Our winter meeting was held at Dawn Bruce’s home on 26th June with special guest Joanne Watcyn-Jones. While the subject matter of our exercises for this meeting was decidedly wintry, with haiku about the season, domestic haiku and images of loneliness, our meeting was, as always, upbeat with much laughter and inspiration.
Vanessa Proctor
HAIKU & HAIBUN
Closing Date: Friday 30th July 2010
Category A HAIKU
Prize Money: A page of 3 Haiku = 1 entry $100 $50
Category B HAIBUN
Prize Money: $150 $75
A haiku journey = 1 entry
maximum length 600 words
Entry Fee: AUS $5.00 per entry
or AUS$12.00 for three Haiku entries
Cheque or money order payable to: Friendly Street Poets Inc.
Please send entries to Friendly Street Poets Inc PO Box 3697 Norwood, SA 5067
CONDITIONS OF ENTRY
1.Entries must be typed, one page per entry.
1.Two copies of your poetry must accompany the entry form and fee. Please use paper clips rather than staples.
1.Your name must not appear on the poetry page, only on the entry form. You need to use the entry form to submit entries.
1.Entries must be the original work of the entrant, unpublished, not have won any other monetary prize or be under consideration anywhere else.
1.There is no limit to the number of entries submitted.
1.Please retain a copy of your work. All entries are destroyed after judging.
1.Authors retain copyright of their work, but we claim the right (if we choose) to publish the winner’s work on our website or in our publications.
1.Prizes are awarded on literary merit and judged ‘blind’. The Judge’s rulings are final and no correspondence can ensue.
1.Prizes and fees are in Australian Dollars.
1.Notification of winners and commendations (if awarded) will be announced at a Friendly Street Poets Meeting; and after that, on our website: friendlystreetpoets.org.au. If you include a SSAE with postage (DL Envelope) in your entry, the results will be posted you.
1.We will invite all winners to attend the announcement.
Entries close 5pm Friday 23 July 2010.
Prizes: 1st Prize – Basho: The Complete Haiku
2nd Prize – Haiku Mind: 108 poems to cultivate awareness & open your heart
3rd Prize – The British Museum Haiku
Open to poets residing in the Perth metro area only.
For guidelines and entry form, go to:
http://www.bodhitree.net.au/Text/1276588625412-0226/pC/1214367693359-7635/uploadedFiles/1276588620694-4588.pdf
Brought to you by The Bodhi Tree in conjunction with WA Poets Inc
Visit this site for full story and photographs by Sandra Simpson of this exciting event.
Hearty congratulations to Sharon Dean who has won the readers' choice award for
dappled sunlight
an old dog shakes the river
from his coat
Sharon Dean
Judges’ Report:
Senior Section (18 & over): Judge Sandra Simpson
There were many good-quality haiku entered this year that were a delight to read – and which made the task of judging an enjoyable challenge. I hope that first-time or novice writers aren’t discouraged if their work wasn’t placed. Judging is a subjective process that might have a different outcome tomorrow. But I do hope they take the time to read and analyse the winning poems. Learning from one another is one of the nicest aspects of belonging to the haiku community.
First place:
a moment before sunrise –
ice singing
beneath the swans’ feet
Martin Lucas (England)
Haiku are poetry, but writers don’t always remember that – this haiku shows someone who truly understands the form. Yes, haiku are observational, but they should also lift us from the mundane, make us think (or look) again and allow us to share fully in the moment. Some, like this one, might even make our hearts rise. Martin’s haiku also has a pleasing “sound effect” with its subtly repeated assonance, and by using only two hard consonants in the entire poem he makes it “soft”, like a feather.
Second place:
3 a.m
the overhead fan
clicks clicks clicks
Joanne Watcyn-Jones (Australia)
The restorative power of sleep is a fragile gift and anyone who’s had a disturbed night will identify with this haiku. Racing thoughts that can’t be controlled, a dripping tap, the neighbours’ party or, in this case, so hot the ceiling fan has to be left on all night, creating a new and different night-time noise. By adding a repetitive word, and choosing the slightly annoying sound of “clicks”, Joanne makes this a winner.
