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This week the community are writing ekphrastic haiku. I decided upon this topic to end the year because it’s just something a little bit different, a view into another area of the arts. Isn’t it interesting to look at other artistic creations and transpose them into haiku and senryu?
Not long ago I was reminded by Alan Summers of my first unfortunate experience of writing ekphrastic haiku. At the time I was still using Facebook, I don’t anymore, and posted it in one of the haiku forums on there, I forget which.
My piece went like this:
the painter
sleeps on his shoes––
cigarette burns
Patricia
“The Bowery” by George Segal 1970
It wasn’t well received. I can’t remember exactly why but I think it was because people felt that I wasn’t writing about the installation in a way that acknowledged it’s location or history. This would’ve been difficult for me because I didn’t know its history and was not really familiar with the location of the work.
I said at the time, “I don’t think of it as a description of the sculpture, but rather it is a little story inspired by what I saw, and coloured by my experience of living in Zürich.”
That’s still really how I like to think of Ekphrastic haiku and senryu. It doesn’t have to describe the work but it can describe how you react to it.
I admit to being a little bit battered and bruised by my experience but then Alan critiqued the piece of work and stroked my deflated ego… Thanks Alan.
This experience taught me a few things. First; Facebook is not really my home, so I left it. Second; not to worry when other people are critical of my work, there are bound to be people who don’t like it or don’t get it. Third; if you have a bit of criticism it doesn’t do any harm to reappraise your work. Fourth; to have a bit of confidence in myself and the work I produce.
I started to put this episode together with a little bit of trepidation but it has actually been a terrific experience. I’ve been introduced to new work, I’ve seen old familiar favourites through new eyes and learnt to look at surprising things as works of art.
Speaking of which, I have named the works of art in the show notes, so if you would like to read the verses in conjunction with their artworks, you can.
I hope you enjoy all the following work as much as I have enjoyed editing the podcast and conversing with all of you about the work you’ve written. Let’s start, quite appropriately I think with a published work from:
Published
Alan Summers
why didn’t I
the blue in her eyes
cutting string
Alan Summers
Publication credit: Sonic Boom, Issue Thirteen 2018
after Picasso 1932
Late at night
Cold coffee
The taste of loneliness
Rosenstock, Gabriel, “Ducks in Search of the Moon,”
Unpublished
Unusually, we only have a couple of poets new to the podcast this week, but don’t worry, they have offered us some very tasty morsels. Welcome to Corine and Hemapriya.
**Corine Timmer
sooty smog—
from the river
the colour of laughter
L.S. Lowry – The Raft 1956
Bio:
Corine Timmer is an interior designer, animal lover, award-winning haiku poet, publisher, and a self-published author. She lives in the countryside in the south of Portugal with 10 street dogs and other animals, including her beloved donkey, Lolita. Corine’s haiku have been published in various respected print and web haiku journals and anthologies. She has recently published an anthology of pig haiku in celebration of the Year of the Pig, Hog Wild Haiku. Corine is a member of the British and American haiku societies. www.bicadeideias.com
**Hemapriya Chellappan
the Last Supper
a sink full
of unwashed dishes
The last supper: Leonardo da Vinci
Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
the woman next to me
gets her brows done
Bio:
An engineer turned writer. When she isn’t daydreaming she writes haiku, sketches landscapes, hums old songs, practices puns and makes excellent tea.
Twitter: @Hemapriya17
Instagram: @hematheone
And now let’s hear from some of our regular contributors, thank you very much for your smashing verses.
Christina chin
Eve —
the crooked dentures
in a pumpkin’s smile
Inspired by Halloween pumpkin carvings
Blogger is an ongoing scheduled blog of my featured and published haiku.
Hifsa Ashraf
nocturnal light
the claws of sea waves
hold me from behind
Despair by Salavat Fidai
starry night
the storm eye is lurking
in the blue waves
Starry night by Van Gogh
Short stories: published in a UK based English magazine
James Young
Storr Rock, Lady’s Cove
still wet behind the years*
Sisley and me
Alfred Sisley
(*Note: he was on honeymoon)
Twitter: @BaitTheLines
Kim Russell
colours of nature
painted on a starling’s wings
van Gogh nightscape
Van Gogh: ‘Starry Night Over the Rhone’
carved by elements
he crouches at the harbour
sky framed pylon
Anthony Gormley ‘Exposure’
Kim’s website:
Publications:
The Emma Press: Anthology of Aunts and Second Place Rosette.
The dVerse Poets anthology, Chiaroscuro – Darkness and Light
Twitter: @kim88110
Andrew Syor
uncomplicated
American Gothic
in family tree
American Gothic- Grant Wood
Alison Breewood
softness of feather
her touch guides
the shape of his words
The object is St Matthew and The Angel (Caravaggio, 1602). The painting was destroyed, in a fire I think, and I have seen only a black and white photograph of it in The Story of Art (Gombrich, 1995), and also an enhanced colour image of it on Wikipedia.
