Winning haiku including Highly Commended : The 2010 With Words International Online Haiku Competition Results

We would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

Alan, Karen and Kathy, With Words

A Full Report and Judges Commentary will appear up on With Words later in the New Year.

1^st Prize

the coot's lobes
just melting the ice
snow in the wind

John Barlow

Ormskirk, England

2^nd Prize

after chemo--
finding more beauty

in the petal bare bloom

 

Terri L. French

Alabama USA

HIGHLY COMMENDED

in their roost
of bark and brambles
the wintering owls

John Barlow

Ormskirk, England

family photo box
how my father smiles
in black and white

Sandra Simpson

Tauranga, New Zealand

bright moon
light years
between starfish

Ernest J Berry

Picton, New Zealand

Commended

Brett Brady, Hawaii, USA 

Sandra Simpson, Tauranga, New Zealand 

Susan Richardson, Cardiff, Wales
John Barlow, Ormskirk, England 

Congratulations to everyone, and many thanks to every entrant who entered the competition and helped support our literacy programme and charities.

 

The 2010 With Words International Online Haiku Competition Results

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Congratulations to the winners, Highly Commended and Commended entries, but also to the incredible number of well written haiku that made judging so delightfully difficult.

A full report and details will go up onto the With Words website in the New Year.

Happy Christmas to all,

Karen, Kathy, and Alan at With Words


1st Prize


the coot's lobes
just melting the ice
snow in the wind


John Barlow
Ormskirk, England



2nd Prize


after chemo--
finding more beauty
in the petal bare bloom


Terri L. French
Alabama USA



Highly Commended

Sandra Simpson, Tauranga, New Zealand
Ernest J Berry, Picton, New Zealand
John Barlow, Ormskirk, England



Commended

Susan Richardson, Cardiff, Wales
Sandra Simpson, Tauranga, New Zealand
Brett Brady, Hawaii, USA
John Barlow, Ormskirk, England











 

Jean Rasey 1925-2010 haiku poet and good friend

Jean Rasey  (1925-2010)

Much loved Aussie haiku poet Jean Rasey passed away early Sunday morning 5^th December; she will be sorely missed by so many of us.

Jean’s Austalian Haiku Society biography states she became interested in haiku when hosting a Japanese exchange student in 1979/80. When Paper Wasp formed in 1994 it was the beginning of a rewarding participation in this succinct and evocative form of poetry.

We became close haiku friends via the hugely popular Osaka, Japan based Azami magazine.  After Azami’s editor’s demise, we carried on sporadically via other magazines and email including her wonderful book "easy with the ebb" :

http://www.postpressed.com.au/index.html?verse/ebb.html

 "Jean Rasey ...writes haiku of pure deliquescence... they melt in the mouth, leaving a delicate after taste of mono no aware, "an empathy to things"... There is a simplicity that skirts plainness or sentiment... When you read her haiku you may well find yourself holding your breath with hers..."

Alan Summers — With Words

 

This book has become a With Words recommended book for all our students.

"Long have I waited for sincerity. And here it is from far across the ocean, laden with the truth of why we write and why we live!"   vincent tripi — Summer 2007

Here are just a few of her haiku over the years:

first flush of dawn

down river a lone oarsman

easy with the ebb

Finalist, Seventh Annual Jack Stamm Paper Wasp Haiku Contest (2005)

moonrise

shadow to deeper shadow

the whisper of wings

Finalist, Seventh Annual Jack Stamm Paper Wasp Haiku Contest (2005)

night rain

I snuggle deeper

into the sound

"A poem Presence readers acknowledged as one of the world's best"  H F 'Tom' Noyes

This one published in the British Haiku Society’s Blithe Spirit magazine:

all night the rainbird
not until midday
a rumble of thunder

Blithe Spirit Vol 12 No 1 (2002)

 

The new issue of haijinx is out!

haijinx 2010
volume III, 
issue 1
December 2010



The new issue is out, our first new issue since 2002.

We have familiar faces and some new ones for you, enjoy!

Click here to enter our special 2010 issue: weblink

Alan Summers,
haijinx team editor

FREE WORLDWIDE Haiku Competition for children and teenagers!

