Online internet courses by Call of the Page

Are you interested in a Call of the Page course? We run courses on haiku; tanka; tanka stories/prose; haibun; shahai; and other genres.

Please email Karen or Alan at our joint email address: admin@callofthepage.org
We will let you know more about these courses.

Call of the Page (Alan & Karen)

Saturday, September 18, 2010

"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.
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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.  
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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.
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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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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

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

Monday, September 13, 2010

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:



Tuesday, August 24, 2010

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

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

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

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. 
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Click for review:
  
"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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Monday, August 16, 2010

Blast from the Past Haiku Residency; enjoy the video!

-->
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) 



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!


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Friday, August 13, 2010

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






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:

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Thursday, August 12, 2010

Totally Haiku in Wiltshire!


The following workshop is available from Wiltshire Council at a significally subsidised rate through the Participatory Arts Workshop Scheme (PAWS). 

Please see below for booking information.



Participatory Arts workshop scheme (PAWS) 

The eight hour course can be in any combination of 2 - 4 visits to the group.

Who can apply?
PAWS is open to any groups, formal or informal, based in the villages and towns of Wiltshire which are interested in taking part in creative activities. 


Groups do not need any arts experience to take part in the scheme. 

They can include:
 
youth groups
older people’s clubs
disability groups
uniformed groups
homelessness projects
community associations
environmental groups
holiday play schemes
school groups, 
   with priority given to out-of-school activities
family clubs
day centre groups
Women’s Institutes.

Costs and other commitments
 
This course only costs the group £30

Groups need to:
provide a suitable venue for the project 
nominate a leader or small group to manage and evaluate their project 
provide support/specialist workers to be present throughout the sessions 
have public liability insurance
carry out a risk assessment for hosting the project.

The deadline for applications is midnight on 1 October 2010

Please visit the Council website for this incredible offer, and how to apply:  
www.wiltshire.gov.uk/leisureandculture/artsandgalleries/participatoryartsworkshopscheme.htm
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Larkin on Living Review

Review of the Larkin on Living event with a mention of the Hull Global Reading.

Larkin and all that jazz:
http://hyperfruit.net/2010/08/larkin-and-all-that-jazz/

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Saturday, August 07, 2010

Philip Larkin's Birthday:

Reading Hull Global Renga verses



Larkin25
("the Philip Larkin Festival")

"Larkin on Living"
St Marys Church, Lowgate, Hull
Monday 9th August 2010
7pm - 9pm

I'll be reading selected renga verses from the six month commission 'Hull Global Renga'



The History Centre
Monday 9th August 2010
10am - 4pm
Freetown Way, Hull, East Yorkshire 

  
The History Centre arcade café

Also during the day at the History Centre I will be in the cafe from 10am - 4pm, so please join me for a coffee if you can, for a chat and even a renga verse or two.

Informal and friendly.



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Sunday, August 01, 2010

Into Sunlight : the unfinished renga



Into Sunlight : the unfinished renga


into tropical air
rainbow lorikeets—
a mango restaurant closed


temperate cardinal
chipping his latin beat


at 45 degrees
the driving rain
filling a beggar’s bowl


these evening showers
in a field of bare trees


the clouds turn green
when snared on eucalyptus
the sacred ibis


raising its wide wings
exposing a sunrise


pointing eastwards
twitching in a dream
the dog’s paws


chasing ruddy deer
through rainbows


morning’s warm moist air
curls around my legs
unseen caress


river reeds rustling
someone comes through the shadow


a dozen crows fly
above the lone cyclist
sparrow on a branch


listening to wind blow
where does it come from?


filling a white sail
bending a tree


holding ancient forms
roots seeking clear waters
under the earth


above the street & stark trees
a gap in clouds: the moon


gentle light bathes
the opened chrysalis
strange new light


in the distance
sacred ibis rise from grass


sudden thunder
a black butterfly flitting
from flower to flower


broken cobweb
a moth flies away


dream changes
on my pillow
black and blue dust


mudprints
across a white bedsheet


the shroud
of a child
before cremation


dirt and dew
glistening pumpkins


stones for the cairn
above the cardinal
claims his old branch


turning, a smile seen
night draws in


so far away
in the deepest darkness
a beacon on the hill


candle out
the sizzle of saliva on fingers


pointing the thread
only the hole can receive
for the needle


unravelled into the wind
kite of many ghosts

first flight
after the broken wing healed

Alan Summers ◊ England
Merrill Ann Gonzales ◊ United States

Publications:
 
Azami magazine  (Osaka, Japan)  'unfinished renga' Into Sunlight  (1998)

snow on the water  
Red Moon Anthology ISBN 0-9657818-8-7  “unfinished renga” (1998)

snow on the water: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 1998, edited by Jim Kacian and the Red Moon Editorial Staff.

This anthology was also a Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award Winner.  

"snow on the water continues the tradition of the most celebrated serial book of haiku in the world. 146 poems, 20 other pieces as selected by 11 of the best haiku poets from around the world."

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Thursday, July 08, 2010

Hull Global Renga call out!


