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Mike Rehling says:
"We will begin taking submissions to the H. Gene Murtha Memoria Senryu Contest! Check out the contest guidelines HERE and PLEASE PAY ATTENTION THE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES!!! Especially the email address and the submission window!"

Judges:
Mike Rehling and Steve Hodge


Submissions begin on May 21th beginning at 12:01 AM EDT, and must be in our email box by midnight EDT on May 31. Any emails received either before or after will NOT be judged.
THIRD Annual ​H. Gene Murtha​ Memorial Senryu Contest
http://www.haikuhut.com/THIRDHGeneMurthaMemorialSenryuContest.pdf

Hi Rachel,

Quote from: Rachel on May 17, 2018, 01:12:01 PM
Can anyone help me understand hokku more fully.  I'm a regular contributor to Under the Basho but have never submitted to the hokku category as from their guidelines I'm not really clear about the distinction between hokku and haiku. I've tried to do some reading around the topic but am getting more confused and out of my depth
Thanks!

I'm not surprised. Too many people have lumped all Japanese verses as haiku now, even Basho, Issa, Chiyo-ni, Buson etc...

Very basically I would say everything pre-Shiki are hokku verses. Everything from the 1890s moved further away from hokku-like verses.

One big change was that hokku was simply written during Agrarian times, where Japan was mostly farmland or unconquered wild country, with exception of some roads, and residences of the ruling classes.

During the 1860s the West forced Japan to open up to its markets, and a long time in near-complete isolation.  Japanese artists appeared to enjoy access to Western techniques of art including the painting method of sketching from life.

Masaoka Shiki (正岡 子規, October 14, 1867 – September 19, 1902) used the word haiku, which was rarely used, so I would imagine that just like other old words it could be adopted for a new or slightly altered meaning.

So although he didn't create the word haiku, it was sometimes used to mean 'any verse' he made it significant to a new kind of verse akin to hokku. Even the term kigo is a 20th Century one:

[T]he terms kigo and its partner term kidai are Post-Isolation Japan:

"After haiku became a fully independent genre, the term "kigo" was coined by Otsuzi Ōsuga (1881-1920) in 1908. "Kigo" is thus a new term for the new genre approach of "haiku." So, when we are looking historically at hokku or haikai stemming from the renga tradition, it seems best to use the term "kidai." Although the term "kidai" is itself new—coined by Hekigotō Kawahigashi in 1907!

Itō, Yūki. The Heart in Season: Sampling the Gendai Haiku Non-season Muki Saijiki, preface in Simply Haiku vol 4 no 3, 2006.
https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/c7bea4d53c1ed337b7b361bb2bfe0794.pdf

http://www.gendaihaiku.com/research/kigo/04-heart-in-season.htm

So what does this mean? Think of hokku as purely nature for starters. Haiku came about in the Industrial Revolution so the whole society changed rapidly with trains and factories (facilitated by a Scottish engineer from Aberdeen).

Whereas haiku became a genre, but still retaining some aspects of form, hokku is distinctly a form, and was part of the most highly regulated form of poetry perhaps in the world.

Dr Chris Drake is an ardent fan of classic hokku, here's a commentary on one hokku:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/translatinghaiku/conversations/topics/4383

Also I feel hokku need not be Natural History, that the depicted nature is not necessarily accurate but romanticised.

I wrote a few hokku for Under the Basho:

marsh marigolds-
open up my hidden suns
to morning clouds

Alan Summers
Publication Credits: 
Under the Basho (Hokku category:September 15, 2013,  Vol 1.1 Autumn Issue)


ragbound soul...
the secrets of night
shining clouds

Alan Summers
Publication Credits:  Under the Basho ('hokku' September 15, 2013, Autumn Issue)


green wind...
all the leaves shining
so sharp

Alan Summers
Publication Credits:  Under the Basho ('hokku' September 15, 2013, Autumn Issue)

This might be said to be hokku:


the long long throw

of a smoothly worn stone

dying, we live

Alan Summers
Hedgerow #123 Spring (April) 2018

Whereas I would call this haiku:

nuclear winter
I only count
98 red balloons

Alan Summers
Coch Rhi Ben (haiku/kyoku bun) Blithe Spirit 2018

And trains became iconic in Japan, and in haiku:

night train

each window carries

its own little rain

Alan Summers 

Brass Bell: a haiku journal (September 2017)


Here's part of a presentation I use to address Freshers on creative writing courses, on their first official day:


One of the turning points in the advent of modern Japanese haiku was about a train.  Here it is in the original Japanese, followed by Romanised Japanese aka Romaji, and then by my English-language version:


夏草に汽缶車の車輪来て止まる

natsukusa ni kikansha no sharin kite tomaru

summer grasses—

the wheels of a locomotive

coming to a stop

YAMAGUCHI Seishi (1901 - 1994)
English version by Alan Summers


Yamaguchi Seishi
山口誓子, やまぐち せいし

This is, in my opinion, a haiku that alludes to Basho's famous medieval haikai verse about samurai battlesites amongst the summer grasses, somewhere I've personally visited.  Seishi talks about the modern age of Japan, and using one of its most iconic images, that of the train.  Both train and summer grasses meet and move on through the 20th and then into, now, the 21st century.




なつくさやつはものどもがゆめのあと

natsukusa ya tsuwamonodomo ga yume no ato

summer grasses:
the remains of warriors
and their dreams

Haikai verse by Matsuo Basho (1644–1694)
English version by Alan Summers

Basho's haikai verse is from a climatic section in Basho's travel journal (haibun), The Narrow Road to the Interior (Oku no Hosomichi).

