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XXIV:1 February, 2009 |
LYNX
A Journal for Linking Poets |
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Dear Friends, I have some very sad news this week. Bill Higginson died today. More information and a message from Penny can be read here: We are deeply saddened by news of the passing of William J. Higginson on Saturday, October 11. Bill's work on behalf of English-language haiku and his personal presence in the haiku community will be felt for years and it will be a long time before we take in the full dimensions of this loss. The Heron's Nest http://www.theheronsnest.com
The German haiku-poet Mario Fitterer (he lived with his wife Angela in the Black Forest, Germany) passed away on January 13. 2009. die ganze habe all belongings Mario Fitterer in: LYNX, October, 2005 Dear Friends, I wanted to share the good news that I won second place in the annual Poetry Super Highway Contest! There were nearly 600 poets entering from all over the world. http://poetrysuperhighway.com/pshco.html , Salvatore Buttaci
Greetings from Ottawa Canada! Thanks for the lovely year of the ox card. I have a question for you. A haiku friend in Quebec has written a small essay on combining the form of a pantoum and with that of the renga to make a hybrid.To your knowledge, has anyone does this before? I thought I read that someone had done it before. Cheers, Mike Montreuil Hi Jane: Just wanted to share how much I enjoyed meeting you and hearing you read last Sat. afternoon. I've thoroughly enjoyed dipping into both of the books (it was very generous of you to give the 2nd one). Your own haiku are truly masterful! I especially enjoyed reading your intro about how you and Werner wound up in Gualala –what an inspiring tale of a dream come true. Must admit I'm a bit envious of your chosen little spot of heaven up there! I promised to email you the info about Garry Gay & John Thompson's upcoming reading (for the release of their book of rengay), as well as the upcoming HPNC meeting. I know I wrote the dates down for you, but thought you might appreciate having the specific details. Given your challenges w/ getting over the ridge, I'm guessing we won't see you. But if you decide to brave the drive, it sure would be heavenly to have you join us. I've attached blurbs below for both events. Feel free to forward them on to any haiku lovers in your neck of the woods that might be interested in coming down. Warm regards, Renee Owen
Jane~ I hope you remember me from our previous email correspondence. I just wanted to write and tell you some great news. Thanks to your kind vote of confidence in my haiku, I decided to step out into the haiku world and test the waters. So I entered one of my haiku in the Shiki Kukai of the Haikuworld website. When I saw there were 126 kigo haiku entered for this month's contest, I was kind of disheartened...mine was listed for voting at number 82. But the results were just released and I got 5th place. I don't have a lot of confidence in my poetry yet (despite your putting a few of mine in the upcoming edition of Lynx), so I imagined I'd get no votes at all. I'm writing to tell you about this because it was your book on enjoying and writing haiku and your website that have taught me what haiku is all about, and your words of affirmation that gave me the push to enter. Thank you so much! In case you're curious, here's my entry (we were required to use a species of tree in the kigo category): abandoned house Again, thanks! Sheri Files, Garland, TX
. . .Patricia Prime has an article in the new MET, "Irresistible Constructions: a tanka prose essay", MET Autumn 2008, p. 214. http://www.modernenglishtanka.com/vol3/MET9_final.html (scroll down) . . .just wanted to thank you for your site and journal and contests. i have just found you after writing haiku for years and tanka too. i post a lot on my blog- rabbifleischmann.blogpot.com and sense that i have found a comfortable community. thank you and please continue what i consider to be sacred work. Rabbi Neil Fleischmann Hi Jane, I have just read the very interesting article on your site concerning the varying lengths and forms of English & Japanese haiku. I think that the 5-3-5 pattern makes a lot of sense. One thing that puzzled me slightly - not sure if I'm missing something - is the following. “Much was made in the article of the fact that Japanese haiku can be "broken" at any point, even mid-word, due to the extreme flexibility of Japanese grammar structures; a flexibility that is not available in English. This is mentioned as severe limitation on English haiku. However, it is then later said that Japanese haiku are written in a single line, while for some reason, English haiku writers have chosen to use a 3-line structure; basically thus creating a limitation for English haiku that does not exist in Japanese haiku and seems to me to be unnecessary. My question is thus as follows: Jane, I just read that you want to get haiga in the next issue of Lynx, so thought I should give you some feedback about my own reaction when haiga were published in a