Third place:
he leaves in an ambulance –
the chrysanthemum buds
closed tight
Kirsten Cliff (Papamoa)
This is a more traditional haiku, containing both an overt season word and a juxtaposition construction. The contrast of illness, presumably severe if an ambulance has been called, with the buds ready to burst into life is adept. A reader might also find a link between the colour of the ambulance (white with a yellow stripe) and the colour of the buds (white when tight closed with yellow being a common chrysanthemum colour). Haiku are about the eternal and this poem captures that exactly.
All the Highly Commended and Commended poems are fine haiku too, congratulations to their authors.
Highly Commended (in no particular order):
a field in bloom –
the foal’s tracks
follow the mare’s
Carole MacRury (USA)
his father’s death …
shadows of raindrops
on the window ledge
Beverley George (Australia)
fallen leaf –
the stream carrying
another silence
Eduard Tara (Romania)
Commended (in no particular order):
liquidambar
already my toddler’s hair
darkening
Vanessa Proctor (Australia)
full moon at Motuhoa
stingrays
cloud the evening tide
Barbara Hart (Tauranga)
soft mist …
a mother cups
her baby’s head
Joanne Watcyn-Jones
half light
the river scarred
by a heron
Beverley George
Best Local Haiku:
This haiku deals with an everyday event, the moving of a garden plant, yet the author has captured the why of the moment with great poignancy. It’s a whole, rich, sad story told in nine words.
helping dad
move the rose bush
scent of mum
Dave Robertson (Katikati)
Junior Section (17 & under): Judge Catherine Mair
I enjoyed reading the haiku and congratulate everyone who entered. Haiku for all their apparent simplicity are difficult to write well and many of you have made fine attempts.
First place, equal:
evening walk
at the top of the hill
the loudest bird
Sophia Frentz (Tauranga, 17)
The sense of sound is not so frequently captured in haiku. A lot is suggested in this poem. The quiet evening walk. The achievement of gaining the top of the hill and then the clarity of that bird call. The poem involves the reader and is very evocative. Very well done.
between the gaps
a crab hole
changes colour
Harry Frentz (Tauranga Boys High, 14)
This lovely haiku leaves a lot to the imagination. It conjures up a beach, wet sand and the tide's inward and outward flow. I love the originality of this perception, the focus on the crab hole rather than the more expected crab. Congratulations!
Third place:
among the swans
angry voices –
family photo
Sophia Frentz
I don't think the pause after “angry voices” helps this humorous little verse. I thoroughly enjoy the tongue in cheek humour. It brings back a dire day when I attempted to get my four children photographed.
Highly Commended:
Both these poems were close to place-getters.
summer moon –
a cricket
starts his band
Harry Frentz
Incidentally the correct gender has been identified. The males are responsible for all that racket.
first class –
the girl next to me
already passing notes
Sophia Frentz
Very well constructed and bitingly humorous.
Commended:
There are also several other haiku which deserve mention.
netball goal
hangs out
waiting for the ball
Shavaughan Vaega (Whakamarama School, 12)
sandy footprints
leaving their mark
on the world
- Tara Blackshaw (Matahui Road, 12)
golf ball
lying still – waiting
for its golfer
- Zane Petersen (Tauriko School, 11)
low tide –
I see
Neptune’s beard
Harry Frentz
footprints in the sand
following us
destroyed by waves
- Shavaughn Vaega
Quendryth Young has won the English-language section of the 2010 Romanian Haiku Society International Competition with this poem:
Easter Sunday
the monotonous call
of a wild pigeon
On behalf of all the members of Haiku Oz, I would like to congratulate Quendryth on this outstanding achievement.
Report on Haiku/Haibun Workshop given by Martina Taeker 5 June 2010
Sixteen people attended the haiku/haibun workshop organized by Friendly St Poets at the Box Factory in Adelaide on 5 June.
