Bee Jay is breathing and Susan Burch finds a love note

 

i am the joey

breathing in my dead mother’s

pouch

Bee Jay

 

Bee Jay says:

“Sometimes a haiku can take years of thought and revisions. Sometimes one pops out seemingly fully formed. This haiku came out of me suddenly after I spent a few weeks reading experimental haiku and Japanese gendai on social media and in journals such as Heliosparrow, is/let, and Otoroshi.

I placed my fresh haiku into a workshop group to gauge responses and to see how I could improve it, but despite the sentence structure and the personification/anthropomorphism, the reaction to it was very positive, including a surprising request from Alan Summers to submit it to his new journal.”

one favourite haiku and why

I compiled a list of 30 of my fave contemporary haiku and then selected Susan Burch's haiku out of that. 

washed jeans―

his love note

still dirty

Susan Burch

Honourable Mention 4th Annual Senryu Contest, 

Sonic Boom July 2018

Bee Jay says:

“In 2014, Susan Burch was one of the first poets to write constructive comments and expert advice on my haiku and she later gave me the confidence to begin submitting my work. Her haiku and senryu often move me and this one is one of my faves. 

In this poem I see a fresh, new romance where lust and passion colours everything and even the most simple sentence contains sexual innuendo. I can imagine the kinds of words written in that note. The jeans could be hers or his but I prefer to think they’re hers. The love note is ‘still’ dirty which makes me believe she’s read it before. 

On the other hand, there is also the possibility that this is a dark poem about an illicit love affair and that she finds this dirty note in his jeans. This kind of ambiguity is one I admire in a haiku, I luv the idea that a haiku can be seen as positive in one reading and then so negative in another.”

favourite quote from Waiting for Godot

“There's no lack of void.”

Withnail and I

“Give me a Valium, I'm getting the fear.”

Alan note:

Also enjoy my own commentary, as the contest judge, on Susan Burch’s haikai verse:

“Being Human - the ordinary intensity” 

a look at senryu

https://area17.blogspot.com/2018/06/being-human-ordinary-intensity-look-at.html 

Check out Femku guest editor issue with Susan Burch: 

Femku PDF web link: https://69b046c2-a7e1-4a9a-9a22-1c70986eaa24.filesusr.com/ugd/f4c0ea_05ace7dcead141fb9236f9d4460f7f5a.pdf 

Mentioned journals:

is/let: https://isletpoetry.wordpress.com 

  

Otoroshi: https://otoroshijournal.wixsite.com/home 

  

Heliosparrow: https://heliosparrow.com 

  

Sonic Boom: https://sonicboomjournal.wixsite.com/sonicboom 

Margaret is still by the river while Pris Campbell is sharing leftovers

I still beside the river

Margaret Walker

Margaret says:

“This piece is one that simply came fully formed into my mind.”

“I did debate briefly about the use of the word "still" - might it also be an adverb? Yes. An adjective? I don't know.”

“There are several “cuts” in this monoku. Each adds to the richness of the poem.”

“Water, always my refuge. The ocean, rivers of black water overhung with cypress and Spanish moss, salt water marsh, rushing mountain streams, or trickling brooks. My body settles into itself. My thoughts wander without direction.  Peace.”

Alan note ONE:

“We use still to show that something continues up to a time in the past, present or future. It goes in front of the main verb…”

British Council  “still-and-no-longer…”

Still is an adverb and an adjective.

Cambridge Dictionary

Alan says:

"I see the intriguing act of putting “am” into the invisible country (of negative space)..."

A Favorite Haiku

family gathering old stories shared with the leftovers

Pris Campbell 

Margaret says:

The art of oral storytelling. Tales passed from generation to generation preserving family memories. The glue of our togetherness.  

“…Memories of how things used to be…” 

(from “Waiting For the Story to Begin” and Judson Hair: Six String Poet)

“My choice of Pris' monoku was not because she is my friend but because it is a true favorite.  She doesn't write a lot of monoku but this is one that has stuck with me because of the sheer familiarity of the scene and the host of memories it evokes.”

