The Haiku Foundation Forums

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A nice flurry of entries over Christmas.    :)

Still time to enter the competition, create some seasonal comments (for an extra prize) and the chance to appear in the companion anthology:
The With Words Haiku Book of Summer.

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Summer Haiku Competition
(Previously published haiku, and unpublished haiku, are both accepted for this competition.):
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-with-words-summer-competition-2014_14.html



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THE POSTS EXTRA TO THE MAIN COMPETITION PAGE:

Entry details that we'd like for the haiku only entries
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/entry-details-that-wed-like-for-haiku.html

Writer's Notes regarding the extra prize winning feature of seasonal notes by authors for The With Words Summer Competition Haiku Section
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/writers-notes.html

With Words Competition rules and legalities:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/with-words-competition-rules-and.html

Books coming out on the Summer Competitions:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-books-with-words-book-of-summer.html

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Museum of East Asian Art event of haiku with sake
The Musicality of Japanese Poetry: Haiku and Its Rhythm with Alan Summers, Karen Hoy, and Tony McNicol:  http://area17.blogspot.co.uk





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Hi Chad! :)

Quote from: jedirobinson on December 09, 2014, 05:50:34 PM
I'd like to share some newspaper articles that have appeared in Pierre and Sioux Falls, South Dakota as a result of my manuscript winning the Turtle Light Press competition. The publicity has been fantastic and appreciated. I hope you enjoy reading these.

Here are two articles that appeared in the Pierre Capital Journal:

http://www.capjournal.com/news/pierre-poet-wins-haiku-chapbook-competition/article_387836f6-59ab-11e4-bb98-3745b988c0c8.html

http://www.capjournal.com/news/at-the-end-of-the-sky-prairie/article_9fc8c28e-714e-11e4-bdf9-6bd7852a4f5f.html

And this one appeared online today in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:

http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2014/12/09/pierre-poets-sd-based-haiku-wins-honor/20134943/

If these articles peak your interest, head on over to www.turtlelightpress.com and pre-order a copy for only $12.50, with free shipping in the U.S.

Thanks!

Thanks for including the links, I'd read the earlier ones but great to have one from just yesterday!  Our THF members will enjoy reading each link.

You are one of my favorite haiku writers because you have such a strong grasp of sense of place, and atmosphere, congratulations on this win, and all your other great successes.

warm regards,

Alan

Hi Thomas,

Quote from: HaikuHampster on December 01, 2014, 11:01:14 PM
Hey,

I'm looking for a good book on Japanese folklore. Anyone know of a good translation of the kojiki? or Just another in depth book in Japanese folklore/mythology. Thanks!

Thomas

You might also enjoy The Nihon Shoki:
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Nihon_shoki
http://nihonshoki.wikidot.com

Kojiki:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kojiki-Account-Ancient-Translations-Classics/dp/0231163894/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417507289&sr=1-1&keywords=Kojiki

http://www.amazon.com/Kojiki-Account-Ancient-Translations-Classics/dp/0231163894/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417507400&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Kojiki%3A+An+Account+of+Ancient+Matters


But do please consider using an independent book seller as they need supporting by us.

warm regards,

Alan

Hi Tom,

Quote from: HaikuHampster on November 28, 2014, 01:53:03 PM
Whats the difference between using a caesura and a colon in a haiku? I see many haiku often using both - used as second cut in a sense? Asking this in terms of Western haiku. Thanks!

I guess normal rules apply, to be honest.

A colon suggests that one part introduces the next part, one thing being the same as the second written part, like a metaphor or a simile, or simply enlarging upon the first part of the haiku.

By caesura, if you mean the use of an ellipsis, I see it as a telegraphed pause, where a reader might feel they can't see one without it being signposted.

I would say there's only one cut, that a slowing down elsewhere isn't a cut method.

warm regards,

Alan

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The excellent Stone Bridge Press have this ebook sale including:
Bashō's Narrow Road by Matsuo Basho and Hiroaki Sato


Cyber Monday E-book Sale
Several months ago we entered into an agreement with Aerbook to distribute our e-books. Next Monday (12/01) we will be offering the titles featured below at 75% off list price exclusively on the Aerbook platform.