Martina Taeker gave a well devised and very clear presentation to help those starting to write both haiku and haibun, with plenty of examples to illustrate her points.
Some of the points she made first were to dispel the myth that haiku should be written in the 5/7/5 form in English. Martina pointed out the differences in English language sound syllables and Japanese written onji, which make seventeen English syllables appear far too long when compared with a Japanese haiku.
Other points she stressed were the importance of content in the Japanese poetry form and that haiku were objective and nature based. The reader must work to interpret the haiku. The reader must make the connections rather than have the poet spell them out. Such a short poetry form can contain a lot of depth and subtlety. She also stressed the importance of Australian poets using their own landscape in writing haiku, rather than imitating the language and imagery of Japanese poets.
Martina then touched on guidelines regarding seasonal references, punctuation, capitalization, titles and the importance of using concrete imagery from all the senses in haiku. She noted that the shape of the haiku on the page could enhance the effect of the poem: three, one, two and more rarely four lines being the most popular arrangements in English. She discussed the presence of people in haiku poetry and the senryu form.
A practice session in writing haiku followed this discussion, with Martina offering individual advice to participants.
Following a break for a sumptuous afternoon tea provided by Friendly St Poets, Martina presented information on haibun, again providing a number of examples to demonstrate the points she was making. Again, she emphasised the importance of imagery and urged those attempting haibun to focus on not too large a topic and to leave out extraneous detail. She also stressed the importance of the haiku in haibun.
This session was valuable not only to newcomers to the form, but as a reminder to those of us with more experience, of the beauty of a well expressed haiku or haibun.
Lynette Arden
BINDII MEETING 5 JUNE 2010 report to HaikuOz
Present: Marilyn Linn, Margaret Dingle (Fensom), Lyn Arden, Alex Ask, Athena Zaknic, Maeve Archibald
Apologies: Alain and Elsa Rozanes, Pam Brow.
Alex Ask presented a PowerPoint presentation of his haiga. Alex’s haiga were much admired by members and should give the rest of us some inspiration, now we have seen what can be achieved.
The rest of the meeting was devoted to a kukai (sharing of haiku by members, who read their favourites after the contributions had been made anonymous).
One of the haiku from the kukai:
sticks of mist
folding winter sunlight
she flaps her fan
Maeve Archibald
The meeting concluded with lunch at around 12.30. A number of members stayed to attend the 2 pm haiku/haibun workshop run by Martina Taeker.
The next Bindii meeting will be at 10.30 am Saturday 3 July at the Box Factory. We plan to spend the meeting discussing tanka and possibly writing tanka.
Lynette Arden
BINDII MEETING 5 JUNE 2010 report to HaikuOz
Present: Marilyn Linn, Margaret Dingle (Fensom), Lyn Arden, Alex Ask, Athena Zaknic, Maeve Archibald
Apologies: Alain and Elsa Rozanes, Pam Brow.
Alex Ask presented a PowerPoint presentation of his haiga. Alex’s haiga were much admired by members and should give the rest of us some inspiration, now we have seen what can be achieved.
The rest of the meeting was devoted to a kukai (sharing of haiku by members, who read their favourites after the contributions had been made anonymous).
One of the haiku from the kukai:
sticks of mist
folding winter sunlight
she flaps her fan
Maeve Archibald
The meeting concluded with lunch at around 12.30. A number of members stayed to attend the 2 pm haiku/haibun workshop run by Martina Taeker.
The next Bindii meeting will be at 10.30 am Saturday 3 July at the Box Factory. We plan to spend the meeting discussing tanka and possibly writing tanka.
Lynette Arden
The Salisbury Writers' Festival is on again this year on the weekend of August 27 and so is the popular haiga poetry art exhibition and competition. You can find out all the info at: http://cweb.salisbury.sa.gov.au/manifest/servlet/page?pg=17553&stypen;=html
http://haikudreamingaustralia.info/
Haiku Dreaming Australia – June 2010 Report
Origin:
Haiku Dreaming Australia started in 2006 as an online publication to encourage the writing of haiku relevant to Australia, and to provide a permanent display of the best of these. The background and rationale are given in Dreaming’s online articles.
