The Haiku Foundation Forums

Catch special features on Anna Maris & Hemapriya Chellappan as they travel the single line of haiku, with commentary by the poets themselves!
https://area17.blogspot.com/2016/12/travelling-single-line-of-haiku-one.html

Hi Lemuel,

We have plenty of cobwebs in our house, and one or two spiderwebs. Both Karen and myself are fine with indoor spiders and lots outside, but as it gets cold they need to come back inside.

When I lived in Australia it was vital to have the windows covered in cobwebs or spiderwebs as the sandflies were so small they'd get through the insect screens otherwise. And of course you have to have a resident Huntsman spider as big as your fist to keep down the bigger things that get in somehow.

Hope you are safe and not just from covid.  8)

We always had weird times getting weirder that we labelled normal, so I really don't now want a new normal that will be even creepier. Fingers and spiderwebs crossed.

Alan

Quote from: Lemuel on November 04, 2020, 01:01:44 PM
Hello Alan,

Thanks for your response to my post on the subject of this thread.

Were I to visit real-life Wiltshire and there find a web in the environment, then, I would imagine the spider simply based on my discovery of the organized strands.  My conclusion may be in error for Wiltshire as for other habitats.

I relate 'real-life' to writing haiku. I am in active contact in my physical surroundings, immersed in the moment to take in something of the world. Real-life feels like the cold, it reflects the grain of some spiders' web as such.

Real-life is a thrill--it makes an impression on me. The thrill could be a fern seen 'just so' or a half lit dust mote. Some of this is new to me and I hope it never becomes mundane.

I am a novice. I want to learn. You input has been so helpful.

Reality, per se, is something distinctly beyond my intentions or scope of writing haiku. I think I would be taking on entirely too much for my poor services to writing poems.

Cordially,

Lemuel

QuoteIt can be difficult sometimes dangerous, to bring in any reality to our poetry.

Starts tomorrow, but still time for someone to join our fun and hard working participants who have joined up for the zoom event!

Alan

Dear Lemuel,

Good points, in that we should read, listen, and watch things outside of poetry or the arts as well. I often get insights from any topic totally unrelated to poetry that I can bring in as a new method or technique, or article. I had to smile at 'real-life' because as a trained collator (previous security training), and Karen is a trained researcher (documentary film-making) we get beneath what is presented as 'real life'.  ;)

We do have a green-zone only because it would guarantee to flood houses immediately.  8)
Plus, in interesting stages, where I live we have one of the longest river walks in the South West of England, at least. But due to narrow passage ways, and aggressive joggers etc... we have to plan ahead to make use of this.

What is real life? From my years both in Security, of many kinds, and hospitality, and looking after people in rented accommodation etc... it's nothing like it's presented on news media. I've helped homeless citizens in both Bristol (England) and in Chippenham (former headquarters of King Alfred the Great, and vikings too!) and it's a different story.

Many artists attempt to get under the gloss of the soundbite real life presented by various outlets and biased political party supporters. It can be difficult sometimes dangerous, to bring in any reality to our poetry. We know that Japanese haiku poets were tortured as Japanese corporate interests were forcing the Emperor of Japan to enter the WWII arena. Their now proved reality was pointless at the time. Here's an article dedicated to one haiku poet who died from torture: https://area17.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-g-force-of-blue-touching-base-with.html

What reality dare we tread? That's up to every single poet, whether haiku, tanka, haibun, shahai etc...

It's a great challenge!

warmest regards,
Alan

Quote from: Lemuel on November 02, 2020, 05:20:47 PM
I read nature journals, garden magazines, all sorts of nature and natural history (bugs, environments, botany, sciences), poetry and a variety of  newspapers. Real-life stuff mainly.

I get some inspiration from reading, however, I take haiku-walking in my green-zones including being stranded  by the side of the road or just waiting.

Active awareness of my situation works most of the time. Being there in the moment. Yeah, that.

Hi Paul,

That's cool, which part of SE QLD?