WIN SHOUTING AT THE OCEAN

If you're aged between 4 yrs to 18 yrs you could win a free copy if you write a haiku!

The Poetry Zone have five copies to give away.

Simply write a haiku poem.

Send it to the Poetry Zone at haiku@pzone.freeserve.co.uk

The deadline is December 31st 2010.

The winning poems will appear here in January 2011. 

Don't forget to include your name, age and a contact address.

This is a FREE competition and open to everyone around the world aged between 4 years old and 18 years old!

Good luck everyone!

Important. Read these Rules.

1 Send your haiku to haiku@pzone.freeserve.co.uk

2 Send poem in body of the e-mail NOT as a file or attachment

3 Remember to give your name, age and a contact address (No addresses will be published here)

4 The competition is open worldwide (written in English) for children or teenagers between the ages of 4 and 18.

5 Closing date for the competition is December 31st 2010

6 Poems MUST be your own, original work.

Alan Summers is the Poetry Zone’s Guest Haiku Competition judge, all haiku entries sent to: haiku@pzone.freeserve.co.uk

Alan is a Japan Times award-winning poet for haiku, and founder of With Words (www.withwords.org.uk) which promotes the love of words through literacy and literature events using haiku and its related forms.

He also runs The With Words International Online Haiku Competition, and judges children’s haiku competitions around the world.

What is a haiku?  
Alan says:
Haiku are short three line poems that don't rhyme and are six seconds long.
Ask a friend to count how long your haiku is by getting them to count the seconds by calling out OCEAN HAIKU! six times. 

Competition weblink: 

http://secretlivesofpoets.blogspot.com/p/competitions.html

THE BOOK!

Shouting at the Ocean: Poems that make a splash!

Edited by Graham Denton, Andrea Shavick and Roger Stevens

Cover illustration by David Parkins

Illustrations by Cathy Benson, Liz Brownlee, Philip Waddell and Sue Hardy-Dawson

Price £4.99 ISBN 978-0-9555589-0-0

Dive into this wonderful collection of children’s poems compiled by top poets - Graham Denton, Andrea Shavick and Roger Stevens. 

Discover who ate Grandma, who sold Mum and who swallowed a stopwatch.

Find out who threw the first doughnut, who caught the three-legged dog and how you can get much, much more pocket money.

Haiku Competition sponsored by The Secret Lives of Poets:

http://secretlivesofpoets.blogspot.com

Fifty-Seven Damn Good Haiku by a Bunch of Our Friends

Fifty-Seven Damn Good Haiku
by a Bunch of Our Friends

ISBN 978-1-878798-31-2   

Press Here is pleased to announce this publication

edited by Michael Dylan Welch and Alan Summers.

  

Each editor selected six poets for inclusion in the book, and each of the twelve poets is  represented by either four or five haiku. 

Not a single one is about parsnips.

The poets, who live in Europe, Africa, North America, and Japan, are
Karen Hoy, Alison Williams, Timothy Collinson, David Serjeant, Caleb
Mutua, Susan Constable, Deborah P Kolodji, Susan Antolin, Dejah Léger,
Tanya McDonald, Helen Russell, and Keiko Izawa.

For orders outside the United States,  please inquire for details by
emailing WelchM@aol.com

To order in the United States, please send $8.00 plus $2.00  postage.

Make payments payable to “Michael D. Welch” and send to him at 22230 NE 
28th Place, Sammamish, WA 98074-6408 USA.

For more information,  please visit
http://sites.google.com/site/graceguts/press-here

Carmen Sterba (haijinx editor, friend and collegue) wishing me luck at Haiku Northwest's Seabeck Haiku Getaway where the book received its U.S. booklaunch.  

Photo by Deborah P Kolodji.

U.K. note from Alan, With Words

I'll be receiving U.K. copies this Summer.

With Words will be planning a double book launch in the City of Bath; Bristol; and other cities end of 2011 into 2012.

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Karen Hoy and Alan Summers guest star poets for Words & Ears event

Words & Ears II

Come and join us at Bradford's poem-and-a-pint night.

It's free, and it's easy!

Bring a poem, story or song to share, or just bring yourself.