“Waiting for Godot”

“I realized as I started reading "Waiting for Godot" that I had previously read it only in French. My French was once ok but I literally lost a lot in translation.”

Vladimir

“Let us do something, while we have the chance…at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it before it is too late.”

“Withnail and I”

“I”

“I’ve got a crick in my mouth from grinning.”

Alan note TOO:

Judson Hair: Six String Poet

The Merced River cascades out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and rushes quickly down into the Yosemite Valley where its icy waters flow swiftly through spectacular granite peaks magnificent forests. A great deal of rapid settlement took place here following the California Gold Rush in 1849. Fortunes were made and  lost along the way. And lives were affected ways both good and bad. This song tells the story of one troubled young girl who has lost hope and sees the river as her salvation ... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WKj3zoHBpo

and

Before I Feel the Rain ... 

words and music by Judson Hair 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cJ-BZe445s

family gathering old stories shared with the leftovers

Pris Campbell 

“on down the road” 

Haiku Society of America Anthology 2017 

ed. LeRoy Gorman

https://www.hsa-haiku.org/member-anthol.htm 

Donna Fleischer joins the MahMight jet stream & John Hawkhead goes all MahMight quantum with guests Ōmine Akira & Helen Buckingham

 

a jet

out of a cloud 

white peony

Donna Fleischer

About my haiku:

“From the time of its writing this haiku is 20 days old, and I am fond of it for being new, and for springing anew each time it is read. 

It mimes human perception as it collides within itself and within immediacy and brevity, and a juxtaposition of two very dissimilar nouns, entities: One manmade, mechanical, stealthy, and loud and the other of earthmade, organic beauty and quiet creation, holding a communal mnemonic of thousands of years of ancient Chinese wilderness and classical Chinese poetry. 

Lastly, it unifies all of the above in time and space. Thanks to the postmodern imagination for listening.”

A favorite

On a night of insects

and in a sky of stars

the earth afloat

Ōmine Akira

Translated by Kōko Katō and David Burleigh

"This haiku is also the title of the new “The Earth Afloat Anthology of Contemporary Japanese Haiku” (Kadokawa Shoten, 2021), edited by Kōko Katō, and translated with commentary by Kōko Katō and David Burleigh. I favor it for being vast and timeless, momentary and small, and how it positions earth between time and space."

from Waiting for Godot:

Pozzo’s Shriek of Words to Vladimir: 

Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It's abominable! When! When! One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more.

from Withnail and I: 

such zany, profane, and Godotesque dialogue, it’s difficult to choose, but here’s a favorite piece from Marwood —

“We are not drunks, we are multi-millionaires!”

Alan note:

Ōmine Akira

author of The Genealogy of Sorrow: Japanese View of Life and Death 

Translated by Taitetsu Unno 

published in The Eastern Buddhist New Series 25 (2),14-29 (1992)

Translator Kōko Katō is also co-editor of A VAST SKY, Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku (2015) ed. Bruce Ross, Kōko Katō, Dietmar Tauchner, Patricia Prime.

You also get a bonus haiku from Donna if you click onto the link:

https://donnafleischer.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/a-vast-sky-an-anthology-of-contemporary-world-haiku-2015-paperback-bruce-ross-koko-kato-dietmar-tauchner-patricia-prime-editors/

Translator David Burleigh is author of In and Out of Japan: The Contours of Haiku

In response to Professor Shirane's emphasis on literary allusion in Japanese haiku, David Burleigh notes the relative absence of allusion to Western literary or artistic history in haiku collections from the West, compared with several Japanese examples, with Paul Muldoon the notable exception.

see In and Out of Japan: The Contours of Haiku

Presented at the Haiku North America Conference, Ottawa, Canada, August 2009.

