Crows and haiku poetry

Ohara Shôson - part image of Crow on a Willow Branch in Snow

Crows and haiku poetry

by Alan Summers

dark news

the comfort

of crows

Alan Summers

Publication Credit: tiny words 15.1 (March 31st 2015)

http://tinywords.com/2015/03/31/18021/

http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/dark-news-story-of-crows-and-how-simple.html

floating snowflakes -

the triple caw of a crow

within the tree

Alan Summers

Publication credits:  
Snapshots six (1999); Watermark: a poet's notebook - crows (2004); Mainichi Shimbun (Japan, 2008)

intermittent rain I shed another crow

Alan Summers

Publication Credits: 

Frogpond (magazine of Haiku Society of America, autumn 2013 issue 36:3)

Monet’s Haystacks

a group of crows tug

at twilight

Alan Summers

Publication credits: Asahi Shimbun (Japan, 2010)

powdered snow -

a crow’s eyes above

the no parking sign       

Alan Summers
  

Award credit: Joint Winner, Haiku International Association 10th Anniversary Haiku Contest (Japan, 1999)

Other publication credits: The Mie Times (Japan, 1999); Haiku International (Japan publication, 1999); Watermark: A Poet’s Notebook - Crows (2004); The In-Between Season (With Words Pamphlet Series 2012); Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)

Does Fish-God Know:

http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/does-fish-god-know-haiku-collection-by.html

    early hours crow

         I invoke a prayer

    to its god and mine

From The Crow Walk ©Alan Summers 2006

HAIKU HIKE (World Walks) Part of Crossover UK's 'Renewability' project (2006)

(different earlier versions of the haibun text published in ‘Paper Wasp’ haiku journal, Queensland, Australia 1997; ‘Azami haiku journal’, Osaka, Japan 1998; and ‘Blithe Spirit’ British Haiku Society journal, June 2004.)

fading last note

a torresian crow sounds

the darkening sky

From The Crow Walk ©Alan Summers 2006

HAIKU HIKE (World Walks) Part of Crossover UK's 'Renewability' project (2006)

(different earlier versions of the haibun text published in ‘Paper Wasp’ haiku journal, Queensland, Australia 1997; ‘Azami’ (Osaka, Japan 1998; and ‘Blithe Spirit’ British Haiku Society journal, June 2004.)

weblink: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Corvus-orru

messenger shooting crows

Alan Summers

Publication Credits: Roadrunner 12.3 MASKS 4; Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)

Does Fish-God Know:

http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/new-book-review-of-does-fish-god-know.html

See also:

http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/crows-corvids-caretakers-of-world-and.html

Books about crows:

In the Company of Crows and Ravens

by John M Marzluff and Tony Angell

http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300100760

Crow Country: A Meditation on Birds, Landscape and Nature
by Mark Cocker 

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jul/28/featuresreviews.guardianreview5

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Alan Summers headlining the Words & Ears Poetry Event (The Swan Hotel, Bradford on Avon) July 25th 2013

Plus Open Mic opportunities!

The Swan Hotel:

photograph: https://plus.google.com/photos/at/106904345684679385847?hl=en

The Swan Hotel Events:  
http://www.theswanbradford.co.uk/index.html

The Swan Hotel Location: 
http://www.theswanbradford.co.uk/location.html

Less than five minutes from Bradford on Avon train station, go over the bridge towards the town centre (left hand side of the bridge, and enter via rear entrance through car park, coach house annex on your right where you see the silver people carrier vehicle).

http://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/the-swan-bradford-on-avon.html?aid=329009

w. W
Words & Ears organisers:
Helen Murray: http://www.helenmurrayphotos.com/
Dawn Gorman: http://www.dawngorman.co.uk/AboutPage.html

Haiku Workshops and Events: Alan Summers in London | Kensington Library

UPDATE!
There'll be a new program regarding the next haiku and rap workshop events, very exciting developments. 
 