 

Hull Global Renga
Alan Summers as renga poet-in-residence for the City of Hull:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_upon_Hull
http://hullglobalrenga.blogspot.com


We would love to hear from:

  * people living in Hull.
  * Born in Hull now living elsewhere or abroad.
  * people who have either visited, or worked in Hull.

is a glorious city despite its poverty levels, and has possibly the friendliest people in Britain.

Part of the Hull Global Renga Project is to promote both the hard work carried out by Hull Libraries for its people and schools; and to show that Hull is a city worth visiting.

There are few places left where you can spend a much needed holiday or short break without being pressured as a tourist.  In Hull you can truly relax, with access to great places both in the city and nearby.

If you feel you can't write a renga verse of 2 or 3 short line duration, please do send an anecdote or brief account of your time spent in Hull.

The Hull Global Renga email: hullrenga@withwords.org.uk

  


The Hull Global Renga Logo
Design by Rory Walker, commissioned by Alan Summers for Hull Libraries.










What is Renga?

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

Renga is simply writing incredibly short lines (2 or 3 line verses) with almost teasingly invisible connections to each verse.  

When completed everyone is a co-author of the renga poem.

For anyone new to renga, we'd love to receive your "micro-memories" of Hull, whether childhood memories, or very recent memories.

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

More about Renga

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.

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.

Alan Summers has been writing haiku and renga for almost twenty years and as a Japan Times award-winning writer for renga and haiku poetry (haiku evolved from being a renga poem’s ‘starting verse’) he felt renga was ideal for a creative writing event that involved people who might feel they are not poets.

The aim

During the project from June - December 2010 both the central and branch libraries will display renga verses; and that a sense of achievement will be given to the local community through the Press; workshops and activities; displays and readings; and an interest developed for Japanese culture.

Towards the end of the residency a finished renga poem will be available as an eBook on both the With Words website and on the Hull Libraries website, as well as a printed reference book in Hull Central Library.

Alan Summers

Alan Summers has a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University; founder and director of With Words; a Japan Times award-winning writer for renga and haiku.

He has been a Visiting Tutor with the nationally acclaimed The Poetry School; ran workshops at the Royal Festival Hall (London), with Japan-UK 150 and the Thames Festival.  He has run renga events at various libraries over the years.

Alan is regularly published in Japanese magazines & anthologies; and newspapers such as Yomiuri Shimbun; and Mainichi Daily News, Tokyo, Japan.

As an editor of renga and haiku magazines he studies Classic, Modern, and Contemporary Japanese haiku (and Western haiku); writes and performs haiku and renga, as well as organising haiku and renga events around Britain.

Alan has a CRB Enhanced Disclosure Certificate (April 2010) registered with the National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) and full world cover public liability insurance cover up to Five Million Pounds Sterling.

Alan Summers
With Words Events blog:  http://area17.blogspot.com


The James Reckitt Library Trust



‘Summer Haiku Almanac' Dartmoor workshop & walk: a few taster images

Just a few taster images, more to come!

Ffi:
‘Summer Haiku Almanac' Dartmoor workshop & walk:

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Thursday, June 03, 2010

"Water on the Moon" haiku collection by Helen Buckingham

Water on the Moon was shortlisted, out of over 80 books, for the inaugural Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards, by The Haiku Foundation. 
For 2017: https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2017/10/05/nominate-your-favorite-book-for-a-touchstone-award-2/

Now made available as a PDF:
http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/17f28b85755dc882ee45d2fd4eb128c9.pdf 



This is an iconic collection of haiku by one of the world's finest practitioners of the genre.

Helen Buckingham











    

There may be a few print copies left. 

Contact email:
"Helen Buckingham" <helenb47@googlemail.com>

 



water on the moon 
by Helen Buckingham
original plus
Maryport, Cumbria, UK 2010
ISBN 978-0-9562433-5-5
£8.00 inclusive of U.K. post and package




 



Now made available as a PDF:
http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/17f28b85755dc882ee45d2fd4eb128c9.pdf 


INTRODUCTION IN THE BOOK
by Alan Summers

There is so much haiku written that sometimes we can lose our own ‘voice’ as a reader: Helen Buckingham is one of those writers who allows us to regain it.

Good haiku is a little like alchemy, not so much as to turn lead into gold, but to highlight how mundane everyday objects, accidents and incidents enrich our lives without us even realising it.  Sometimes we just need a small kick to remind us, and a haiku poem seems ideally suited to do this, and to show how those small moments are pure gold.

The trick is not to think that lead needs to be turned to gold, it’s the art of the deft touch, the fingernail to scrape off the slight oxidation, when we neglect the quiet moments in our busy lives for the big brash times that quickly fade over time.

Join Helen and her book as she carries off an overall tone and mood, albeit made of many voices.  This isn’t easy without setting off a cacophony, and clamour, of alarms as if a great number of emergency vehicles were trapped in a traffic jam.

