express the whole dimensionality of a haiku moment, which is the starting point and goal of the haiku masters’ creativity, interpreting a comic we can speak about experimentation with time, i.e., moment. A haiku comic is a multifaceted experiment that incorporates various interpretations of a personal experience in form of a “frozen” moment – a quick sketch or illustration, an “explained” moment in form of banner short stories, which occasionally flirt with animation approaches, and one- or more-page form, which visualises a certain haiku or creates an atmosphere that forms a basis for understanding a certain moment, message or thought within its time frame.

Your haiku comics will be published in the September 2010 issue of Apokalipsa magazine and in its special volume Haiku comic 6 edited by Boris Bac'ic'. A special comic exhibition and projection within the project Ljubljana 2010 – World Book Capital, and Pecs 2010 –European Capital of Culture, is also planned. The authors will be notified about the upcoming events and will receive the publication by regular mail. Please send the contributions until 1 June 2010 to the following address: REVIJA APOKALIPSA, UI. Lili Novy 25, 1000 Ljubljana, marked Haiku comic, or via e-mail (in tif or jpg format, 600dpi BW or 300dpi GRAYSCALE) to the following address: bajabak@gmail.com.

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Saša also needs your help:

Sasa Vazic, editor of the bilingual Haiku Reality/stvarnost, would like to kindly ask poets to resubmit their work to her email vazicsasa@gmail.com. The fact is her hard disc burned up, so she has lost all emails with submissions.

Haiku Reality is open for submission to all other authors as well.

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This just in from M. Kei:

Atlas Poetica Announces New Special Features: Romanian Tanka Poets

24 April 2010 — Perryville, Maryland, USA

Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka is proud to reveal the new ‘Special Features’ section of its completely redesigned website. The new website, designed by Alex von Vaupel, Technical Director for Atlas Poetica, hosts information about the journal, submission guidelines, ordering information, sample issues, and now the new Special Features section. It is located at .

Atlas Poetica is an international tanka journal that publishes tanka literature in many languages. However, it can be difficult for readers and poets to find venues to enjoy tanka featuring different languages and cultures. Therefore, Atlas Poetica has established the Special Features section to focus on different aspects of the international tanka community.

The first Special Feature is ‘25 Romanian Tanka Poets’ edited by Magdalena Dale and Vasile Moldovan, with an Introduction by Moldovan and translations by Dale and others. The Introduction surveys the history of tanka in Romania from 1878 to the present, and highlights some of the accomplishments of Romanian tanka poets at home and around the world.

The Introduction is followed by twenty-five tanka in the original Romanian accompanied by English translation. Some of the poets featured are well-known to the international tanka community, but other poets are being translated into English for the first time. ‘25 Romanian Tanka Poets’ is a beguiling snapshot of tanka in Romania and provides citations for readers interested in reading more.

More Special Features will be coming soon, including ‘25 Canadian Tanka Poets in French and English,’ edited by Aurora Antonovic and translated by Huguette Ducharme and Mike Montreuil. It is slated to appear the first week of May. It will be followed by ‘25 New Zealand Tanka Poets,’ edited by Patricia Prime. It will appear in the first week of June.

A fourth Special Feature, ‘25 Poems on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Themes’ is in the planning stages. It is being edited by Alex von Vaupel. Queries about the LGBT Special Feature can be sent to with a subject line of “LGBT tanka feature”.

Anyone interested in being a Guest Editor for a Special Feature at the Atlas Poetica website will find guidelines on Special Features home page, below the Atlas butterfly that is the symbol of the journal. Anyone interested in being a Guest Editor should familiarize themselves with the project by reading the Special Features section and also a sample issue of the journal archived on the site. Atlas Poetica’s Special Features are published on an irregular schedule.

About Keibooks:

Keibooks is a micropress located in Perryville, Maryland, USA, founded by poet and tall ship sailor, M. Kei. Keibooks publishes select projects reflecting his interest in tanka poetry and the sea. Using print-on-demand technology, Keibooks is able to publish high quality literature in attractive, affordable editions. Keibooks is home to Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka, and previously published Fire Pearls : Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart, a classic anthology of tanka love poems, as well as several other titles. For more information, visit: <>.