previous issue. I was disappointed with the layout - my own haiga was at a good size, however Gina had about three haiga published that were too small to view properly. I think this occurred mainly because she was new to creating Haiga. We did tell her when she workshopped her pieces that she needed to make them larger. I think it would be very useful to give pixel width/height specifications in the submission guidelines. You don't want to be fiddling around too much with resizing on your end because it causes pixelation. I hope this helps. Regards, Allison Millcock As result of this letter, Allison Millcock was made the Haiga Editor for Lynx. In spite of her moving to Christmas Island, she picked and cared for the haiga in this issue. Thanks Allison! and Welcome! Jane & Werner Dear Werner: Sorry it's been so long since the last submission. I've been writing with Californiphobes who vote for European, Australian, New Zealand, other online, even other non-golden states of US. However, for this, the secretary (me) has been given a free choice, so here we are, hoping the offering pleases. The 22 verse form, trivarshva, as you may know, was invented by Norman Darlington of Simply Haiku. Personally, I think if there is to be more breathing space between the prescribed verses than in a 20 verse nijuin, 24 is a better number. Also the prescribed verses needn't be as prescribed as they often are. The participants are Francis Attard from Malta, whom you're acquainted
Hi Dick, Good to hear from you, and thank you for still working on new renga.We don't see many people going on with this form anymore. We like to publish your work with Francis Attard and Paul Mercken. "Travellers' Tales" will be published with our February issue of Lynx 2009. As you may have noticed, Jane and I are running amok when it comes to collaborative thinking. So far we see no limitations to go on. For us, Halloween is the state of mind an artist uses for his/her daily work - so accordingly, we didn't stop a minute working yesterday and used the spooky hours to add a few lines of the stuff laying around on our tables, sofas, bath tops and on the floor; one manuscript I didn't touch because the cat slept on it snoring. Jane sends her best together with my good wishes for you. Werner Dear Werner: I've noticed the extraordinary productivity and originality of yourself and Jane, in collaborative poetry & elsewhere. It seems to me like forbidden delights, or maybe the Promised Land into which I shall not go. I'm still trying to reproduce links, as practiced, for most of the time, by the medieval & baroque Japanese. I feel the subtlety & variety of these, in pair and in sequence, have never been captured by Lynx or other writers. It's been a matter of "We all know what a link is: fire away, chaps." The result has been occasional victories, but much hit and miss poesy, justified perhaps by the notion of 'scent' links. So I'm lucky if one of Lynx quarterly offerings gives sustenance. (I much enjoyed the Ghost/Horror renga of two(?) issues back – “Continuous Fog” by
. . .p.s. I also have to say I thoroughly enjoyed Michael Evans's "The First English Language Tanka" in the last issue. It was a real gem, and a rare example of truly excellent short-form comedy writing! Patrick M. Pilarski, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
CONTESTS AND CONTEST RESULTS ukiaHaiku festival haiku wing their way Ukiah is a northern California town whose name, backwards, spells “Haiku.” In 2009 the City of Ukiah will hold its 7th annual haiku contest and festival. The festival encourages local, national, and international submissions of Contemporary Haiku.
The text circulated by Nobuyuki Yuasa and Stephen Henry Gill follows: Kikakuza is a group of haikai (linked-verse) poets founded in 2005 in honor of Kikaku (1661~1707), Basho’s celebrated disciple. We wish to help revive the tradition of haibun which gradually went out of favor after the Meiji Restoration. For this purpose, we have created a Haibun Contest and invite foreign writers to enter. The contest will be judged by Nobuyuki Yuasa and Stephen Henry Gill. The results of the contest will be announced in the Kikakuza Bulletin and on its homepage, and awards will be sent directly to the winners. All entries must meet the following conditions.
This is also a reminder the Pinewood Haiku Contest is open with entries accepted until February 14th, 2009. Total prizes are $175.00. You may read the contest details. True Vine Press has a summer themed chapbook contest. Thank you for your past support & continued support, Tony A. Thompson, Managing Editor/Publisher
ADVERTISEMENTS OF MAGAZINES, BOOKS AND WEBSITES
White Lotus – A Journal of Short Asian Verse & Haiga White Lotus is currently seeking haiku, senryu, tanka, and haiga submissions for issue #9. Submitters may send up to 10 pieces per poet for review to for consideration by December 31, 2008 or submit via online form. No previously published material please. Subscription Rates: $15.00/year US; $20.00/year International; Single Copy: $10.00. Make checks payable to "Shadow Poetry" or order online.
