Unique residential course covering raku firing; haiku; short love poems (tanka); haibun and renga

WRITING POETRY the haiku way.
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2010 Booking confirmed at Monday - Friday 12th-16th April 2010
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UPDATE:
A raku firing event is included in the writing course as a fantastic souvenir of the course!

Get a sense of the whole experience!
YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G_gB9_-TZU&feature=related

After the renga group poem you will details about the course and where and how you can book.


Quotes from my incredible students!

"Just to say that I have heard from the magazine you suggested and they have accepted my story and will publish and want more. Thank you."
(National magazine)

“You are a great teacher, and I know what I'm saying. Thank you for everything you gave us.”

“…still on a high…you helped me move past a real boulder I had been lugging around…I am very grateful and enjoying my writing much more.”


REBOOKED!
To see what the course is about please scroll further down but enjoy the final event we did last Spring.

Claridge House is an amazing venue and receives FULL With Words stars rating.

The food is incredible, and they cater for every kind of diet.

Getting to Claridge House is very easy. We had workshoppers from York and Cardiff as well as the South East. Lingfield Station is about 30 minutes from Victoria Station, and Claridge House is 3 minutes from the local station.

We all had a proper breakfast on the last day with absolutely no rushing for the train.

I have never been to a venue that did so much for its guests, and I can't recommend the place highly enough if you are a writer or want to enrol on a course just to have a quality few days away.

The atmosphere is the most relaxing I've ever been in, and none of us had to worry for a second where our next meal or coffee etc... was coming from.

Incredible value all round, incredible place.


This is our group renga that we did to finish the course.

I wish you could have all been there, it was so inspiring, and such a lot of fun we couldn't stop laughing at times!

The renga was composed Thursday evening (March 12th 2008) and With Words donated 10% from its residential fee to Comic Relief (Red Nose Day 2009), as they give amazing support to literacy in the U.K. and Africa, on April Fool's Day!

CLARIDGE HOUSE (Comic Relief) RENGA

Title: "JUST SHORT OF A DOUBLE SHISAN"

cold start
a robin puffs its chest up
for the first note

war cry
a rival at hand

friendly gardener
greets his friend
has a chat

but the robin sees a worm
and forgets the song

the worm forgets
the song
and knows oblivion

the female strikes a pose
on another branch

no Wenceslas
with his page
treads the snow

melting into drops
and runs away

drops of blood
lead a trail
to a hidden cavern

a wounded mouse
lies within

pussy willow
buds unfurl
furry warmth

the bear slowly awoke
as the child

the trampoline
on the lawn
next to the paddling pool

ice cream cone
fallen to the ground

in the moonlight
the fox sniffed
and moved on

to the grapes
in the greenhouse

a field of wheat
lay just beyond
spelt of course

two bikes
lying in the chaff

a dirty glass
punctures the tyre
and the crop circle

four footsteps
lead off

the vapour trail
disappears
out of the milky way

a chocolate wrapper
is all that’s left

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WRITING POETRY the haiku way
with Alan Summers

Claridge House March 9th -13th 2009

Enter the world of Japanese poetry; immerse yourself into the ‘quietnesses’ of haiku while weaving the haiku technique into your writing.

Haiku is a relaxing way of noting the ordinary moments in our lives, and with a complimentary Haiku Journal, you can become part of the Haiku way.

Enjoy the beautiful surroundings, and as haiku are often written with a seasonal reference, and contain natural images, be inspired by the nature right outside Claridge House.

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outdoor images©http://www.jopelly.eclipse.co.uk/

• The Haiku Game: great entertainment and ice-breaker and a relaxed way to start to understand all about haiku
• Haiku: its history, techniques, how to keep a haiku journal (with complimentary Haiku Journal): how to read or perform haiku (and haibun); and how to get published.
• Ginko: a writing walk, weather permitting, with complimentary Haiku Journal

The course also includes an insight into other 'forms' associated with haiku:

• Tanka: the short love poem
  
• Haibun (prose with haiku): great for journals or diary entries, and with travel writing
• Renga: Our last full day will have a 12 verse renga, just for fun!

