Per Diem News

Leanne Mumford and Vanessa Proctor

The Haiku of the Day feature displays a new haiku each day at the top of our home page. www.thehaikufoundation.org . See also our Haiku of the Day Archive.

Haiku of the Day for October 2023 features Guest Editors Leanne Mumford and Vanessa Proctor’s collection on the theme of  Inland Waters. This is what they have to say by way of introduction to this theme:

We chose the theme of inland waters for October 2023 for the rich variety of nature-based and human-activity that it offers. As Australian poets we are grateful for the opportunity to bring some Australian works to a wide audience, but we didn’t confine our search for suitable haiku to one continent. We found flowing water in rivers, streams, creeks and waterfalls. We found still water in lakes, ponds, pools, swamp, bog and sedgeland. We found mist and ice; flowers, trees and rainforest; birds, fish and animals large and small. Among the poems there are moments of quiet observation, exhilaration, discovery, surprise and delight. Sometimes the body of water is explicit, and sometimes it’s implied. Regardless, inland waterways, with their fresh life-giving water, inspire our poetry and are an integral part of our lives.

 

—Leanne Mumford and Vanessa Proctor

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Well, this collection will be historically interesting: 31 haiku selected by two ‘Australian Haiku Society’ Committee Members. I particularly look forward to see the “… Australian works ” that Leanne and Vanessa have chosen “to bring to a wide audience”. (None of mine, I imagine, as I’ve not been approached)

    I’ll be interested to read all 31 haiku.

    Congratulations, Cynthia, for today’s per diem haiku.
    —
    Following in Alan’s footsteps, I’ll take the opportunity to post a very few of mine on the general subject of ‘inland waters’ here:

    clear water
    a magpie’s song drops
    into the pond (equal 1st Prize, Paper Wasp Jack Stamm Competition, 2004)
    –
    miles
    to
    the
    water
    fall
    a
    river
    runs
    down
    my
    spine – Modern Haiku 45.2, USA Summer 2014

    –
    inland sea …
    a lizard scurries across
    the silence – FreeXpession June 2014
    –
    floodwaters rising
    the bush nurse’s lamp
    in her window – Otata, July 31st 2016
    –
    dusklight
    the billabong brimming
    with ghost stories — Stardust, October 2019 , Issue 34 October 2019 .
    .
    ———————–
    I’m adding this next one for its similarity (but not sameness) to Alan’s :

    in the river reflection
    he watches himself
    watch the sunset Alan J. Summers

    Publication credits: paper wasp spring/oct (3:4) 1997; Paper Wasp Vol. 20 no. 1, autumn 2014
    —
    river sunrise –
    a girl’s shadow
    swims from my ankles – Lorin Ford

    First published: famous reporter issue 31 , June 2005. (It’s also on page 1 of my little book, a wattle seedpod’, which has a foreword by the late John Bird and is archived at The Haiku Foundation
    https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/origina/6886938d787254822833e5961fad5130.pdf

    .

  2. Looking forward to the theme over 31 days!

    Wonderful one from Norman Silver, whom I’ve met in person and not just on Zoom! 🙂

    birth pond
    a froglet leaps out
    of its tiny splash

    —Norman Silver

    .

    the rill’s trick
    a greenfinch moves
    its green around

    Alan Summers
    Third Place, 2018 Henderson Haiku Contest (Haiku Society of America)

    .

    I mention this one for an extra reason:

    in the river reflection
    he watches himself
    watch the sunset
                                         
    Alan J. Summers
    Publication credits:
    paper wasp spring/oct (3:4) 1997; Paper Wasp Vol. 20 no. 1, autumn 2014
    Book credit:
    Haiku Enlightenment, ed. Gabriel Rosenstock
    Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2009) ISBN (10): 1-4438-0521-1, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-0521-6

    Maybe because I’m six foot and nearly 3 inches tall, but this was not only physically possible, but I still remember that bittersweet evening, and wrote the haiku down as soon as I headed back home.

    .

    almost lost
    in the shimmer of water
    several ducklings

    Alan Summers
    Composed Warrill View, Queensland, Australia
    My landlady was the first person to see a Platypus (as reported in National Geographic) for decades! 🙂

    Haiku Publications:
    Article: “English/Japanese Haiku” by Nobuyuki Yuasa, Baiko Women’s College, October 1996, Japan

    Romanised (romaji) version by Nobuyuki Yuasa:

    mizu haete hikari ni kasumu kogamo kana

    Haiku International Association, Japan (2001); Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan, 2004)

    Anthology credits:
    First Australian Online Anthology (1999); First Australian Haiku Anthology, Paper Wasp (2003); Haiku Pathway Katikati anthology Katikati Open-Air Art Inc. (New Zealand 2003); Haiku Pathway Katikati, Katikati Open-Air Art Inc. (10th Anniversary Edition Anthology 2010)

    .

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