Wollumbin Haiku Workshop presents its sixth collection of haiku. Previous collections may be found on the site under archives. Do forward this email to anyone who might be interested. Feedback is appreciated. Nathalie Buckland
James Tipton's latest book, Proposing to the Woman in the Rear View Mirror, has just been released. It is a collection of haiku and senryu, three-line poems, some about the natural world, some about the human world. Proposing to the Woman in the Rear View Mirrorcan be ordered on line for $9.95 plus shipping and handling.
The Heron's Nest Is Celebrating! We have published our Tenth Volume and are selecting work for year number eleven. It is time to pause and thank three kinds of Families for our success and endurance. First, the Staff Family with whom I have been privileged to work – and pleasurable work it is. Kudos to the all-volunteer staff, especially Christopher Herold and his vision. We, the current six, have successfully and amicably survived three retirements, found new folks to fill in, and kept on going under the fearless leadership of John Stevenson, new Managing Editor. Thanks also to the Families of the Staff for their patience and help. They know who they are. Some must smile at our seeming whimsy. "You type and read for endless hours for absolutely no money at all?" Forgive us a dab of pride. With December's edition, we have published our 77th Issue spanning 10 Volumes. We switched from monthly to quarterly publication after Vol. VI. Every scheduled issue of the journal has been on time. Unique among English-language haiku journals, The Heron's Nest is available in both print and electronic formats. We have publicly shared nearly 5,000 haiku (not including Memorials, we will go past that milestone with the next issue in 2009). These haiku have been rigorously edited, now selected by a panel of five Editors up from Christopher alone the first year. All works are available without charge, searchable by poet, at the web site archives. Yes, herons do puff out their feathers and can raise their crests. Yet, I know I speak for all of us when I say that above all, as we celebrate, we humbly thank our contributing writers: our Family of readers and poets. Christopher Herold, the Founding Editor, has told me he had no notion that his dream for a journal would lead to the size and quality that has resulted. He especially is pleased, as are we all, that poets writing in English contribute from so many countries, regions, and cultures. Now, listen with us as the "virtual" champagne cork pops, see the bubbles rise in crystal stemware. Our noisemakers unroll with a kazooing "Whee!" THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS; summary 13 poets, 42 pieces, 4 countries
we have moved please note!
MET 10, Winter 2008, has been published in print and digital editions. The print edition and the PDF ebook will be on sale the first week of January. The HTML version is posted online. This new issue includes 86 poets and is crammed full of wonderful new work. Check it out now! Dear Fellow Poet & Supporter, From our home deep in the pineywoods, we take a moment to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and pray your New Year will be blessed! As far as for us here at Wisteria, we plan to continue to publish our journal and other chapbooks through True Vine Press. And of course we always are reading submissions for Wisteria: A Journal of Haiku, Senryu & Tanka. Thank you for your past support & continued support, Tony A. Thompson, Managing Editor/Publisher & Hello, I’ve been enjoying exploring your poetry website. Would you be willing to add my website to your list of haiku links? It is a site for funny and irreverent haiku. Thanks very much—I’ve just created the site and am eager to get traffic! Yours, Pat Lichen
get dirty while dirt still exists
Season's Greetings from the Editors of CHO: Ken Jones, Jim Kacian and Bruce Ross.
