Dear friends, I woke to this morning's blessing, a poem of mine posted so beautifully by the editor it takes my breath away. Her words honor me, and the photographs she found to accompany the piece are stunning. I sent the photo of the bowl, but she found the galaxy and bee hive. . . Feel free to send this on if you know of anyone who might be interested. Hope you enjoy it!
http://jamarattigan.com/2012/12/07/friday-feast-one-bowl-by-penny-harter/
Love, Penny Harter
Robin! just found this in my mail. I do hope you had a good holiday! Loved your photo! What are you doing besides listening the radio and writing rhyme? jr
More info w snake year message later, but since u ask, i will spend the next half year on second-time selection and typing in + settling on orthography and arrangement of about 20thousand kyouka to end up with the most interesting 10,000 for one book (for broad perspective/reference), best 1,000 for another book(good read/bestseller) and 100 most satisfying for repeated reading without any lead or caption (kyouka are as often captioned as not) for a oneachundredpoets = all will be in jpse only w modern orthography and choice of kanji kana for easiest reading except where the old is needed for the pun as in the fire/flame in omohi. Then i think i;ll need another half year to improve the arrangement, question experts and amateurs for different reasons about specific poems where either i am unsure or i am unsure id they are unsure about the meaning/s and then explain the poems as little as necessary. Already pent average 14 hrs/day for over a yr on reading=research (this after Mad In Translation was written based only on the smallest of three large series/sources) so it is a big investment but worth it, for i am sure millions of Japanese will benefit from what amounts to a big infusion of the courage and wit that all classes once shared. By the way, to work more intensively, i do not even have a TV, so radio matters more to me than to most people. Luckily there are not many shows that can hold my attention! Robin Gill
Liebe Haiku-Freundinnen und -Freunde, friedliche und lichtvolle Festtage und viel Energie für neue Kreativität in 2013 … ein kommendes Jahr mit wertvollen Momenten, die den Alltag bereichern… Gesundheit und Zufriedenheit! Dies wünscht mit lieben Grüßen. Claudia (Brefeld)
Dear haiku friends, peaceful and light-filled Christmas and a lot of energy for new creativity in 2013 …a new year with precious moments, which enrich the everyday life … Health and happiness! So I wish you with kind regards, Claudia (Brefeld)
add bamboo snow photo
Happy Holidays!
I put the Earth Language (EL) annual mail in the EL website (below link) this year, since it became a little longer with an essay related to spirits and our bodies, besides a haiku and its pictograph by hoo and shortly about my 2012 and a plan of next year. I hope you’ll enjoy it, when you have time.
http://www.earthlanguage.org/nl/2012-12E.htm
Wishing the year 2013 will bring you a new nice thing. Best & Warm, Yoshiko McFarland
Dear Jane and Werner,We are five Australian tanka poets - Anne Benjamin, Marilyn Humbert, Amelia Fielden, Keitha Keyes and Jan Foster - who have collaborated to explore the boundaries of responsive tanka. What we have produced just now is a responsive sequence of haibun, the haiku in each piece linking and shifting to form a tan renga, each (with the exception of the opening and closing verse lines) containing its own prose. The closing verse lines then link back to the opening haiku, expressing the uniquely Ausstralian ANZAC tradition, where each November we celebrate the memory of our soldiers fallen in combat.
The overall purpose was to encapsulate the vast differences in life in our island continent of Australia, the essence of the title. We are a nation of earth, fire, water, air and exploration and this was the basis of our writing. We first submitted this to A Hundred Gourds, but Willie Sorlien advised us that regretfully it was too large and experimental for their purposes and advised us to try you at Ahapoetry. When I read Werner's
words, as quoted by David Rice in Wind Five-Folded, lesson nine, that 'There seems to be a lot of territory open to writers willing to explore a narrative interwoven with tanka', I suggested to the team that we try submitting this work of ours to you for your consideration. Whether or not you can use it, any advice you could give us would be
most gratefully received. regards, Jan Foster, on behalf of the team.
This submission arrived as a perfect book. I regretted having to pull it apart to make it fit in the magazine but I would like to bring here the Introduction and biographies of the authors. Look for the poetry work in the Collaborative Poetry section, near the end of the file. It is well worth reading and studying. jr
Introduction to Elemental Moods
A renga is a collaborative poem of linked elements, written by two or more poets. Renga was one of the most important literary elements in premodern Japan, with the earliest examples found in the man'yōshū, which was compiled during the Nara period, around 759AD. Western literature has extended the form to include linked verse of other types, including sonnets, but most have continued to be centred around haiku.
