The Haiku Foundation Forums

I am happy that Paul stopped by. What he says makes perfect sense to me. I would speculate that a lot of the poems that qualify as what Paul calls "other kinds of little poems" wouldn't have come to light without some exposure to haiku. It would be interesting to see some kind of study on that. Is it just that a lot of people who started writing haiku of "haiku-like" poems kind of experimented themselves right out of the
haiku orbit? Or do they think of themselves as still in orbit, just far far from the sun?

Probably a lot of different answers to that, but kind of interesting I think.

Thank you.

Hello to those few (apparently) who come to the in-depth discussions board. Reading the latest re:Virals
where Scott Mason makes some interesting comments about the nature of haiku, I wonder what other people think. Truly though, I am reluctant to start another thread. As interesting as I find Alan Summers' thoughts, and as much as I admire his generosity here and that of a couple of other people, I think these
discussions need more participation. All the interesting boards listed seem to be dead right now.

I don't know what's needed. Probably someone will suggest I contact Jim Kacian, but I think it would be better if someone with more, I don't know, clout or something did that. Maybe even to just open up the re:Virals to comments. At least there sometimes a variety of people participate.

Just sayin'

Maybe I should have said there is not much more to be wrung from me on this matter. In one of those links Peter Yovu said something about writing that takes the risk of "not being haiku". My opinion is that I
understand this (I think) and I like writing I find sometimes even in some of the haiku magazines mentioned before that seems to have taken this risk and maybe what the writers have come up with is or isn't haiku but it doesn't matter.

Paul Miller said  Monday bleeding down to money  probably isn't a haiku, but I say maybe it doesn't matter.

So looks like a thing or two still to be wrung from me.

Meg

Is there anything more to be wrung out of this discussion, short of asking editors of Modern Haiku, Frogpond, The Heron's Nest, Acorn, etc, questions like: in order to publish a poem, do you have to feel
personally satisfied that it meets your own criteria for what is a haiku, or are you willing to publish something which not only pushes boundaries, but goes beyond?

And what would be some examples? Is dandelion antsronauts an example of going beyond boundaries?

Meg

I suppose the "strange little poems" I'm thinking of are not attempting to "push the boundaries of
haiku", advance the cause, bring it into the 21st century or anything like that. They make no claims on haiku, but might be inspired by haiku, I guess. I bet a bunch of things like that have been written with no other place to go than to the haiku mags, because they're very short and maybe have a thing or two in common with haiku.

Anyway, good thing for writers like that that there's now Otata and Noon, which are the "other places" where good, very short poems might be published.

Alan, wouldn't you say that by calling Bones a "journal of contemporary haiku" that it is basically saying
that whatever is published there is  . . . haiku-- maybe experimental, maybe controversial, but haiku nevertheless?

Thanks,

Meg

Alan,

Are you the only person on this forum, apart from itinerants like me?  :)

I see that Bones is a "journal of contemporary haiku" which would lead people to think that whatever
is accepted will be considered haiku. Maybe my question is pointless-- would the editors of Frogpond or
Modern haiku accept poems which they don't consider to be haiku? Doesn't seem so, even if they are fairly liberal in what they do accept. So that leaves Otata or Noon: Journal of the Short Poem and maybe a couple of others whose editors are not constrained. Still, it might be an interesting thing to talk about if some of these editors might chime in. But thank you Alan for talking about this.

Meg

I was hoping an editor or two would jump into this. So I'll ask them directly, in hopes one will stop by: have you expanded (or would you expand) what you accept to include short poems which may not be haiku, but which are interesting anyway, and are connected to haiku in some way?

Thanks.

Meg

Hello,

Looking at today's re:viral, which is      dandelion antsronauts    by Tom Sacramona,
I'm curious how many current editors of haiku magazines would say that they have expanded what
they accept to include short poems which may not be haiku, but which are interesting anyway. I know there is ongoing debate about what is and is not a haiku, but it does seem that there are poems which would be hard to fit into any category except maybe haikuesque or something. I personally think this is a good thing, and besides, where else are these strange little poems going to go?

Meg