A brand new book with reflections about haiku. Send $20. to GEERT VERBEKE, Leo Baekelandlaan 14, 8500 Kortrijk, Flanders Belgium. Or let's swap for your book. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT From Simply Haiku: It pleases me to inform you that Dr. Richard Gilbert is Simply Haiku's new Haiku Editor. Dr. Gilbert is an Associate Professor at Kumamoto University in Japan, and one of the English language world's leading haiku critics and theorists. he's the author of Poems of Consciousness:Contemporary Japanese and English-language Haiku in Cross-cultural Perspective, a book of ecocritical and stylistic analysis of haiku poetry. Dr. Gilbert also directs the haiku translation group, Kon Nichi Haiku. You can submit haiku to Dr. Gilbert via e-mail. Robert D. Wilson
Dear haiku, tanka, and poetry friends, I’m afraid 2008’s end-of-year missive has an all-too-familiar ring to it: times are tough, for all of us. And while that’s a constant state of affairs for a one-man-band hand-to-mouth small press, as we enter our twelfth year it seems that it has never been more so. We need to sell books to survive, and if there’s no realistic demand for those books, there’s no realistic reason for us to exist. So, if you like what the press does, and would like to see more of it, please consider getting a treat for yourself, or someone else, this holiday season. In all other ways 2008 has been a great year for the press. In April, Roberta Beary’s debut collection of haiku and senryu, The Unworn Necklace, was honored as a Finalist in the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Awards; and, along with Matt Morden’s second collection, Stumbles in Clover, was also honored in the Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Awards. September saw the publication of Wing Beats: British Birds in Haiku, with launches at the Poetry Society’s HQ in London and at Mr B’s, the current British Independent Bookshop of the Year. Thanks to the dedication of Alan and Karen Summers of With Words, these events were packed and greatly enjoyed by all. (Photos can be seen at a new section on the Wing Beats site.) Described by the late, and much-missed, Bill Higginson as “a very important book,” and by the eminent writer and naturalist Mark Cocker as “a triumph of seeing, expression and poetic control,” I can honestly say that Wing Beats has been a delight to everyone who has seen it, whether their interest is in haiku, birds . . . or neither of the above! Please see comments. But don’t believe the hype? Why not get a copy of one of these (or any of our) books for yourself, or as a gift for someone else, and make your own mind up! And then tell me what you (or they) like, what you don’t like, and what you would like to see more of from the press. I may not always be able to reply to every comment or suggestion, especially at busy times, but feedback is always welcome. Another ‘new’ publication, now in its tenth annual ‘edition’, is The Haiku Calendar 2009. And, if I’m to continue fighting my natural aversion to marketing, this really does make a great Christmas or New Year gift – and not only for haiku poets. It’s perfect for sparking an interest in haiku, or for instilling some understanding in baffled relatives and friends – and it’s far easier to ‘show’ than ‘tell’! For further details.And, to close: with various haiku commitments November passed me by in blur, but I was honoured to be the featured poet for the month on Mann Library’s Daily Haiku at Cornell University in New York state. So, something for free! 30 haiku (and many, many more by some excellent poets besides). now and again a half moon In the meantime, thank you again for your ongoing support of the press (which, being completely independent, couldn’t otherwise exist). All the very best for the holiday season, and happy writing and reading in 2009. John Barlow
Dear All, The new issue of Shamrock Haiku Journal, the online magazine of the Irish Haiku Society, is now available at Shamrock is an international quarterly online journal that publishes quality haiku, senryu and haibun in English, and has a home page. . . .I've just linked in 'Autumn Ginkoo', our September 2008 update of the Gallery. Our featured artists this time are Billie Dee, Emile Molhuysen, Emily Romano, Jan Turner, and Alexis Rotella. Included are some amazingly creative and inventive haiga using photo collage, photo-based digital abstracts, images built with the drawing tools in Microsoft Word, and scanned mixed media collage, including an altered book! We hope you'll enjoy our offerings and perhaps be inspired to try something a little different in your own haiga. Happy solstice and best wishes for the autumn. Linda Papanicolaou
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LETTERS from Curtis Dunlap Christopher Herold Salvatore Buttaci Mike Montreuil Renee Owen Sheri Files Linda Papanicolaou . Rabbi Neil Fleischmann Robin Bownes Allison Millcock Dick Pettit Patrick M. Pilarski CONTESTS AND CONTEST RESULTS ukiaHaiku festival Kikakuza Haibun Contest - English Section Pinewood Haiku Contest ADVERTISEMENTS OF MAGAZINES, BOOKS AND WEBSITES
White Lotus – A Journal of Short Asian Verse & Haiga Rusty Tea Kettle Proposing to the Woman in the Rear View Mirror by James Tipton The Heron's Nest THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS by Gillina Cox Allison Millcock's blog @ http://millcock. Curtis Dunlap's blog MET 10, Winter 2008, has been published in print and digital editions.
Pat Lichen's new website. Gene Doty's The Ghazal Page. Ghazal blog. website of Isidro Iturat. John Barlow The new issue of Shamrock Haiku Journal,
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Back issues of Lynx:
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Next Lynx is scheduled for June, 2009 .
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