All performers and listeners welcome.

Karen Hoy and Alan Summers

Wednesday 17th November
7.30p.m. - 10p.m.
Georgian Wine Lodge, The Foyer, Bradford on Avon

http://www.georgianlodgehotel.com/

You may have heard of haiku, but what about senryu, tanka, haibun or renga?

Widely published poets Karen Hoy and Alan Summers read from their work in these Japanese forms, negotiating nature, love, and humanity.

The Georgian Lodge is just two-three minutes from the train station, or the bus stop directly opposite the Georgian Lodge.

Yes, it's really as easy as that! ;-)

From the train station, walk towards the old Norman Bridge (with an old single prison cell) but stop before you walk across, and look over to your right.  You'll probably see us waving from the windows! ;-)

Georgian Lodge:

http://www.georgianlodgehotel.com

Old Norman Bridge over the Avon
by Bwana_Brown

Alan Summers' "lazy afternoon" haiku in a Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku) created by Kuniharu Shimizu (Tokyo, Japan)

lazy afternoon-
I drift along with the breeze
and dandelion seeds

Alan Summers

publication credits:
1.   Haiga artwork by Kuniharu Shimizu (Tokyo, Japan) published at 'see haiku here' (2010)
2.   Writing Events Bath ekphrastic challenge (2010)
3.   'Aesthetics' Bath Spa University literary journal, (Summer 2007)
4.   'Haiku Friends 2'  Editor: Masaharu Hirata, Osaka, Japan (2007)

   

Alan Summers' haiku featured in Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku) anthology

I’m delighted to see my haiku illustrated in "water" the 2nd of the haiga eBook series edited by Kuniharu Shimizu. This book will help give you a full view of haiku scene around the world.

To see my haiku, and others by leading haiku practitioners around the world, please consider purchasing the anthology priced US$6 or 5 Euros through the paypal system.

Discription: E-book in PDF format. 9MB in data. Viewable on PC, Mac, and any compatible e-reader devices.

Content: 75 color plates of haiga artwork for haiku poems by well known 65 haijin (poets) from around the world.

Kuniharu Shimizu was born in Nara, Japan, collaborates with haiku poets from all over the world, and has made more than 1000 haiga (haiku painitings).

Kuniharu is currently one of the advisors to The World Haiku Association and Judge of the WHA Monthly Haiga Contest.

He says, "My association with haiku poets influenced me to do artistic illustrations. By artistic, I mean the pictures with poetic content. I am not much concerned about the newness of appearance, which is often considered a valuable thing in digital art works. I rather put in some substantial content in my digital works so that the viewer can extract many layers of meanings from them."

Kuniharu was also my colleague and haijinx artist-in-residence from 2001 to 2002.

About Kuniharu Shimizu, haiga artist

Born in Tenri, Nara, Japan in 1949, Kuniharu Shimizu has had many awards including 1st Place in the Ichiretu-kai Scholarship Foundation Logo Mark Contest; and 1st Place in the Japan Toy Association Logo Mark Contest.

• Haiku Awards include: Valentine Awards (2003 and 2004; Special Mention (Heron’s Nest); Second Prize in "Best of 2003" (Mainichi Daily News); Special Prize at the Mongolian Spring Festival Haiku Contest in Tokyo, April 2007; and Merit Based Scholarship Publishing through the Cole Foundation for The Arts in The Baker’s Dozen – Volume III.

“see haiku here” bookstore Website:

• http://tfship.net/bookstore/bkstore.html

"Come Write With Me!" National Poetry Day Community Drop In Renga with Alan Summers and guests at Bristol Central Library

"Come Write With Me" with Alan Summers

Bristol Central Library hosts Renga Poet and Organiser Alan Summers of literature organisation With Words as he collects short verses from library visitors to create a multi-voiced renga poem similar to those traditionally created in Japan.

Bristol Central Library is very close to Temple Meads Railway Station; Bristol City Centre (1 -2 minutes walk); and Central Bus Station: Bristol Central Library weblink

• Dates and times: Thursday 7 October, 10am - 6pm
• Venue: Bristol Central Library, College Green, Bristol, BS1 5TL
• Free, for more information contact Andrew Cox, 0117 9222 180

This event is specially adapted to reflect the National Poetry Day theme of Home, and what that means in Bristol, the poem will be developed throughout the day.

