Thursday updates

The new issue of A Hundred Gourds online. Haiku editor, Lorin Ford writes:

A Hundred Gourds 1:2 is now online

Issue 1:2 of A Hundred Gourds: a quarterly journal of haiku, haibun, haiga tanka and renku poetry is now online.

http://ahundredgourds.com

In this issue Ray Rasmussen introduces a feature on ‘The Graphic Haibun of Linda Papanicolaou’. You’ll find AHG’s first renku section, as well as haiku, tanka, haiga and haibun, an essay on the ‘New Junicho’ renku, an interview with Peter Yovu and reviews of three haiku books.

In response to suggestions from our readers and for your ease in locating haiku, tanka and renku poems by author’s name, AHG has now established an index of poets for these sections. This index has also been applied retrospectively to the AHG 1:1 haiku section.

A Hundred Gourds welcomes your submissions to the June Edition, Issue 1:3.

The deadline for all submissions to AHG 1:3 is March 15th.

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

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The March issue of The Heron's Nest is online:

http://theheronsnest.com/

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Charlotte Digregorio sent this update

Hello, Haikuists:

I have some more details about Haikufest to be held from 2 to 3:30 p.m., Saturday, April 28 at Skokie Public Library, 5215 Oakton St., Skokie, IL.

In general, there will be a brief presentation on haiku to begin the program. Following this, we hope there will be wide participation on the part of Haiku Society members reading their work. Next, there will be time for question and answers from the audience directed to individual readers, or to the moderator about haiku, in general.  We will finish the program with an audience haiku contest.  First, Second, and Third Place Winners will receive copies of "Frogpond."

After the program, we will meet at a restaurant within a few blocks of the Library. This, of course, is optional. Non-members are welcome to join us, too. This will be followed by a Ginko walk (nature walk to inspire haiku writing). The Ginko will be held in Vernon Hills,  and Lidia Rozmus has graciously volunteered to lead it. To end the day, we will have coffee at Lidia's home.

As for Haikufest at the Library, so far, these HSA members are scheduled to read: Lidia Rozmus, Amelia Cotter, Mac Greene, John Han, Tom Chockley, Alicia Hilton, Joanne Crofton, and Tomoko Hata.  We hope more people will read, even HSA members outside the Midwest Region who may find themselves in the Chicago area. Any member who has had three or more haiku published or accepted for publication in a haiku journal or in "Ripples" newsletter may read. Please RSVP as soon as possible and let us know if you plan to read. If you have any questions about your eligibility to read, please contact me.

Once we've nailed down how many readers there will be, we will let them know the maximum number of haiku they may read. Those who read should begin by briefly introducing themselves. They may state, for example, why they like to write haiku, what inspires them to write it, or anything they feel is relevant. We have many interesting members from diverse backgrounds, so we will inspire the audience to start writing haiku, I'm sure.

Last year at Haikufest, we had more than 50 people in the audience, unrelated to members. This year, if you bring friends and family, we will get many more.  In our press release to the media and writer's organizations, etc., we will state that attendees may bring a haiku to the program to enter in the contest, or they can write one during the program when they receive inspiration from the readers.

We'd like to have a few volunteers to help sign in people who attend. It's always good to follow up with attendees and put them on our email list. And, we'd also like to have a few volunteers to help judge the audience haiku contest.

Please contact me with questions or to volunteer. Since we are volunteers, we greatly appreciate your help. And, it's a great way to feel part of the HSA community and network with other friendly members.

Thank you so much. We look forward to seeing everyone!

Charlotte Digregorio
Midwest Regional Coordinator
Haiku Society of America

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Charlotte also passed this along:

Call for Words and Art

A Midnight Snack

Call for words: Poems suitable for late night reading. Poems must be no longer than 56 lines (including lines between stanzas) and no more than 60 characters (including spaces between words) per line. Submit up to three poems by Word attachment to: arlyn@poeticlicenseinc.net.

Call for art: Cover art related to theme. Submit up to three pieces of art by pdf or jpeg, to arlyn@poeticlicenseinc.net.

Regarding line should read: Submission – A Midnight Snack.

E-mail cover letter should include: (1) poet’s or artist’s name as you would like it to appear; (2) e-mail address; (3) street address; (4) title of each poem or piece of artwork submitted; and (5) brief statement of what keeps you awake at night or what you do when you can’t sleep (no x-rating, please).

Poems and artwork must NOT include identifying information such as name, e-mail address, or street address.

Previously published work is fine provided author/artist retains publication rights. Note prior publisher for acknowledgement.

Submission Deadline: May 1, 2012


Notification of Acceptance by August 1, 2012 by e-mail. Poets and artist whose work is selected will receive one contributor’s copy as sole remuneration. Additional copies will be available for purchase.

Submission shall constitute: (1) representation that the submission is original work and that the creator retains publication rights, and (2) agreement that if the work is accepted for publication, (a) Poetic License Press may, in its sole discretion, publish and promote the work in any medium or forum, and (b) the sole remuneration is one contributor’s copy of A Midnight Snack.

Poetic License Press is an affiliate of Poetic License, Inc.


PO Box 279, Glencoe, Il 60022

poticlicenseinc.blogspot.com
poeticlicensepress.blogspot.com
arlyn@poeticlicenseinc.net

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And finally, Tomislav Maretić sent the link below. The deadline is today, March 1st so hurry if you're going to submit:

http://librasia.iafor.org/haiku.html

Sunday updates

Helen Losse has a new book of poems available entitled Mansion of Memory. Please buy a copy. The profits go to Bright Futures Joplin Tornado Fund. The cost is $11 (plus $2 postage). Visit Helen's blog or the Mansion of Memory Facebook page for ordering information. Here is a poem from the book:

In the Days Of the Pinkest Shades Of Clover

We climbed the lookout tower,
hugged a branch of the Mulberry Tree,
ate purple berries,
sat barefoot stringing beads

on a blanket in the yard
under watchful nose of Mrs. Ross’s
maid, then dripped chocolaty
pudding pops, cooled our-
selves in the water from the hose
or the wading pool,
where Michael leaned to swim—

knit together, purled to a daisy chain,
living our days in the pinkest shades of clover—

so that later roaming the hills
near the Cabin next to Spring River,
we clambered over
sloping limestone rocks and
small, blue cedars, and we knew

why Mummy said, “One can, all can”
is the only fair way, among siblings.

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Scott Owens has a new book of poems entitled For One Who Knows How to Own Land. Scott writes:


Future Cycle Press has just released my new book of poems, For One Who Knows How to Own Land.  These 98 pages of poetry focus on the experience of growing up in the disappearing rural South.  They include some of my favorite oldest poems as well as a lot of new ones.  I am including a brief description of the book as well as comments from Ron Rash, Tim Peeler, John Lane, and  below.  You can order copies from me or on Amazon.  There will be a book launch on March 20 at 6:00 at Taste Full Beans in Hickory, NC, and on March 23 at 7:00 at City Lights Books in Sylva, NC.  I hope you can attend one of those events.

For One Who Knows How to Own Land
Copyright 2012 Scott Owens
Published by FutureCycle Press
Mineral Bluff, Georgia
ISBN:  978-0-9839985-3-2

I grew up in two worlds: my father’s parents’ world of brick homes, city streets, shopping, and playgrounds; and my mother’s parents’ world of dirt roads, livestock, growing our own food, and endless woods.  That second world was undeniably harder than the first.  The work was dirtier, and there was more of it.  The homes had fewer luxuries: no cable, no AC, never more than one bathroom.  Even death was different. In town, death was a polished event that took place elsewhere, hospitals, nursing homes, slaughter houses, funeral parlors.  On the farm, animals were killed every week, and most people died at home, and their bodies stayed there until they were buried.