There will be plenty of opportunity to have one-one and/or group feedback on haiku and other forms that you wish to either get to publishable quality, or wish to develop further in your writing as a novelist; travel writer (and other non-fiction); a journal/diarist; or poet.


image©Claridge House

Alan Summers is a Japan Times award-winning poet for haiku and renga, a former General Secretary of the British Haiku Society, with fifteen years’ experience, and founder of With Words.

The course will run at Claridge House, a Victorian building with full disabled access set in beautiful gardens in the Surrey countryside.

It runs from 4 pm Monday to Friday after breakfast. The cost of £290 includes the cost of accommodation and meals (which are vegetarian based on organic produce) as well the Course itself, and complimentary haiku notebooks.

Claridge House
tel. no. 01342 832150 or 0845 345 7281

Website: www.claridgehouse.quaker.eu.org
email: welcome@claridgehouse.quaker.eu.org

Claridge House, Dormans Road, Dormansland Lingfield, Surrey, RH7 6QH
Reg. Charity no 228102.

British Haiku Society Guest Talk

British Haiku Society's Winter Gathering, London
Saturday 22 November 2008

Talk/presentation: Haiku off the page; events, performance and activities.
Bring examples you may have of haiku presented other than on paper and pick up ideas to give you inspiration and confidence to generate small haiku events where you live.

I was invited to give a talk and presentation for the British Haiku Society at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, in London. The whole day was excellent, with the added delight that Red Lion Square contained a friendly café.


Before the talk a chat with Canadian writer Mike Chasty.


Red Lion Square:
Left: talking to poets A.A. Marcoff and Katherine Gallagher.
Right: under Bertram Russell's gaze talking to Treasurer Steve Mason.
Photographs courtesy of Frank Williams.

Royal Festival Hall launch of the Haiku Journal Notebook

'With Words' team at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the Thames Festival.

We launched our 'The Haiku Journal' notebooks by offering mini-workshops and challenging everyone to write a haiku!

Here are just a few photos from the occasional 'quieter' times we had.

We have since renamed ourselves Call of the Page:

www.callofthepage.org

We also run online courses in haiku; senryu; haibun; shahai; tanka and other related genres:

https://www.callofthepage.org/courses/

The launch of "Wing Beats: British Birds in Haiku" in London & Bath

Both these launches were great fun, very hard work but enjoyable, and very packed affairs.

The October launch in Bath, at Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights (Independent Bookshop of the Year 2008) was very crowded and busy but further below are a few of the Bath launch photos I was able to take amongst the amazing crush of enthusiastic people creating an buzz; a huge thank you to everyone who made this unforgettable !

BATH launch:Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights‘Independent Bookshop of the Year 2008’
14/15 John Street (behind Jolly's, opposite the "Salamander" pub)
Bath, BA1 2JL"Wing Beats: British Birds in Haiku"
Saturday 4th October 2008 - 6.30pm - 8pmFREE EVENT with wine, soft drinks & nibbles

“something truly unique: beautifully written yet easily accessible poetry that helps us reconnect with the natural world in a deeper, more intense way” (Stephen Moss)

Accessibility:
Event will be on the ground floor where there are small steps into the street-level. Useful photos of low pavement, doorway, and ground floor interior: http://www.mrbsemporium.com/Photo%20gallery.htm
For further bookshop events & details please see:
http://www.mrbsemporium.com/Newsletter_August08.htm
(and scroll down).

Map and contact details:
http://www.mrbsemporium.com/Contact.htm


This event is being held in association with With Words, and will feature readings by John Barlow and Matthew Paul; Alan Summers; plus contributors.

Karen Hoy was the M.C.

Stephen Moss will be reading from both Wing Beats and his new book, A Sky Full of Starlings (reprising his own launch earlier in the week).