This family friendly drop in event is open to everyone!

We are looking for very short mini-memories that can be then be made into brief renga verses.

People love reading these haikulike verses!

•    The whole mini-memory can just take a few seconds to say.
•    The words can present a recent or past memory 

•    It can be about anything from childhood to work, or what you like about your home and/or Bristol.

That's it!  We do the rest, just record the way you say it, making it a brief verse that other people love to read, and share. 

Just give us a recollection of a memory past or present, or even something humourous, and we will link it to the other verses being created so that people will love hearing them, and reading them.

The verses will be posted on this blog, with your permission, where hundreds of people from Bristol and beyond will read and connect with, and share a common experience with you.

.

If you have any questions please drop me an email at: bristolrenga@withwords.org.uk

or give me a ring on my mobile: 07979 656 775.  

.

If you get my voicemail I will call you back as soon as I can, as I want everyone to enjoy this relaxed and highly rewarding experience.

What does 'home'mean to you?

• is it the building you live in
• the place you came from
• a taste of home cooking?
• or is there something else you can think of!

Above all, this is a fun experience which can result in simple but moving verses enjoyed and appreciated by people from all walks of life.
.

Alan Summers is the current Renga Poet-in-Residence for the  Hull Global Renga.

=============
What is Renga?
=============

Bristol bred Alan Summers is the founder of With Words which promotes 
the love of words with events and activities through Haiku and Renga 
poetry.

He is a Japan Times award-winning writer for haiku and renga poetry 
(haiku originated from Renga as its ‘starting verse’).

Renga is a traditional Japanese group poem that's ‘shared writing’: 
everyone is allowed the chance to write, or verbally suggest a verse.

It’s very inclusive, creative, and encouraging, and the making of this 
communal poem is as important as the final result.

===============
More about Renga
===============

Example of a renga led by Japan Times award-winning writer for haiku and renga: www.geantree.com/rengarenku9_10toes.html

Of all the ‘poetic forms’this is one that works for people who have 
never written before, and yet offers a great challenge for those who 
are already comfortable and established writers.

Renga is where people can sit and stay, or come and go, listen or 
write, and above all share in the decision-making of each verse. When 
completed the renga poem is jointly owned by everyone.

The renga verses are more than the sum of its parts as they capture our 
thoughts and feelings, which might otherwise be lost at end of the day; 
we can also share an experience wherein strangers and friends or 
colleagues connect for a moment.

======
The aim
======

The aim is that towards the end of the day at Bristol Central Library 
we can display both finished renga poems in the library; to present a 
sense of achievement to the local community; and to develop a further 
interest in Japanese culture.

=====
 Blog
=====

The whole poem will also be available to read on this blog.


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New Edition of Katikati Haiku Pathway anthology - New Zealand Haiku Park

Haiku Pathway Guidebook

Katikati, New Zealand

10th Anniversary Edition

ISBN: 978-0-473-16493-5

It's the 10th Anniversary of this extraordinary project where initially I was the only European poet represented.  

Images and information about the world's largest haiku park outside Japan:

http://area17.blogspot.com/2007/08/new-katikati-haiku-pathway-guidebook-is.html

Kala Ramesh, Visiting Special Guest of the "With Words" organisation (Karen Hoy & Alan Summers) and the London Haiku Group

Sunday 12th September 2010, 

Royal Festival Hall, London

 

With Words (Karen Hoy & Alan Summers) with their Special Guest, Kala Ramesh (Pune, India), meeting with the London Haiku Group.

Here Kala explains about raga in one of her many India inspired haiku.

photograph©Alan Summers

Karen Hoy (With Words) gives a reading of her own special brand of haiku to the London Haiku Group.

photograph©Alan Summers

 

A selection of photographs by 

Alan Summers and Frank Williams:

Kala Ramesh, Alan Summers, and the London Haiku Group, Royal Festival Hall

Photograph©Frank Williams 

The London Haiku Group; Alan Summers and Karen Hoy of With Words; Kala Ramesh; 

and Kalindi Kokal from Pune, India. 