Somehow, however, that second world still seemed much more alive, much more real and vital.  Despite that vitality, I was aware that most people knew almost nothing about that second world.  It was then, and is increasingly now, an undiscovered country where life and death exist side by side with a natural intensity missing from the artificial world of the city.

This book, dedicated to my grandfather (one who knew how to own land), is a record of my undiscovered country and the people who lived there.

Landscape and memory are seamlessly merged in this excellent volume. Like all the best writers of place, Scott Owens finds the heart's universal concerns in his vivid rendering of piedmont Carolina.
--Ron Rash, author of Raising the Dead

There's not a speck of sentimentality in the rural poetic Americana framed by Scott Owens in FOR ONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO OWN LAND. There are dead crows, red dirt earth, barking dogs, burning coal, fox traps, and flooding rivers. These stories matter. The poems all rattle and sing. This is a jolt of strong coffee for a watery time.
--John Lane, author of The Woods Stretched for Miles: Contemporary Nature Writing from the South

In For One Who Knows How to Own Land, poet, Scott Owens creates with a mature voice, childhood reminiscences of pastoral summers in the red dirt rural Piedmont of upstate South Carolina.  This, his most affecting collection to date, is a remarkable sensory journey that registers narrative moments along the entire emotional scale from harsh to tender, from the threatening to the anodyne.  Through the magical nature of memory, these poems of mystery and loss prove again and again that “The boy who left this country/never stopped hearing its names/echo in his ear.”
 --Tim Peeler, author of Checking Out

“Why should this be home?” Scott Owens asks us in “Homeplace,” his question as much about leaving as going back. We walk his train tracks and ridges as if they were our own, as though home were “something you held tight before you, /your back bending against its going away.”  In this both visceral and meditative rendering of place, decay and rebirth are part of the same landscape. I applaud the skill that directs us down a path of experience and familiarity to “stone steps/ that dead-end in mid-air.” His poetry is wise in knowing the weight of its own footsteps.
-- Linda Annas Ferguson, author of Dirt Sandwich


Read more about For One Who Knows How to Own Land on Scott's Musings Blog.

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Charlotte Digregorio sent this update:

Hello Haikuists,

Some of you might be interested in the announcement below.

Dear Charlotte,

I am a friend of Charlie Rossiter's and he has referred me to your organization.

I am the President for the National Association for Poetry Therapy and I would like to invite you and your membership to attend our national conference, "Writing the Winds of Change," to be held in Chicago April 26-29, 2012.  We have an extraordinary opening ceremony, featuring local musicians and poets well-known throughout Chicago, as well as, the internationally known key-note poet/educator/essayist and publisher, Haki Madhubuti.  We have a variety of workshops which integrate poetry, journaling and the expressive arts in the arenas of mental health, self-growth, wellness and education.

If you would like more information about our conference and registration process, please refer to our web-page at www.poetrytherapy.org.

Should you have any questions in regard to our organization or our conference, please do not hesitate to contact me.  I do look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Catherine Conway, President
The National Association for Poetry Therapy
P - 630-220-8682
www.poetrytherapy.org

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Ellen Compton sent this update:

Good Morning Curtis,

Here's a note I hope you can include with your announcements and updates.

Cheers, and thanks,
Ellen

Volunteer at 100th D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival

The Haiku Society of America will have a booth at the upcoming 100th National Cherry Blossom Street Festival and is looking for folks to help out. It could be a great time to visit the nation’s capital, enjoy the cherry blossoms, socialize with fellow haiku poets and tell a broader audience about haiku.

The festival, which will be held on Saturday, April 14, rain or shine, runs from 11 – 6 p.m. You are welcome to sign up for an hour or longer. In particular, we could use help with set up and break down before/after the official festival times.

If you love haiku, have always wanted to see Washington DC's cherry blossoms, like working with people, and want to pitch in, please get in touch with Rick Black: rick@turtlelightpress.com or call him at
703-241-4127 for more details. Hope to see you there!

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A new issue of Haibun Today is available which includes Penny Harter's haibun, "The Great Blue."

http://haibuntoday.com

Also, Penny's essay "Writing From the Present, Past, and Future," is the featured essay in the "Revelations: Unedited" feature in Frogpond: the Journal of the Haiku Society of America, pp. 28-44. The essay covers writing haiku, haibun, and free verse.

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Sasa Vazic sent the Fujisan Haiku Results.

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M. Kei sent this:

Lulu.com, the old printer for Keibooks, is offering 30% off Heron Sea by M. Kei and other Keibooks backlist titles, such as Catzilla, and previous issues of Atlas Poetica. This offer is good through February.

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Ed Baker sent this update:

just a moment ago I saw that Barney Rosset had died !
a Major, Major 'player' in my life.
neat happening a few years ago  he picked this piece to go into his review:
      http://www.evergreenreview.com/120/ed-baker.html

here is the Post's obituary :

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=barney-rosset&pid=156046238

hang in, Ed

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Haiku Death Match: No Words Barred

Join Press 53 and Piedmont S.L.A.M. for “Haiku Death Match: No Words Barred” on Tuesday, February 28, 7 p.m., at the Community Arts Cafe, Fourth & Spruce in downtown Winston-Salem. This special adults-only event is open to anyone 18 and over who wants to sling Haiku like an assassin. $3 cover and prizes for our winners. For more information, call Kevin at 336-770-5353.

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Colin Stewart Jones sent this:

Dear Readers and Friends,

NFTG has recently undergone a process of streamlining and simplification of its website. You can now access either the flip magazine or the static information pages separately by clicking on the relevant cherry on the entry page.

The flip magazine now has a module which can enlarge to full screen, add annotations and has a search facility. NFTG is now available on all browsers, Mac or PC and all mobile devices, including i-Pad and Android. We have also updated our static information pages and have a new bespoke form filler for submissions which can be accessed at the top left or very bottom of the Submissions’ Page and you can also get in contact by through the Editors’ Page.

Thank you all for you continued support.

Colin Stewart Jones
Editor-in-Chief
Notes from the Gean

http://notesfromthegean.com/

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Richard Krawiec sent this:

Hope you can come see my first staged full-length play, CREEDS.  It's inspired by the true story of Bonnie and Robert Hanssen.  Arch conservative, Opus Dei Catholics, sexually bizarre - and Bob was a  double-agent for the Russians, called the greatest spy in U.S. history.

We have an excellent cast including Lori Mahl (Actors Equity) who had a career in NYC, working on the stage with, among others, Carol Channing and Tyne Daly, Jeff Alguire, who won a Best Actor Award from the Independent, and an ensemble cast that has performed on every major stage in the Triangle - from Playmakers, to REP, to Burning Coal, to Common Ground to the Arts Center in Carrboro.

It will be staged March 22 - April 1 at Common Ground Theater in Durham, NC.

http://cgtheatre.com/directions

Here's some more info on the show.  Tickets range from $7 - $15
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/224259

I've had one-acts produced across the U.S. and Canada, but this is my first full length, and it's as exciting as publishing a first novel.

The play is produced by PlayGround, a Theater Co-operative which has been in operation for 2 years.  It's a group of local actresses and actors and NC playwrights who meet once a month to develop scenes by local writers and opportunities for local actors.

If you're interested in supporting PlayGround we are selling a few tickets to the Sunday, April 1, 4 pm cast party. These tickets, which cost $40, will include a free meal, a ticket to your choice of performance (you don't have to go April 1), and a chance to mingle with the cast.

