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Per Diem for May 2020: Wine and Song

Per Diem: Daily Haiku for May 2020 features Paul David Mena’s collection on the theme of ‘Wine and Song’. This is what Paul has to say by way of an introduction to this theme:

Naturally I was honored when I was asked to be a guest editor for The Haiku Foundation’s “per diem” feature, so I gave some careful thought to choosing a theme for my month. To my delight, guest editors had begun to steer clear of “traditional” themes regarding nature and had focused on topics as diverse as Children, Sport and Urban Haiku. I thought I’d take it a step further by researching and soliciting haiku and senryu that spoke to the consumption of “adult beverages” and/or the creation of music, hence the name “Wine and Song”. Both can be part of a celebration, but could also be contemplative, or even palliative. Both could be consumed casually or to great excess. In any case, I thought it would take a different set of lenses to capture these sorts of observations, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Not surprisingly, many of the poems chosen speak to the way one’s perception can be altered by alcohol – either by loosening up or crashing down, or how one’s mood can be affected by music – whether from a bluebird in nature, or a jazz saxophone in a nightclub. Some poems were direct observations, while others were seemingly notes scribbled in the margins. I tried to give minimal guidance regarding where to look for haiku moments within this theme, and I feel that I was richly rewarded. I hope other readers of this feature feel the same way.

– Paul David Mena

This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. This isn’t wine and song, although I loved seeing snatches of the Eurovision Song Contest before I presented a monoku workshop to a West Coast USA haiku organisation which was great fun taking questions to a large group throughout! 🙂
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    This monoku is from earlier stages of self-isolation which I did in very early March:
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    late night television spills its whisky tumbler
    .
    Alan Summers
    Collection: Forbidden Syllalbles (Bones Library, May 2020)
    https://bonesjournal.com/books/Alan_Summers-Forbidden-Syllables-bones-ed.pdf
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    p.s.
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    It was whisky as it was a Scottish Malt Whisky
    (not to be confused with blended Scotch, which is different whiskies!). 🙂

      1. Thanks Karen, it was a distillation of those rare times we venture beyond our house. I tried out my wife’s method of writing or thinking, and the sequence came about in about 40 minutes, which sometimes is a common amount of time for our better longer poems for some reason.
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        There was a little light tweaking/editing, and it was ready to submit and it was great that Bones Library took it!
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        warm regards,
        Alan

  5. Great theme!!! 🙂
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    mulled wine
    my mother’s voices
    move within me
     .
    Alan Summers
    Asahi Shimbun (Japan) 1st January 2016

    1. Dear esteemed poet,

      Greetings.

      “mulled wine
      my mother’s voices
      move within me”

      A wonderful theme, dexterously handled ; “mother’s voices”
      so much inherent in coinage.

      1. Dear Radhamani sarma,
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        Thank you so much for your insight.
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        As this was rather apt, again, due to the pandemic, and hearing the dawn chorus in an urban setting:
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        wake up call
        the silver tones
        of its feathers
        .
        Alan Summers
        Publication credit: BHS Conference Anthology where silence becomes song
        ed. Iliyana Stoyanova & David Bingham (pub. British Haiku Society 2019)

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