Matthew Paul signing books

 
Left: Lydia (with Mr B's carrier bags) helps sell Wing Beats!

 So does Karen! (in the corridor, yes it was that crowded, is myself, John Barlow, and Stephen Moss waiting our turns).

Above: Stephen Moss reading from Wing Beats.

It became so packed on the ground floor I had to move the book signing upstairs!

Stephen; John; and Matthew with some breathing space to sign books and chat.



Some of us retired to the Eastern Eye including Canadian writer and haiku poet Marshall Hryciuk sitting next to the left of Yu Yan Chen.

THE LONDON EVENT!

London event photos©Alan SummersLeft: John Barlow and myself around 2am after a gruelling but amazing double haiku event.
Right: Karen with the boys! Matthew Paul and John Barlow
First event was the 'With Words' event at the Royal Festival Hall where "The Haiku Journal" was launched alongside "Wing Beats: British Birds in Haiku"; followed by the packed-to-the-rafters 'Wing Beats' book launch at the Poetry Society's Poetry Cafe with John Barlow and Matthew Paul, with 'With Words' as hosts.



Two images courtesy of Frank Williams

Karen struts her stuff!
London event photo©Alan Summers

David Cobb
London event photo©Alan Summers

Martin Lucas
London event photo©Alan Summers

Graham High
London event photo©Alan Summers


Wing Beats is a 320 page, hardback book. It has been described as:

“a truly unique book for both nature and poetry lovers which explores both British avifauna and the history and intricacies of haiku poetry, considering the relationships between these in a global context . . . and has gorgeous photographic watercolour illustrations by Sean Gray as well as a foreword by bird expert and BBC wildlife producer Stephen Moss” (The Book Monkey)

“full of acute observations, artistically moving, and intellectually stimulating – a very important book” (William J. Higginson)

“a triumph of seeing, expression and poetic control” (Mark Cocker)

Copies of the first edition/first printing can be ordered in advance at: http://www.wingbeats.co.uk/order.html




.LONDON LAUNCH details:
A launch evening will also take place in Covent Garden, London, at:The Poetry Society’s Poetry Café
Saturday 13th September (Doors 7.30 pm for 8 pm).

Poetry Café
22 Betterton St.
Covent Garden
London WC2H 9BX
Tel: 020 7420 9887
Manager: Ely Ahamed
Open 7 p.m. - 11 p.m. Saturday
Map weblink

Nearest Underground: Covent Garden (Piccadilly Line) Holborn (Piccadilly and Central lines)

From Covent Garden Underground station
Turn left out of the tube station to reach Longacre, then cross over at the zebra crossing (opposite Marks and Spencers). Turn right up Longacre. At the mini roundabout, use the zebra crossing (to your left) to cross over the top of Endell Street, then turn left down Endell Street.
Betterton Street is the second turning on the right (it is a one-way street with access from Endell Street). The Poetry Society (Number 22 Betterton Street) is less than 100 metres down on the left-hand side. It has a dark blue frontage. The Poetry Cafe next door is the Poetry Society's public space.


There is a disabled parking bay opposite the building. There are two more disabled parking bays on Longacre outside French Connection.

This event, which like the launch in Bath, is being held in association with With Words, will feature readings by John Barlow and Matthew Paul; Alan Summers; plus other contributors.

RSVP is essential for this event, so if you would like an invitation please could you let John at Snapshot Press know as soon as possible at email address: info@snapshotpress.co.uk

.
Hokusai's wave
on her T-shirt:
she strokes my ankle







This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.
This applies to the United States, Canada, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.

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channel-billed cuckoo
from beneath the dying fruit tree
I hear its storm cry

weblink:
channel-billed cuckoo on wikipedia
Description
A juvenile, displaying the pale tipped feathers on the wings.
In adults the tips are dark.