Written on all those things except chinese elms! :-)

Did you see the Mission Beach possums? :-)

Good luck on your own frogmouth poem. Mine was from the Churchill (Ipswich QLD) golf course. I was renting a Dutch family's Queenslander right opposite, and would regularly walk across the green at twilight. Never went into the club house, or maybe once but didn't go into pubs and bars very much in five years, maybe three or four times?

Enjoy capturing parts of Oz in your haiku, it's very rewarding.

warm regards,
Alan

Quote from: Bluemountain on October 30, 2020, 08:18:52 PM
I lived in SE QLD for 4 years.  If i still lived there my haiku would be full of fruit bats, fig trees, possums, mango trees, ibis and chinese elms.

I like the haiku you linked to. I drafted a haiku the other day that also includes a tawny frogmouth.  I thought the species was obscure enough to not be referenced in another haiku! My poem is quite different though and i'm still not sure if i can develop it into what i want from it.

Anyway .... i'm very happy to have discovered haiku and appreciate this forum and the web pages created by those who are more developed poets.

.

Timeless Arts Haiku & Tanka Workshops

Timeless Arts Haiku and Tanka workshops run on the Zoom platform, which is accessed by simply following the links we email to you. Clicking through brings you into the video workshop!

https://www.callofthepage.org/online-workshops/timeless-arts-haiku-tanka/

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Hi Paul,

Found it and clicked like!

Ah Canberra, I knew a girl who had worked there...

re sentimentality just as in everything else is a balance, a just enough measure, I guess.

"haiku is like a photograph written down, so haiku produced from reminiscing is a type of "back dated literary photograph" (for want of a better term), and lets me recapture moments of my life that I can enjoy for many years to come in haiku form."

I like haiku that go beyond the photograph and reach around the sides and rear of that image it's front facing.  ;)


"My favourite time of day is pre-dawn."

I used to do horse agistment in Queensland, so up at 4am, feed the horses at 430am and then cycle the back roads in farm country, or go straight to the billabong, part of a 2000 acre landcare project!

So yes, whether outside Harrisville QLD, or Churchill, Ipswich QLD I've done both early and late walks. This late walk across the golf course at Churchill brought this: https://area17.blogspot.com/2010/08/anatomy-of-haiku.html



It'll be interesting to read more Canberra haiku!

warm regards,
Alan

Quote from: Bluemountain on October 27, 2020, 03:43:32 PM

Quote from: AlanSummers on October 27, 2020, 03:03:03 AM
Thank you!

I didn't see a name, and wonder if you have any published haiku to show us? I thought kayaking had stopped now, whether due to a seasonal aspect or covid restrictions? But what an incredible activity to observe things we might not normally witness tramping through the woodland!

"reminiscing about past experiences"
Yes, a potent reservoir of potential haiku!


"A rêverie observation."
"rêverie observation" is a new aspect of Slip-Realism but one where versions of memory from our earlier life or lives are captured.
rêverie observation©Alan Summers 2018-2020
https://area17.blogspot.com/2018/01/slip-realism-haiku-about-lives-and.html

I think more and more people who can move, or future generations, will consider finding homes nearer to nature, and less densely populated areas.

warm regards,
Alan

Quote from: Bluemountain on October 25, 2020, 07:53:00 PM
Hello,

If I feel stuck and unable to write I generally do a combination of things as one method on its own doesn't seem to work.

A productive haiku day for me involves getting outdoors for a walk or kayak, reading haiku and reminiscing about past experiences (not necessarily in that order). Reminiscing in particular has helped this year because the virus has limited opportunities to travel and socialise.

Alan

I'm very new to the world of haiku and have only had two haiku published.  I do, however, have haiku appearing in three upcoming publications (Frog Pond, Akitsu Quarterly and Windfall: Australian Haiku) so hopefully I'll have more to share in the future.