A Pro Art Event
Haiku and Rap
Kensington Library 
http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/az/az.asp?orgid=858
Friday 7th June 4.30 p.m. - 5.30 p.m.

For workshops with sixth formers, and also older people.

• Introducing Haiku and its history
• How do you write Haiku?

I'll be showing both Classic and Contemporary examples of haiku, as well as reading from Does Fish-God Know.

There'll be a relaxed fun exercise that can be continued from home:

• Haiku: Another Way of Seeing

Does Fish-God Know:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/does-fish-god-know-haiku-collection-by.html

For anyone intrigued by haiku and unable to attend we do run online haiku workshops:  http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/dates-for-next-online-haiku-tanka.html

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World Monuments Fund invites entries for their second FREE TO ENTER annual haiku contest during National Poetry Month, April 2013

HAIKU CONTEST GUIDELINES
http://www.wmf.org/get-involved/haiku-contest

World Monuments Fund invites entries for their second annual haiku contest.

Haiku is a traditional Japanese form that emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression.

Submission

Submissions are accepted April 1-30, 2013.

All haiku must be submitted through the online submission form:
http://www.wmf.org/get-involved/2013-haiku-contest

All haiku must be previously unpublished and submitted through the online submission form.

All haiku styles accepted.

One entry per individual.

Awards

First Prize, $100; Second Prize, $75; Third Prize, $50; and three semi-finalists.

All six winning haiku will be published on WMF’s website.


Adjudication

Alan Summers who runs With Words, will adjudicate.

Need inspiration? 
Explore World Monuments Fund's projects in Japan, or all field projects:

Japan:
http://www.wmf.org/our-projects/project-map?tid=All&tid_1=All&tid_2=All&tid_3=All&watch_year=All&country=Japan&funder=All&list=1

Rest of the World:
http://www.wmf.org/our-projects/project-map


Rights

All rights revert to the authors after publication.


More about the WMF Haiku Contest Judge Alan Summers

Alan Summers runs With Words, a nonprofit that provides literature, education, and literacy projects, often based around Japanese literary genres.

He is a recipient of the Japan Times Award and the Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto Peace Museum Award for haiku.

Alan is a founding haiku editor for Bones Journal, and serves as Special Feature editor of haiku/haibun for the Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts. He has four haiku collections, the most recent being Does Fish-God Know, and has also co-edited various haiku-based anthologies:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/does-fish-god-know-haiku-collection-by.html
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/new-book-review-of-does-fish-god-know.html
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-must-have-book-for-any-haiku-fan.html

His haiku has appeared in 75 anthologies in fifteen languages, including Japanese, and has been printed in Japanese newspapers including Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, The Japan Times, and The Mie Times. A forthcoming work is Writing Poetry: the haiku way.

Alan is currently working on two novels, and also The Kigo Lab Project. He blogs at Area 17 and is a featured haiku poet at Cornell University, Mann Library: http://tinyurl.com/MannCornell-AlanSummers

Alan also runs popular online haiku workshops:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/dates-for-next-online-haiku-tanka.html

National Poetry Month at WMF
http://www.wmf.org/national-poetry-month

Newstead Abbey is best known today as the ancestral home of Lord Byron
(1788–1824). http://www.wmf.org/project/newstead-abbey

The ties between poems and monuments are both ancient and contemporary, abstract and concrete.

As Myra Sklarew writes in her poem "Monuments": Each of us has monuments in the bone case of memory. Monuments secure a culture's present by honoring its past and ensuring its future. Poems about monuments fasten the cultural, socio-political, and aesthetic issues that monuments distill to the page.

At World Monuments Fund, we share these concerns in the conservation projects we undertake every day, some of which also directly support the conservation of poetry. At the Goethe Gallery in Weimar's Residenzschloss, we completed urgent conservation work on the stucco and painted surfaces of the walls and ceiling of the "Poet Rooms,” commissioned by Maria Pawlowna in 1834 to commemorate influential Weimar poets Goethe, Herder, Schiller, and Wieland. At Las Pozas, a Mexican surrealist landscape, WMF helped restore the Edward James Cabin, including the conservation of the poems he wrote on its walls. The Scottish capital's cemeteries, where many important poets are buried, was on the World Monuments Watch in 2010 and is the focus of a current conservation and stewardship project, while Newstead Abbey, the ancestral home of Lord Byron, is on the 2012 Watch.