If you want to make a night of it when you come to the play, less than a mile away there are 2 good restaurant choices right on Hillsborough - Bennett Point Grill (quality Southern, no calabash) and Durham House of Pizza (decent pizza and Italian in Sicilian style).  Within 4 miles on HIllsborough you have Chinese, Greek, and fast food.  Only 10 minutes from the theater are Meelo's and Nana's and Parizade, three excellent local choices.

Hope to see you,
richard krawiec

Check out my websites!

http://www.press53.com/BioRichardKrawiec.html
http://www.rkeditor.com/
http://jacarpress.com/index.html

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And finally, Frugal Poet, Susan Nelson Myers, will have a new recipe and poem to share with you later today.

David Jacobs - Three Questions

David Jacobs was born in London in 1949 and has lived there since.  He has published several collections of mainstream poetry, the most recent of which "The Gardens of Onkel Arnold" (Peterloo) appeared in 2004.   In the last two years he has concentrated exclusively on haiku. His work has appeared in many of the english language haiku journals including Modern Haiku, Acorn, Haiku Presence, Bottle Rockets, Paper Wasp and The Mainichi Daily News.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

Why not?  It might be something to do with the fascination of what's difficult.  I have an interest in Zen, and it may be that haiku is akin to the unravelling of a koan - not that I have ever unravelled one. I read somewhere that you have to write 100 bad haiku in order to write one good one - I sometimes think you have to write 100 bad drafts in order to arrive at one average one.


2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I like senryu,  although like many others, I find this barely distinguishable from haiku.  And of mainstream poetry I tend to like specific poems rather than forms. If the poem works it has found its form. Kipling's "If" which is pretty well one sentence, just about says it all.


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

I haven't written any wonderful haiku (yet!),  but I'm still hoping for the one that will survive the next 500 years.  The following will not, but my thanks to the editors who took them up.


bomb shelter -
my old belongings
huddle in the dark

(Heron's Nest vol.13.04 December 2011)


coming ashore
at their own pace -
oarsmen's ripples

(Paper Wasp 17(4) Spring 2011 and "Carving Darkness" (Red Moon Press, February 2012)


new dementia wing
Mum insists
on the guided tour

(Modern Haiku vol 43(1) winter/spring 2012)

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

Saturday Updates

Japanese Arts Fusion 

 Dear Poet Friends and Friends of Poets,

 I would like to share information with you about a Japanese Performing Arts Event with commissioned art installation which I have organized for the Pacific Asia Museum in the Los Angeles CA area, one of only four American institutions to exhibit Pan-Asia arts. The museum has been wonderfully supportive, and will use this event as their "kick off event" for this year's focus on Japanese Arts.

 I wish you all could be there!

 Linda Galloway

Click the image for more information

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Saša Važić sent this:

Dear haiku friends,


We invite you to participate in our international haiku contest. You can read about it here

http://variantaenglezeasca.blogspot.com/

We would be grateful to you if you will spread the news. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Eduard Tara

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Kaji Aso Studio Haiku Contest

Greetings:

I'd like to invite you to participate in this year's Kaji Aso Studio Haiku Contest.

You may send as many haiku or senryu as you like at $2 each: type or neatly print your submissions (you may put them all on a single sheet of paper if you wish).  If you send senryu, please mark them as such.  Be sure to include your email address and/or an SASE so that we can notify you of the results!

Our first prize is $250; second $100; third $50; senryu $50.

Please send all entries to:

Kaji Aso Studio

40 Saint Stephen Street

Boston, MA  02115

USA

You can see the winning entries from 2011 and previous years at www.kajiasostudio.com.

All entries must be mailed by APRIL 15, 2012.  All rights revert to the authors after June, 2012 when the winners will be announced. 

The Kaji Aso Studio is a center for the arts in Boston founded by Japanese painter, poet, and musician Kaji Aso to promote a positive, nature-centered philosophy and practice of art.  We have held classes and hosted hundreds of exhibitions, concerts, and readings reading for over thirty years. The Studio is also the home of the Boston Haiku Society, which meets here every third Saturday of the month.

Please join us!

John Ziemba

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Submissions for the The Frugal Poet: Recipes and Poems for Lean Times anthology are arriving in our inboxes. Susan and I would like to thank everyone who has sent a recipe and poem. We've enjoyed reading your poems and the stories behind each recipe.

For those of you who have not submitted a recipe, please browse over to The Frugal Poet submissions page to read our guidelines.

http://www.frugalpoet.com/p/call-for-submissions.html

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And finally, I have some sad news:

Hatsue Kawamura passed away on February 11th.  Hatsue Kawamura and Jane Reichhold worked on many important books together including:


Nakajo, Fumiko. Breasts of Snow.
Trans. Hatsue Kawamura and Jane Reichhold. Tokyo:The Japan Times Press, 2004

Baba, Akiko. Heavenly Maiden Tanka.
Trans. Hatsue Kawamura and Jane Reichhold. Gualala CA:AHA Books, 1999

Saito, Fumi, White Letter Poems.
Trans. Hatsue Kawamura and Jane Reichhold. Gualala CA: AHA Books, 1998

Please join me in extending our deepest condolences to the friends and family of Hatsue Kawamura.

H. Gene Murtha - Three Questions (Tanka)

H. Gene Murtha, a naturalist and poet, was born on October 19, 1955 under the sign of Libra in Philadelphia, Pa. He has won or placed high in a number of haikai contest around the world. Gene sponsored and judged the first haiku contest for the inner city children of Camden, NJ., for the Virgilio Group, of which he is an lifetime member. With renku partners Bill (Wm. J.) Higginson and Paul MacNeil, he is co-inventor of the single-words shisan renku entitled, Cobweb. His memberships include the Pennsylvania Poetry Society, Mad Poets Society, The Haiku Society of America, and the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association.

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1) Why do you write tanka?

Good question Curtis.  I have no idea.  Once I sit down and the ball of my pen hits a piece of paper until the moment my right hand stops, I have know idea what form or genre that I have written.  Normally, I wait for a poem to come to me, then, it is up to the poet gods what form my words unfold.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Spoken word, free form and every Japanese genre.

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

I do not have three favorite poems, every poem that I written is important to me for one reason or another.  I've enclosed more than 3 poems, so you can select whatever poems you wish.


in my pickup
I look thru the rearview
snagged by a pin oak
the same garbage that
Hilary Tann writes about

Hermitage 3:1


brushing off sand
I walk what's left of
the pine dunes
my time here passes by
like the birds overhead

Ribbons 5:2


people change
like the color of
a bunting
I feel at peace
when I'm alone

Rusty Tea Kettle 1:1


Sunday morning
reading the obituaries
calling daddy
the same name
Sylvia Plath does

Rusty Tea Kettle 1:1


I sold everything
except my navajo cross
so precious
this god I hold dear
the same god I gave up

Ribbons 6:1

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

Sunday updates

New Editors for Modern Haiku

Roberta Beary is the new haibun editor for Modern Haiku. Here's what was written in Modern Haiku:

Sharpe-eyed subscribers who compulsively read our masthead will have noticed a few changes there, notably the addition of Roberta Beary's name. We're delighted to announce that Roberta has agreed to join the editorial staff as haibun editor. She's starting right away and will choose from your work for the summer 2012 issue. Please continue to send your submissions to me, however, at moderhaiku@gmail.com.

Roberta recently had one of her haibun nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Congratulations, Roberta!

