This haiku is deeply influenced from my reading of the Greek myths and legends as a boy from populist literature through to The story of Orpheus and Eurydice,
as told by Apollonius of Rhodes, Virgil and Ovid and others, in translation.
night of small colour
a part of the underworld
becomes one heron
Alan Summers
First Publication Credit: Modern Haiku Vol. 45.2 Summer 2014
Feature: Brass Bell Showcase: Alan Summers (July 2015):
Anthology credits:
Haiku 2015 (Modern Haiku Press, 2015)
Poetry as Consciousness -
Haiku Forests, Space of Mind, and an Ethics of Freedom
Author: Richard Gilbert Illustrator: Sabine Miller.
This haiku is classified as mythopoetic reality. The mythopoesis [is] evident in the semantic twist of “small colour” of night, a part of which “becomes on heron.”
What lies between realism and imagination, between living and dreaming, [as] a particular form of sanctuary; a space of poiesis. It seems most most fragile and nuanced, insignificant and ephemeral—yet it calls or we call, in seeking deeper, more enriching, increasingly multiple, multifarious dimensions of knowing in psyche.
Wallace Stevens refers to this poetical process as “enlargement”.
Pages 223 and 224:
Richard Gilbert, Japan
My haiku is both experiential, and inspired by the late evening/night. This is a modified photo I took but the night of small or little colour was very much like this to my naked eye. You may or may not see that it has 17 syllables, 5-7-5 pattern.
fuller's teasel
lapwings call out
to a stray cloud
Alan Summers
Publication Credit: Presence #53 2015
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| Fuller's Teasel, Barton Park, Bradford on Avon by Alan Summers |
pacing clouds
the new station cat
changes sunspots
Alan Summers
Publication Credit: Acorn October 2015
train station
the heat of the platform
in my blood
Alan Summers
NHK World - Europe and Japan
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| train entering Bradford on Avon by Alan Summers |
Permission given by NHK Television to The Haiku Foundation to appear on YouTube.
dandelion fluff
I lose count of my time
on this earth
Alan Summers
Publication Credit: Brass Bell: Alan Summers Wednesday, July 1, 2015
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| dandelion photo and alterations by Alan Summers |
wildflowers adding a little evening to the daylight
monostich by Alan Summers
Publication Credit: Presence #52 (2015)
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| blue wildflowers at Darling Range © Alan Summers |
peat smoke–
one more angel’s share
of handcrafted whisky
Alan Summers
Publication Credit: Haibun, Blithe Spirit Vol. 25 issue 2 (2015)
a lamb’s cry
scudding clouds over
the cemetery wall
Alan Summers
Publication Credit: Scope April 2015 volume 61 no 3
splitting the sky
a kingfisher lifts a branch
off the breeze
Alan Summers
Award Credit: Best of Mainichi Japan 2014
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kingfisher in the distance River Avon,
Bradford on Avon by Alan Summers |
after rain midnight dreams a hedgehog
Alan Summers
Publication Credit: brass bell: a haiku journal
Kirkstone Pass
a sheepdog gathers
its part of the world
Alan Summers
Publication Credit: Muttering Thunder vol. 1, 2014
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| haiku and photo by Alan Summers, Lake District U.K. |
a flink of cows
the blue before a night
of falling snow
Cow: A kine of cows (twelve cows are a flink)
Alan Summers
Publication Credit: Blithe Spirit 2014
hard frost-
the snail-hammerings
of a song thrush
Alan Summers
Publication Credit: Muttering Thunder vol. 1, 2014; The Haiku Calendar 2016 (Snapshot Press, 2015)
Award Credit: Runner-up, The Haiku Calendar Competition 2015
marsh marigolds-
opening up hidden suns
to the morning
Alan Summers
Publication Credits: earlier versions: Under the Basho Vol 1.1 Autumn 2013
Cat moon
my wife ill with posset
at the restaurant
Alan Summers
Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts Vol.1, No.2 August 2013
working the ice cream
