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Hello and welcome to the Haiku Pea Podcast, I’m Patricia and today I’m really happy to be joined on the podcast by Ben Gaa and Alan Summers. I’m chatting to Ben about ego in haiku. How to be less obvious about being in your haiku.
I invited Alan to the podcast because, as some of you might know, he has a new jounal Blōō Outlier and I thought it would be nice to learn a little more about it.
Of course there’s an update on the renku.
First up a chat with Ben. If you are a regular to the podcast you will have heard Ben before. He gave us a workshop on writing haiku in episode 15 of series 3 if you’d like to go back and listen to it, or watch it uncut on the Poetry Pea YouTube channel. Today, as I said he’s going to talk to us about one of my bug bears, taking the me out of your haiku. Let’s have a listen:
I hope you enjoyed our chat, and if you’d like to read the slides Ben was using they will be on the uncut chat I’ve put on the Poetry Pea YouTube channel. If you would like to read more of Ben’s work he does have two books, details at the end of the show notes.
I’d like to add a little supplement to Ben’s chat and for this I have to thank Richard Tice, who so often sends me emails which improve my knowledge. I wanted to share some of the things he tells me in his emails. I think Richard is going to writing an essay on this topic and I hope he’ll share with me it’s location, once published, so I can share it with you. Anyway, let me give you some points that Richard made to me that I thought were fascinating and in some cases my reply to them.
- Putting oneself into the haiku or keeping oneself out of the haiku was one of the main issues in the haiku wars of the ’70s and ’80s. Perhaps I can tell you a little bit about that in another podcast. I don’t want to start another war. I’m quite happy for the poet to be in the poem, but sometimes I think that we are too quick to use I or my in our haiku and it’s always worth having a second look at what you’ve written to see if you think it’s appropriate.
- Richard pointed out to me that very often in the west we don’t take into account the evolution of haiku. We don’t make the distinction between the eras of hokku and haiku. He suggests that if we did we might find that there are reasons that hokku generally do not have the poet’s presence in the poems. For example: The hokku was tied to the place of composition, which was usually the host’s home and area around it, so it could compliment the host indirectly but would not include the poet writing the hokku.
- Then there’s the element of language. Now I can’t comment on this as Japanese is not one of my languages. Richard knows so much more than me. Apparently, Japanese excludes the subject of a phrase or sentence if it is understood. So generally personal pronouns are not used unless they are necessary to make clear the who/whom in the statement.
Richard, thanks so much. I look forward to reading your essay.
Now let’s have a listen to the renku. It’s called golden leaves drifting and for the first time we are going to write 36 verses. If you’d like to know the scheme we are writing to you will find it in Jane Reichhold’s book, “Writing and Enjoying Haiku” page 139. My fellow renku storytellers this time are scott zeilenga, Kim Russell, Riham El-Ashry and Lorraine A Padden. Thank you to them.
evening breeze
golden leaves drifting
under streetlights
s zeilenga
night creatures
explore their new world
Bisshie
through crumbling soil
ink caps and dead man’s fingers
mushrooming
Kim Russell
dry, yellow cornstalks-
black feathers watch over
Riham El Ashry
harvested fields
rinsed in moonlight
their cycle complete
Lorraine A Padden
autumn snow –
muffled sounds of morning
s zeilenga
sunlight
falling on fresh snow . . .
the tips of orange leaves
s zeilenga
a frosty fox
licks the day into shape
Kim Russell
white dappling
the grey afternoon
flurry
Lorraine A Padden
head down
following a stranger’s footprints
Bisshie
snowflakes swirl…
a unique journey began
by chance
Riham El -Ashry
ideas in motion
the wind in the trees
Lorraine A Padden
early blossom
yesterday’s icicles break
the silence
Kim Russell
waxing moon
the rhythm of a slow thaw
s zeilenga
pink daphnes
pushing off frozen crystals–
scent of change
Riham El-Ashry
the removal men trample the garden –
still treasure emerges
Bisshie
impacted earth
erupts with purple promise
crocuses
Kim Russell
the unceasing intention
of buds
Lorraine A Padden
shining wind
the luster
of robin’s egg blue
Lorraine A Padden
pastel skies
reflecting in the birdbath
s zeilenga
a child shreaks
blue tits swarm
from the privet hedge
Bisshie
amidst new leaves
the sound of church bells
s zeilenga
a woodpecker
pecks at an old trunk
conga drummer
Riham El-Ashry
syncopation
to the day’s longer beat
Kim Russell
becoming night
in the muddy hiking boots
damp socks
Bisshie
I hope you’re enjoying our renku tale and of course if you’d like to join in in the future, just email me to let me know.