Charlie Trumbull also had this announcement:

And finally, I realize that unfortunately all this fun cannot go on forever. I am planning to hand over the reins of Modern Haiku after the summer 2013 issue, which coincides with my 70th birthday. The really good news is that Paul Miller--newly dubbed Modern Haiku associate editor--will pick up these reins and ride this thoroughbred of ours into even wider horizons!

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DailyHaiku call for submissions for Cycle 13

Dear Readers, Friends, and Past Contributors,

We are thrilled to announce that submissions are open for DailyHaiku's thirteenth publishing cycle!  This represents the start of our seventh year of publishing as an online daily periodical. 

We now invite you to submit some of your best work for consideration. Your submission, if selected, will grant you one of six spots on our roster of Cycle 13 contributors. It will also become your first set of haiku that will appear on the site. At the end of the 6 month publishing period, each contributor will have four weeks of published haiku, and will receive a copy of our yearly print addition that features their work.

If you are interested in becoming a contributor, please read our submission criteria detailed on this webpage:


http://www.dailyhaiku.org/info/#contribute

Feel free to forward this call to any other haiku enthusiasts that may be interested in participating.

Thank you for helping to make DailyHaiku a lively and dynamic environment to showcase contemporary short form poetry!


All the best,

Patrick and Nicole
Editors---DailyHaiku

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Charlotte Digregorio sent this recap of the February 2012 Critique Meeting Held in Chicago Metro Area

http://tobaccoroadpoet.com/docs/Feb2012recapofhaikumeeting.pdf

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Charlie Smith sent this link to the 5th Annual Hexapod Haiku Challenge.

http://blog.insectmuseum.org/?p=4027

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A Light Breakfast
 poems to start your day

Poetic License Press

Come see what all the fuss is about! 

 A Light Breakfast poets read and talk about their work.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

7:00 p.m.

The Book Stall

811 Elm Street, Winnetka, Il

Friday, March 9, 2012

8:00 p.m., followed by open mic

The Art Center

1957 Sheridan Road, Highland Park, IL

Hosted by Highland Park Poetry

and The Art Center

Copies of A Light Breakfast will be available for purchase.  Please also support our gracious hosts with you patronage: The Book Stall, Highland Park Poetry, and The Art Center.

PO Box 279, Glencoe, IL 60022
poeticlicenseinc.blogspot.com

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And finally, please browse over to The Frugal Poet web site and read the call for submissions page.

http://www.frugalpoet.com/p/call-for-submissions.html

Susan Nelson Myers and I are working on an anthology that will include frugal recipes with poetry.

We look forward to reading your poems and sampling your recipes!

Tomislav Maretić - Three Questions

Tomislav Maretić lives in Zagreb with his wife Ana and four children. He has written haiku for the past 30 years. They have been nationally and internationally published in a number of haiku journals, magazines, anthologies and almanacs, as well as awarded in many international haiku competitions.

Poetry Collections:
The Boat in the Reeds (haiku, 1990)
Alluvium (free verse, 2002)
Butterfly Over the Open Sea (haiku, 2011)

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I write haiku because it is the world's shortest poetry form and because I don't have much time for longer poetry. In addition, I find haiku to almost not be poetry at all, but instead touching of reality and poetry in reality. What I like with haiku is that is is poetry in Nature, and not in words.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I'm open to all poetry forms, and I generally and particularly like various styles of imagistic poetry, either rhymed or free verse, as well as poetry by Croatian poets:  A.B. Šimić, Tin Ujević, Viktor Vida and Danijel Dragojević.

3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)



a child shakes off
the first snow from the swing –
quiet morning    

 (Ito en, 1991)


guests are coming –
are the petals to be swept
away from the paths?

(Sakura Award, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, 2006)


hot tea-pot
on the garden table –
camellias in haze        

(Vladimir Devidé Haiku Awards, runner-up, 2011)

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

Saturday updates

David Harris will read and discuss selections from Sea Trails by Pris Campbell during the live broadcast of Difficult Listening: the Poetry Show on Sunday, January 29, 2012 from 10:00 til noon Central time.  The program can be heard on 107.1 LPFM in the Nashville area, and via the website www.radiofreenashville.org.  Live video (and an archive) of the second hour, which includes poetry segments, should be accessible at http://tinyurl.com/24adsp9. or http://www.ustream.tv/discovery/recorded/all?broadcast=4654694

Here is a YouTube video of Pris reading from Sea Trails.

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Richard Krawiec sent this:

World Poetry Day is having a series of events, the first being Feb. 29. I have been asked to co-ordinate something for NC. Founded in Medellin, Columbia, this organization comprises poets and poetry organizations in 131 countries. 210 poetic organizations, including 114 international poetry festivals, and 1,200 poets.

The plan here is easy to implement, can involve limitless number of poets and on-poets, and maximizes bringing poetry to the public.

It's this simple. Select a poem to read, one of yours, or one by some other poet, that in some way touches on the theme of inclusion. At 7am and/or 7pm wherever you happen to be, whatever you happen to be doing, stop what you're doing and read the poem.

After that it's up to you. You can simply put the poem away and continue what you're doing, or engage those around you - at the grocery store, in school, on the bus, talking on the phone, etc. - in a discussion of the poem and why you read it.

I need to collect names of those who wish to participate. So if you want to do this email me at rkwriter@gmail.com Put FEB 29 in the subject line. Thanks.
--
Check out my websites!

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

http://www.rkeditor.com/

http://jacarpress.com/index.html

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The new issue of Lynx is online and ready for viewing at:

http://www.ahapoetry.com/ahalynx/271hmpg.html

Also available at the AHA Poetry web site is the Bare Bones School of Haiku, 14 lessons by Jane Reichhold on how to write haiku.

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Yuki Teikei Haiku Society and Haiku Poets of Northern California will host Fifth Haiku Pacific Rim Conference (HPR) at Asilomar, Pacific Grove, CA.

Dr. Akito Arima, will be a keynote speaker.

I attach HPR flier. Thanks to generousity of Poetry Center San Jose, donation is tax deductable.

As you can read in the attachment and HPR website (http://haikupacificrim2012.wordpress.com), Dr. Arima is well-known physicist and former Minister of Education in Japan, too.    Since he is fluent in English (he taught physicics at State Univ. of New York at Stony Brook), this could be the once-in-lifetime event for many English-language haiku poets.

Also, if you know a corporation which can be HPR corporate sponsor, please let me know

1) name of the company
2) person in charge and hie/her title
3) postal address

HPR 2012 Committee prepared a separate letter for corporate donors.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

If you would like to know more about the event, please contact me.

Best regards,

Fay Aoyagi
faycom@earthlink.net
   or
fayaoyagi@gmail.com  

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Scott Owens sent this:

Here is a flier for the entire 2012 Poetry Hickory schedule.  It should be a great year!  Help spread the news by posting this online or out in the real world wherever it might be seen and appreciated.

Hope to see you at every reading.

Thanks

Scott Owens
www.scottowenspoet.com
www.scottowensmusings.blogspot.com
www.poetryhickory.com
www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com
www.234journal.com
www.poetrycouncilofnc.wordpress.com

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Hello All,

This is to remind you that the deadline for submitting your news for the spring issue of Ripples is February 1.  Thank you to the many of you who have already sent things to me.

As always, I hope the regional news updates will focus on the haiku-related events in your area. This is a great way for poets in other regions to get ideas for their haiku gatherings.  High quality photographs are also welcome.  Please include a note identifying those in the picture as well as the name of the photographer.

Other items to send to Ripples include contest submission guidelines, full contest results, conference announcements, new books and other publications, in memoriam notes, and any other news significant to HSA members.

Thank you!