One of my published haiku was the product of reminiscing:

old wedding ring

bottom drawer

behind the socks

(Echidna Tracks: Issue 5)

I do wonder how much sentimentality has the potential to influence haiku produced as a result of reminiscing and if this can enhance or detract from the end product. To me, sometimes haiku is like a photograph written down, so haiku produced from reminiscing is a type of "back dated literary photograph" (for want of a better term), and lets me recapture moments of my life that I can enjoy for many years to come in haiku form.

I kayak in Canberra, Australia all year round.  I've even been out in sub zero temperatures pre-dawn to observe the sunrise from the centre of the lake.  Now that the weather is getting warmer the fish and birds are more active and I'm hoping to meet a platypus or two while out on a weekend during daylight hours.

My favourite time of day is pre-dawn.  Many amazing things occur along nature trails in the darkness an hour before the sun comes up.  I'd suggest if someone is in a writing slump, that they go for a walk during a time of day they are unfamiliar with. I understand that is easier said than done in some parts of the world and appreciate that I am very fortunate to live somewhere safe with easy access to the natural world.


Paul

Thank you!

I didn't see a name, and wonder if you have any published haiku to show us? I thought kayaking had stopped now, whether due to a seasonal aspect or covid restrictions? But what an incredible activity to observe things we might not normally witness tramping through the woodland!

"reminiscing about past experiences"
Yes, a potent reservoir of potential haiku!


"A rêverie observation."
"rêverie observation" is a new aspect of Slip-Realism but one where versions of memory from our earlier life or lives are captured.
rêverie observation©Alan Summers 2018-2020
https://area17.blogspot.com/2018/01/slip-realism-haiku-about-lives-and.html

I think more and more people who can move, or future generations, will consider finding homes nearer to nature, and less densely populated areas.

warm regards,
Alan

Quote from: Bluemountain on October 25, 2020, 07:53:00 PM
Hello,

If I feel stuck and unable to write I generally do a combination of things as one method on its own doesn't seem to work.

A productive haiku day for me involves getting outdoors for a walk or kayak, reading haiku and reminiscing about past experiences (not necessarily in that order). Reminiscing in particular has helped this year because the virus has limited opportunities to travel and socialise.

.

Due to both its popularity and the incredible work created, and the ongoing pandemic, we are continuing with Writing Through It!

Writing Through It:
https://www.callofthepage.org/during-covid-19/writing-through-it/

.

Sounds good!

At the moment we are not running a tanka workshop, although we do have tanka as part of our online haibun, and Timeless Art zoom sessions.

warm regards,
Alan

Quote from: martin gottlieb cohen on October 05, 2020, 11:01:37 PM
;D :-[ :P  Simple and always stepping in it. I just stumbled onto Alan Summers Wonderful Tanka workshops. However, for ultra, ultra-beginners like myself, why not mentoring in tanka for beginners like there is for haiku.

Half a Rainbow donations continue, many thanks!

Half A Rainbow
Haiku Nook: An Anthology

Dedicated to Rachel Sutcliffe (1977-2019)
& Haiku Nook G+


Total Donations Made (as of October 3rd, 2020) =
$147.65 U.S. Dollars (£114.23 Great British Pounds)

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To learn more about St. James's University Hospital, please visit:
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Hi Joshua,

The use of kigo, which I wrote an article as well, and just added a short postscript, is an incredible little technique. In Japan it might be very automatic, at times, and pulled/selected from a centralised kigo book (saijiki or kiyose) by a group leader. Regional kigo are slowly appearing again, and outside Japan, it makes sense to create our own.


More than one fold in the paper: Kire, kigo, and the vertical axis of meaning in haiku
https://area17.blogspot.com/2014/04/more-than-one-fold-in-paper-kire-kigo.html

I see you like zombies, and Karen and myself watch The Walking Dead, and Fear The Walking Dead TV/streaming video series!  :)


INHUMAN: Haiku from the Zombie Apocalypse
https://www.amazon.com/INHUMAN-Zombie-Apocalypse-Joshua-Gage/dp/1625904533


Here's a take on zombie watching, incredibly useful as a survival method during our covid-19 pandemic too!   8)

Mordre
https://weirdlaburnum.wordpress.com/2020/08/08/mordre/

Even though Britain (Wales, Scotland and England) is a small country, we also have a varied set of seasons and aspects of seasons, and of course Northern Ireland (part of the U.K.) and Eire will have their own unique seasons too!