Contact:
M. Kei, publisher and editor
Keibooks
P O Box 1118, Elkton, MD, 21922-1118, USA
Email: Keibooks @ gmail.com
http://stores.lulu.com/keibooks

Poets and Poems - Michael Dylan Welch

Flowers on the Roof of Hell

in this world
we walk on the roof of hell
gazing at flowers
                —Issa (1763–1828)

Today Issa came over for dinner.
Nothing fancy, just Thai take-out from the place down the road.
He came on foot, carrying a satchel.
I welcomed him at the door, and he removed his sandals.
The low evening sun sparkled
through the tall glass of water I gave him.
He admired it before he drank it in one go.
I showed him to the living room, where he sat on the couch,
almost delicately. Then, as if conscious
of his bare feet, he curled them up under himself.

We talked of poetry all through dinner,
stray noodles landing on the plain wooden table as we ate.
We talked of favourite poets and poems,
and the challenge of writing freshly about old subjects.
We talked of writing one’s joy in a fiercely crushed world,
of flowers on the roof of hell.

When he told me it was time for him to go,
I asked if I could give him a ride
but he declined, as I knew he would.
He had a long way to travel,
but held a finger to his lips and gently shook his smile.
Then Issa took his sandals in hand
and padded off into the dark.

I opened the satchel he left behind.
Inside it bloomed white asters.

Michael Dylan Welch

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If you would like to participate in this series, send a photo of yourself composing a poem or writing or a picture of a location where you enjoy writing, along with one of your poems (the type/genre of poem doesn't matter). This series will allow us to see the various locations that inspire us or where we go to write.

Wednesday updates - 4/21/2010

Just a quick reminder about the 31st annual Haiku Holiday on Saturday, April 24th. I plan to attend. If you're in the neighborhood, please drop by. You'll find a friendly group of poets there, willing to share their knowledge and poems with you.

http://www.nc-haiku.org/meetings.htm#haiku-holiday

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Richard Krawiec sent this update:

Fleur de Lisa wins Original Song competition.

This past Saturday Fleur de Lisa won the Original Song competition at the Mid Atlantic Regional Finals of the Harmony Sweepstakes National Competition for a cappella groups. The winning song, "Rainy Season" was written by Sarah Shunk, based on a haiku by Roberta Beary.

Although Fleur de Lisa didn't win the overall competition, the judges and audience were impressed with all six original songs they performed,which included three written to haiku by Beary, one based on a haiku by Richard Krawiec, another written to Jaki Shelton Green's free verse poem, and one original song written by Sarah. In addition to the Original Song winner, the audience favorite from their set was Slicing, also based on a poem by Beary.

Fleur de Lisa'a new CD, The Unworn Necklace, features songs written to a variety of poetic forms, including haiku by Basho and Issa, a relationship suite written to a series of haiku by Roberta Beary, and longer poems written by Jaki Shelton Green, former NC Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer, and Wendell Berry. You can hear samples at their website(link below). "The Sound of the Name' is from their relationship suite. 'Fireflies' combines Japanese Death poems written by Chine and Kagai.

http://haikusongs.com/discography.html

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Lenard D. Moore forwarded this news to me:

The Jerry Kilbride Memorial 2010 English-Language Haibun Contest


Sponsor:  Central Valley Haiku Club

Deadline:  In hand by October 1, 2010

Submissions:  All entries must be unpublished, not under consideration elsewhere, and in English.  No limit to the number or length of any submissions.  Submit three copies of each haibun, two (2) copies without author information attached for anonymous judging, one (1) copy with author’s name, address, phone number and e-mail address for notification purposes.  A first prize of $100 and a second prize of $50 will be awarded.  Honorable mention certificates also will be given.  Winning entries will be published  in an upcoming CVHC chapbook and  will be available at the CVHC website..  The entry fee $5 (US) per haibun should be paid by check and made out to:  Mark Hollingsworth (CVHC Treasurer).

Eligibility:  Open to the public; CVHC officers are not eligible.

Correspondence:  No entries will be returned.  Send business-sized SASE for a list of the winning entries.  Please note that entries without SASE, insufficient postage, or that fail to adhere to contest rules will be disqualified.

Judges:  Will not be disclosed until the contest winner has been decided.

Send entries to:  Yvonne Cabalona, 709 Auburn Street, Modesto, CA  95350-6079.

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Penny Harter will read at the 2010 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. The festival will take place October 7-10, 2010 in Newark, New Jersey.

More information is available on the festival web site:

http://www.dodgepoetry.org/

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Saša Važic' sent this update:

The Haiku Now! Contest 2010 winners have been announced:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/contest/haiku-now-contest-2010/

Ellen Olinger - Three Questions

Ellen Olinger has been writing poetry since high school. She lives with her husband, Karl, by Lake Michigan. She recently began a poetry blog and welcomes you to visit when you have a moment: Poems from Oostburg, WI, USA.