Susan Antolin
Editor, Ripples: Haiku Society of America Newsletter

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Robert Lee Brewer (editor of Writer's Digest) recently featured Scott Owens on his My Name Is Not Bob blog. Here is the link:

http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com/2012/01/bending-rules-or-poet-has-to-be-poet.html

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Snapshot Press  sent this:

This is the final call for entries to The Haiku Calendar Competition 2012.

Prizes totaling US$600 are on offer, and 52 haiku will be selected for inclusion in The Haiku Calendar 2013.

Entries may be sent by email or post, and must be emailed or postmarked by Tuesday January 31. Previously published haiku are eligible for entry.

Please see the entry guidelines for details:

http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/thcc/entry_guidelines.htm

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And finally, Susan Nelson Myers and I had the pleasure of judging a Poetry Slam in Winston-Salem last Thursday night. I strongly encourage Tobacco Road readers to attend a slam in your area. The creative energy at these readings is inspiring!

Here is a picture of Susan and me with slam master and organizer, Bob Moyer (on the right).

Here is a link to the Piedmont Slam web site.

And here is Taylor Mali reciting one of his poems at a slam event:

Friday updates

A new issue of Prune Juice has been released:Prune Juice Issue 7 Winter 2012

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Scott Owens sent this:

POETRY COUNCIL ANNOUNCES ANNUAL WINNERS

The Poetry Council of NC, a self-supporting, all-volunteer nonprofit organization founded in 1949 to foster a deeper appreciation of poetry in the state, has announced the winners of its annual poetry contests.  Judges were permitted to select 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners as well as up to 3 honorable mentions in each contest category, with the exception of the book contest which has no 3rd place winner.  Some judges elected to name fewer winners.

All winners will receive their awards, including cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, at Poetry Day to be held at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory on April 14.  Winning poems will also be published in the Council’s annual awards anthology, Bay Leaves, and winning poets will be invited to read their poems at Poetry Day.  An additional category for Performance Poetry is judged and awarded at Poetry Day.  Information on any of the contests, Poetry Day, and the Poetry Council is available at www.poetrycouncilofnc.wordpress.com

The complete list of category winners and judges is as follows:

Oscar Arnold Young (book contest):
JUDGE: Paul Hostovsky, Medfield, MA & Ron Moran, Simpsonville, SC
  1st      The Swing Girl by Katherine Soniat, Asheville, NC
  2nd     Lie Down with Me by Julie Suk, Charlotte, NC
  HM    Rendering the Bones by Susan M. Lefler, Brevard, NC
  HM    An Innocent in the House of the Dead by Joanna Catherine Scott, Chapel
            Hill, NC

Gladys Owings Hughes Heritage (free verse):
JUDGE: Darnell Arnoult, Harrogate, TN
  1st      “Babies Hurtling Several Stories” by Ross White, Durham, NC
  2nd      “Daddy Imagines a Good Death” by JS Absher, Raleigh, NC
  3rd      “The Museum of Broken Things” by Jane Shlensky, Bahama, NC

Charles Shull (traditional poetry):
JUDGE: Paul Bone, Evansville, IN
  1st      “Facts about Early America” by Ross White, Durham, NC (rhyming couplets)
  2nd      “Basic Bad Day” by Peg Russell, Murphy, NC (terza rima)
  3rd      “Featured Reader” by Alice Osborn, Raleigh, NC (sestina)
  HM    “On a Recent Engagement” by Michael A. Moreno, Rockville, MD (sonnet)
  HM    “Water the Lover” by Ellen Summers, Greensboro, NC (sonnet)

James Larkin Pearson (free verse):
JUDGE: Felicia Mitchell, Emory, VA
  1st      “Address to Monarchs” by Ross White, Durham, NC
  2nd      “My Mother’s Lake” by Ann Campanella, Huntersville, NC
  3rd      “What Burns for Light” by Lisa Zerkle, Charlotte, NC
  HM    “Circumventing the Circumference” by Terry Collins, Mount Airy, NC
  HM    “Things Fall Out of My Father” by Robert Moyer, Winston Salem, NC
  HM    “The Lesbians Next Door” by Alice Osborn, Raleigh, NC

Ellen Johnston-Hale (humorous verse):
JUDGE: Gloria Alden, Southington, OH
  1st      “Where Time Does Not Fly” by Susan Spalt, Carrboro, NC
  2nd      “The Voice” by Barbara Brooks, Hillsborough, NC
  3rd      “Arctic” by Lisa Zerkle, Charlotte, NC
  HM    “Black Friday” by Doris Dix Caruso, Burlington, NC
  HM    “Patience” by Jane Shlensky, Bahama, NC
  HM    “I Think They Got It!” by Janet Ireland Trail, Greensboro, NC

Charlotte Young (elementary school):
JUDGE: David Roderick, Greensboro, NC
  1st      “Jupiter” by Sydney Campanella (home-schooled), Huntersville, NC
  2nd      “Light Saves Us” by Paige Morrison (North Forest Pines Elem.), Wake Forest, NC
  3rd      “Blue” by Joellen Callahan (North Forest Pines Elem.), Wake Forest, NC
  HM    “Doves” by Sonja Woolley (Episcopal Day School), Southern Pines, NC
  HM    “Nature Walk” by Lilly Corcoran (Episcopal Day School), Southern Pines, NC

Carol Bessent Hayman (middle school):
JUDGE: David Roderick, Greensboro, NC
  1st      “The Pledge of Sausage” by Devon Stocks (Clarkton School of Discovery), Clarkton, NC
  2nd      “Pumpkin Patch” by Kenneth More [sp?] (Clarkton School of Discovery), Clarkton, NC

Sam Ragan North Carolina Connection (high school):
JUDGE: Natasha Trethewey, Decatur, GA
  1st      "Lesson of the Lark" by Maggie Apple of North Guilford High School
  2nd      Jennifer Comerford of North Guilford High School

Scott Owens
www.scottowenspoet.com
www.scottowensmusings.blogspot.com
www.poetryhickory.com
www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com
www.234journal.com
www.poetrycouncilofnc.wordpress.com

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Djurdja Vukelic-Rozic sent this link:

2nd Vladimir Devide Haiku Award - Open Haiku Competition

---

Sasa Vazic sent this link to the Autumn/Winter issue of Simply Haiku:

http://simplyhaiku.theartofhaiku.com/autumnwinter-2011.html

---

Here is a review of Ed Baker's Stone Girl E-pic.

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Gabriel Rosenstock sent this:

Where Light Begins Haiku, the English-language haiku of Gabriel Rosenstock. This volume also
contains the ground-breaking essay, The Universal Spirit of Issa.

May be downloaded freely by your subscribers.

Best,

Gabriel

---

Susan Antolin sent this:

The Haiku Poets of Northern California have extended the deadline for the San Francisco International Rengay Contest to January 31, 2012.  There is still time to find a partner (or two!) and write some rengay before the deadline.  We look forward to receiving your entries!  The submission guidelines are as follows:

Rengay Submission Guidelines

All rengay must be titled. For two people (Poet A and Poet B) follow this linked format: 3 lines/Poet A, 2 lines/Poet B, 3/A, 3/B, 2/A, 3/B. For three poets (A, B, and C) the format is: 3 lines/A, 2 lines/B, 3 lines/C, 2/A, 3/B, 2/C. Type or print each rengay on three letter-size sheets. Include full authorship information, stanza by stanza, as well as all poets' names, addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses (optional) on one copy only. On the other two copies, mark stanzas with letters only (poet A, poet B, poet C) to indicate the sequence of authorship. Send rengay submissions to HPNC, c/o Fay Aoyagi, 930 Pine St. #105, San Francisco CA 94108.