It’s very remiss of me, but I haven’t reminded you that submissions are open until the 20th February for haiku written with exaggerated perpective. If you’re not sure what that means you can find out by listening to Deborah P Kolodji’s presentation on the podcast, Episode 1 of this 4th series or you can go to the Poetry Pea YouTube channel and see her presentation and read the slides. I’d definitely recommend that.
Before we go on I must say some thank yous.
Thank you for all your comments about the last episode, the one where we listened to your haiku on the topic of Spring and Autumn. I let my little family loose as community judges and you were terribly kind about their comments. Lots of you wanted to know if they were or had studied English at University, had studied at an Oxbridge college, or were haiku professionals. Well the answer to all of those questions is a resounding no.
Now Mark Gilbert made a point which hadn’t occurred to me. He said that it was interesting to hear the haiku commentaries from non haiku people. A view into how the rest of the world views our poems. He has also suggested another project for Poetry Pea, but more of that in a different podcast.
Thank you to everyone who sent me submissions for the haiku interpretation of F S Flint’s poem Ogre. Craig Kittner did me the honour of guest editing the submissions. The successful haiku will be in the Poetry Pea Journal, Spring edition. Thanks Craig for working with me on this.
Now, breaking news, the Winter 2020 edition of the Journal is now available in print and kindle format via Amazon. Please have a look at your acceptance emails, they always tell you which Journal you will be featured in.
And now a little chat with Alan Summers. It’s only a short one this time, but don’t worry there will be more in the future.
Well now that’s it for today. Thanks to Ben for his workshop, to Alan for coming along and telling us about Blōō Outlier Journal, to my renku partners, to Richard for all the information he sends me. In fact I forgot to tell you, he suggested a blog which I’m really enjoying, it’s Blue Willow Haiku World, by Fay Aoyagi. In her blog Fay brings us contemporary Japanese haiku, which she very kindly translates for us.
Thank you al for coming along to listen to todays podcast, it’s lovely to be with you, whatever you are up to.
Don’t forget that I’m currently accepting email submissions for haiku written with exaggerated perspective, until the 20th February.
Until we meet for our next podcast, humourous haiku, keep writing….
If I’ve forgotten anything, or something is missing in the shownotes just email me and I’ll put it right. Ciao
Ben Gaa’s books:
Alan Summers’s Info:
Alan Summers is the founding editor of Blōō Outlier Journal:
The Blōō Outlier Journal Winter Christmas Eve Special Issue 2020 (Issue #1)
ed. Alan Summers
Alan Summers is co-founder of Call of the Page, alongside Karen Hoy, where they promote the love of haiku and its related genres:
His haiku and haibun have both been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his haibun nominated for Best Small Fictions. He is also the President of the United Haiku and Tanka Society which is free to join:
Alan, a Japan Times award-winning writer, was filmed by NHK Television (Japan) for “Europe meets Japan – Alan’s Haiku Journey.” You can see him talk about haiku at train stations from Bradford-on-Avon to London, and finally walk alongside him on a haiku writing journey alongside the Kennet and Avon canal!
Vision
The Haiku Pea Podcast started small in 2017. I thought I would more or less be talking to myself, but reckoned without the power of haiku, and the word spread. Now here at Poetry Pea there are a number of ways to celebrate haiku with lots and lots of like minded haiku poets.
In 2021 the Haiku Pea podcast will be offering two podcast a month on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month, the first to explore haiku topics and the second to hear the haiku and senryu that you have been writing.
Listening options:
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