Ellen's poems have been published in a wide variety of journals. Examples include Hermitage, Hummingbird, LYNX, Modern Haiku, Parnassus Literary Review, and SMILE (non-profit bold large print publication).

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1) Why do you write haiku?

By God's grace, I was able to give 20 years to the field of special education and contributed in many ways. During this time, I also discovered the small poetry presses. Then my life took a dramatic turn, as a chronic illness resulted in major surgery. My 40th birthday was in the hospital (1993). I found during recovery that while the content of many things I was reading was helpful, I could not absorb the material. This was quite an adjustment, as I was used to reading and writing academic articles in my field. A few collaborative pieces have survived the test of time.

My mother, Enola Borgh, was an English professor. She saved the magazines where my poems appeared and wrote the page numbers on the covers. She also suggested I learn a form, and I found haiku. Then during my recovery, a few years later, I found that the short forms, including haiku, were writing I could read. I also began ordering books and loved their simplicity of design. Not too much on the page, room to breathe, a way to learn something new: exactly the kind of thinking I was trained to do in special education.

Life came full circle and grew in a new way, and I then had the privilege of helping with my mother's care.

The poets I met through the short forms continue to be so kind. Mail is a special blessing.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I grew up in a Lutheran church and loved the liturgy, hymns, Bible readings, and sermons. While I do not belong to a denomination now--my husband and I have lived in different places and have offered our gifts to different ministries--poetry began in church. "In the beginning was the Word..." (John 1).

Also, I have been reading the Psalms aloud in various English translations since my recovery. This comforted me and helped me get writing again too.

I try to read widely and stretch to read different forms and authors with various perspectives on life. I read far more than I write. Poetry helps me feel whole.

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


rarely at your grave--
    geranium blooms freely
        on your workshop stool

Modern Haiku, Vol. XXVII, NO. 3. Fall 1996.


lingonberries
at the local store...
Christmas at Nanna's


cross-stitch from the
grandmother I didn't meet:
"Put the coffee on"

Parnassus Literary Journal, Vol. 28, NR. 3. Fall/Winter 2004.

[Photo of Ellen by Karl Olinger.]

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

Several publication and contest updates

Carolyn Hall sent this update:

The Spring issue of Acorn is hot off the presses. For ordering information and sample poems from this issue, please go to the Acorn website at www.acornhaiku.com.

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Dietmar Tauchner sent this:

Dear Haiku-Friends,

Chrysanthemum 7 is now online and ready to be viewed at:

www.chrysanthemum-haiku.net

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This just in from Carolyn Thomas:

The Saigyo Awards for Tanka 2010

Deadline:
In hand August 1, 2010

Prizes:
$100; $50; $25. Honorable Mentions. Winners living outside the US will receive subscriptions to tanka journals in place of cash prizes.

Eligibility:
Open to everyone.

Entry Fee:
None.

Rules:
All tanka must be the entrant’s original, unpublished work, and not under consideration by any publication or other contest.

Submissions:
Up to 10 tanka in English, typed (or printed legibly) on one sheet of 8 ½ by 11 paper. Submit 2 copies. Provide name and address in upper left corner of one copy only.

Correspondence:
Send #10 (4 1/8 x 9 ½) SASE (outside US, SAE and 1 IRC) for notification of results. No entries will be returned.

Mail entries to:
Carolyn Thomas, 7866 Hogan Circle, Hemet, CA 92545 USA.

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Saša Važic' sent these updates:

Kids Count for Earthday 5-7-5 Haiku Contest 2010

http://kidsearthdayhaiku.blogspot.com/2010/03/contest-is-open.html

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International Capoliveri Haiku Contest 2010

http://www.giorgioweiss.it/node/481

Dirty Laundry (Not poetry related)

I was recently reproached by a family member about my church-going. This person's assessment of me was that my life isn't or was never perfect, that I don't live the life of the standard picture perfect Christian. I reckon this family member's assessment of me is that I'm a dabburn hypocrite for living my life the way I do and then going to church on Sunday. Okay, to this person whom I love very, very much: Nope, I ain't perfect. I'm flawed. I've made mistakes and I've made my mistakes with you and I will continue to make mistakes as long as I roam this little blue planet. But I like going to church. I like the way I feel when I'm sitting there listening to a good sermon from the Good Book. I like singing the hymns. It makes me feel good about all the wrong or bad things I did during the week, primarily because I know that we all do wrong or bad things and the Christian faith is about love and forgiveness. I look at some of the people Christ chose for disciples, the conversion of Saul to Paul, and I figure that there's still hope for me. The way I see it is that church is for fine upstanding Christians and it's for sinners too, and I know that I'm more apt to fall into the category of the latter than the former.