The 2011 rengay judge is Renee Owen.

Entry Fee: $5 per rengay

Make checks or money orders payable in U.S. dollars to "Haiku Poets of Northern California (HPNC)." Cash (in U.S. currency) is OK. Enclose a business-size SASE (U.S. first class postage or an IRC) for notification of contest winners. No entries will be returned, with the exception of late submissions, or those received without payment. These will be returned using your SASE; without an SASE these entries will be discarded.

Thank you for participating in this year's contest.

If you have any questions, please contact Fay Aoyagi by e-mail (fayaoyagi@gmail.com)

http://www.hpnc.org

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Charlotte Digregorio sent this:

Haikuists:

Just a reminder for those of you who are members: Our "Ripples" newsletter deadline is Feb. 1. If you have published haiku books, won awards, have given haiku lectures, etc., please let Editor Susan Antolin know, susantolin@gmail.com

Also, some of you have already RSVPed for the Saturday, Feb. 11 haiku meeting from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Winnetka (IL) Public Library, 768 Oak St., Winnetka. You might get inspired to  write some winter haiku for the meeting by checking out Michael Dylan Welch's website at
 http://sites.google.com/site/graceguts/haiku-and-senryu/traces-of-snow.

Also, if you are interested, there is National Haiku Writing Month. See http://sites.google.com/site/nahaiwrimo/home. (Most action takes place on an associated Facebook site -- currently with more than 600 active monthly users).

Charlotte Digregorio

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Ed Baker sent this:

a set of new photos  -first set of thumb-nails at bottom - on my web-site
if you click the image  it enlarges!

http://edbaker.maikosoft.com/photos_2011/dsc_0641.jpg
the new photos at bottom, here:

http://edbaker.maikosoft.com/

here is that huge (4 ' x 8 ')  image of "She w Snake"
which is new version of what is on cover of 'She Intrudes':

http://edbaker.maikosoft.com/photos_2011/dsc_0633.jpg

there are many more pieces photographed in 3 other rooms not included here.

anyway

sure is a bonus   time-wise & intrusion-wise cutting way back on reading internet "stuff"
& only replying to letters/emails....& reading books .... again.

cheers, Ed

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Another message from Scott Owens:

Clayton Joe Young and I have been collaborating on a series of photos and poems which will be on exhibit at the Bethlehem Branch of the Alexander County Library throughout February and March (reception from 5:30 - 7:00 on Feb 2) as part of "The Bethlehem Branch Library Exhibiting Artists Series", sponsored by the Bethlehem Friends of the Library and the Bethlehem Community Development Association.

He has also produced a book featuring the work of that collaboration. And it's beautiful -- thanks in large part to Joe's photos. It is 62 pages long and includes 29 of Joe's photos and 25 of my poems (13 of which are brand spanking new). It is called Country Roads: Travels Through Rural North Carolina. It would make a great gift or collectors' item. And is just a wonderful thing to look at. I, for one, can't stop staring at some of these photos.

It is also expensive (at least by my "poor poet's" standards). Which is why I've only ordered 10 paperbacks and 10 hardcovers to sell. I did get Joe to sign each copy, and I've signed them as well. If you'd like one, I would be glad to mail it out to you (my postage is a lot cheaper than the press's, and the ones you could get from them wouldn't be signed).

Paperbacks are $29.95; Hardcovers are $41.95. Add $4 for shipping and handling. Call me at 828-234-4266 to work out details, or mail a check to Scott Owens, 838 4th Ave. Dr. NW, Hickory, NC 28601, or I can give you paypal info if you want to go that route.

Here is a sample poem just to whet your appetite:

Without Affectation

What would you call it,
this color of the natural world,
brown leaves and dirt,
khaki-almost-blonde straw,
gray trunks of trees,
occasional green of moss and cedar,
all blended under winter's fast-moving,
blue-gray sky --
a muted impressionism --
charcoal, sepia, ochre,
memory, regret, contemplation --
a color your eyes try to filter out.


Or, you can preview the entire book at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2850653.
I hope to see you at the reception, and let me know if I can send you a book beforehand.

Scott Owens
www.scottowenspoet.com
www.scottowensmusings.blogspot.com
www.poetryhickory.com
www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com
www.234journal.com
www.poetrycouncilofnc.wordpress.com

---

Penny Harter's poem "Because a Volcano Has Erupted in Japan" appears in the just released anthology *Sunrise from Blue Thunder: Japan, Earthquake-Tsunami, March 2011" (c) Pirene's Fountain, 2011. Edited by Ami Kaye.The poems in this anthology honor the people of Japan as they try to rebuild their lives after these two disasters.

Her sonnet "Summer Ice" appears in the new anthology, *The Best of The Barefoot Muse," (c) 2011 Barefoot Muse Press. Edited by Anna M. Evans.

And four of her haiku and a haiku sequence appear in Aubrie Cox's blog anthology *The Language of Dragons*.
http://yaywords.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/the_language_of_dragons.pdf

---

And finally, my sincerest thanks to all who have started visiting my other blog, The Frugal Poet. Contact me if you have a poem and recipe to share.

Bouwe Brouwer - Three Questions

Bouwe Brouwer was born raised and is still living on reclaimed land in a small town in the Netherlands. He has been writing haiku since August 2008. Besides publications in magazines such as Whirligig, Simply Haiku, Shamrock, Modern Haiku, The Heron's Nest, Chrysanthemum, Blithe Spirit and Vuursteen he also enjoys sharing his haiku by means of small handmade haiku books. Trained as an illustrator/designer he later switched to working as a teacher at a primary school, which he still enjoys very much every day. At the end of this year his first solo book of haiku and haibun will be published by Max Verhart’s small press 't Schrijverke under the title: Messages from the past.

---

1) Why do you write haiku?

From an early age on I’ve always been interested in arts and creativity. So after high school I went to study fine arts and was trained as an illustrator/designer. But somehow painting, drawing and photography never seemed sufficient enough to express what I wanted to express. In 2008 I discovered haiku through Jack Kerouac’s writing and everything fell into place. Haiku just seems to suit me. I find haiku very challenging. Although restricted by limited space, the possibilities of haiku seem infinite. Not only concerning subject matter but also technique.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I still enjoy reading different kinds of poetry and actually started reading poetry when I was a teenager. But I guess the biggest influence on my writing is music. The songs of musicians like Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Nick Drake, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone still influence me to this very day. Besides haiku I enjoy writing rengay. I’ve been writing rengay on and off for almost two years now. Mostly with Marleen Hulst, an excellent Dutch writer. And I started writing haibun at the beginning of 2011. This opened a whole new range of possibilities for me and I find it a great adventure.

3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)

It’s hard to pick a top three, so I’ll chose three haiku that fit the season.

Christmas tree -
every year a little higher
her paper angel

Caribbean Kigo Kukai #30 - 1st place
Bouwe Brouwer: berichten uit het verleden / messages from te past. 't Schrijverke, Den Bosch (Netherlands) 2011


December fog . . .
taillights fade into
Christmas song

Simply Haiku January 2011
Bouwe Brouwer: berichten uit het verleden / messages from te past. 't Schrijverke, Den Bosch (Netherlands) 2011


dawn—
winter light slides into
my slippers

Polish International Haiku Contest - 3rd place. November 2011
Bouwe Brouwer: berichten uit het verleden / messages from te past. 't Schrijverke, Den Bosch (Netherlands) 2011

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

Monday updates

Now out from Modern Haiku Press.

