The launch of "Wing Beats: British Birds in Haiku" in London & Bath

Both these launches were great fun, very hard work but enjoyable, and very packed affairs.

The October launch in Bath, at Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights (Independent Bookshop of the Year 2008) was very crowded and busy but further below are a few of the Bath launch photos I was able to take amongst the amazing crush of enthusiastic people creating an buzz; a huge thank you to everyone who made this unforgettable !

BATH launch:Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights‘Independent Bookshop of the Year 2008’
14/15 John Street (behind Jolly's, opposite the "Salamander" pub)
Bath, BA1 2JL"Wing Beats: British Birds in Haiku"
Saturday 4th October 2008 - 6.30pm - 8pmFREE EVENT with wine, soft drinks & nibbles

“something truly unique: beautifully written yet easily accessible poetry that helps us reconnect with the natural world in a deeper, more intense way” (Stephen Moss)

Accessibility:
Event will be on the ground floor where there are small steps into the street-level. Useful photos of low pavement, doorway, and ground floor interior: http://www.mrbsemporium.com/Photo%20gallery.htm
For further bookshop events & details please see:
http://www.mrbsemporium.com/Newsletter_August08.htm
(and scroll down).

Map and contact details:
http://www.mrbsemporium.com/Contact.htm


This event is being held in association with With Words, and will feature readings by John Barlow and Matthew Paul; Alan Summers; plus contributors.

Karen Hoy was the M.C.

Stephen Moss will be reading from both Wing Beats and his new book, A Sky Full of Starlings (reprising his own launch earlier in the week).



Matthew Paul signing books

 
Left: Lydia (with Mr B's carrier bags) helps sell Wing Beats!

 So does Karen! (in the corridor, yes it was that crowded, is myself, John Barlow, and Stephen Moss waiting our turns).

Above: Stephen Moss reading from Wing Beats.

It became so packed on the ground floor I had to move the book signing upstairs!

Stephen; John; and Matthew with some breathing space to sign books and chat.



Some of us retired to the Eastern Eye including Canadian writer and haiku poet Marshall Hryciuk sitting next to the left of Yu Yan Chen.

THE LONDON EVENT!

London event photos©Alan SummersLeft: John Barlow and myself around 2am after a gruelling but amazing double haiku event.
Right: Karen with the boys! Matthew Paul and John Barlow
First event was the 'With Words' event at the Royal Festival Hall where "The Haiku Journal" was launched alongside "Wing Beats: British Birds in Haiku"; followed by the packed-to-the-rafters 'Wing Beats' book launch at the Poetry Society's Poetry Cafe with John Barlow and Matthew Paul, with 'With Words' as hosts.



Two images courtesy of Frank Williams

Karen struts her stuff!
London event photo©Alan Summers

David Cobb
London event photo©Alan Summers

Martin Lucas
London event photo©Alan Summers

Graham High
London event photo©Alan Summers


Wing Beats is a 320 page, hardback book. It has been described as:

“a truly unique book for both nature and poetry lovers which explores both British avifauna and the history and intricacies of haiku poetry, considering the relationships between these in a global context . . . and has gorgeous photographic watercolour illustrations by Sean Gray as well as a foreword by bird expert and BBC wildlife producer Stephen Moss” (The Book Monkey)

“full of acute observations, artistically moving, and intellectually stimulating – a very important book” (William J. Higginson)

“a triumph of seeing, expression and poetic control” (Mark Cocker)

Copies of the first edition/first printing can be ordered in advance at: http://www.wingbeats.co.uk/order.html




.LONDON LAUNCH details:
A launch evening will also take place in Covent Garden, London, at:The Poetry Society’s Poetry Café
Saturday 13th September (Doors 7.30 pm for 8 pm).

Poetry Café
22 Betterton St.
Covent Garden
London WC2H 9BX
Tel: 020 7420 9887
Manager: Ely Ahamed
Open 7 p.m. - 11 p.m. Saturday
Map weblink

Nearest Underground: Covent Garden (Piccadilly Line) Holborn (Piccadilly and Central lines)

From Covent Garden Underground station
Turn left out of the tube station to reach Longacre, then cross over at the zebra crossing (opposite Marks and Spencers). Turn right up Longacre. At the mini roundabout, use the zebra crossing (to your left) to cross over the top of Endell Street, then turn left down Endell Street.
Betterton Street is the second turning on the right (it is a one-way street with access from Endell Street). The Poetry Society (Number 22 Betterton Street) is less than 100 metres down on the left-hand side. It has a dark blue frontage. The Poetry Cafe next door is the Poetry Society's public space.