How it Works:
I, as editor, review haiku publications and select material for the Dreaming Collection. In addition many poets directly submit their poems (over 1000 to date) and editors draw my attention to poems they think I should consider. In 2009 I sponsored an international haiku competition (Judges: Janice Bostok, Lorin Ford, Ron Moss and Rob Scott) which yielded 28 haiku for Dreaming, including 8 from overseas. Of the thousands of haiku considered in the last four years I have accepted and published 362.
I remove haiku from the Collection to the Dreaming Archives as guided by peer reviews I receive. 134 of the 362 haiku selected have since been removed to the Archives leaving 228 currently in the Collection. At this stage 200-250 seems a reasonable population.. Of the initial 120 haiku published in 2006, 19 survive.
Selection:
The selection criteria are quality and relevance. I include some cutting-edge poems and also some older haiku written in now-unfashionable styles but which exhibit strong ‘haiku spirit’ ― sadly (my personal reaction) most of the latter have not survived peer review. I apply the ‘relevance’ criteria fairly loosely to individual poems provided they contribute to the overall Australian identity of the Collection.
More than 90% of Dreaming haiku have been previously published. I salute all haiku editors, particularly those of Australian publications: paper wasp, Famous Reporter, Stylus, FreeXpresSion and Creatrix. They are the lifeblood of Australian haiku.
The Poets:
67 poets have had their haiku published in Dreaming. 48 of them, including 9 from abroad, have work there now. 12% of the poets (Ford, Young, Proctor, Reeves, Bostok, etc) account for 35% of the Collection’s haiku, a not unreasonable concentration given that quality is the prime selection determinant. Dreaming’s quality, as intended, is constantly rising. It now takes a very good poem to displace an incumbent one. The Collection contains exemplars to whom beginner poets can be confidently referred.
Articles:
Dreaming articles are written by the editor as background for the project and as an outlet for his personal views. Now that the Collection’s turnover has slowed I hope to give more time to the articles. Your comments are always welcome.
Senryu:
A year ago and as an experiment I began to differentiate between haiku and senryu based on the author’s intent as revealed in the poem itself. I’m encouraged to continue this at least for another year. Your comments are invited.
Prior Publication:
I was tardy in publishing this detail and I’ve lost the information for many haiku. Please provide (again) this information for any of your haiku that are without it.
Problem Areas:
Only one: after the initial flush of peer reviews their number dropped off. They are the key to keeping the Collection topical and representing the best of Australian haiku.
Plans and Hopes for Dreaming:
First, it will go on forever. And in the next few years I will be replaced as editor. By then Dreaming’s status will be such that it will pass to the Australian Haiku Society as its permanent publication outlet managed by successive editors appointed by the Society. For now, Lorin Ford and Rob Scott have accepted positions as assistant editors; in fact they have been assisting me for a long time and I have deep respect for their haiku talents.
I hope you continue to enjoy and promote Haiku Dreaming Australia. Please regularly review it and tell me which haiku you’d like retained and which could be removed to make way for new work, yours perhaps.
John June, 2010
--
John Bird, Editor
Haiku Dreaming Australia
http://haikudreamingaustralia.info
The summer quarterly issue of Haibun Today is now online for your reading pleasure at http://haibuntoday.com
Contributors to the current issue include Hortensia Anderson, Owen Bullock, Anton Capri, Glenn G. Coats, David Cobb, Tish Davis, Cherie Hunter Day, Charles Hansmann, Jeffrey Harpeng, Michele L. Harvey, Keith Heiberg, Graham High, Ruth Holzer, Marleen Hulst, Roger Jones, Bob Lucky, Mary Mageau, Johannes Manjrekar, Francis Masat, Renée Owen, Dru Philippou, Patricia Prime, Ray Rasmussen, Bruce Ross, Cynthia Rowe, Mark Smith, Richard Straw, Diana Webb and Theresa Williams.
