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Now out with haiku from myself, Karen Hoy, Cor van den Heuvel, Jim Kacian, Peggy Willis Lyles, Colin Stewart Jones, Roberta Beary and many more...

The Humours of Haiku
http://www.ironpress.co.uk/books/humours.html

For credit card payments:
http://www.inpressbooks.co.uk/the-humours-of-haiku/

Please do consider buying direct from Iron Press or Impress Books to support this magnificient press that has supported haiku so much over the decades.

Alan

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The Temple Bell Stops: Contemporary Poems of Grief, Loss and Change (Modern English Tanka Press 2012) Ed. Robert Epstein

I was honoured to be invited to have my haiku included in this anthology, here is one of my haiku.


the rain
almost a friend
this funeral

Alan Summers



This haiku has connected with so many people and I feel privileged that it has been published and anthologised so many times.


Other publications, and original publication include:
Azami #28 (Japan 1995); Snapshots 4 (1998); First Australian online Anthology (October 1999): Blithe Spirit article On minimalism and other things  DJ Peel Vol 9 No.3 (1999); tempslibre (2001 & 2010); Cornell University, Mann Library, U.S.A. "Daily Haiku" (Oct 2001); The Omnibus Anthology, haiku and senryu  (Hub Editions Hub Haiku series 2001); Hidden (British Haiku Society Anthology 2002); The New Haiku (Snapshot Press, 2002); First Australian Haiku Anthology (2003); Seven Magazine feature: "Three lines of simple beauty"  (2006); Blogging Along Tobacco Road: Alan Summers - Three Questions (2010); Travelogue on World Haiku Festival 2002 , Part 2  (Akita International Haiku Network 2010); THFhaiku app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (2011); The In-Between Season (With Words Pamphlet Series 2012)

Award credits:
Highly Commended, Haiku Collection Competition, (Snapshot Press 1998)
Joint 9th Best of Issue, Snapshot Five (1999)


From the publishers:

Young or old, healthy or sick, wealthy or poor, sooner or later all of us face losses in our lives. Whether these losses are big or small, they affect us and leave their mark. At the center of grief over the death of a loved one, job loss, financial hardship, divorce, miscarriage, and changes due to aging is a hardy seed of renewal.

As the poets in this collection attest, grief, sorrow and acceptance serve as a bridge between the past and future—a thread of love and courage that restores wholeness and continuity. Pause with the poets here in the present moment who happen upon a door that only looks closed but opens again and again to the Eternal Now—where departed loved ones and new possibilities await us.

Haiku helps to contain our grief and gently returns it to Nature, wherein true healing takes place. As such, haiku (and its related forms) can be considered the poetry of full catastrophe living, which points the way forward to the recovery of ordinary awe.


The Temple Bell Stops: Contemporary Poems of Grief, Loss and Change (Modern English Tanka Press 2012) Ed. Robert Epstein

Product Details
ISBN 9781935398301
Publisher Modern English Tanka Press
Pages 256
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black & white
Weight 0.44 kg
Dimensions (centimetres) 15.24 wide x 22.86 tall

Price: £12.39


Weblink:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/robert-epstein-editor/the-temple-bell-stops-contemporary-poems-of-grief-loss-and-change/paperback/product-20281444.html

2012 Vancouver cherry Blossom Festival:
http://www.vcbf.ca/haiku/2012-winning-haiku

Congratulations to Rebecca Drouilhet, Chen-ou Liu, Marion Clarke, Philip Allen, Marilyn Appl Walker, and to many others who visit the Haiku Foundation that gained commendations in this competition.

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Enjoy Rick Black's piece in Notes from the Gean: http://www.calameo.com/books/001101822fbea9c25750a

Extracts from the book:


blinded
by a glint of sunlight
from my jimmy—
the cash box opens
another day of IOUs




the lie
i almost tell
bruised ginger



Something in her eyes called Nothing

I grab my coat, take her by the arm and lead her to a metal staircase tucked around a corner in the backs. We wait in the dark . . .

face of an angel
under my dealer's hoody—
stars are made from rock

In Bed With Kerouac

Authored by Brendan Slater
Introduction by Michael McClintock

Modern haiku, tanka, haibun and haiga for the 21st century.


