Welcome to episode 10 of the Haiku Chronicle from www.poetrypea.com, which shares the tips and skills I’m learning as I try to improve my haiku writing.
New pages on the website
Recommended reading:
- Recommended books
- Recommended websites
Submissions drop down menu:
- Submit to other publications
A few things you can prepare for now.
Everything has links on the poetrypea.com website.
My Haiku Pond: which is on Facebook? It’s run by Michael Smeer and is challenging you to write a new haiku every day for the duration of the month of February. It’s only open to members, but I recommend becoming a member because it’s a very useful discussion site.
NaHaiWriMo which stands for national haiku writing month is also challenging you to write a haiku every day for the month of February. Join in!
Bones journal, a journal specialising in contemporary haiku is taking submissions now for 2018 January 15 – February 15 for the March 15th 2018 issue
The Golden Triangle Haiku competition: A unique poetry competition that creates a magical experience by inviting thousands to enjoy a poetic stroll daily along some of Washington, D.C.’s most iconic streets. Submissions for the Golden Triangle’s 2018 Golden Haiku contest will be accepted until February 2.
The 2018 International Women’s Haiku Festival on Inner Voices: All poets are welcome to submit a maximum of five (5) poems between February 1 and 28, 2018. They will publish selected poems on a rolling basis throughout the month of March 2018 on their blog, Inner Voices. Apparently, you are strongly encouraged to submit early.
What have I been up to this week?
The daily haiku are posted on poetrypea.com
On Tuesday I wrote something that I really didn’t think I would get much feedback. I was wrong. This is the haiku in its original form:
logs on the river…
on the tram floor
a newspaper
I was on my travels on Zürich’s public transport. I saw a sopping wet newspaper on the floor of the tram. It got me thinking about how little value we give to paper, and the harvesting of trees it takes to make it.
I had a couple of suggestions for changes:
a newspaper
on the tram floor…
log raft
or
river of logs…
on the tram floor
a newspaper
I like both suggestions, and I like my own. I’m still thinking but I might make a change and use river of logs. What do you think?
Saturday’s Haiku originally went like this:
a dead cat
defrosts beside the road…
a kitten sleeps
I did wonder at the time when I posted it whether it was in good taste, but as Haiku is about experiences you have had, things you have seen I went with it.
The feedback I received suggested that because I’d used the word “defrost” I was alluding to the cat in terms of food. That could work, but it really wasn’t my intention. I was attached to the words defrost, and didn’t really want to give it up until someone suggested I use the word thaw. I think thaw works better in this context.
Then I had some feedback about line 3, “a kitten sleeps”. In truth I hadn’t been happy with this line. Why? Because it didn’t tell the true story of my experience. So I changed it.
This is the current form of that Haiku:
a dead cat
thaws beside the road…
old woman’s tears
I’m contemplating getting rid of the indefinite article line one. Any thoughts?
I don’t have any new recommended reading for this week. You can have a look at the website of course and see what I recommended in the past. But I was re reading Jim Kacian’s Haiku in English: the first hundred years, and came across Ruth Yarrow. Her Haiku really touched me.
Guest Haiku.
This week it comes from Hannes Froehlich who we heard from in episode 6.
His haiku this week concerns something that we have in common, our love of the sea. He is so lucky, he lives very close to the sea, whilst I live in Switzerland which is a landlocked country. Sometimes I miss the sound of the sea very much. So I head down to my nearest lake when there’s a bit of a storm brewing and it helps.
This is his haiku:
sea without sea
across the waves of sand
sunlight swarms
What I love about writing haiku, or poetry in general is finding out what readers see or feel when they read my work. I don’t know what was in Hannes’s mind when he wrote this piece, but this is the vision that comes to my mind when I read it. I’m taken back to my childhood. It’s a sunny day. I’m standing on a sandy beach in Kent, England. The tide is out, I can see the sea in the far distance. The sand has formed ripples which look like waves and water has collected between the them. It brings me joy. Thank you very much Hannes.
If you would like to submit your haiku, please go to our website poetrypea.com, read the submissions page and send us something you would like to share.
Before I go can I ask you to do one thing for me? Can you go to the hike in the Chronicle Facebook page and give me a like. I’d really appreciate it, thank you.
Don’t forget to send us your haiku for the website and the podcast, or just some feedback we love to hear from you. See you next week, until then happy writing.
