MahMight haiku journal: December 2021

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:

https://www.modernhaiku.org/bookreviews/Shugyo2003.html

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2003/09/14/books/book-reviews/poetry-a-language-without-borders/

One Year of Haiku

(trans. Jack Stamm)

https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/6a796511cb0c97db3c288c2e50cfca52.pdf

Cicada Voices: Selected Haiku of Eric Amann, 1966–1979

(High/Coo Press, 1983)

https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/142671254d9127367a283788be27e1ce.pdf

Eric W. Amann

(16 January 1934 – July 2016)

https://livinghaikuanthology.com/index-of-poets/livinglegacies/4888-amann,-eric-w.html

THF profile:

https://thehaikufoundation.org/poet-details/?IDclient=1804

The Wordless Poem

A Study of Zen in Haiku (1969)

https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/65955e779a5d99a1643028599939f3ba.pdf

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

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

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