There are subtle tonal changes in this book moving from the daily process of living through a lifelong illness; the beautifully observed close relationship with her father; the appreciation of a child’s wonder of a world still very new to them;  the bittersweet humour contained in both haiku and senryu; the stars and sky at night; allusion and surreal images; and the seasons.

How is all this possible?


third night grounded…
tracing ursa minor
in the woodchip


Mood is balanced with technique, getting the experience either directly or elliptically caught in amber:


amber light
wrapped flowers
on the verge


Accidents come in all shapes and sizes, and however painful, they need to be addressed.


nil by mouth—
peeling and dicing
the moon


On reading Helen’s collection I absorb a sustained collective of poems, moving from bluntly honest poems about illness to the quirky sidesteps in life, from the one liner:


blood room counting the odd tiles


…to the Alice in Wonderlandness…


taxi stand
the man in a rabbit suit
fumbles for his watch


Honesty is a potent instrument and we have plenty of that: a life is brought to the microscope, with humour never far away, never a stranger to pain.  We all like to think we have a keen sense of humour, and a strong streak of honesty; and Helen’s collection is like a litmus test to test our own pH.

What I appreciated within the collection is the musicality within the brevity of words and the starkness of imagery, with the gentle touches of techinque: alliteration, dissonance, assonance and consonance, and always light and shade.  Alongside the usual methods of juxtaposition; zooming in and out of things observed, poems are possible hinted at metaphors like the “man” in a rabbit suit fumbling for a pocket watch; do we spend our life like that?

I’ve mentioned humour in haiku and humour in senryu, here we have two quite different takes:

after sex
he googles
himself

and the off centre poignancy of


flagging mistletoe
a fine amontillado
stain on the carpet


Haiku poems need to have a fulcrum to keep from becoming merely a deflated gag with a superficial punchline that never goes beyond a cheap laugh.  The humour in Helen’s haiku (and senryu) is definitely expensive, or rather, at the expense of the writer, never the reader or other intended target.

How is a series of concentrated writings that are haiku, sustained within a framework of craft, integrity, light and shade, given a content as deep as a longer poem?

How to do that with the perhaps unbearable brevity that would cause pain to most poets, kept throughout; how is that light n’ tight magic that haiku is famous for, brought alive?

Well, if you can fight off the foxes…

foxes
fight over
the last of my dream

and join Helen early in the day…


breakfast shift
...sharing the last
of the stars


…perhaps you too will share the last of the stars.


Alan Summers
Director/writer of With Words

QUOTES
"I have long been a fan ... the haiku and senryu experiences in this collection run the gamut from soft and beautiful to humorous, some with an acerbic wit ... this is an ample serving of enjoyable poems by a strong, original writer."
Paul MacNeil, (USA) Associate Editor, The Heron's Nest: http://www.theheronsnest.com/journal/

"Helen Buckingham is one of those great haiku/senryu writers whose work invites us to revisit it again and again. I highly recommend Water on the Moon; it should be in every poet's library." 
Pamela A. Babusci (USA), internationally award winning haiku/tanka & haiga artist; and logo artist for Haiku North America conferences New York City 2003 and Winston-Salem, NC USA 2007.
 
"...an important part of the process of collecting together...(is)...that some should just mark time, the meaning loose, less focussed, waiting, or in preparation, for the next really startling event.  One could call this a process of constriction and dilation–a tying together and a loosening up. I have to say that reading Helen's book had me clicking files to check my own preparation of a collection of 'my' haiku...this is an excellent collection." Colin Blundell, editor of Blithe Spirit, journal of the British Haiku Society. Review published June 2010.

"Like the best wordsmiths, Helen Buckingham possesses what seems to be a wholly natural talent for translating the modern world and contemporary living, often in their minutest detail into exquisite poetry.  What's most striking about Helen Buckingham's poetry is its immediacy and proximity - each breath of poetry seems to exist within the moment of its making."
Liam Wilkinson, (Yorkshire, England) founding editor and curator of the 3Lights Gallery of Haiku and Tanka.
 
From the review by Colin Stewart Jones, (Aberdeen, Scotland) 
Managing Editor of international Notes from the Gean haiku online magazine and The Gean Tree Press.
"...water on the moon is a major collection by Buckingham which contains 250 poems over 84 pages set out in four sections which correlate to the seasons. The back page blurb contains endorsements by such haiku luminaries as Liam Wilkinson, Pamela A. Babusci and Paul MacNeil and a wonderfully comprehensive introduction by Alan Summers
.


Helen's work has previously been published in A New Resonance 5: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, Redmoon Press USA 2007, ISBN: 978-1-893959-65-1, edited by Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts:
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The work of seventeen poets from seven different countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States) comprises the latest volume of up-and-coming poets working in the haiku form in English. This biennial project has now helped launch 85 poets into the haiku community, and each volume has received critical acclaim.


 

Alas,  I've noted A New Resonance 5: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku is now SOLD OUT.

See also: 
Armadillo Basket (2011)
http://www.waterloopress.co.uk/#/helen-buckingham-2011/4555530929

Helen's collection 'water on the moon' is now on the With Words suggested reading list for our sell out residency courses.

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