Please join us this April in exploring the special relationship between monuments and poetry, highlighting the many poems that bear witness to the world's most treasured places: http://www.wmf.org/get-involved/national-poetry-month


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19th, 20th and 21st days of Alan Summers as featured poet at Cornell University USA

Cornell University, Mann Library  

http://haiku.mannlib.cornell.edu/category/author/alam-summers/

 

zombie debt–
the practised slice
of a bread knife


Alan Summers

Publications credits:
Haiku News (Vol. 1 No. 41 2012); Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)

 

zombie debt: http://consumerist.com/2013/02/19/debt-collectors-keep-calling-about-bogus-debt-even-after-being-threatened-with-suit/



train whistle
a blackbird hops
along its notes

Alan Summers

Publications credits:
Presence #47 (2012): The Haiku Foundation Per Diem: The Elements (September 2012)

 

theevandiude choolam
oru karutha pakshi thulli
athin swarangalil
 
Malayalam translation by Narayanan Raghunathan
 
neruppu vantiyin choolam
oru karuppu paravai thulliyatu
antha svarangalil
 
Tamizh translation by Narayanan Raghunathan
 
train seeti
ek kale rang ki chidiya naachti
vah svar lahiri me
 
Hindi translation by Narayanan Raghunathan




rain on the river the jesus star shifting

Alan Summers

Publications credits: Janice M Bostok Haiku Prize 2012 Anthology Evening Breeze

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16th, 17th, and 18th days of Alan Summers as virtual haiku poet in residence at Cornell University USA

Cornell University, Mann Library 
http://haiku.mannlib.cornell.edu/category/author/alam-summers/



snowing through the blizzard particles of me

Alan Summers



Publications credits: 
The Haiku Calendar 2012 (Snapshot Press); The Humours of Haiku (Iron Press 2012); The In-Between Season (With Words Haiku Pamphlet Series 2012)

Award credits:
Winner, The Haiku Calendar Competition 2011 (Snapshot Press)

Iron Press U.K. orders:
http://www.ironpress.co.uk/books/humours.html

International orders (top right alter currencies to US$ or Euros):
http://www.inpressbooks.co.uk/the-humours-of-haiku/












The In-Between Season (With Words Haiku Pamphlet Series 2012)

The pamphlet will be available as an eBook later in 2013
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/in-between-season-haiku-pamphlet-will.html
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/haiku-from-alan-summerss-recently.html








dandelion wind
mending bridges
in the mist

Alan Summers

Publications credits:
Blithe Spirit (British Haiku Society Journal Vol 22 No. 3 2012); Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)


باد پر قاصدک
مرمت کردن پل
در غبار

bade por ghasdak
maremat kardan pol
dar ghobar

Farsi and romanised Farsi translations by Reza Aerabi





first quarter moon
dancing pinheads burst
into new angel DNA

Alan Summers

Publications credits:
Asahi Shimbun (Japan, 2012); Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)





Does Fish-God Know:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/does-fish-god-know-haiku-collection-by.html
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/new-book-review-of-does-fish-god-know.html
http://www.yettobenamedfreepress.org/p/does-fish-god-know.html

New book review of Does Fish-God Know haiku collection by Alan Summers

composite image by Dawn Gorman: http://www.dawngorman.co.uk/WordsEarsPage.html

 

 

Review by Paul David Mena

I've been meaning to write to tell you how much I've enjoyed "Does Fish-God Know", but I keep reading it over and over again and getting a slightly different impression each time.

I already knew how talented a poet you were, but you've elevated the art to a whole new level.

Granted, I have a bias toward urban and non-nature themes, but your ability to use language to create abstract imagery is downright enviable.