Publication Date: Aug 20 2012

ISBN/EAN13:  1478344660 / 9781478344667
Page Count: 82
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 5" x 8"
Language: English
Related Categories:  Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh

http://www.yettobenamedfreepress.org/


From the most romantic of poems to tanka where you need a Sharps box; to haiku that touch you deeply in the most intimate moments of immediacy.  In Bed With Kerouac is modern haiku, tanka, haibun and tanka prose, and other verse for the realities and edgy romances of this fledgling don't know where to go yet 21st Century.

Alan Summers, With Words

Dear Chase,

I worked out that just in the first five years of studying haiku, I read around 250,000 haikai verses.  That was twenty years ago, and of course I needed to read every English-language version of Japanese haikai and hokku verses, from before Basho, to right up to as late 20th Century as possible, of any Japanese haiku practitioners I could lay my hands on publications.

Regarding non-Japanese haiku writers, I bought a large amount of publications, from books on critical theory, to antholgies and collections, and with the advent of more and more haiku of literary merit on the internet, I added that aspect to my reading duties.

I probably only read around five thousand upwards of haiku each year now, but assess every essay, article, or fresh analysis of haiku that becomes available to me.

Now I could not expect anyone else to study at this particular depth, because I make a living as a haiku and renga poet. For me it is only right that I keep up with, and gauge, all new developments in haikai practice.

A suggestion is to subscribe, budget permitting, to at least two quality print magazines if not double that number, and visit many of the online journals that are available for free on the internet.

For a poet to constantly improve themselves, it's essential that they read other good writing on a constant basis to maintain their own quality of work.

That's my approach, but others may have different methods.

Alan


Edit Reason: improve syntax.

Quote from: Chase Fire on August 17, 2012, 10:02:44 PM
I've been reading haiku a lot longer than i have been writing them. but I cant even begin to count... because im not good at estimating :P But I know i have read over a thousand. (maybe) what about you?

Hi Chase,

That would be great!

Keep in touch as I'll be personally running various With Words haiku and renku events through 2013, including The Kigo Lab, and other projects, plus Notes from the Gean on the Road will be doing a couple or more big festivals next year.

Keep in touch, and if you do have definite months/dates in the Spring let me know by email.

regards,

Alan


Alan Summers
alan@withwords.org.uk

Quote from: Chase Fire on August 15, 2012, 02:48:08 PM
Alan, I think I'll be coming over in the spring :) And Ive been moving from Alaska and Ohio/Michigan boarder at least twice a year (for family reasons) so I really don't know where I'll be in the spring. either Anchorage or Toledo. So for planning purposes it will actually be easier to go to the UK lol. I'm really excited to go  :)

The book is now available from Amazon UK and should be available on other Amazon platforms within a week's time.

For updates please check our site:
http://www.yettobenamedfreepress.org/

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Four Virtual Haiku Poets



Yet To Be Named Free Press: www.yettobenamedfreepress.org

Authored by Scott Terrill, Brendan Slater, Colin Stewart Jones, Michael Goglia

Edited by Alan Summers, Brendan Slater

Four Virtual Haiku Poets contains modern haiku tackling themes such as loss, aspiration, drugs, sexual abuse, fugitiveness, sex, poverty and the inner conflicts of humanity.


Four Virtual Haiku Poets
Yet To Be Named Free Press
Publication Date: Aug 14 2012
ISBN/EAN13: 1478307544 / 9781478307549

The book will shortly be available at Amazon.