IMAGE/Photograph by Zarni02 at en.wikipedia
Released into the public domain (by Zarni02, the author).
(Original text : Public Domain)

The Poetry School Renga workshop

 

With a nod and thanks to Alec Finlay for his inspiration
and superb renga book: shared writing: renga days


Slug and Lettuce renga
(see below)Renga Sabaki: Alan Summers
participants:

• June Hall
• Libby Houston
• Donald Gibson
• Linda Saunders
• Be Mattingly
• Lynette Rees
• Karen Hoy

Nijuin Renga
A renga is a series of very short verses, linked into one long poem, composed collaboratively by a group. 'Nijuin' means a 20-verse renga created by 20th Century renga master Meiga Higashi. He considered the Nijuin renga to be the shortest form that could be both contemporary yet capture some of the classic feel of renga.

There are three movements in Nijuin Renga: a four verse section; a twelve verse; and another four verse section. We started in Spring going through the seasons, as well as writing love, and moon verses, to end back in Spring.The intrepid rengaistas get their first few verses down:

 

Reflective rengaistas*
(*Alec Finlay's term for renga poets)


More thinking and working out a verse
that has to both link and shift! 



Renga fun moments!
Although we look serious and reflective at times,
there was a lot of fun too, especially with the 'love verses'.

Action renga!

 

Last verse! Then some of us went on to Yen Sushi,
it's a hard life for rengaistas!

Nijuin Renga

A renga is a series of very short verses, linked into one long poem, composed  collaboratively by a group.

'Nijuin' means a 20-verse renga created by 20th Century renga master Meiga Higashi.  He considered the Nijuin renga to be the shortest form that could be both contemporary yet capture some of the classic feel of renga.

There are three movements in Nijuin Renga: a four verse section; a twelve verse; and another four verse section. We started in Spring going through the seasons, as well as writing love and moon verses, to end back in Spring.

This was composed jointly by the Poetry School workshop led by Alan Summers, which met in the Slug & Lettuce Restaurant in Bath in April 2008.

four hundred species

nesting gulls–

leaves carved

in Bath Stone

demolition reveals

hills and archaeology

we've lost the moon

on the way

to the station

cherry muffin

or wasabi peas

ninety-three million miles

is too close

sometimes

cider-headed

stuck in the hedge again

collapsed

in the middle

of a banking crisis

warm tattoos

Harley lovers' engines purr

text me

fizzed the love heart

on my tongue

all the screens in Curry's

have gone dark

the imprint

of a departed leaf

on the pavement

bracken light

kipper smoke

in their window

the luminous goose

rivals the moon

breaking cups

screams below

tea time

limbs thrown

in the cauldron

fleecy vests wait

for the coming child

we are hiding

from chaos

behind the sofa

a really thorough

one-eighth spring clean

four hundred species

of dandelion

ready to tell the time

are cuckoos

allowed?

Renga Sabaki: Alan Summers

Participants:

June Hall

Libby Houston

Donald Gibson

Linda Saunders

Be Mattingley

Lynette Rees

Karen Hoy

Breaking news as of May 2012:

Libby Houston wins major award:

http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2012/8528.html

The Linnean Society is one of the premier scientific societies in the world, whose mission is the cultivation of the science of natural history in all its branches. 

Libby Houston is also a great poet:

http://www.thebakehouse.info/index.php/22-poets/66-libby-houston

Other poets:

June Hall:

http://www.poetrypf.co.uk/junehallbiog.shtml

Linda Saunders:

http://carrieetter.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/linda-saunders-watchers.html

Lynette Rees:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/11/prweb307744.htm 

Donald Gibson (St. Andrews University):

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/english/people/postgraduates/PhD/gibson/

‘Pseudo-statement or Creative Misreading: What Happens to Science in Poetry?’  

Karen Hoy works in TV Development and is a published haiku poet:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/karen-hoy-appears-in-major-new-haiku.html 

Bea aka Be Mattingly is an adventurer and adores bikers.

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