Peter Draper
a mother’s love
revealed in
the tenderness of stone
Alan Durst (1883-1970), ‘Mother and Child’, which can be found in the University of Hull Art Collection
Pearl
early Sunday morning
the barber pole
frozen
Early Sunday morning by Edward Hopper
what it is
and isn’t
black iris
Black Iris III by Georgia O’Keeff
Instagram “3_liner”
Robert Horrobin
guernica
hates
geometry
Guernica by Picasso
m shane pruett
low tide
melting into the sand
dali’s memories
Dali’s Persistence of Memory
Affe mit Schädel
an ape ponders the future
but which
Hugo Rheinhold – Affe mit Schädel
in blues
an old blind man
and his guitar
Pablo Picasso – The Old Guitarist
Twitter @HaikuMyBrew
Patricia
rainbow colours
on the Labor Day beach
white variations
Alex Katz Lincolnville Labor day 1992
Vandana Parashar
lost tourist
I follow David’s eyes
to Rome
Michelangelo. David
Roger Watson
iconic bronze
with no thoughts
still
Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker
what happens?
oh…
essentially nothing
The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
Website
Blog
Book: Dewdrops Dewdrops Roger Watson and Su Wai Hlaing available in kindle on amazon available in hard copy if you email Roger rwatson1955@gmail.com Price for delivery in UK/Europe- GBP 4.50 for the rest of the world GBP 7.00.
Craig Kittner
deep end
the diving board’s shadow
squiggles
a pear among leaves
drawn in continuous lines
the whiteness of white
Craig’s book “Time’s Sweet Savor Poetry”
Twitter@craigkittner
Mark Gilbert
Michael Caine
the importance
of not blinking
A whoku inspired by the three Harry Palmer films of the 1960’s, of which ‘The Ipcress File’
just squares
the Sixties
in black’n’white
‘Movement in Squares’ (1961), a painting by Bridget Riley (1931-present).
Mineko Takahashi
an Hermes’ red scarf
slavic women
dancing Joies d’Hiver
Instagram sites teaching Japanese Idioms “your_private_japanese_tutor” and “ur_japanese_tutor” which teaches Japanese characters
FB account @yourjapanesetutor which discusses many facets of the language from the viewpoint of a foreign learner.
Cyrille Soliman
on both knees
he looks at this reflection
to quench his thirst
Jonathan Roman
museum
long day of hiking
through paintings
Frederic Edwin Church: The Heart of the Andes
summer by the seine
the ripple effect
of stray dreams
Claude Monet: La Grenouillère
His book: Deeper Into Winter. It’s a collection of haiku, haiga, and haibun written in and about Iceland.
My website is www.jonathanroman.com
Twitter and Instagram: @deft_notes
Tracy Davidson
Turner Prize
my unmade bed
got me grounded
My Bed Tracey Emin
losing count
of the number of times
I scream like that too
The Scream by Edvard Munch.
Twitter: @tracydavidson27
Instagram: @tracydavidson27
Isabel caves
inside spring –
the wind blows clouds
from her skirts
Constance Bourg
squinting eyes
trying to see
through the mist
Richard Bailly
thinker
sitting in shadowed courtyard
silent silhouette
Rodin: The Thinker
dallas sirens
freeway outdoor blue movies
dead on arrival
At little story:
When I was a rotating intern at Parkland Hospital in Dallas in 1970-71, I frequently went to or returned from a shift at the hospital at night. Along Harry Hines Boulevard, a four-lane highway which I drove on back and forth, there was an outdoor (“drive-in”) theatre that showed XXX-rated movies. I would spot the screen as I was driving by but wasn’t close enough to see any detail. One night, when this occurred I was listening on the radio to the song “D.O.A.” by a group called Bloodrock. The haiku totally returns me to that moment!
wendy c. bialek
asks her to smirk
missing from his palette
parsley green
Da Vinci Mona Lisa
Coming soon; news about Wendy’s book “ This side of the fire: An anthology on compassion”
Nadejda Kostadinova
warmer
than the sun
a yellow bed
Van Gogh’s painting Bedroom in Arles
Alan Summers
So1oku Triptych
love’s lost why we stay inside our own screenplay
New York Movie, 1939 by Edward Hopper
type-stained fingers the news in a corner of its piano
Room in New York, 1932 by Edward Hopper
this down-flipped smile of hat in a chair quietly filing its past
Automat, 1927 by Edward Hopper
so1oku©Alan Summers
NOTE:
so1oku is the creation of Alan Summers
That’s the number 1 not a letter. so1oku are one line haikai thoughts.
Website for Alan and Karen’s creative writing courses
Thank you once again to everyone who has come along and contributed to today’s podcast it’s been a privilege working with you.
A new series begins in January and the topic for January’s special podcast and of course for the first part of our new journal is animals. Whether you have written for the podcast before or not, I hope to read some delightful verses from you. Don’t forget it’s an earlier deadline on this year and the deadline is the 1st of January, emails only.
Before we meet again I will be celebrating Christmas with my family. Lots of walks in very cold fresh air, Christmas markets, Gluhwein, good food and guetzli. Whether you are celebrating Christmas, another holiday or just getting from December to January may I wish you everything I could wish for my own dear family.
Thank you for coming along to be with me today and until we met again in the new year, keep writing…
If I’ve left anything out, please just email me and I will sort it out for you. Ciao
** Poets new to the podcast