Elemental Moods is a haibun renga, where each haibun was written as a response to the preceding haibun or haiku; the result is not a continuum, but 21 pieces that each reflect both the personal space and place of the poets with the added dimensionality of each poet's interaction with the others' work. The poetry is set in Australia, America, Israel, Palestine and Japan. It deals with personal responses to images and situations – life, death, illness, achievement, nature, sadness, fear, happiness – all of which contribute to the theme of the title. One of the most striking qualities of this collection is the honesty of the writing; truths that strike a chord with the reader. The result is a work that is larger than its parts.
Elemental Moods is an invitation to step inside the lives of five talented poets. There are images that resonate and pieces that the readers will want to revisit and enjoy. I recommend this book to the reader.
Carmel Summers
Biographical Notes to Elemental Moods:
Anne Benjamin writes poetry, short stories and longer works. Her tanka and tanka prose have been published in journals in Australia, Canada, Japan, UK, USA and New Zealand. While she lives in Western Sydney, her strong ties with India are often reflected in her writing.
Amelia Fielden is an Australian professional translator of Japanese literature, and an enthusiastic writer of Japanese short form poetry. She divides her time between homes in Canberra and the coast north of Sydney, family in Seattle, and the 'country of her passion', Japan. Amelia has had 17 books of her translations published, plus 6 collections of her own poetry, and 4 books of responsive tanka written with other Australian poets.
Jan Foster lives in Geelong, Victoria. She has won prizes for her short stories, memoir, articles and traditional rhymed poetry, but her real love is tanka and tanka prose. She is founder of Bottlebrush Tanka Group in Sydney and of Breathstream Tanka Poets in Geelong.
Marilyn Humbert lives in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney NSW surrounded by bush. Her pastimes include writing free verse poetry, tanka and tanka prose. She is a member of two tanka groups, Bottlebrush and Huddle.
Keitha Keyes has spent most of her life in Sydney but her heart is still in the Australian bush where she grew up. While she has dabbled in free verse she is now addicted to tanka and related genres, revelling in the friendship and generosity of this writing community.
Three Against the Sea by Edward Baranosky
A report of Edward Baranosky’s art exhibit in November in Toronto:
Tuesday's Vernissage :
We finished hanging, and we were cleaning-up within a minute of 2 PM. It did look daunting until we started. Holly and I both had Chinese scrolls, fairly large, about 24X60 inches, we hung on either side of the entrance, giving the space a "grand-hall"
appearance. Then we began with the wall opposite the entrance. The ceiling is easily 69 feet, with track lighting, halogen, suspended at 20 feet. People started arriving at 2:01, mostly friends and friends of friends, a dozen or fifteen, half of whom seemed X-patriot Americans; highly educated, functioning, mostly writers and poets (including George Featherling, who writes as a journalist for several publications); and of course a number of painters. The works did dovetail together nicely, like a huge jigsaw puzzle, which unified image we were just discovering for the first time. The gallery is open all-day Wednesday, when we do some fine-tuning, price=checks, There were two I hadn't finished, but we ended with maybe a quarter of the work to return.The manager thought we had too many, but that was intentional, so we could see what really fit-in. It took
four hours to hang about fifty large scale works, up to and over 4X5 feet, down to 3X4 inches, my minis. I figured if I couldn't catch a whale, even a minnow would do,
or at least a trout, or sun-fish. So we finished exhausted and went to a local cafe-bakery
with a few "customers" to catch up on the state of artists and writers in Canada and abroad. Having rained for a few days, and predicted to rain a few more, Tuesday was
a bright cool day with autumn leaves in full-colour. Not a bad beginning. Wednesday promises to be a warmer day, about 20 Centigrade, with periodic thunderstorms.
I'll have a few hooks in the water, and perhaps a net, too. We have a guitarist I traded a painting with to play during the formal opening. Right now we're on an island of time.Ed
CONTESTS
The 1st “aha” (Annual Hortensia Anderson)
Memorial Haiku Awards Competition 2013
This Memorial Haiku Competition is to honor the memory of a well known and respected New York based haiku poet, Hortensia Anderson. Results will be announced on the 21 of May, 2013
. . . one year to the date of her passing.
Deadline: in-hand no later than 1 April, 2013.
Sponsor: Haiku Oregon
Coordinator: Marianna Monaco, HKO Secretary/Treasurer
Adjudication: Names of the two judges will be announced concurrently with the winners.
Eligibility: Open to the public and including all Haiku Oregon and chapter members, except the contest coordinator and judges.
Awards: First Place = $100, Second Place = $50; Third Place = $25, HM = $10, plus Award Certificates will be issued, and winning works will be published online at Haiku Oregon’s website, Haiku Oregon’s facebook page, as well as other places online and in print. All rights remain with the haiku poets.
