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Hello, my name is Patricia and I’m delighted to welcome you to the Haiku Pea Podcast, episode 17 of the 4th Series. What are we up to this time? Well, I have a little bit of housekeeping for you and then I’d like to invite you to a little chat that Mark Gilbert and I had about long haiku and haiku in general. We also have some challenges for you, listen on and we’ll tell you about them.
As I publish this podcast it’s the beginning of September 2021, and there are lots of new bits and bobs to tell you about.
• Linda L Ludwig and Renee Schafer contributed a haiku moment for us
• Robert Horrobin sent me a wonderful video that is our September prompt.
You’ll find both of these videos on the website for our YouTube channel. Do you go along to YouTube, make some comments write some poetry and interact with the Poetry Pea community.
Submissions have opened for the latest topic, freestyle haiku and senryu. You can send us any haiku or senryu you like during this submission period, but don’t forget it ends on the 20th of September.
James Young and Robert Horrobin are waiting for your submissions and this month they’ve been joined by Craig Kittner.
Your mission if you choice to accept it:
• Edit the submissions for the podcast and journal
• Be a community judge
Do let me know if you’re interested by email please. I think everyone’s enjoying doing it, and some of you have volunteered to come back and do it again!
• I’m putting together a schedule and I’d like to know what you’d be interested in thinking and talking about next year.
• I’m also putting out a call for speakers. If you’d like to come onto the podcast and do maybe a 20 minute presentation on a topic that you are passionate about let me know.
• If you’ve got a haiku book that you’d like to read to us, send me an email and we’ll talk about it.
Lets go and listen to the chat I had with Mark. The Internet fairies were kind to us and all went well except that there’s a little tick on the audio which I just couldn’t edit out; apologies for that. I hope you enjoy our chat nonetheless.
At the end I’ll tell you what I took away from it and perhaps after you listen to it you’ll send Mark and I some feedback here at Patrick P. And email to me will be fine and I’ll pass on your thoughts to Mark too.
Mark Gilbert regularly contributes his poetry to the podcast, he came along to talk to us about whoku in Series 2, episode 17 and he was recently a guest judge for the Kigo submissions in Season 4 episode 12.
Now, Mark is a UK poet, here is an example of his work:
Saturday night comedian
the paramedic
at the start of his shift
Mark Gilbert, Blithe Spirit #26/1 (Feb-16)
Now some poems Mark and I put together to illustrate Long Haiku
a Mason jar full of wildflowers –
the thistle
always lasts the longest
Stanford M. Forrester, the toddlers chant – Stark Mountain press, 3rd edition, 2020
A sleepless spring night:
Yearning for what I never had
And for what never was.
Richard Wright, Haiku: This Other World, 1998
nowhere I need to be
a cabbage moth flits
among the daylilies
Hannah Mahony, Acorn 39, 2017
blank spaces on the checkerboard
weeds moving into
her flower beds
Gary Hotham, hedgerow #131, 2020
“It’s day now it’s night now
it’s day now it’s night now it’s day now
it’s night,” sing the cicadas.
Mark Gilbert, Unpublished
January thaw
stacks of yellowed hay bales
steaming in the meadow
Wally Swist Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2020
snow swirling on the frozen river a lone skater practising toe loops
Michael Dudley, pilgrimage, Red Moon Press 2017
What are my major takeaways from our chat?
• Mark is expecting that your haiku would be 14 syllables more.
• If you’re counting syllables, stop! Your experience and your confidence will guide you.
• Choose the right word for your poem. When we write poetry with so few words each word we choose must work hard. Don’t be put off by the length of the word.
• Be succinct, I don’t mean keep it short, I mean be brief and concise.
• Writing long haiku is not an excuse for flabby editing.
When it comes to submitting for long haiku in October Mark and I said we want to encourage you to be daring but at the same time we’re expecting haiku so please do make yourself familiar with our guidelines.
A couple of reminders for you.
• Mark and I have challenged you to think about how you would edit Richard Wright’s haiku to make it more contemporary. If you have some thoughts do email me and I’ll share with Mark.
• Don’t forget this month you can send any haiku or senryu you like as your submission to poetry pea. We’re here and waiting with bated breath to see what you’re going to send us.
Next time on the podcast we’re going to be listening to your original haiku and senryu using place names. It was very interesting to edit your submissions and I hope you’ll come along and listen as we’re going on a global voyage of discovery.
And one last thing. I wanted to give you an update on the coffees you send me. As you know I’m saving for a new microphone and as I put this podcast to bed I’m happy to tell you that I’m 45% of the way to achieving my new mic. Thank you to everyone who is helping me.
I hope you’ll join me next time on the podcast, until then keep writing.
