Thursday 16 December 2021

Lev Hart and Eric Amann

 


Lev Hart said:
“Please accept the following as my submission for the journal I might not like…”


What’s not to like when something unexpectedly awesome, unsettling so, pops through the virtual letter box!




rotting linoleum
a fairy ring encircles
our toilet

Lev Hart




Lev says about his haiku:
“Sometimes we find nature in unexpected places, as you observe in the call for submissions to Blo͞o Outlier Journal issue #3. 

Perhaps in this haiku we can also find wabi-sabi in the rotting linoleum, the brief life of mushrooms, and the toilet's destiny, which is to fall through the floor.”



Lev says:
One of my favorite haiku is by Eric Amann, partially because it gets along fine with no kireji:





The names of the dead
sinking deeper and deeper
into the red leaves

Eric Amann
(1978 Yukuharu Grand Prize, Haiku Journal, judge: Shugyō Takaha)





Lev further says:
“I see the names on a war monument. Perhaps this image comes to me because red, fallen leaves suggest autumn, the season in which we commemorate Remembrance Day. Leaves and soldiers fall. Buried soldiers, like fallen leaves, become earth. Perhaps Amann's imagery implies that in time the monument too will return to earth, along with humanity as a whole—it is all sabi.”



Lev’s favorite quote from "Waiting for Godot" is the final stage direction:

'They do not move.'




His favorite quote from "Withnail and I" is the instantly memorable: 

"I feel like a pig shat in my head."


Lev says that both of these quotes speak to the heart of the human condition.


NOTES:

Lev Hart, Calgary, Canada

Two more haiku from Lev Hart:

sickle moon
a north wind sharpens
the stars

Lev Hart
Ad Astra with Guest Editor Alex Fyffe
https://thehaikufoundation.org/haiku-dialogue-ad-astra-star-clusters/

long-dead stars–
I chart a course by
my ancestors’ light

Lev Hart
Ad Astra with Guest Editor Alex Fyffe
https://thehaikufoundation.org/haiku-dialogue-ad-astra-distant-suns/






 
 
 
 
The names of the dead
sinking deeper and deeper
into the red leaves
 
 
Eric Amann
1978 Yukuharu Grand Prize, Haiku Journal
Judge: Shugyō Takaha
 
 
 
About Shugyō Takaha, 
the haiku master who chose Amann’s winning haiku:
 
 
 
 
 
One Year of Haiku
(trans. Jack Stamm)
 
 
 

Cicada Voices: Selected Haiku of Eric Amann, 1966–1979 
(High/Coo Press, 1983)
 
 
 
 
Eric W. Amann
(16 January 1934 – July 2016)

 
THF profile:
 
 
 

 
The Wordless Poem 
A Study of Zen in Haiku (1969)
 



The MahMight haiku journal will resume after the holidays and reopen for haiku business in the New Year




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Wednesday 15 December 2021

Susan Burch and Julie Bloss Kelsey go all science fiction haiku aka scifaiku!

 






medicinal weight gain the blob returns

Susan Burch





Susan says:
“I think it’s hard when our bodies fail us in numerous ways and even the medications we take don’t help that much or have side effects that make us worse in other ways.

This is me accepting it and making fun of myself while also hating it, if that makes any sense at all.

I hope people will appreciate the humor in it.”




Susan nominates this haiku as a favorite:




perfect evening
you wrap your arms around 
and around me

Julie Bloss Kelsey
Scifaikuest online February 2011




Susan says:

“I met Julie at an HSA Meeting in DC, where she was the only one to read any scifaiku. They were so fun!

I had just started reading and writing them and I immediately fell in love with this scifaiku. And to date it's the only poem I have memorized.

It perfectly describes the magic of love: how it feels to love and to be loved, and isn’t that what life’s all about?”


HSA/Haiku Society of America: https://www.hsa-haiku.org



Susan’s quotes


Waiting for Godot:
“In an instant, all will vanish and we’ll be alone once more, in the midst of nothingness.”


Withnail and I:
"My thumbs have gone weird."
 
 
NOTES:

About Susan:
Susan Burch is a good egg.



About Julie Bloss Kelsey
 

in-laws at the door—
those panicked moments
before I shapeshift

Julie Bloss Kelsey
Dwarf Form Third Place


Judge’s comments:

I have such a clear picture from this poem. Who among us hasn't had those "is there underwear trailing up the stairs? beer bottles on the coffee table?" moments? Tying in shapeshifting morphs the poem to a whole different level.