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

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

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

---

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

 EPISODE 22: HAIGA GALLERY

Haiga Gallery from Haiku Chronicles on Vimeo.

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Aubrie Cox sent this:

Dear friends,

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

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

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

Cheers,
Aubrie

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Ray Rasmussen sent this:

Hi Curtis,

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

http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/

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

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

Ray Rasmussen

---

Dear Sketchbook readers and writers:

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

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

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

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

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

---

Haiku and Tanka Harvest
Authored by Victor P Gendrano

Selected Haiku and Tanka poems, 2006-2011

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

Order Haiku and Tanka Harvest at the following URL:

https://www.createspace.com/3737478

---

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

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

---

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

Download the Whisper of Pines preview here.

Ramesh Anand - Three Questions

Ramesh Anand is a Senior R&D Engineer and a haiku poet based in Johor, Malaysia. His life experiences, as Haiku moments, have been published and forthcoming in World’s premier print journals and e-journals. He lives happily with his better half, Divya, and their best little half, Tanmayi. His complete publications can be accessed through his blog: http://ramesh-inflame.blogspot.com

---

1) Why do you write haiku?

I write haiku to nourish my senses. I believe that it programs my subconscious mind to be absolutely focussed and positive in all the works I do. Now I am more efficient in my career, more affectionate with my family, more calm and peaceful, viewing nature and human objectively than before starting to write haiku. Importantly, I am living my life, moment by moment. Malaysia's abundance of nature is also playing a lively role in my haiku writing.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Presently, I write only haiku. I have interest to write tanka, in future. I love reading tanka works of Pamela A. Babusci and Kala Ramesh.

3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)



spring’s end
my infant fingers
the fallen petal

Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine, 2011



winter deepens
... lungi shivering on
the beggar's face

Simply Haiku, Summer 2011, Vol. 9 No. 2



Autumn dawn --
mother serves white rice
on an almond leaf

Asahi Haikuist Network, 7th October 2011


I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Robert D. Wilson, Mrs Lorin Ford and Mr. Anatoly Kudryavitsky whom identified my talent in haiku, when I first submitted my works to them early this year, which has helped me to publish my works further.

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

Thursday updates

Melissa Allen sent this:

It is my honor to announce the launch of Multiverses, a new online journal dedicated to publishing modern English haiku and related forms of Japanese poetry, as well as to make an initial call for submissions for our first issue (due out in Spring of 2012). From our editorial statement:

"Each moment of our lives is a haiku waiting to happen. The unique way in which we experience these moments creates an authentic and personal reality known only to ourselves—our own little universe, so to speak. Yet we are all part of the same sum. By sharing our individual experiences and observations, we gain perspective and insight into the world of others, therefore becoming better attuned and more intimate with our own. It is with this idea in mind that Multiverses happened into existence."

We are so excited and pleased to have an incredible team of editors, including:

Paul Smith, Tanka Editor
Melissa Allen, Haibun Editor
Alexis Rotella, Haiga Editor
Johannes S. H. Bjerg, Features Editor

Please feel free to share this post and spread the word about our launch. For more information about Multiverses, including details on submitting your work (deadline for our inaugural issue is February 15!), please visit www.multiversesjournal.com. We're all looking forward to reading your work!

John Hawk
Founder, Haiku Editor
Multiverses (www.multiversesjournal.com)

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Alexis Rotella sent this:

Attention Haiga Artists:

As haiga editor of the new journal Multiverses founded by poet John Hawk, I am asking you to illustrate this lovely haiku by Cristina-Monica Moldoveanu for Multiverses Journal:

first snow -
the child steps outside
in his velvet slippers

Any approach is acceptable and I look forward to seeing what your creative juices will bring to the occasion. Submit to MultiversesJournal@gmail.com

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Cathy Drinkwater Better sent this:

Aglow at Noon: Selected Haiku and Tanka, by Edith Bartholomeusz. Black Cat Press, Eldersburg, MD, USA. Illustrated by Cathy Drinkwater Better. Softcover; size, 5-½ in. x 5 in. (similar to quarto size), 122 pp; ISBN 978-0-9834197-1-6. $12.00, postage paid. Published November 2011. Available, signed, from the author; email frededith10@gmail.com; or write to 2713 W. Ashurst Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85045 USA.

This is the second compilation of haiku and tanka by widely published poet Edith Bartholomeusz. Includes are both previously published and new work as well as illustrations for a number of the poems by poet and haiga artist Cathy Drinkwater Better. A prologue by the poet offers an insight into her creative process.

“In Aglow at Noon, Edith Bartholomeusz has crafted a pastoral elegy of unusual form and power, dignity and grace, using the spare simplicities of haiku and tanka,” noted Michael McClintock, past president of the Tanka Society of America (2004–2010). “Each poem is but a transitory moment in a longer procession through time. In the whole of the vision that unfolds, we may sense the mysteries of life and death, as within the ordinary processes of nature we experience consolation and renewed conviction. Bartholomeusz's restraint is monumental, her destination profound,” he concluded.

Stanford M. Forrester, editor of bottle rockets: a collection of short verse, stated, “Edith Bartholomeusz is a traveled and seasoned poet. This is evident in Aglow at Noon which, simply stated, is a beautiful book. Highly recommended.”

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Jessie Carty's new book of poems entitled An Amateur Marriage is available here. She writes:

Thank you so much to everyone who has already ordered my upcoming chapbook "An Amateur Marriage" from Finishing Line Press.

Some people have mentioned a reluctance to order online and/or to order without a guarantee of an autograph so I wanted to offer you guys one more chance to order from me directly!

I'm attaching an order form that you can email back to me or that you can print and mail back to me.

If you are emailing then pay me directly the $14 via paypal to this email address and send this form back so I know where to send the book when it is released in March as well as whether or not to sign it!

If you want to mail me a check (make it out to me) I'll put in a big order to Finishing Line and ship you the book myself in March.

I know not everyone wants to pre-order but your support really helps determine how many will be printed!!!

Hope everyone has a terrific holiday season :) I'll be taking pre-orders through 12-31-11 and Finishing Line will close out pre-orders on 1-4-12.

Best!!

-Jessie Carty

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Happy Holidays from Turtle Light Press!

Thank you for your support!

We just wanted to take a few moments to wish each of you a Happy Holiday and enjoyable New Year!

We have two incredible book projects this coming year: a new edition of one of this country's premier haiku poets, Nick Virgilio, who wrote about nature, life in Camden, N.J., and the loss of his brother Larry in the Vietnam war. It will be edited by haiku poet Raffael de Gruttola and is due out in the spring.

The second project is a limited edition of Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai's work, entitled "The Amichai Windows," which will feature 18 poems in separate paper and glass editions. We are hoping to have a kickoff exhibition of the book at a leading museum or university library.

In February, we will announce the winner of our 2012 haiku chapbook competition. We received entries from New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Ethiopia, Canada, the U.S. and other countries, so stay tuned for a winner's announcement.

As a small token of our gratitude, we have placed all of our boxed note cards on sale at 30 percent off. Usually, a box of cards retails for $16 -- now, they're $10 each plus free shipping. The sale runs through January 1.

Again, thanks so much to each of you for your continued support and encouragement of our work -- not to mention your business!

Sincerely,

Rick Black
Turtle Light Press

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From: The Sketchbook Editors: Karina Klesko and John Daleiden

Dear Curtis Dunlap,

Please post this invitation to a New Year's Haiku and Haiga Festival.