we walk all the way back
to yesterday
Alan Summers
Publication Credits: Notes from the Gean Haiku Monthly no.21 July 2013;
sunflower heart
the chiffchaff sings
its name
Alan Summers
Publication Credits:
tinywords 13.2 2013 (ISSN 2157-5010)
eJournal/eMagazine San Mateo, CA : D.F. Tweney : El Camino Press
exchanging winks
how come this cat knows
my midnight reasons
Alan Summers
Publication Credits: Raindrop A Journal Of Short Form Poetry Issue 1, 2013
dad and son
a wasp changes knuckles
at the football match
Alan Summers
Publication Credits:
Second Haiku Contest, Sharpening the Green Pencil 2013 The Book of the Contest
The Night Train
of paper rock scissors
you sleep into me
Alan Summers
Publication Credits:
c.2.2. Anthology of short-verse ed. Brendan Slater & Alan Summers
(Yet To Be Named Free Press 2013)
drifting rain
my hundred autumn rooms
to be alone
Alan Summers
Publication Credits: Mainichi Shimbun (Japan, Oct. 2012); Best of Mainichi 2012 (Japan 2013); Under the Basho ('Best of . . . ' Showcase, Autumn 2013)
Anthology Credit: A Vast Sky, An Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku (Tancho Press 2015)
For those who are new to haiku and may not know about me. I'm very much a global haiku poet, but I'm also someone who captures a little of Britain from time to time.
Alan Summers MA (Bath Spa University)
Alan is a double Japan Times award-winning writer; recipient of the Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto Peace Museum Award for haiku (1998); and a Pushcart Prize nominated poet.
He served as General Secretary of the British Haiku Society (1998-2000).
Do consider joining!
His work regularly appears in leading anthologies around the haiku genre: Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (W. W. Norton 2013); Haiku 2014 (Modern Haiku Press, 2014); Haiku 2015 (Modern Haiku Press, 2015); The Disjunctive Dragonfly, a New Approach to English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press 2012); A Vast Sky, An Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku (Tancho Press 2015); and Journeys 2015 - An Anthology of International Haibun (prose and haiku). ed. Dr Angelee Deodhar
NHK World TV of Japan recently featured him in Europe meets Japan - Alan’s Haiku Journey, and he regularly appears in Japanese newspapers:
"Astonishingly moving haiku"
YOMIURI SHIMBUN (Japan) January 2005
"Widely known haiku poet...as dry as vintage champagne"
YOMIURI SHIMBUN (14 million readers in Japan)
Part of a piece on Alan while he was in Tokyo on my birthday (16th September 2002)
Alan is Co-Editor of five Haiku-based Anthologies and four Haiku Collections, and author of the forthcoming book Writing Poetry: the haiku way (Spring 2016).
Alan runs Call of the Page, with his wife, for online courses and live events.
Alan has been over the last twenty years:
- General Secretary, British Haiku Society (1998-2000)
- Panel of Judges: Biennial Sasakawa Prize for Original Contributions in the Field of Haikai (Sasakawa Foundation/British Haiku Society)
- Embassy of Japan (2009) Roving “Japan-UK 150 Haiku & Renga Poet-in-Residence”
- Creator and co-ordinator, The 1000 Verse Renga Project in partnership with Bath Libraries (U.K.) and supported by the BBC Poetry Season website
- Creator and co-ordinator, The Hull Global Renga Project in partnership with Hull Libraries/The James Reckitt Library Trust/Larkin25
- Bath Spa University undergraduate development project Haiku Poet-in-Residence (Autumn 2006-Summer 2007)
- Panel of Editors for the award-winning annual Red Moon Anthologies for haikai literature (2000-2005): www.redmoonpress.com
- Foundation Member, Australian Haiku Society
- a founding editor with Haijinx, showcasing humor in haiku
- a founding editor for Bones Journal showcasing cutting-edge haiku
- Former Renga/Renku/Linked Forms Editor, Notes from the Gean
- moderator, Shiki-temp Forum for Matsuyama University, Japan
- current admin and moderator, The Haiku Foundation
- current co-moderator, British Haiku Society Members Forum