The Art of Setting Stones by Marc Peter Keane
The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura
The Haiku Apprentice by Abigail Friedman
The Inland Sea by Donald Richie
Things Japanese by Basil Hall Chamberlain
Yoga Poems by Leza Lowitz
Green Tea Living by Toshimi A. Kayaki and Miyuki Matsuo
J-Boys by Shogo Oketani
Milky Way Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa, Ryu Okazaki and Joseph Sigrist
Pop Goes Korea by Mark James Russell
Bashō's Narrow Road by Matsuo Basho and Hiroaki Sato
The Astro Boy Essays by Frederik L. Schodt

This Cyber Monday promotion ends Monday (12/01) at 11:59 PM so don't miss out!  Titles on sale will be featured on our Aerbook publisher page here. When you purchase an e-book from Aerbook you have the option of downloading an ePub or a Kindle file. For more information on Aerbook visit their main website.

https://t.e2ma.net/message/12vtf/dwaird
https://aerbook.com/pub/stonebridgepress

Welcome to THF  :)

Quote from: HaikuHampster on November 27, 2014, 12:56:33 AM
Hey all,

I'm wondering if there are any books/translations or essays/info written about Sora's Diary of Oku no hosomichi written in English. I'm struggling finding something. Thanks!

I don't know your name, mine is Alan, so apologies.

re Sora's Diary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sora%27s_Diary

Oku no Hosomichi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oku_no_Hosomichi

I do have numerous copies of the book, but I am sure extensive research will deliver exactly what you desire.

Here's a search result on Amazon USA:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Oku+no+Hosomichi

Sora's Diary search:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Sora+diary&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3ASora+diary

kind regards,

Alan

I was delighted to find my haiku selected and a nice Summer image while the Winter starts to kick in:


        splitting the sky
        a kingfisher lifts a branch
        off the breeze


           Alan Summers
           Selected by Isamu Hashimoto
           Mainichi Shimbun (November, Japan)

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For updates on the anthology:
http://yaywords.wordpress.com/projects/anthology-of-haiku-and-senryu-by-women/


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This Sunday, 9th November 2014.

For anyone living in the South West of England.  The town is Frome.


Details and links:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/alan-summers-performing-haiku-and.html



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Hi Julie,

Quote from: Julie B. K. on October 29, 2014, 07:50:20 PM
Hi Phil, Alan & Sandra:

Oh, dear. In my attempt to be vague I seem to have made a muddled mess here.

The contest is the Ito En Haiku Grand Prix. It's a monthly contest and I read through all of the 2014 winners to date, which is why I recognized several names among the monthly semi- finalists. Someone I admire and follow on Twitter had a link to the contest, and I'll admit that I wrote a poem for entry without carefully reading the rules. By the time I got around to the submission page, I thought, oh, what the heck, it's one poem, I just won't enter this contest again and I'll write off this poem to experience. But then, a couple of days ago I got a note that I was a semi-finalist for September - yay! - and I had to send in a signed affidavit which basically said - if I read it correctly - that I was signing over all rights, which was my understanding even if I hadn't placed anyway. In for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose. But it was kind of fun to enter and place, which made me wonder about the merits of entering a contest like this in the future.

Hope this clarifies things! I appreciate the insight.

Julie BK

You were very clear, in fact I guessed it was this particular competition.   Both Ernie Berry and Janice Bostok have had haiku published on the bottles of tea.

In fact Ernie presented me with one or more because he quite literally got sent a huge shipment of bottles, enough to last a year of drinking green tea. :-)

Ernie never mentioned concern over this aspect, and I don't remember Janice telling me any concerns, just being pleased to have the haiku on bottles that travel the world including my local train station sushi bar in Bristol Temple Meads and Bath Spa.

It sounds like fun, I even entered the competition ten years ago, once I think, but I think I demurred sending entries for years because of the copyright issue.

I can't believe a court action would be issued against a haiku writer for using their own poem in a collection or anthology, but you can always seek out a specialist lawyer.