Scotland has more words for snow, in reality, than the Inuit, or even Canada, I guess!  ;)

I see where you are based that thanks to its Midwest location, Cleveland has all four seasons — fall, winter, spring and summer!  :D

Where can we access your essay?

And of course we have the oldest running non-Japanese haiku society on kigo:

Yuki Teikei (有季定型) Haiku Society
https://youngleaves.org/?page_id=936
https://youngleaves.org/?page_id=142
https://youngleaves.org/?page_id=105

Enjoy!  8)

warm regards,
Alan

Quote from: pottygok on September 08, 2020, 05:19:35 PM

Quote from: XYZ on July 18, 2019, 06:07:32 AM
When I started writing haiku, I referred to the list of kigo for inspiration.

This was exactly what I was going to say! I think kigo are a great way to generate ideas about haiku, and sometimes I'll write half a dozen haiku with the same kigo before I find one that sticks.  I also find it interesting to look at how various translators approach the same kigo with different language. Sometimes one phrasing triggers something that another one didn't, so that's a good place to start, too.

I also think regional kigo are quite important, and would love to see more of those used in haiku. I wrote an essay about this a while back, but the idea of kigo focused on a particular region is really interesting and something that US authors should explore more.

My Area 17 is regularly updated on the topic of single line haiku aka 'monoku':

Travelling the single line of haiku - one line haiku / monoku / monostich
https://area17.blogspot.com/2016/12/travelling-single-line-of-haiku-one.html

Also coming up next couple of weeks are a continuation of The Area 17 Profile Poet Series with two exceptional exponents of monoku. Stay tuned!  8)

Anthropormophism - Some Thoughts by Jane Reichhold
http://www.sumauma.net/haicai/haiku-anthro.html?fbclid=IwAR3m6qG-HyvEV0jh9baRiPGNxmZ4TmoqTN2UDpX8kfhcC4Lys6nFPmYK2Gg


It is always great to return to Jane Reichhold. And always remember Jane's name has 2xh! Reichhold!

purple loosestrife
the drift of candle wax
on a breeze

Alan Summers

i.m. Jane Reichhold 1937-2016
cattails September 2016 Edition
Jane Reichhold Tribute Page 177
http://cattailsjournal.com/backissues/cattails163A.pdf

That isn't quite personification but I imagine Jane as a drift of candle wax creating both art and poetry burning the midnight oil, or rather candles.


I guess haiku should embrace as many or at least almost as many poetic techniques as other forms of poetry. Why?

As someone who has led two senku (1000 verse renku) I've discovered that when people totally relax their way of talking enters the rhythm of poetry, and when we do that, anything and everything can happen!

Recently I've found myself reaching out to symbolism, personification and various lyrical aspects for my single line and three line haiku.


a click and clank the kitchen awake and demanding

Alan Summers
Collection: Forbidden Syllables (Bones Library May 2020)
https://bonesjournal.com/books/Alan_Summers-Forbidden-Syllables-bones-ed.pdf

Perhaps it's my imagination! :-) But also, alongside a feeling of personification, if someone, whether home, relatives, or a b&b is invisibly getting breakfast, dinner, supper even ready, it's as if it's the kitchen itself, demanding my presence!



late night television spills its whisky tumbler

Alan Summers
Collection: Forbidden Syllables (Bones Library May 2020)
https://bonesjournal.com/books/Alan_Summers-Forbidden-Syllables-bones-ed.pdf


On rare occasions I'll have a late night watching streaming video, or back to back documentaries of classic albums or about Kate Bush, David Bowie, Elton John etc... I imagine nights without  me when the television either misses my presence and sipping malt whisky or a Scotch, and gets tipsy in my honor. Yes, pure personification, but is it the author, or the television personifying?




