Haiku poetry showcase by Alan Summers at Cornell University USA

Cornell University, Mann Library
Supporting learning and research in the life sciences, agriculture, human ecology and applied social sciences: http://mannlib.cornell.edu/

A month of haiku poems by Alan Summers 
at Cornell University USA
 
Daily Haiku series created by Tom Clausen
http://haiku.mannlib.cornell.edu/

image©Alan Summers

woodfire
flickering in the silence
corralled horses

Alan Summers


Publications credits:
Modern Haiku vol. xxvi  no. 3 (1995); Moonlighting  (Intimations Pamphlet Series British Haiku Society Profile, 1996); sundog haiku journal: an australian year  (sunfast press 1997 reprinted 1998); California State Library - 1997; First Australian Haiku online Anthology (1999); First Australian Anthology (Paper Wasp 2000); haiku dreaming australia the best haiku & senryu relevant in and to australia (Australia 2006); The Crow Walk haibun (HAIKU HIKE, World Walks, Crossover UK 'Renewability' project 2006)); Stepping Stones:  a way into haiku  (British Haiku Society 2007)

Note by Tom Clausen about haiku:
“Haiku has consistently appealed to me as a means of centering, focusing, sharing, and responding to a life and world bent on excess. 

As the layers of my own life have accumulated, I’ve often felt overwhelmed by both personal changes and the mass of news, information, and survival requirements that come with being human today. 

Haiku are for me a way of honoring and celebrating simple yet profound relationships that awaken in us, with a gentle and silent inner touch, a spiritual relevance that adds meaning to our lives.”
http://haiku.mannlib.cornell.edu/about/

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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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