I can't imagine they can legally own a haiku that you composed that didn't even get placed, that is plain bizarre if you don't even receive a prize.

Haiku being so short, they'd be hard put, surely, to pursue you though the courts, unless they could prove you effected their business by several thousand yen/dollars/pounds etc...

As an exercise you could ask a lawyer or someone from the Society of Authors or the equivalent of your country.

warm regards,

Alan

Dear Julie,

Quote from: Julie B. K. on October 27, 2014, 09:48:23 PM
I recently entered a haiku contest that required the poet to sign over all rights to enter. Usually, I try to avoid contests or publications with this requirement in favor of first rights, so that I know I retain ownership of my work for the future. But for this particular contest, I noted several prominent haiku poets had entered, despite the all rights stipulation. Is there a time and a place where giving up all rights to your haiku is worth it? I feel like I must be missing something ...

Thanks in advance!
Julie B.K.

Quote from: sandra on October 27, 2014, 11:12:17 PM
Hi Julie,

I'm with you in avoiding these types of contest. I sometimes wonder if rules such as this which have been translated into English are perhaps mis-translated and the signing over of all rights is not what's actually meant, because it does seem draconian.

On the other hand, I wonder if the "prominent haiku poets" simply ignore that stipulation if they ever need to re-use the poem in some way. I suspect that's what generally happens. Who's ever going to know?

All the best,
Sandra

Sandra made good points here.   I am concerned that you knowingly recently entered a competition which may have rightly or wrongly stated you were signing over your rights.

I'm curious how you could know at an early stage of the competition that 'prominent haiku poets' had entered too.

There have been useful debates over rights in various places on the internet, and it could certainly be useful if there was a central webpage specifically for haiku writers.  As haiku is incredibly short, it does come into its own category regarding rights over quoting for instance.

The only times I'd consider the possibility of a haiku being owned outright is by being given a paid commission by a commercial organisation, or a joint commercial organisation and city council, or just a city council for a piece of public art.   I've been given a number of paid commissions over the years but I cannot ever remember being told in the contract that I hand over copyright, it's usually shared copyright over the 'writing'.

If this is a competition created by a non-English Language country/organisation, it may be as Sandra has stated, simply a bad case of translation where the legal aspect has not been correctly put into the right phrases.

I have risked some of these competitions, and I would find it very hard for them to argue they have rights over my work if I have not been paid a large amount of money.   I'm not being vain here. :)    Sometimes I send a haiku to a competition that is not merely competition written, in fact I dislike and avoid creating haiku that I either think or know a competition or magazine will automatically like.  That goes against my own personal development as a writer.

All I can say is that you read every single word carefully.

For instance I am running a competition for both published and unpublished work and people are more than welcome to ask questions about that aspect, as well as the individual writer's notes (a free aspect of the competition) that I am keen to reproduce as the author's voice in a forthcoming book which is part of the competition.

Of course many organisations will not or cannot respond to questions before during or after a competition, for good or bad reasons.

Personally I like dialogue. :)  Especially as the book coming out of the competition/project will contain individual author voices and not just my voice as the main editor.   

I'm unusual in that I like questions asked, and attempt to answer them promptly unless I'm caught up in an emergency, and then I'll still attempt to reply with one to two days.

So, summing up:

ALWAYS READ EVERYTHING:
re guidelines, extra notes, every single page they have about the competition or magazine

Do Some Research (on previous results from them, or magazine issues)

Ask questions of them, or ask questions here, or privately message or email myself, or another moderator, or Sandra, if she is comfortable receiving emails, as she runs a database on competitions.

As both a moderator of The Haiku Foundation; as an editor of magazines and anthologies; founder of With Words; and just as an experienced individual over twenty years, I am happy to be contacted regarding any concerns over copyright, competitions, magazines, as I run courses that touch on these aspects.

My email is: alan@withwords.org.uk

Or you can private message me here, or post replies here, or create a new topic (if it's a new question about a different situation).