Writers are now invited to submit haibun and articles for consideration in the September 2010 issue of Haibun Today. Consult our Submission Guidelines at Haibun Today. Forward any submissions by email to Jeffrey Woodward, Editor, at [email protected]
http://haiku-presence.50webs.com
£100 1st prize
£25 each for up to 4 runners-up
Publication of winning and commended poems in Presence #43
Judge: Martin Lucas
Entry fee: £5 for up to 5 haiku. Additional haiku at £1 per haiku.
Paid by: £ cheque to Haiku Presence. For recommended overseas payment options see http://haiku-presence.50webs.com
Fees may also be paid in $ or € cash at the entrant’s own risk at the rates of $8 / €5 up to 5 haiku and $2 / €2 per additional haiku.
The prize may be paid by £ cheque: bank negotiation or currency exchange charges to be paid by the prize winner not Presence magazine.
Format: any format you like. Two copies of each haiku, with your name and address included on one copy. It is OK to print several haiku on one sheet of paper.
All entries to be original, unpublished, not under consideration elsewhere.
Deadline (in hand): 31 October 2010
Send to:
Chris Boultwood, 6 King Street, Chester CH1 2AH, England, UK
Non-subscribers may order a copy of the results issue of Presence for £5 (cheques to “Haiku Presence”) or $12. Alternatively, for results, enclose an s.a.e. (+IRC from outside the UK) with your contest entry.
The RiAus and Friendly Street Poets are holding a great sci-ku poetry competition, so unleash your inner poet and send us your best science haiku. Great prizes await those who can master the art of the sci-ku.
HOW TO ENTER
What is sci-ku?
Inspired by the Japanese haiku, sci-ku is basically a short, three-lined poem about the sciences. Sci-ku is a small, modest and humble poem that depicts the everyday world around us, aiming to give a flash of insight into that world - like a scientific 'Eureka!' moment expressed briefly in words.
Write your sci-ku:
Each poem must not exceed the three-line maximum. Syllable counts are irrelevant. Each entrant may submit a maximum of three sci-kus.
Pick your category:
Entries can be made in primary (12 years and under), secondary (13-18 inclusive) or open (no age limit) categories.
Send us your entries:
All entries must be emailed to [email protected]. The subject heading should read: Sci-ku + Your Name + Category (primary, secondary, open).
The email should contain the Name, Age, Address, Telephone number and Email address of the entrant.
Up to three poems submitted as text should be emailed as a single Word document attachment to your email.
Submissions may also be posted to: RiAus/FSP Sci-ku Competition, PO Box 3652, Rundle Mall, Adelaide SA 5000.
Some rules:
All poems must be original, unpublished (in text form or online) works by the poet entering the competition.
All poets must be residents of Australia.
All entries must be received by Friday July 16 2010 or be date stamped July 15 2010 at the latest.
No poems will be returned.
The judges' decision is final; no further correspondence will be accepted.
All entries may published on the RiAus & Friendly Street Poets websites.
The prizes:
1st, 2nd & 3rd prizes will be awarded in each category, with prizes of $250, $100 and $50 worth of book vouchers, respectively.
1st prize winners in each category will receive a Kindle e-Reader.
1st, 2nd & 3rd prize winners in each category will see their sci-ku and name in lights on RiAus' unique digital sash artwork on the exterior of the Science Exchange building in Adelaide (as pictured below).
1st, 2nd & 3rd prizes (and other selected entries) will be published on the RiAus & Friendly Street Poets websites and in the Friendly Street Poets annual anthology Reader 35.
Other great prizes include books provided by Friendly Street and Wakefield Press.
The fifth issue of 'Notes From the Gean' , Vol. 2, Issue 1 - June 2010, is now online.
http://www.geantree.com/indexcover.html
'Notes From the Gean' publishes English-language haiku, tanka, haiga, haibun and renku.
We welcome your submissions for Vol. 2, Issue 2 up until close of submissions on the 30th of June.
-Lorin Ford, haiku editor
"Notes From the Gean"
the online journal of Gean Tree Press