Excerpt:

Cage Fighting

An Introduction to Four Virtual Haiku Poets by Alan Summers

"Gritty, experimental, human and readable for a mainstream audience."
Brendan Slater

The poem, in all its forms, perhaps, to paraphrase Ian Sansom - frequent contributor and critic for The Guardian and the London Review of Books - remains a most elusive thing.  One minute you think you have it pinned down, and the next it's moved, both geographically, and in its mode of transport.  If you thought you knew everything about haiku poetry, here's an exploration into other styles and approaches.

What of short verse, and in particular, haiku and other aspects of haikai literature in the fledgling 21st century?

This book covers three geographic locations, that of Britain, America and Australia, and poetry that's an excitement of language yet still contained in tight cages called haiku.  That's what we are invited here to see, "the where and how of poets" contained in tight enclosures. I want the reader in me to have these four poets excite me in their approach to poetry, to language, to words, and to their audience, while all the while using the constrained framework of haiku.

These poems offer up possibilities for the many aspects of existence that we embrace or fail to embrace, or should not embrace.  These may be poems living on, or off the edge, perhaps always living too dangerously close to the flame, but we need only read them, and back off, and then become relieved we are not in their universe of existence, and then revisit them with the shock of strong black coffee, or a splash of cold water.

How do we enter into conversation with these poets, or is a poem an argument? What are the basic intentions on offer that are indispensable to compose these poems?

--END OF EXCERPT--

We will leave that up to its readers, and how they engage with the original and different format of the book as a whole.

Alan Summers, Co-Editor
Four Virtual Haiku Poets

Edit Reason: to include book cover

As Janice was a good friend of mine, I'd love this competition to be attended with some fine haiku.

Plus it's always great to do well in a new competition, plus do Janice proud.

Alan

Hi Chase,

I don't know if a U.S. event would be better situated for you distance wise?  What's your nearest city?

But between Col and myself re Notes from the Gean I hope to do at least two live events next year of this kind, in fact it could be three events, as we may well repeat Winchester: http://www.geantreepress.com

If you are planning to come over, there's also the annual Spring Conference by the British Haiku Society:
http://britishhaikusociety.org.uk/category/events/

Under my With Words hat I do a mix of private and public events, and I might be reviving one of my big projects down south (U.K.).  My own blog announces public events, as well as any events with other organisations: http://area17.blogspot.com

It'll be great to see you come over.  We've had renga poets come over from Vancouver, Canada, just to do a kasen at Bath Spa Train Station with me, and a few others, and that's pretty far. :-)

Alan

Quote from: Chase Fire on August 07, 2012, 11:58:43 PM
how often do these events happen? i would love to come one day  :)

That's right, it was in the South West of England, U.K. :-)

Shame you couldn't come over.  We had a great time and it was great to catch up with friends from Maine (USA) and talk about Stephen King and Hollywood too.

Alan

Quote from: Chase Fire on August 03, 2012, 06:50:09 PM
What state is this event in?  :o

Oh, The UK. can't drive there :'(
well, traveling from Alaska to one of the lower 48  isn't to easy either. lol.

Do you have any of your haiku to share, as you mentioned they touch on the darker moments?

The book which I have somewhere in my library is:

Haiku Iz Rata: War Haiku, second edition. Marijan Čekolj, editor. Croatian Haiku Society, Smerovišće 24, 41430 Samobor, Croatia, 1995, 80 pages, 8 x 5½ inches, paperback, perfectbound. In Croatian and English.

If you particularly like war haiku, then check out this list:
http://war-haiku.tempslibres.org/biblio.html

Alan

Quote from: Chase F on July 30, 2012, 09:47:21 PM
too early for sunrise
the horizon glows with the red
of burning villages

This ku wowed me!
Amazing.
Thank you for posting these great examples, Alan  :)

Do you by any chance know where i would be able to purchase a collection like this?
I would be very interested.

Dear Chase,

Let us know what idea you have, as fresh insights are always welcome.

Also, what kind of help do you need?

There are many good sections and posts which are useful for both beginners and intermediate level people.

Alan

Quote from: Chase F on July 29, 2012, 08:20:35 PM
I have an idea, but I am just in need of some help.