Submittals: Entries must be the original work of the author, be unpublished and never posted publically anywhere, and not under consideration elsewhere for the entire time period it takes to complete the judging. This contest is un-themed, open to all age groups worldwide, any season is acceptable, and there is no specific syllable or line count requirement.
Entry Fee: $2 per haiku, and no limit to the number of entries per person.
Guidelines: Please print or type each individual poem in English on three separate 3 inch x 5 inch index cards. In the upper left corner of one card only, print or type your name, address, and email. ONLY the winners will be notified and ONLY via email, (and if you have no email address available, (please provide a proxy email address.) If you do not hear anything back from us by 20 May, 2013, your entries are automatically free to submit elsewhere. Entries that do not follow these guidelines will not be considered, so please read very carefully.
Payment: Please include the entry fee with your submissions, in US currency, (cash at your own risk), check, or money order, made payable to Marianna Monaco, and mailed to 1487 West 24th Place, Eugene, Oregon 97405 USA.
Notification: Winners’ will be announced on 21 May, 2013 –the first year anniversary of Hortensia’s passing.
CONTEST RESULTS
Dear All,
The results of the Irish Haiku Society Haiku Competition 2012 have just been announced here: http://irishhaiku.webs.com/haikucompetition.htm
This year we had 262 poems by writers representing 13 countries/territories. For the first time a poet from the USA wins the competition. We thank all the participants and the competition Administrator. And our sincere congratulations go to the winners!
Check out the winning poems, they are worth it.
Irish Haiku Society
I'm really happy to announce that the second edition of Polish International Haiku Competition has come to a successful end.
Here are the results: http://polish.international.competition.haiku.pl/results.php
http://polish.international.competition.haiku.pl/wyniki.php (in Polish)
I hope you'll enjoy the winning poems. Warm regards, Rafał Zabratyński
The 7th International Tanka Festival Competition, 2012
By Japan Tanka Poets’ Society
There were 589 entries from all over the world for the above mentioned Tanka Competition. The judges are Jane Reichhold (U. S. A.), Beverley George (Australia), Yasuhiro Kawamura (Japan), and Aya Yuhki (Japan).
The results are as follows:
Certificate of Merit by the Japan Tanka Poets’ Society
who knew that
an envelope of poems
could hold so much? ―
little boats, little hopes
sent out into the world by Joyce Wong (Canada)
Certificate of Merit by the Japan Times Co. Ltd.
often I’ve heard
wise old men declare
a gladness
to depart this life―
can it be they lie?
by Michael McClintock (U. S. A.)
Certificate of Merit by the 7th International Tanka Festival Committee
the news
when it came
shattered my day
a thousand scrambled pixels
to replace your missing face by Margaret L Grace (Australia)
Certificate of Merit by the Tankake nkyusha Ltd.
part of me
knew they’d come
high clouds
darkening summer sunlight
and your chest x-ray by Michele L. Harvey (U. S. A.)
Certificate of Merit by the Kadokawa Gakugei Shuppan Publishing Co. Ltd.
Just a shooting star
disappears into nowhere
at our old window―
alone in this night in which
we could have talked about light by Eduard Tara (Romania)
Certificate of Merit by the Honamishoten Corp.
astride
a fault line in the bay
a sea star
one small splice
in this fractured world by Lesley Anne Swanson (U. S. A.)
Certificate of Merit by the Nagaramishobo Corp.
aged laughter
from three stooped women
fills the cloisters
in the Hospice garden
trees bow down with ripened fruit by Anne Benjamin (Australia)
Certificate of Merit by the Tankagendai Corp.
nine autumns past
first trip to my homeland…
now in Taipei
drinking alone in moonlight
I still long for Taipei by Chen-ou Liu (Canada)
Certificate of Merit by the Irinosya Corp.
eight chicks
of Nipponia Nippon
hatch in the wild
―resilience―
so in Fukushima by Fusako Kitamura (Japan)
Certificate of Merit by Jane Reichhold
This trailer park,
with its throng of misfitting wrecks,
my mind―
will it lilac-free itself
will it daisy-poeticize by Spiros Zafiris (Canada)
Certificate of Merit by Beverley George
I climb through
sunlight and alder woods
to find him
sleeping among blueberries
a dragon built of stones by Kirsty Karkow (U. S. A.)