COPYRIGHT Alan Summers
Contemporary haiku - where are we?
A possible poetry for our times and future times.
by Alan Summers

This won't answer your questions as there are so many crossovers as we swing back and forth between hokku and haiku. And that's only natural. Shiki thought the creation of a different but similar verse form he used the old term of haiku for, might save the memory of hokku for a decade or two under the onslaught of the more popular Western Free Verse. Little did he know that haiku would preserve the memory of hokku verses in the consciousness of millions of people in and outside Japan to such an extent.

Amongst a great many new haikai genre magazines, check this one out for inclusivity for women including Non-binary and transwomen: https://femkumag.wixsite.com/femkumag/guidelines

Haiku knows no boundaries or barriers, and editor Lori wonderfully embraces this.

Delighted to have published Dru Marland who has advocated equality for a long time:
https://poetrysociety.org.nz/affiliates/haiku-nz/haiku-poems-articles/my-favourite-haiku/favourite-haiku-by-alan-summers/

warm regards,
Alan

Interesting question. I was approached but I don't submit work as much at the moment. It has promise and there are some recognised practitioners.

I did see it as soon as it came out. It is a bit mixed but provided a platform for some new names, including some from Blighty.

Quote from: Rachel on May 15, 2018, 12:10:05 PM
I was wondering if any one had seen this new journal and what they thought of the quality of the published work?

https://the13alphabet.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/bonsai-journal-issue-01.pdf

Thanks Gregg,

And the link to the cover page:
http://laryalee.webs.com/ripples/welcome.htm 

And don't forget a lot of chapbooks and journals etc... continue to be added on a regular basis at THF digital library: http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/

warm regards,
Alan

Quote from: greg schwartz on April 28, 2018, 12:15:13 PM

Quote from: Lorin on May 11, 2011, 07:05:48 AM

A friend and excellent haiku poet from Canada, Laryalee Fraser, put together a very good haiku anthology a few years ago which she very generously made printable and free of charge: 'a procession of ripples' . You can find it here:

http://laryalee.users.sunwave.net/ripples.htm

I know this thread is long dead, but if anyone is looking for "a procession of ripples" -- which is a great collection, by the way -- the above link doesn't work anymore. The anthology can now be found here:

http://laryalee.webs.com/ripples/

Its honor blown away
an orchid
is laughing

Ban'ya Natsuishi (Ginyu, No 69, 2016)

Third Prize

a small lonely snail
is glad and crying for rain
on a hydrangea

小さく孤独なかたつむり
うれしそうに紫陽花の上で
雨を求めて叫んでいる

Yusuke Fujikawa
15th International "Kusamakura" haiku competition 2010
http://kusamakura-haiku.jp/backnumber/2010/english_e.html

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And don't forget that Blithe Spirit takes tanka, if you are a member!  :-)

The current tanka editor for the British Haiku Society's journal is Karen Hoy.

New Blithe Spirit submission details will be in the May issue.

Both myself, for haibun, and Karen, for tanka, will have our own dedicated emails that Karen is creating for us.


BHS membership:
http://britishhaikusociety.org.uk/membership-new/


warm regards,
Alan

I'm very excited to say that the Summer haiku are going to be incorporated within the new book I am bringing out around Summer 2019.

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Delighted to be part of this permanent educational resource for schools and a permanent resource for poets and teachers, and industry professionals, and – anyone interested in children's poetry!
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S is for Haiku Poet Alan Summers, #AtoZChallenge #ZtoA
https://poetryroundabout.com/2018/04/09/s-is-for-alan-summers-haiku-poet-atozchallenge-ztoa/


Do consider entering the competition too!
https://poetryroundabout.com/2018/03/31/amazing-atozchallenge-of-childrens-poets-starts-tomorrow-find-out-about-the-competition/


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The Slip-Realism Perception Challenge by Alan Summers (February 2017)
is now archived at:
https://poetrysociety.org.nz/affiliates/haiku-nz/haiku-poems-articles/archived-articles/the-slip-realism-perception-challenge/

The challenge exercise is updated here:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/slip-realism-haiku-about-lives-and.html

You can leave your published slip-realism haiku/senryu in the comments too! :-)

warm regards,
Alan

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WINNERS: IAFOR VLADIMIR DEVIDÉ HAIKU AWARD 2018
https://iaforhaikuaward.org/announcing-winners-iafor-vladimir-devide-haiku-award-2018/


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cattails – April 2018 is now out!
http://www.cattailsjournal.com/issues/cattailsApril2018.pdf

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I don't know how many of you travel to the other and visit THF's blog too, but there's a sale on!
https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2018/04/01/the-haiku-foundation-spring-inventory-book-sale/

warm regards,
Alan

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For those of you who are both British Haiku Society members, and live near London in England.

The official BHS Spring Gathering is an opportunity to meet fellow poets, and also some of the new editors of Blithe Spirit: http://britishhaikusociety.org.uk/journal/

The following day, also in London, will be a haibun event including Kim Richardson and Alan Summers and other haibuneers.

For more details about the BHS Gathering you can join the society and receive The Brief newsletter:
http://britishhaikusociety.org.uk/membership-new/

More details to follow about the haibun event at a later date.

Alan Summers
Haibun Editor, Blithe Spirit