Julie Bloss Kelsey’s poetry has appeared in Star*Line, Grievous Angel, Scifaikuest, and Jersey Devil Press. She won the Dwarf Stars Award in 2011 and tied for second place in 2016. 
https://www.sfpoetry.com/contests/18contest.html



Julie teamed with poet Susan Burch as editors for 
25 Science Fiction Tanka and Kyoka 
at Atlas Poetica.
https://www.atlaspoetica.org/25-science-fiction-tanka-and-kyoka/
 

Julie Bloss Kelsey is the current Secretary of The Haiku Foundation. Her first short-form poetry chapbook, The Call of Wildflowers, was published in 2020 by Title IX Press. You can read more about her work here:
https://thehaikufoundation.org/staff-member/julie-bloss-kelsey/




The Call of Wildflowers:
https://e7b207b8-f70d-4a2b-9a92-95e280e7fb92.filesusr.com/ugd/8a417d_12071309fb534807ae10bc6a3e7e975e.pdf


Julie is regularly published at Tinywords:
https://tinywords.com/author/jublke/

Other good web links for Julie:
https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/julie_bloss_kelsey
https://starsinmysugarbowl.wordpress.com/awards/
https://haikupedia.org/article-haikupedia/julie-bloss-kelsey/


Twitter (@MamaJoules)
https://twitter.com/MamaJoules

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julieblosskelsey/?hl=en-gb

Julie's Etsy shop, great things for Christmas too!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SenecaCreekCrafts
 




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Tuesday 7 December 2021

Reid Hepworth and John Stevenson in the MahMight chill zone

 

 


yesterday’s wash
frozen on the line
her paper dolls

Reid Hepworth
 




Reid says:
   
“My mum was a repeat offender of leaving our laundry on the clothesline overnight. I have a distinct memory of having to “break” my frozen clothes in order to wear them to school one morning. This reminded me of the paper dolls I used to “play” with as a child.
 
How does one actually play with paper dolls?”
 



Reid’s Favourite Haiku by Another Poet:



applauding
the mime
in our mittens

John Stevenson





Reid says:
   
“John Stevenson is a new writer to me (having just “discovered” him yesterday). 
 
I read this poem before bed last night and it made me laugh. I like the synchronicity of the silent mime and the muffled applause. Clever.
 
John’s haiku are brilliant and deserve careful attention. 
 
This is just one (of many) that caught my eye.”
 


Reid's Favourite Quotes:

Waiting for Godot:
“There’s man for you, blaming on his boots, the fault of his feet.”

Withnail and I:
"I don’t advise a haircut, man. All hairdressers are in the employment of the government. 
  
Hair are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos, and transmit them directly into your brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight.”
 
 
 

NOTES:



Reid:
 



Reid Hepworth lives in a tiny cabin in the woods in Jordan River, BC, where she plays tiny ukulele and writes tiny poetry.
 
Reid says:
I’m strictly a uke player and play mostly classical, with a bit of jazz/blues thrown in for good measure. I dabbled with guitar, bass, and drums in my youth, but was pretty abysmal. For some reason (probably the scale) uke just works for me.

Jordan River: 
https://vancouverisland.com/plan-your-trip/regions-and-towns/vancouver-island-bc-islands/jordan-river/


John Stevenson:


Caught! 
John Stevenson in deep shadow 
Venue: Roman Baths, City of Bath 
by Alan Summers


applauding
the mime
in our mittens

John Stevenson

First publication: 
Frogpond, 35.1, 2002 (Haiku Society of America)

The subsequent publications of this haiku:
pegging the wind: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2002
Quiet Enough (Red Moon Press, 2004, 2008, 2016, 2018)
HAIKU: the Art of the Short Poem (Brooks Books 2008)
Kitsch Magazine - vol 8 no. 2 (Spring 2010)
My Red | The Selected Haiku of John Stevenson (Brooks Books 2021)
 

HAIKU: the Art of the Short Poem
A film haiku anthology edited by Tazuo Yamaguchi & Randy Brooks
paperback & DVD (Brooks Books 2008)
https://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/haikufilm/index.html

Kitsch Magazine - vol 8 no. 2 (Spring 2010)
editor-in-chief Rachel Louise Ensign 
managing editor Allison Fischler 
https://issuu.com/kitschmag/docs/kitsch_-_spring_10
 

pegging the wind: 
The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2002
https://redmoonpress.com/product/strongipegging-the-wind-the-red-moon-anthology-of-english-language-haiku-2002istrong-edited-by-jim-kacian-and-the-red-moon-editorial-staff/


Quiet Enough (Red Moon Press, 2004, 2008, 2016, 2018)
Award: Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award, First Prize

Judges: Dean Summers and Ruth Yarrow
“When you open the handsome cover with an O’Keeffe painting of a pelvis, you find more than five dozen haiku, interspersed with a dozen tanka and haibun, as spare and strong as bones. Echoing the title, they cohere with a quiet poignancy that resonates on many levels.”
https://www.hsa-haiku.org/meritbookawards/meritbookawards2005.htm
   
p.s. Dean is no relation to me (Alan Summers)!
Now available as a PDF:
https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/d69b75d79f4af4301bf851e70be66c98.pdf 
 



My Red
The Selected Haiku of John Stevenson 
(Brooks Books 2021)
"applauding" page 84
https://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/Stevenson-MyRed.html



This video reading of haiku by John Stevenson 
by Logan Rando Productions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkgX2o2zzZ0

 

John Stevenson interviewed:
https://haikupoetinterviews.wordpress.com/2021/12/01/john-stevenson/



John, Karen, and Alan
Roman Baths
City of Bath U.K.