Parts 1 & 2

http://haikureality.theartofhaiku.com/archives/esejeng76.htm 

http://haikureality.theartofhaiku.com/esejeng81.htm

The Earth Afloat: Anthology of Contemporary Japanese Haiku

Kôko Katô, Editor
Translated by Kôko Katô & David Burleigh

https://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/translations/earthafloat.html

Juxtaposition in haiku:

The Moon is Broken

https://area17.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-moon-is-broken-juxtaposition-in.html

And now John Hawkhead's haiku plus his nominated guest poet's haiku...

Scroll down further!  

 

bar talk

his atoms and mine

mostly empty space

John Hawkhead

John says:

“I am fascinated by quantum physics and have tried to include some of its theories in haiku. Approximately 99% of the human body is empty space with the remaining 1% being particles that have existed for billions of years. Now that’s a bar room discussion worth a pint or two!”

 

Favourite haiku

the over

and over

of over

Helen Buckingham

“I read this haiku some years ago and it still resonates with me today. It is a bravura example of how brevity and concise simplicity can carry great depth and meaning when the writer is as skilled as this.The repetition over the word ‘over’ mirrors how we can struggle to come to terms with the end of a relationship and search for answers to life questions where none may be forthcoming.”

 

Waiting for Godot Quote - Vladimir: 

To have lived is not enough for them

Withnail and I Quote - Uncle Monty: 

There can be no true beauty without decay

Alan notes:

the over

and over

of over

Helen Buckingham

Publication credits:

moongarlic 5, 2015

ed. Sheila Windsor Brendan Slater

Artwork

Ink on paper: Sheila Windsor 

Back Cover: Fabio Sassi

page 25

https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/53071ea10a25fe426023b142ccdccf3f.pdf

Collection: sanguinella (Red Moon Press, 2017)

https://area17.blogspot.com/2018/02/helen-buckingham-latest-haiku.html

&

https://redmoonpress.com/product/strongisanguinellaistrong-haiku-of-helen-buckingham/ 

Also in moongarlic 5 by Helen Buckingham:

page 46:

festive cystitis 

pine needles

drip

page 52:

single to the terminus

All moongarlic issues

https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/items/show/1786 

Hifsa Ashraf lends her keen ear to the past and now

markhor’s horns—

the ancient wind spins 

some war stories 

Hifsa Ashraf

"Markhor have been classified as an endangered species by IUCN due to excessive hunting, poaching, and lack of habitat. The high demand of its horns made poachers and hunters go for the illegal hunting of markhor for years. 

Besides defence, a male markhor uses their horns when fighting for females during the mating season, and that’s why it is not less than a war between markhors, and also between markhor and hunters/poachers, that silently take place on the gigantic himalayan peaks. 

However, a few stories have been revealed in the media recently that have led to some strict actions against the illegal hunting of this endangered species."

More information about Markhor is available here. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markhor

my glasses missing

I see impressionistic

paintings all day

George Klacsanzky

"I have recently written a commentary on this haiku for the Commentary Haiku blog. This haiku reflects many perspectives of life that we miss due to our limited insight or vision. I loved the way George presented and admired the artistic work out of any materialistic touch."

“We should turn resolutely towards Nature.”

Waiting for Godot

“Those with the money are eccentric. Those without, insane.”

Withnail and I

Alan notes:

According to the KPK Wildlife report, in 1993 there were 275 animals throughout Pakistan but now the population of Markhor is 3500. In Pakistan, the Markhor's population has been recovered now, so Pakistan has requested IUCN to remove its name from red list.

Click onto Read More:

https://dailytimes.com.pk/321015/pakistans-national-animal-markhor-faces-extinction/

see Hifsa's commentary, and others on this haiku:  https://haikucommentary.wordpress.com/2021/03/09/george-klacsanzkys-glasses/

Here is another one from George Klacsanzky

https://haikucommentary.wordpress.com/2021/05/27/george-klacsanzkys-moth/ 

More about George Klacsanzky:

https://livinghaikuanthology.com/index-of-poets/livinglegacies/2699-george-klacsanzky.html

Books by Hifsa Ashraf:

https://hifsayz.wordpress.com/books-reviews/