I keep coming up with different "favorites", but this one is poignant in a "classic" sort of way:

unlacing the shoe
on his sole
mud from the gravesite

and I love the irresistible menace of this one:

morning moon
I think I met the man
who kills you

and this one is surreal, but we've all thought it:

don't trust the cat
her eyes green the earth
with anti-matter

Never mind that you've used "green" as a verb in a way that seems at once fresh and natural.

I could go on, but instead I'll read it again...

Thank you for writing such a vital work.

Paul David Mena, Boston USA

Does Fish-God Know
by Alan Summers

Available through Amazon at these weblinks:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/does-fish-god-know-haiku-collection-by.html

Reviewer: 
Paul David Mena

Paul David Mena's blog:
http://www.extraspecialbitter.com/

a member of the Metro West Renku Association:
http://www.haikupoet.com/mwra/




tenement landscapes: English language haiku by an American poet 

This is a collection of haiku written by American poet Paul David Mena, with the Japanese translation; a bilingual book.

"tenement landscapes" is Paul's first book in which he cut out and described the landscapes of New York and people's daily life seen through tenement houses, lightly and sometimes cynically.

The first edition of this book was published in September, 2001,  just after September 11.

The author says, "I was raw with emotion and frankly had a tough time writing about it."

But he was able to look at the event objectively and could finally write about it, New York, again.



We added a haiku which he wrote after the event, in December 2010, in this book. 
(Web Press Happa-no-Kofu, non-profit translation project and literary and art publisher since 2000, based in Japan.)
  
tenement landscapes: Links
http://www.amazon.com/tenement-landscapes-English-language-American/dp/1475298358

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/1475298358/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_0?ie=UTF8&index=0&isremote=0

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"A must-have book for any haiku fan": Amazon review of Does Fish-God Know, gendai haiku and experimental short verse collection by Alan Summers, published by Yet To Be Named Free Press

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 Gratifying to see a review of my latest poetry collection (gendai haiku and experimental short verse) Does Fish-God Know at Amazon (UK).

Extract: 

" Beautiful and sometimes startling imagery is wrought throughout these thought-provoking pieces. Anti-pigeon spikes on cemetery gates and dirty moons inhabit the dark side of the soul, while tipsy/philosophical frames of mind are vividly conjured in haiku such as "vodka chilli cocktail" and "Sunday drunk".

So, Does Fish-God Know? Whether he/she does or doesn't, the quest to find out leads you on a compelling journey. A must-have book for any haiku fan."

weblink:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Does-Fish-God-Know-Alan-Summers/dp/1479211044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357334929&sr=8-1




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Does Fish-God Know haiku collection by Alan Summers

Special Price offer on Amazon!


Does Fish-God Know [Paperback]

Alan Summers (Author)

Publisher: Yet To Be Named Free Press (October 15, 2012)
158 Pages
ISBN-10: 1479211044
ISBN-13: 978-1479211043

Amazon.co.uk review extracts:

This tantalizing collection, from leading light of haiku Alan Summers, is stuffed full of unique and evocative gems. Straddling the heady border between reality and surreality are pieces such as "Toy Suns" and "Ghost Knifefish", while "Curse Her" and "Cherry Moon" throw the battle of the sexes into abrupt relief.  A must-have book for any haiku fan.

Reviewer:
Chicago-born musician, and novelist, Tracey Kelly composes music for film and media.

Susan Beth Furst:

October 24, 2020

Verified Purchase

Does Fish-God Know is a beautiful book...and then the haiku poems. One per page, white space, nothing to clutter the mind. Just the words, carefully chosen, Alan's words, his story, or ours...Alan's keen observations are expressed through rich imagery...

Ordinary moments become extraordinary, and no one does it better... The words draw you in, but you don't quite understand what they mean. These mystery haiku are some of the most enjoyable because they invite the reader to solve the mystery in her own way. 