And yes, I have very long arms!

Second great day with John, Tate Modern (London, UK)
John (centre)
Karen Hoy on the right.
photo©Alan Summers

THE EY EXHIBITION PICASSO 1932 – LOVE, FAME, TRAGEDY
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/ey-exhibition-picasso-1932-love-fame-tragedy









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Saturday 27 November 2021

Joseph P. Wechselberger and Elliot Nicely and the milk of human kindness





 
 
still warm in the cans
the village milk wagon
making its rounds
 

Joseph P. Wechselberger
 


"In 1954 when I was eight years old and living in a small village in northern France, there was a horse-drawn wagon that came down the street with large cans of milk fresh from the cows, unpasteurized and unhomogenized, the driver ringing a bell to signal its presence. Women came from the houses along the route with pitchers and small containers, and the driver would ladle milk into them. I’ve never forgotten it."



Joseph's favorite haiku is by Elliot Nicely:
 
 

in the icu
a ventilator’s slow exhale …
winter deepens
 
Elliot Nicely

first publication: Presence, Issue 66
anthology: 
a jar of rain: the Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, 2020
 
 
 
Joseph says:
"This poem speaks to me directly. I have lived the moment Elliot Nicely so succinctly captures. It was a cold February in 1972. My mother lingered in a coma in ICU for ten days, hooked up to various machines that kept her temporarily alive. I spent each day sitting in the waiting room, alone, popping in and out of the ICU to spend time with her. I was with her when she died."
 
 
 
Waiting for Godot:
“VLADIMIR: You should have been a poet.”
 
 
 
Withnail and I:
“MONTY: Loyalty isn’t a matter of selection.”
 
 
 
NOTES
 
 
 
Joseph P. Wechselberger
hails from Browns Mills, NJ USA
 
 
under stars our sleeping bags touching
 
Joseph P. Wechselberger
Frogpond 44.1 • 2021
 
 
 
schoolyard
how the saplings grew
over the summer
 
Joseph P. Wechselberger
The Heron’s Nest Volume XXII, Number 1: March 2020
 
 
 
another death . . . 
gathering fallen apples 
for tomorrow’s pies
 
Joseph P. Wechselberger, USA
Cattails October 2021 page 33
check out another on page 56
 
Also check out:
Prune Juice Issue #30 March 2020
 
 
 
Elliot Nicely
 
 




















in the icu
a ventilator’s slow exhale …
winter deepens
 
Elliot Nicely
first publication: Presence, Issue 66 





















anthology: a jar of rain: the Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, 2020

 
 

silence at her end ...
the cord around my finger
coiling uncoiling
 
Elliot Nicely
Blithe Spirit, 25:4,November 2015 ed. Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy
 
 
Elliot Nicely is the author of two chapbooks: 
The Black Between Stars (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017) and Tangled Shadows: Senryu and Haiku (Rosenberry Books, 2013). 

He is an Ohio poet (USA).
 



Tangled Shadows: Senryu and Haiku (Rosenberry Books, 2013)
 


The Black Between Stars (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017)
Nominated for an Ohioana Book Award and a Pushcart Prize.
 
Randy Brooks review:
 
The Black Between Stars by Elliot Nicely 
(2017, Crisis Chronicles Press, Parma OH) 16 pages, 21⁄4×7 ̋, perfectbound. ISBN 978-1-940996-40-0. $4.99 plus $3 shipping from Crisis Chronicles Press, 3431 George Avenue, Parma, OH 44134.
 
On the Crisis Chronicles Press website, Elliot Nicely notes that “We set out to develop a new work that is both startling and stark, a book which invokes a sense of disquiet and discomfort.”
 
The book is published backwards to English conventions with the cover and title page coming last, and the reading pages progress- ing from right to left in a reverse chronology sequence. 
 
The title haiku is waiting / for her lab results / the black between stars. I like the way this haiku shifts from a contemplative outdoors, to the inner consideration of a medical scan. 
 
The chapbook progresses through two reversed pages with white ink haiku on black pages for two death scenes: first prayer / of the wake / only the wine breathes and blackberry winter / in the cemetery / a fresh grave. 
 