Or do all of the above too! :)

warm regards,

Alan

Hi Marty,

Quote from: onecloud on October 27, 2014, 03:43:41 PM
the warning suggest i start a new topic.

anyway,
this is marty.
i have not visited the forum several months, likely 'cause of low energy.  this site requires some concentration to participate , and i am not always able.

i see many mentors here and some wonderful examples.

still i wonder ?   are the requirements named?

all suggestions seem to favor a break in the subject or view.  is length limited to x number of sounds or words?

Welcome back! :)

I think it's just that you haven't been here a while that it seems like you need to really concentrate, but take your time, there's no rush, hurry, or race. :)

The requirements are not that different from three line haiku or any kind of poetry to be honest.  There has to be tension, resonance, pace, rhythm, and content.

I am working on a piece about one-line haiku which will appear in my new book Writing Poetry: the haiku way.

Haiku tend to have as their main feature a cut, break, as they are two part poems.

You asked "is length limited to x number of sounds or words?"

You could certainly approach haiku (whatever number of lines) with a set number of sounds like 3-5-3 English-language syllabic sounds or morae as syllables are so uneven in sound length.

I'll give some more examples, and just take your time as they are different at first readings.  But as a line of poetry but being one-line haiku at the same there has to be tension, and various perhaps unique devices to make it a place apart from other lines of poetry and three line haiku.


examples of one line haiku by Alan Summers and various authors

Published one-line haiku by Alan Summers

   after rain midnight dreams a hedgehog

   Gare du Nord shifting art deco snow

   this small ache and all the rain too robinsong

   ants following invisible trials the children

blues change the colour rain

all thumbs into the matrix rain starlings

mist and dark I hold onto Little Bear

city of glass the immobilised man small stone counting

long hard rain my compass your true north

lantana the dark-veined tiger nectar-laden

pull of stars turning cold the snail's navigation

all those red apples amongst the blue tit

giallo this restricted area my birthplace

h=k=l=0 each love number sleeps

Hirst's butterflies disturbing the exhibits people

chestnut moon shifting in my memory ghost floors

night-entangled moons treading judas floors

train sitting:facingpeoplei'drathernot   

our pigsilk insults pre-coital manoeuvres playback

the camp fire burns the misty moon halved by thin cloud

nautiluses who remember useful things for only a day

my failed assassin, who has never killed

Seven Sisters the call of owls either side

recurringdream#16.333iso/overbreakfast

Your oily gold in red saffron tea makes me laugh

petrichor this green sunsets in yesterday

curse her Rain falls from a normal blue sky

just me Great Auk I died

Monday's magician of yellow colour of murder

this sorrowing heart fading into plum blossom

crowded train a dozen yellows crackle

macula lutea the snowballs inside dogs

kwĭkˈsĭlˌvər: I've a need for the next biblical cubit

voodoo rain this new light year

Red Sea beat my heart still hydrozoa

Cheshire Moon the cat grins in Farsi

eight thousand li of cloud and moon questions mark

Oak Moon the carpenter's calluses chafing

butterfly dreaming man the Black Butterfly Moon

window-rattling moon I stay up and turn blue

Black Moon my finders keepers Valentine

toys from a distant land scaffolding the fall

ground zero into the new friend's story

sloe-eyed horses in Lichtenstein bubble gum wrappers

messenger shooting crows


soul her fish fingers to the second knuckle

long grass nights star systems in the Big Dipper

corn chaff realising oil as one colour

field of dreams an unborn child's color isn't rapeseed

Pharmakós the name you scratch inside

Blue Moon we don't do one-sided conversations

Old Man's Beard a cyclist wobbles the length of it

sick train the night heron shifts silt for all of us

memory of starlight wink of a one-eyed dog as it sneezes

gliding four sulphur-crested cockatoos a green tinged sundown

black swan rising diving into cloudless sky

moviescreenflickerfullolifecanvasthin 

snowfall she takes her daffodils Underground

in-betweenness the grey heron seals the leaks of light

dustbunnies the coins of small change me

dragon tattoo my skinned fables of depression

the drum of the rain ghosting bare hands

leaves begin to fall this face too evolves from fish

the blue note I turn to wind-spun snow

irezumi the river coils into heron

intermittent rain I shed another crow

tearing up snow falls slowly a kind of blue


Published one-line haiku by various writers past and current:

a love letter to the butterfly gods with strategic misspellings
- Chris Gordon

rooks weaving darkness into the dusk
-- David Platt

waterbug running by the frogulp
-- Alan Pizzarelli

a stick goes over the falls at sunset
-- Cor van den Heuvel

Ah water-strider never to have left a track!
-- vincent tripi

between the piano's phrases night wind
-- Fred Schofield

in the otherwise still twilight a clamor of robin wings
- Allan Burns

all these sounds not one of them a falling leaf
-- R.C. Matsuo-Allard

an owl hoots darkness down from the hollow oak
- Tombo (Lorraine Ellis Harr)

the blind child reading my poem with her fingertips
-- Elizabeth Searle Lamb

clay on the wheel I confess my faith
- Peggy Willis Lyles

deep inside the faded wood a scarlet maple
-- Nick Avis

pig and i spring rain
- Marlene Mountain

dusk      from rock to rock a waterthrush
- John Wills

pain fading the days back to wilderness
- Jim Kacian

white wind the eyes of the dead seal missing
- Carolyn Hall

the owl's flight unheard stars appear
-- Peter Yovu

the blood rushing through my blowhole winter stars
- Scott Metz

mallards leaving in the water rippled sky
- Penny Harter

Spring thaw          wings beating inside my skull
- George Swede

night rain a calf stands tight by the bull
-- Pamela Brown

touching the ashes of my father
-- Bob Boldman

heading home I return the stone to the river
- Stuart Quine

muzzle of the drinking cow glides across still water
- Janice M. Bostok

I breathe the wind breathes through the aspen
-- Martin Lucas

thrush song a few days before the thrush
- Marlene Mountain

swans      stir of his breath against my hair
- Alexis K. Rotella

lingering on this earth   dried onions
-- Ruby Spriggs

Before we knew its name the indigo bunting
–Peggy Willis Lyles


More rain the sisters slip into their mother tongue

–Scott Metz


shadows darkening three-sevenths of her face in sunlight

–Elizabeth Searle Lamb

mallards leaving in the water rippled sky

–Penny Harter



–Matsuo Allard (b. 1949):

through a column of factory steam the white gull

darkness across the river lights in a mill

higher this time the last salmon

alone at 3:00 a.m.—the door knob turning slowly

an icicle the moon drifting through it

passing clouds only a stand of aspens is in light

deep in my notebook a lily pad floats away


–Jeff Stillman:

cross-examination all morning a slanting rain

cold moon lover all business

wind's second wind dead of winter

sweater mend unraveling . . . winter wears on

briefly the heron's catch shaping its gullet

New Year's morning the rent past due

hazy moon hung over the new year


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Sorry to hear your health has not been good, I know how that feels, in my own case.

warmest regards,

Alan

Thanks Sandra!

Yes, some of us seem to do 25 hours a day on activities. :) 

I'm almost scared to list the things that myself, and With Words, do as I'll wonder how we managed to do it all.   If you are ever in Blighty and travel The London Road, you'll find some haiku and renga verses, a project we are just completing.  And do consider March 2015 as we holding a premier sake event, as well as a big reading on the Road. :)

It's the same with Jane, in some ways I'm glad she's stepped back from Lynx, because she's always done exciting projects too.

warm regards,

Alan

Hi Sandra,

Quote from: sandra on October 16, 2014, 03:25:24 PM
Hi Snow Leopard,

Information about Jane and Werner's retirement for Lynx was posted for a couple of months at Haiku NewZ, sorry you didn't see it. They hope someone may come forward and offer to edit Lynx. Meanwhile the AHA website continues, and they are pursuing their writing interests.

There is regular information about journals posted on the Haiku Happenings page:
http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/haikunews/haikuhappenings

All the best,
Sandra
Haiku NewZ editor

It certainly would be fantastic if someone could come on board to create further issues of Lynx.  It is a big job, I don't know how just two of them did so much.

By the way, would it be possible to list the With Words Summer Haiku Competition at all?
Link: http://tinyurl.com/SummerHaikuContest

kind regards,

Alan