Kala Ramesh, as Special Guest with Alan Summers and Karen Hoy of Call of the Page, 

(formerly known as 'With Words').

Photograph©Frank Williams

Frank Williams, 

Kala Ramesh, 

and Alan Summers listening 

into their conversation! 


Photograph©Karen Hoy

Alan Summers and Karen Hoy now run

Call of the Page:

https://www.callofthepage.org

2010 WITH WORDS COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT

WITH WORDS COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT

 

We are pleased to announce that the 2010 Words International Haiku Online Competition is now open: http://www.withwords.org.uk/comp.html

This year at the request of some entrants we will be announcing Highly
Commended and Commended authors rather than a longlist and shortlist.

Highly Commended poets will be given the option of having their haiku
published online.

Good luck to all of you entering our next international haiku
competition, and many thanks for your support.

Results of the competition in previous years can be read at:
http://www.withwords.org.uk/results.html

Alan, Karen & Kathy, With Words

Rose Hip Curry and the Sound of Poets Cooking - Book Release!

The Sound of Poets Cooking

editor Richard Krawiec
Jacar Press, 2010, 172 pages
ISBN: 9780984574001

http://jacarpress.com/books.html#sopc

Featuring work by five dozen poets, including NC Poet Laureates Fred Chappell and Kathryn Stripling Byer, and dozens of other nationally celebrated writers. The poems alternate with recipes written by the poets, their family members, lovers and friends. The writing is at turns sensuous, hilarious, elegant, and playful. The recipes range from Asian, through European, to Middle Eastern dishes, as well as regional favorites from across the U.S.--tiramisu, homemade curry, vegetarian meals, exotic seafood, some simple, some complex. There is something here for every palate, literary and culinary.

Proceeds from the sales of this book will be used to fund writing workshops in excluded communities. 
.

Click for review:

Review: The Independent, in Durham

  

"The first step in Alan Summers' Rosehip Curry recipe (yum!) is to write for several hours in a walled garden in direct sunlight."

Wild Goose Poetry review says:
 
"The Sound of Poets Cooking  is a new, 172-page anthology of poems about food accompanied by related recipes, from Krawiec’s fledgling press, Jacar Press. And it is an impressive debut, featuring wonderful work from poets both familiar and new, including two NC Poets Laureate, Fred Chappell and Kathryn Stripling Byer ... and more, wrapped in a clever cover with an image of Buddha cradling a pomegranate, eggplant, carrots, tomatoes, sweet potato, chef’s knife and some spiky yellow fruit I’m not familiar with, appealingly conveying the mixture of spirituality and whimsy one might expect from poetry about food."

North American Readings for 2010 and 2011 

by Richard Krawiec and other poets

Oct 23, 3pm Greensboro Barnes and Noble,– Mark Smith-Soto Coordinator

Nov 6, Bookwalk Washington, NC – Marty Silverthrone

Nov 7, 3pm Quail Ridge Books Raleigh – Richard Krawiec

Nov 13, 7pm – Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill – Richard Krawiec

Nov 14, 3pm Malaprops, Asheville – Pat Riviere-Seel

Nov 18, 8pm ECU – John Hoppenthaler - Richard Krawiec if you want to carpool

Dec 3, 7pm – The Regulator – Richard Krawiec

Dec 10 (possibly) 6pm, Accent on Books, Asheville – Pat Riviere-Seel

2011

April 3, 3pm City Lights Books, Sylva, April Poetry Month kick-off – me for
now but someone else will be handling the local aspect

April 14, 7:30pm.  Central Piedmont Community College Literary Festival,
Charlotte.  This will be a big event, combined with culinary students there
cooking recipes – Richard Krawiec for now

April 23 all day event at Barton College, including readings, workshops, and
a concert by Fleur de Lisa – Richard Krawiec for now

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Blast from the Past Haiku Residency; enjoy the video!

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Working with Sam and Emerson who helped create Ambidextrous (an undergraduate programme now adopted for every year) when they were undergraduates was a fantastic experience as Haiku poet-in-residence with Bath Spa University Undergraduate Development Project.