So, say or think what you will about me. You can judge me, convict me, sentence me. I can only and will only think of good times with you. Focusing on the good times and forgetting the bad is a form of forgetfulness that I've been afflicted with since I passed the half-century mark. Life is too short to wallow in the bad.

Now, that being said, I know that this person is going through some tough times, has their own problems and was lashing out, trying to peg someone to blame. If you need someone to blame, I'm your man. Blame me. Everything that's been done to you and your current life situation is my fault. Get it out of your system and maybe we can move on, sit down, have a laugh or two and enjoy each others' company again before our time on this little blue planet expires.

Poets and Poems - Gene Murtha

Directions

Let us walk for awhile. Bring along the pick ax, spade and knapsack hanging in the shed. You will find them on your right just inside the split barn door.

Walk through the trellis in the rear garden, it is the trailhead that leads through the forest. Be careful, there are roots to your left sticking up from the grade from an old pin oak—I don't want you to spill me, well, not yet.

Follow the trail until two paths merge, then stop. Take the pick and break up the hard pan. You will find ribbons of clay and sand. Mix them together with the shovel to create loam.

Add the ashes from the velvet bag that you will find inside the sack, this will improve the soil too. If you feel inclined to say something over my remains, then, that is fine, but it is not important, since you have done enough.

It will be spring soon. Already, you can hear the chickadees.

recycle day
a washed out worm
in the rain puddle

[Originally published in contemporary haibun online]

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If you would like to participate in this series, send a photo of yourself composing a poem or writing or a picture of a location where you enjoy writing, along with one of your poems (the type/genre of poem doesn't matter). This series will allow us to see the various locations that inspire us or where we go to write.

Updates: Kuniharu Shimizu, Contest, & Contest Results

Here is a message from Kuniharu Shimizu:

Collaborating with more than 250 haijin, I made more than 1000 haiga. From the stock of haiga, I am now making a series of haiga books in ebook format. The first of the series is called  "wind", and it is now available at the following URL: http://tfship.net/bookstore/bkstore.html

The second book will be "water", and the third "fire, light"


all the best,
Kuniharu Shimizu
see haiku here
http://seehaikuhere.blogspot.com/

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Saša Važic' sent this:

Single Island Press Haiku Contest:

http://haikumuse.com/html/haiku-contest.html

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Japan-EU English Haiku Contest:

http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/europe/eu/haiku_sub.html

~ ~ ~

The 2nd Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest:  

http://yamadera-basho.jp/?p=log&l=177346

~ ~ ~

NCSU Insect Museum Annual Hexapod Haiku Challenge (RESULTS):

http://blog.insectmuseum.org/

Nora Wood - Three Questions

Nora Wood grew up near the Tetons in Wyoming. She is a writer and poet living in Atlanta, Georgia with her two daughters. She took up haiku-writing in 2007 as a discipline and creative outlet. Nora's poems have been published in The Heron's Nest, Frogpond, Simply Haiku, Magnapoets, contemporary haibun online, and more. She is the first runner-up for The Heron’s Nest 2009 Reader’s Choice Poet of the Year. You can find her blog at haikuaday.blogspot.com.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

Like many haijin, I can’t not write haiku. A few years ago, wanting to follow the dictum that to be a writer, you must write every day, I decided on blogging a daily haiku. I love Japanese culture, and it seemed like a manageable commitment. Of course, those first 5-7-5 verses were not what we’d consider haiku, but it put me on this path. I am fortunate to have had the support of experienced mentors who welcomed and guided me. Though I do not write a daily haiku any more, the years I did instilled in me the quiet awareness of haiku mind.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I am a huge fan of Richard Wilbur’s in general, and specifically his poems that follow the traditional haiku syllabic form. He is such an artful master of any form. I have written poems in various forms, including free-verse, though my focus these days is on haiku. As I have begun experimenting with haibun, I find it another interesting and therapeutic challenge I want to explore more.

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

morning star
the newborn's fontanel
pulses softly

Frogpond 32.2 • 2009



winter sky
a skein of wild birds
unravels



graveside
my breasts
leaking

The Heron's Nest Volume XI, Number 1: March, 2009


Thank you very much for the honor of participating, Curtis, and for this invaluable service you provide the haiku community.

Regards,

Nora

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