Small chapbooks have always been an excellent way to present a short sequence or unified series. Nicely’s The Black Between Stars excels as an example of this haiku publishing tradition.
 
 
 

flowering bittersweet . . .
the chances
i did take
 
Elliot Nicely

A New Resonance 11: 
Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku
editors Jim Kacian and Julie Warther
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Wednesday 24 November 2021

Alan Peat and Réka Nyitrai lunar and solar scapes, and invent a new kigo competition news!

 


 


 
 
day moon…
she feels for an eye
with her fingers


Alan Peat






Alan Peat says:
"This poem is about my grandmother. She continued to sew as her eyesight faded, eventually leaving her blind. I guess it’s also informed by surrealism. I co-wrote the catalogue raisonné of the surrealist artist John Tunnard  (1997) and this interest in twentieth century art often spills over into my writing."

See:
JOHN TUNNARD 
1900 1971
https://cornwallartists.org/cornwall-artists/john-tunnard

 


Alan Peat's favourite haiku by another writer:




February silence —
an old woman knits her sunset

Réka Nyitrai



Published:
otata 39 March, 2019 ed. John Martone
page 93
https://otatablog.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/otata-39-may-2019-final2.pdf



Alan says:
"I’ve chosen this beautifully evocative poem by Réka Nyitrai. It’s one, among many, of Réka’s poems that I often re-read. 

I love poems that create a vivid, resonating image. I see my grandmother in Réka’s poem too - it speaks to me directly and leaves enough space for me to personalise the words. 

A great haiku is one which the reader can inhabit  - this ku, in my opinion, achieves that distinction."




‘Withnail and I’ quote:
You bloody fool. You should never mix your drinks.



‘Waiting for Godot’ quote: 
Let us make the most of it before it is too late.
 
 
NOTES:


Alan Peat lives in Biddulph, Staffordshire, United Kingdom:
https://biddulph.co.uk 

The history of signs:
https://biddulph.co.uk/village-signs/





Alan Peat is a U.K.-based poet, author, and Fellow of both The Royal Society of Arts & The Historical Association.

He is an Independent Literacy Consultant and his unique INSET, conference and school-based training provides teachers and school leaders with practical, effective and enjoyable strategies for raising pupils' achievement in both reading and writing. 

Alan is the author of a number of books on a wide range of subjects including education, art and ceramics. 

The Magic Stone is his first story for children:

 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0957079648/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6
 
 
 
 
 
 
Réka Nyitrai
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
About:
While Dreaming Your Dreams
by Réka Nyitrai
    
I appreciate these haiku that can go beyond the present moment: Everything is ongoing, it’s simultaneously past, present, and future. 

Sometimes we need to turn to surrealism as a way to embrace uncomfortable truths.

Alan Summers
founder, Call of the Page



while dreaming your dreams/mientras sueño tus sueños
Réka Nyitrai was the recipient of a Touchstone Distinguished Books Award for 2020 for her volume While Dreaming Your Dreams (Valencia Spain: Mono Ya Mono Books, 2020).

Touchstone Distinguished Books Award Winner 2020
https://thehaikufoundation.org/reka-nyitrai-touchstone-distinguished-books-award-winner-2020/

https://www.amazon.com/WHILE-DREAMING-YOUR-DREAMS-NYITRAI/dp/8409207265/ref=pd_sim_4/140-5621688-2808103?pd_rd_w=rqka7&pf_rd_p=cf667c36-5137-43ea-a503-3c58067bc8ac&pf_rd_r=NB7WNXH51DDHN5FZKH2C&pd_rd_r=86cc786b-2363-4db0-b214-03cf71dd8566&pd_rd_wg=nUTms&pd_rd_i=8409207265&psc=1
 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WHILE-DREAMING-YOUR-DREAMS-NYITRAI/dp/8409207265/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=RÉKA+NYITRAI&qid=1637774879&qsid=262-2121312-2262136&sr=8-1&sres=8409207265%2C1075734355%2CB07Y5GZ8ZZ%2CB00VROB1DS%2CB08N43P8S3%2CB000TAP7PY%2CB08FTH2WMZ%2CB0061R8WYC%2CB00OOJMY48%2CB07YLZTGCK%2CB07BHGFHMX%2CB07GSG337G%2CB0816RKWV3%2CB07Q9VJFNT%2CB081PC33WT%2CB01N767EHL
 




Réka reads out her different sunsets haiku:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP1UwhI17Gs 

The publisher MONO YA MONO BOOKS talks about the book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0FzWMEp6_w


MODERN KIGO
COMPETITION NEWS!!!








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Lev Hart and Eric Amann

  Lev Hart said: “Please accept the following as my submission for the journal I might not like…” What’s not to like when something unexpect...