There is a disabled parking bay opposite the building. There are two more disabled parking bays on Longacre outside French Connection.

This event, which like the launch in Bath, is being held in association with With Words, will feature readings by John Barlow and Matthew Paul; Alan Summers; plus other contributors.

RSVP is essential for this event, so if you would like an invitation please could you let John at Snapshot Press know as soon as possible at email address: info@snapshotpress.co.uk

Herefordshire Haiku: poems on the move

Library van image by Alan Summers; Emma & myself image by Simon Holroyd.

I met Emma Stevens, Library Learning Officer at Hereford Station, and met up with the mobile library van at Fownhope to start my one day library van haiku poet-in-residence. Here are the five places we visited:



Herefordshire's lovely countryside replete with crows & rooks:


carrion crow call
refracted river-ripples
on the horsechestnut

mist haze -
a crow cleans its beak
on a rooftop aerial

2 haiku by Alan Summers

on a leafless branch
a crow comes to nest -
autumn nightfall

Basho (1644 - 1694) trans. Haruo Shirane

harusame no
dobei hi tomaru
karasu

mud wall perch
in the spring rain
a crow

Shiki Masaoka (1890-1902) English version trans Alan Summers.

The people:

picture by Simon Holroyd
Mrs Hulbert, who paid us a visit, (and helps out at Age Concern), is an artist who was interested in the tradition of combining pictures with haiku known as haiga in Japan.


(Please click onto the pictures for a larger image)
Mrs Hulbert deservedly is awarded a haiku detective badge!

photo by Alan Summers (selfie)

Mrs Slade was the second of my home visits to people unable to get out and visit the library van. Mrs Slade will be 100 in June this year. We also visited Mrs Oxley, in her nineties, who was also great fun, despite her fragility.









Simon Holroyd, the library van driver. It was a shame it was a very wet day, but the visitors we did have made it all worthwhile.

I left some of our haiku detective badges to encourage many more haiku being written at local libraries and with Simon Holroyd on his library van so I hope even more haiku get written.

Wing Beats: British Birds in Haiku

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The website link: Wing Beats

I am proud to be able to say that a number of my haiku are published in this book.

‘This volume of haiku about birds and what it means to encounter birds in the landscape achieves the near impossible. It captures the deepest feelings and the most minute observations in the fewest words possible—a triumph of seeing, expression and poetic control.’
Mark Cocker, author and naturalist

Mark Cocker is one of Britain’s foremost writers on nature and contributes regularly to the Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, as well as BBC Radio Four.


‘The poems in this volume are worthy heirs to three great traditions: the British love of nature, especially birds; the poetic approach of John Clare, rooted in observation and reality but taking the reader to a higher plane; and finally, of course, the long and venerable tradition of haiku.
By combining these, the writers have produced something truly unique: beautifully written yet easily accessible poetry that helps us reconnect with the natural world in a deeper, more intense way.’
Stephen Moss, from the Foreword
Stephen Moss is a producer at the BBC Natural History Unit.


‘In Wing Beats, the brief, Japanese-style haiku becomes an absolutely first-rate medium for capturing those fleeting moments all bird-lovers prize.

The birds in these poems glide, poke, and zip across the many different landscapes of Britain, punctuating the wind and the sounds of human activity.

Substantial appendices discuss how experience and tradition combine to freshen our understanding of the seasons in haiku.

I find Wing Beats full of acute observations, artistically moving, and intellectually stimulating—a very important book.’
William J. Higginson, author
The Haiku Handbook, Haiku World, etc.


You can order online:
Wing Beats website

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Haiku & Senryu

Well, we had our first Asian Forms workshop last Saturday, on haiku & senryu, and a lot of fun it was, and quite a few really good haiku & senryu came out. I hope to see some of the poems appear later this year in haiku publications.

Click here for the remaining Asian Poetry Forms of tanka, sedoka, sijo, jueju, & renga workshops: workshops

Click here for the venue: Workshop venue page


For bookings, and information:
Julia Bird, Programme Co-ordinator

The Poetry School
81-83 Lambeth Walk
London
SE11 6DX

Tel: 0845 223 5274
Website: CLICK HERE

Julia is in the office on Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays

Also we are fortunate enough to have Dorothea Smartt as the School's new administrator - she can be reached at:administration@poetryschool.com.