Jacob Salzer:
Does Fish-God Know is a remarkable collection. I highly recommend this book for all readers and writers of poetry, haiku, and related literature.

Steven Rich
Alan Summers is this century's Basho. Highly recommended.

J. Grisetti
One of the first books I have read in the modern haiku style, having isolated myself for years. Alan has introduced both the one and two line haiku and I intend to imitate him in a sincere flattery.

Edwin Lomere
In addition to being a wonderful collection of Mr. Summers' unique haiku, this book serves as a study in how to write in the genre. The scope of moods and insights is brilliant. The use and command of the poetic line is remarkable. 

Paul David Mena
Thank you for writing such a vital work.
http://area17.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-book-review-of-does-fish-god-know.html

Available at Amazon USA; UK; and Europe:

USA: 
http://www.amazon.com/Does-Fish-God-Know-Alan-Summers/dp/1479211044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359118146&sr=8-1&keywords=does+fish-god+know

U.K.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Does-Fish-God-Know-Alan-Summers/dp/1479211044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359120118&sr=8-1

Canada:
http://www.amazon.ca/Does-Fish-God-Know-Alan-Summers/dp/1479211044/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400336849&sr=1-1&keywords=Does+Fish-God+Know

Germany:
http://www.amazon.de/Does-Fish-God-Know-Alan-Summers/dp/1479211044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359120302&sr=8-1

Spain:
http://www.amazon.es/Does-Fish-God-Know-Alan-Summers/dp/1479211044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359120433&sr=8-1

Italy:
http://www.amazon.it/Does-Fish-God-Know-Alan-Summers/dp/1479211044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359120478&sr=8-1

France:
http://www.amazon.fr/Does-Fish-God-Know-Alan-Summers/dp/1479211044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359120510&sr=8-1

 

This book is dedicated to Karen, my wife, muse, and keeper of my heart.

My many thanks also to the good people of haiku, Colin Blundell, Editor of Blithe Spirit, the journal of the British Haiku Society, who published my Does Fish-God Know title poem, which also won the ekphrastic haiku award for that issue, and to my translator Hidenori Hiruta (Akita, Japan) for breathing warmth and fire into his fine translations of my work; and to Emily Dickinson, and The Emperor Of Ice-Cream, Wallace Stevens.

[T]his book contains some of the strongest haiku written by Alan Summers, carefully chosen for their cerebral attack, backbone, humour and adaptive modelling. If you're familiar with Alan's work you'll be pleasantly surprised. 

If you're not familiar with his work then you'll be rushing out to buy other titles by him.

Alan Summers is one of Britain's top haiku writers.

Brendan Slater, 2012

Ah, out of the old pond and into the city!

Does the Fish-God know? And if, what is it he knows? He knows of life with its hard sides and gloomy shades as it is for the many people really subjected to reality. He knows that life is not all flowers and wonderful sunsets. He knows of sides never – or rarely - shown in what at present is (mis)named as "modern haiku".

But he's a god with compassion. Even through rough sceneries The Emperor of Ice-Cream strolls. These haiku have been sorely missed. 

These are NEW haiku as they live and breathe on the back of tradition but are present in the world of the 21st century. 

Alan Summers makes use of the Western mind  and a Japanese tradition to show that haiku has a place in the modern world, and will still have one if we are ready to keep our minds open to every experience and influence that befalls a human.

A manifestation of gendai haiku that shows it's not a dream ...

Johannes S. H. Bjerg

International writer and artist writing in Danish & English. 

Managing Editor, Bones Journal

Author of  "Penguins/Pingviner" 2011

Modern western haiku written by a Japan Times award winning author. Poems that will bend your mind and tempt you to re-evaluate your sense of reality. A must for lovers of experimental short-verse poetry.

Brendan Slater, YTBN Free Press

The book contains a wide range of experimental haiku, regular haiku, plus short verse, as well as one line haiku.

Does Fish-God Know [Paperback]
ISBN-10: 1479211044
ISBN-13: 978-1479211043

Pub. Yet To Be Named Free Press

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