We invite haijin to participate in the Sketchbook New Year’s Festival Haiku: Please review this link for full details:
http://poetrywriting.org/Sketchbook6-5SepOct2011/0_Contents_Sketchbook_6-5_SepOct_2011_Announcement_New_Year_s_Haiku_Festival.htm
Haiku and / or Haiga may be sent at anytime after December 1, 2011. The Haiku and Haiga will be displayed after Midnight on December 30, 2011 at this link: Sketchbook New Year’s Haiku and Haiga Festival

http://poetrywriting.org/Sketchbook6-6NovDec2011/0_Contents_Sketchbook_6-6_NovDec_2011_New_Year_s_2011_Haiku_Festival.htm

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

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Scott Owens sent this:

The January 10 Poetry Hickory should kick off the year in memorable fashion.  Tamra (Tammy) Wilson will be back, reading fiction from her new book of short stories, Dining with Robert Redford.  And John Lane, author of 14 (or more) books including poetry, creative nonfiction, personal narrative, nature writing, and critical studies, will be reading from either (or both) his award winning new and selected poems collection called Abandoned Quarry or his new personal narrative, My Paddle to the Sea: Eleven Days on the Rivers of the Carolinas. Lane is co-founder of Hub City Press and Director of Wofford College's Goodall Environmental Studies Center.

As always, we'll begin at 4:00 with Writers' Night Out for anyone interested in meeting and talking with local writers of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction; we'll have Open Mic at 5:30 (still two slots open -- Doug McHargue has one); and the featured writers will begin at 6:00.

Featured writers will have copies of their books for sale, and each purchase from the featured writers (or of the Best of Poetry Hickory anthology) earns you a free book from series sponsor Main Street Rag.  And of course, Taste Full Beans will have coffee, tea, cookies, brownies, sandwiches, salads, and much else for sale as well.

The flier for the reading is attached.  Please help spread the word by posting it online and in the non-virtual world.

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Susan Nelson Myers and Charlotte Digregorio shared this Curbside Haiku link:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/curbside-haiku-sample.pdf

Donna Fleischer - Haibun Three Questions

Donna Fleischer, has authored three poetry chapbooks, Twinkle, Twinkle, a selection of haiku (Longhouse Publishers, 2010), indra’s net , a selection of haibun (bottle rockets press, 2003) and Intimate Boundaries, a collection of early open form poems (self-published, 1991).

Her poetry appears in literary periodicals in Japan, England, and the U. S., anthologies, and online at Back Room Live!, CT Environmental Headlines, Salamander Cove, and tinywords. She daily curates the blog word pond –http://donnafleischer.wordpress.com/ – with postings of and on poetry, music, visual arts, news stories and permaculture. She is assistant editor of the journal bottle rockets and bottle rockets press anthologies.

Useful Knowledge Press (New Haven, CT) will publish a limited edition of Donna’s haiku with wood block engravings by Allan Greenier in February 2012, entitled HAIKU.

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1) Why do you write haibun?

I learned about the form from Bruce Ross’s excellent book, Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun. My next and immediate step was to experience the world’s first haibun, Narrow Road to the Interior, by Bashō. Well, I never looked back. The haibun form has become my principal companion on this journey in poetry. As with the haiku form, there are a healthy variety of interpretations on what constitutes a haibun. The French Surrealist writer and artist, André Breton, spoke of the point sublime, a writing site where unlike things meet one another, create instantaneous juxtapositions, which best of all engender some sort of pleasure, only then to careen out of focus and logic. For me, the haibun form is just such a site. I delight in where it takes me into discovery of interrelationships, sensual and abstract. It is an expansive, protean, hearty form that allows for the imagination to furrow the poetic field and be as experimental as one needs to be. For those interested in reading further, there’s a short essay I wrote, The American Haibun, online at Issa’s Untidy Hut – http://bit.ly/j7aYcG .

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Haiku, renku, and shorter open organic forms

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


bird without wing

all week long the bird was obedient to its caged routine; fed promptly at regularly measured intervals, even naps taken perfunctorily with cosmic discipline and good birdism. in this manner the bird did deliver song – an efficient ecstasy.

on weekends the bird was allowed to escape its cage. in moments of disturbed flurry – a dollhouse flight

tiny bell
by the mirror
rings again

Frogpond and indra’s net (bottle rockets press, 2003)

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The Red Photogram

The unplanned for trip began as I stepped back from Ellen Carey’s red photogram; “The shape of grief is circular,” the book reviewer wrote of Forest Gander’s new novel; and I wonder that my avidity for procrastination takes the shape of walking in circles. I stand still before the red photogram for which I have no words, of relevance. But those red swirls, they are there, every day, and they make me smile

Especially there in the late winter bone-cleaving days when I begin to feel out my circle walks, looking out of windows, returning to a place only to leave. My own Greek chorus. First movements, away from a mother. Stepping back from a mirror, startled by the absence of something. Remembering and forgetting, until it becomes me. The it of absence already staged in the blood.

Burroughs called it “the soft typewriter of the womb” the place where we begin to make first words. Buffering ourselves from her overloud heartbeats, I suppose. The better words, says Rimbaud, are in the silence of color

shadows of geese
flickering ’cross tree trunks
quiet spring morning

So there it is, Art, the ultimate road trip, with rickshaw and naked feet and kasa strung under the chin while floats a pillow of consciousness on last night’s dream. A painter friend’s words in an e-mail, “ — the need to reject the written word/numbers (ego) from our thought process ... When it comes to art — I don't know anymore,” he says.

Fleeting perceptions, apperceptions. Glory of the everyday of ordinary things that stay as we pass by them ... Those classical Chinese poets, Wang Wei, Li Po, Han Shan, minimalist in style and so completely embodied in their endless leaving and returning. The circle.

The first time there is Loss it’s already too late — Loss circulating in endless loops. You look and wait, look and wait, for your love, your lost one, to return. The sound of your own blood in your ears when you are most alone. The sound of the earth all opened up and speaking, and the mourner, who listens; the underworld starlit darkness of the body emerging on the horizon of birth

fixing
Li Po’s gate
November wind

If only one could look inside this dark room of the body. See the quiet, orderly procession of blood. Contained. Purple. A royal life of its own. Hear the soft, murmuring canals bloom. Just stand in the sunlight and close your eyes. Those red swirls, they’ll make you smile.

[A photogram is a shadow image created when an object or objects are directly placed and moved on light sensitive paper while exposed to a light source. Using one of photography’s earliest processes, artist photographer, Ellen Carey, creates both subtle and bold abstractions with her conceptual approach to color and light in work that is striking in its immediacy and highly original and innovative in its use of color, scale, and Polaroid materials.]

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Darwin's Urn

Trapped inside the daily noise of man’s machinery an atonal fugue without music of the spheres cyclical and blesséd, even when all machines are on off an irritating drone pervades this room without apology, this power grid. Human beings plug into it with their paycheck prongs. Vacuum pump fluctuates, fans oscillate, chase proceeds along X and Y axes on worm bores of forged steel. My heart, suspires. . . down around the corroded canyon of an old cast-iron drainage pipe surrounded by spilled photochemicals and rusting razor blades, who will believe it, a cricket sings. Aerosol spray can of ant and termite killer sadly within reach, I hurl it into the trash, smile calmly at the prescience of our possible common doom. The bug's little choir lifts me throughout the twelve hour shift in between volume spikes that drown out its tune when the wee peripatetic heartbeat resumes. Yet such miniature beauty making, I fear, will merely draw enough attention to be crushed or poisoned. Could cricket be enjoying its peculiar new digs? I flinch to wonder how we can escape, together, with Sartre and Disney breathing down my neck. Just the few steps through a door and onto sweet simple grasses outside...

right effort

cricket knows

does not stop its song

for long

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