Sam and Emerson (photo©Sam & Emerson):

 



The whole project including my haiku residency was run by student organisation ambidextrous (Autumn 2006 - Summer 2007)

This was a number of haiku projects designed by me or Sam and Emerson:

·     * haiku and renga workshops

·     * mobile haiku walls for students and lecturers

·    * 24 Hour Haiku Answering Phone

·    * web-based media project (ArtsWork Bath Spa University) 

   * Final event Play On Words Festival (Newton Park Campus). (scroll down a little)

Video project, created 20 Nov 2006 by Ambidextrous and Soft C

Viewed 2827 times so far

An exploration of haiku for the modern day, featuring Britain's leading haiku expert Alan Summers.

Created in collaboration between two student arts groups - Ambidextrous and SOFT C. 

Now enjoy the video!

http://tiny.cc/BathSpaHaiku

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anatomy of a haiku

1st Prize

Fellowship of Australian Writers, Queensland 1995 Haiku Competition

dusk at the golf club

part of a marker pole

a tawny frogmouth

Alan Summers

Judge’s Report

This poem fulfils the criteria for a haiku in a number of ways.  Haiku should be the result of an insightful moment when something links a human to nature.

The human element in this poem is strong, ‘dusk at the golf club’ : the writer is going inside. The day has ended. The tawny frogmouth is coming out; his night of searching for food is just beginning.

The centre line acts as a pivot for the first and third lines: the coming and going of two creatures who share the same territory.

The marker pole is important to both.  It is the link between them. It guides the human and the frogmouth uses it as a perch from which to watch for prey

The human will probably go into the club house and prop on a stool to eat and drink.  Is their behavior so different?

This haiku performs in the way in which a well-crafted haiku should – by leading the reader’s mind far beyond the words on the page.

Judge commentary by Janice Bostok

Janice Bostok:

Janice is an internationally respected haiku writer and editor.

Hiroaki Sato's "Haiku and the Agonies of Translation" published in a Frogpond XXII supplement of theory and analysis in 1999, included 30 of Janice's haiku.

 

Hiroaki Sato also translated haiku of ozaki hosai in the book called: "Right Under the Big Sky, I Don't Wear a Hat" (Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature) [Paperback]

Photo:C.Coverdale Subject:Tawny Frogmouth Location: Sydney,Australia (photo taken in backyard)https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tawny_Frogmouth_(Coverdale).jpg

Tawny Frogmouth:

http://australianmuseum.net.au/Tawny-Frogmouth

Introducing our Tawny Frogmouth: http://www.tangleoflife.org/animals/tawny-frogmouth-podargus-strigoides

Frogmouths and Nightjars:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/nightjar

On a very sad Note:
Regrettably Janice has passed away:

Janice M. Bostok 
9th April 1942—4th September 2011    

In Memoriam - Alan Summers
http://www.hsa-haiku.org/newsletters/2011-10-HSA-Newsletter.pdf

http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/catching-the-essence-of-life-in-a-single-breath-20110913-1k7nt.html

http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/catching-the-essence-of-life-in-a-single-breath-20110913-1k7nt.html 

http://dangerouslypoetic.com/poetry/freewheeling-haiku-sequence/ 

http://www.mydailynews.com.au/news/book-honours-late-haiku-poet/1289474/

http://livinghaikuanthology.com/living-legacies/jan-bostok.html 

White Heron: The Authorized Biography of Janice Bostok by Sharon Dean

https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/70731a06c7b17aa7e33a7fe7789d23ed.pdf

Amongst the Graffiti - 

Collected Haiku & Senryu

1972-2002 - Janice Bostok

Amongst the Graffiti is available as a PDF:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/df12235e5c93205f453c40dc7d86bf7c.pdf

Tributes to Janice:

https://australianhaikusociety.org/category/haiku/haiku-history-in-australia/janice-bostok-tributes/

Janice became a very good friend in later years and we met in person for the first time at Katikati, North Island, New Zealand at the official opening of the Haiku Pathway:

http://area17.blogspot.com/2007/08/new-katikati-haiku-pathway-guidebook-is.html

Janice's website:
http://members.dodo.com.au/janbos/katikati.html
. 

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