lemon-scented hospital beds how they hold our hands as blackbirds

Alan Summers
Publication credit: Weird Laburnum (July 1st 2020)
three haikai verses
https://weirdlaburnum.wordpress.com/2020/07/01/three-haikai-verses/

This verse came about through combining multiple prompts as well as getting into my writer's fugue: https://haikucommentary.wordpress.com/2019/02/18/interview-with-alan-summers/

I love the symbolism and personification, and it's a nod and bow to the great care during the ongoing covid-19 crisis by the staff who are the National Health Service of the U.K.


thrift shop dolls pose as passing trade

Glint ebook collection by Alan Summers
Proletaria   politics philosophy phenomena  (February 2020)
https://proletaria730964817.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/glint.pdf

Is it the poet using personification or the shop, or are the life-scale dolls taking control?


alchemy:
I turn wood to iron
into an eagle

Alan Summers
Grit, Grace, and Gold–Haiku Celebrating the Sports of Summer by Kit Pancoast Nagamura
Kodansha (April 2020)

Of course the names 'wood'; 'iron' and 'eagle' are golfing terms, but isn't there alchemy in so many things, including personification?


meandering river
both barrels of sunlight
head a goose home

Alan Summers
Half A Rainbow
Haiku Nook: An Anthology ed. Jacob Salzer & The Nook Editorial Staff (2020)
Dedicated to Rachel Sutcliffe (1977-2019) & Haiku Nook G+
https://jsalzer.wixsite.com/halfarainbowhaiku

We have often personified nature from ancient times that still lingers with us. Nature is a force, and it's only natural that we will bring personification into our poems from time to time. Here it's as if the sun bears two shotgun barrels (in a peaceful manner) to help a single goose home. Is the goose a bird, or is it me?




a dreaming forest busy as Hitchcock

Alan Summers
The Comfort of Crows
Hifsa Ashraf and Alan Summers
(Velvet Dusk Publishing, December 2019)

One of the oldest personifications is that of our once giant country-covering forests! Here I have combined the famous films of Alfred Hitchcock (and Alma Reville) such as Pyscho and The Birds etc... But of course it's also not personification at the same time! We often romanticise nature, but it's a hive of altercation and hunting and killing, whether plant, insect, or animal!



in jars our tongues instruct us as rain and birds

Alan Summers
Publication credit: Sonic Boom Issue Eighteen (1st August 2020)
https://89b51d07-bdbc-4f8c-8b62-740f86360cd5.filesusr.com/ugd/61020d_9438d0a182954bc183dd265e6c878cfb.pdf
https://shoutout.wix.com/so/f5NEf0TBs#/main

This has nothing to do with the unexpected discovery of a certain jar! I just liked the idea of jars where our tongues help us become like the rain and the birds.



twilight thickens
into the cry of a baby
shooting stars

i.m. Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong

Alan Summers
Anthology credit: EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration 2020 "Year of the Nurse"

This is an incredibly sad story of an NHS nurse who died from covid-19. She was the first of many heroines and heros who did not deserve to die alongside her baby. Here I both personify twilight as the cry of a baby who is 'shooting' stars, but also in memory of the nurse's baby who will be forever creating shooting stars.

What's your personification, your guilty secret or pleasure?


Alan Summers
co-founder, Call of the Page

Thanks Marion!

Our two covid-19 outreach responses have been fantastically successful. The Writing Through It sessions are midway after our participants received a special review, and has already created some outstanding and original, as well as incredibly deeply moving work.

Writing Through It:
https://www.callofthepage.org/during-covid-19/writing-through-it/

We hope to revisit Timeless Art at a later day, and are currently thinking about bringing back our popular courses for the Autumn/Winter.

We are grateful to the generosity of donors and participants for making the covid-19 outreach possible, and for it to be still ongoing.

warmest regards,
Alan
https://www.callofthepage.org/courses/