Cloud kigo: Alan Summers haiku in Asahi Shimbun (Japan newspaper)

Cloud Kigo©Alan Summers, Bradford on Avon 13th June 2013

Cloud kigo
a light rain patters across
your nightingale floors

Alan Summers
Publication Credits: Asahi Shimbun (Japan, 2013)



"In search of the ultimate season word to associate with clouds, Alan Summers observes how “rain writes its own story across floorboards that sing like a bird.” I like the idea of the cloud kigo. Readers will too. It is always my pleasure to work with you on haiku.”

David McMurray writes a haiku column for the Asahi Newspaper (Asahi Shimbun, Japan). He is also Professor of Intercultural Studies at The International University of Kagoshima (Japan) where he lectures on international haiku.


“season is the soul of haiku”
William J. Higginson (The Haiku Seasons, p20)



The Haiku Seasons
Poetry of the Natural World
by: William J. Higginson
http://www.stonebridge.com/shopexd.asp?id=88

"The Haiku Seasons presents the historical and modern Japanese usage of seasonal themes in poetry. It shows, as nothing else in the literature has done, the growing dialogue between poets in Japan and other countries...An extremely valuable work!"
—Elizabeth Searle Lamb, retired editor, Frogpond


A Little About the Kigo Technique in Haiku
by Alan Summers

Japanese kigo are a strong allusion device (there are others) and can contain cultural and emotional tones of extreme intensity within Japan. The possibilities of kigo as a tool or device of choice, can be equally considered as valid, as any other technique of haiku.

Kisetsu

Kisetsu (season, seasonal aspect)
The seasons. The seasonal aspect of the vocabulary (kigo) and subject matter (kidai) of traditional tanka, renga, and haiku; a deep feeling for the passage of time, as known through the objects and events of the seasonal cycle. [1]

Season words, and the Japanese kigo system, are not only derived from observations of nature, they can allude to a country’s historical, cultural, and literary past.

Haiku are 'seasonal' rather than 'nature' centered poems. If looked at in this way it allows for urban seasonal markers and seasonal celebrations; in other words from this perspective it would be legitimate to compose haiku centered on the human world because the human world is also seasonal.

I feel that non-Japanese haiku can achieve an aspect of kisetsu [1] with seasonal words and phrases.

[1] William J. Higginson with Penny Harter, The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku, published by Kodansha International. Copyright (C) 1989 by William J. Higginson. (p289 & 291)

Amazon USA
http://www.amazon.com/Haiku-Handbook--25th-Anniversary-Edition/dp/4770031130/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371118239&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Haiku+Handbook

Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Haiku-Handbook-Write-Teach-Appreciate/dp/4770031130/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371118298&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Haiku+Handbook

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Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts | The G-force of Blue | Touching Base with Gendai haiku

Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts

"Excellent Journal - Truly International!"
 Hanif Kureishi 

The Feburary issue contains poems, short fiction, photography, essays, interviews and paintings by the following writers/artists – Hanif Kureishi, George Szirtes, Sudeep Sen, K Satchidanandan, Meena Alexander, Antonio Casella, Alan Summers, Michelle Cohen Corasanti, C.S. Jayaram, Jose Varghese, Ampat Koshy, Mohammad Zahid, Mariam Henna Naushad, Jude Lopez, Collins Justin Peter, Jesto Thankachan, Kirpal Gordon, Gerrard Williams, Bijay Biswal, Balbir Krishen, Abdul Salim, Ananya S Guha, Mike Keville, Indran Amirthanayagam, Sofiul Azam, Sunandan Roy Chowdhury, Michelle D'costa, Kulpreet Yadav, Nepa Noyal, Krishna Girish, Kalpana, Maria Issac, Hari Krishnan, Kalpana N.S., Reshma G.S., Sethu John, Naina Dey, Archana Kurup, Minu Varghese, Markus Sailor, Glenn Andrew Barr, Barry Charrman, Aishwarya and Rosemary Tom.

The editorial board consists of:

Jose Varghese (Chief Editor - SH College), Aravind R Nair (Associate Editor – SH College), Mariam Henna (Student Editor – SH College), Collins J Peter (Student Editor - SH College), Alan Summers (Advisory Board - U.K.), Bill Ashcroft (Advisory Board - University of New South Wales, Australia), George Szirtes (Advisory Board - University of East Anglia, Norwich), Mel Ulm (Advisory Board - Canada), Rana Nayar (Advisory Board - Punjab University), Sanjukta Dasgupta (Advisory Board - University of Kolkata) and Sudeep Sen (Advisory Board - London).

Our editorial board members and contributors were either born or brought up in countries like India, United Kingdom, Pakistan, Hungary, Australia, United States of America, Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, France, Sri Lanka, Peru, Bangladesh, Bahrain and Germany.

 

• website: http://lijla.weebly.com/index.html
• subscribe: http://issuu.com/lijla/docs/feb2013
• February issue: http://issuu.com/lijla/docs/feb2013#download

The current issue is now out, with an essay on gendai haiku by myself:

The G-force of Blue  |  Touching Base with Gendai haiku : http://issuu.com/lijla/docs/feb2013#download

 

I’m also launching a branch of the Kigo Lab Project : 

The Kigo Lab Project

Where fresh new approaches may be made in the experiment of certain well-known words and phrases within the English language, which have potential into being utilised, even evolving, into Japanese style kigo over time.  

This is a long term project, and I’m aware that kigo outside Japan could take anything from decades to hundreds of years. If it’s not started we will never find out if such a thing as a modern source of local/regional/national/global kigo can be made available for writers within the haikai genre, and prove useful to other genre writers.

I am not necessarily looking for nature poems, but haiku that successfully embrace today’s culture and an awareness of where we come from.

Season words, and the Japanese kigo system, are not only derived from observations of nature, they can allude to a country’s historical, cultural and literary past that hint or suggest a time of year.

Kisetsu:  

The seasonal aspect of the vocabulary (kigo) and subject matter (kidai) of traditional tanka, renga, and haiku; a deep feeling for the passage of time, as known through the objects and events of the seasonal cycle.

William J. Higginson with Penny Harter, The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku, published by Kodansha International.

If anyone is intrigued into knowing more please contact me at:

haiku [at] dircon [dot] co [dot] uk

Alan Summers

Haiku Editor, Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts

The next issue of Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts will be out in early August 2013


For anyone wishing to submit short fiction, and the other genres covered in the journal please use this email address: lakeviewjournal@gmail.com 

Submission information webpage: http://lijla.weebly.com/call-for-submissions.html 

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