Certificate of Merit by Yasuhiro Kawamura
Seasons are out of order―
cherry and plum flowers
blossom side by side
behind the bright colors
hides a piece of loneliness by Chiau-Shin NGO (Taiwan)
Certificate of Merit by Aya Yuhki
sudden crack
as a bunya pine cone
splits open―
no way to prepare
for that kind of news by David Terelinck (Australia)
Here follow entries judged as excellent
i carry
borrowed moonlight
into the house…
only a translucent memory
of myself exists
Pamela A. Babusci (U. S. A.)
this morning
pale white light shines
through the window
it’s snowing again
and mother is gone
Margaret Chula (U. S. A.)
all my plans
come to nothing
but in the garden
of my mother’s home
the cherry tree still blooms
Doreen King (England)
lately, these dreams
of the cheetah, pacing
back and forth
behind clouded glass
longing for open grasslands
Carole Macrury (U. S. A.)
childhood?
ah, yes
now I remember
a long dry journey
over uneven ground
Susan Mary Wade (England)
the rains came
and from that day on
continued
throughout a lifetime
of floods and bridges
an’ya (U. S. A.)
those wild violets
you’d nurtured for me
bloomed brilliantly
in the early spring
our friendship died
Amelia Fielden (Australia)
as dawn breaks
the song of a blackbird
in the silver birch
irritates the stark quiet
over the sleeping houses
Patricia Prime (New Zealand)
little flags
planted in their neat rows
Father’s Day
he scatters white poppies
across his son’s grave
Maxianne Berger (Canada)
my father died without
talking about his experience
as a soldier and
I have admired him for
his stubborn silence
Yukiko Inoue-Smith (Guam)
Caw, caw the crows
looking down and ‘round
looking back to the nest
sometimes threatening
foot passengers around
Seiho Hayashi (Japan)
Reflections on the lake―
now sparkling with happiness
now solemn and still―
you mirror my consciousness of
this evanescent world
Rex Andrews (France)
A covey of ducks
alight on lake’s surface
diving for fish
take off with a flurry of wings―
drone of a distant plane
Beatrice Yell (Australia)
my Christmas wish:
sleeping in each other’s arms
before
one of us forgets or dies
or the planet pops off
Janick Belleau (Canada)
no abacus
for the task
ahead
where the mists part
I begin counting stars
Brian Zimmer (U. S. A.)
musing
my pen lays idle
I sip tea
and watch buzzing bees
busy collecting pollen
Marilyn Humbert (Australia)
so many dreams
end up this way
on my knees
I gather buds
that will never bloom
Paul smith (England)
fire and water
good servants
as well as
bad masters
two sides of a coin
Radhey Shram (India)
Insects
crushed―just to allay
my child’s fears
each life
a tally of worries
Allen Reichert (U. S. A.)
labyrinth―
writing my way back
to your heart
I follow a trail
of cherry blossoms
André Surridge (New Zealand)
The following Tanka Poets’ work have been judged as Fine.
Julie Thorndyke (Australia)
Yom Tanker (Japan) Ed Baranosky (Canada)
Kathy Kituai (Australia) Jan Dean (Australia)
Alegria Imperial (Canada) Oprica Padeanu (Romania)
Susan Constable (Canada) Machiko Kobayashi (Japan)
Tracy Davidson (England) Luminita Suse (Canada)
Dawn Bruce (Australia) Choko Ishigaki (Hawaii)
Earl R. Keener (U. S. A.) Jan Foster (Australia)
Kurt F. Svatek (Austria) Zeliko Funda (Croatia)
Carol Peace-Worthington (U. S. A.) Kenneth James Sheerin (Australia)
The following Tanka Poets’ work have been judged as encouraging
Dy Andreasen (Australia) Helen E. Herr (Canada)
Ikuko Kawamura (Japan) Sonam Chhoki (Kingdom of Bhuta)
Mitsue Yamaguchi (Japan) Alex McKeown (Australia)
Fran Whitham (U. S. A.) Janet Lynn Davis (U. S. A.)
Cynthia Rowe (Australia) Jenny Ward Angy (U. S. A.)
Shyamalee Mahibalan (Singapore) Yvonne Adami (Australia)
Frans Terryn (Belgium) Fumiko Tanihara (Japan)
Pinyarat Jindaratsamee (Thailand) Gilbert Joseph Perry (Hawaii)
Corinne Lowrey (Canada) Barbara Strang (New Zealand)
Chitetsu Hasegawa (Japan) Michael Boiano (Thailand)
MAGAZINES
Friends, The issue presenting the results of the ekphrastic issue is online now. You may go to it through the main page or with this link:
http://www.ghazalpage.net/2012/ekphrastic/index.html
There is a new feature linked to the main page, Editor's Notes, which will provide notes on various topics related to The Ghazal Page. The direct link is:
http://www.ghazalpage.net/notes/index.html
As announced earlier, The Ghazal Page will continue in 2013. A new submission policy may be found at http://www.ghazalpage.net/information/submitting.html
It provides for specific two week submission periods for each of four issues a year. There will be some special issues as well. Once again, thank you for your interest. i All the best, Gene Doty
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