A selection of haiku, by Alan Summers, published by Asahi Shimbun, Japan, between 2010 and 2013

 

The Asahi Shimbun literally Morning Sun Newspaper, is one of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun.

Monet's Haystacks At Chailly 1865

Monet's Haystacks

a group of crows tug

at twilight

rook chatter
tracking each snowflake
to the end

first quarter moon
dancing pinheads burst
into new angel DNA

Also published in Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)

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









river festival  
just a birdsong afternoon  
and talk of hedgehogs

Fraser Island
the pre-sunset whine
of mosquitoes

Fraser Island: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Island

Upolu Cay
my own skeletons
unearthing

About Michaelmas and Upolu

www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/michaelmas-upolu-cays/about.html

green clouds
the scarecrow worries
a loose thread

Maple moon

Grandmother’s recipe

settles in the pan

This was also published by the Hailstone Haiku Group, Japan

Early morning rain

the sound between

the sound

Night clouds

a spider shows me

the harvest moon

Cloud kigo

a light rain patters across

your nightingale floors

"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, Asahi Shimbun

David McMurray has been writing the Asahi Haikuist Network column since April 1995, first for the Asahi Evening News. He is also the editor of OUTREACH, a bi-monthly column featuring international teachers in The Language Teacher of the Japan Association for Language Teacher (JALT).

He is professor of intercultural studies at The International University of Kagoshima where he lectures on international haiku. At the Graduate School he supervises students who research haiku. He is a correspondent school teacher of Haiku in English for the Asahi Culture Center in Tokyo.

Call of the Page runs popular online courses in haiku, tanka and other related poetry.

Please don't hesitate to contact Karen for further information: 

admin@callofthepage.org

www.callofthepage.org

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A selection of ekphrastic haiku from Monet to netsuke by Alan Summers, Japan Times award-winning writer

Artist: Claude Monet

Artist Info: French, 1840 - 1926
Title: The Bridge at Argenteuil
Dated: 1874
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Painting
Credit: Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Accession No. 1983.1.24
Digitization: Image Use
Open Access

Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Source: Open Access (OA), via National Gallery of Art, Washington

What is Ekphrasis?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekphrasis

I'm running a five week course on ekphrastic haiku at the Quest Gallery:

Quest Gallery | The Ekphrastic Haiku Sessions

http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/quest-contemporary-art-gallery-haiku.html

The following haiku are by me, and the idea on completion of the Quest Gallery course is to produce ekphrastic haiku by the participants which will go into the exhibition catalogue providing a legacy for both participants, visitors, and the gallery.


Monet’s Haystacks
a group of crows tug
at twilight

Alan Summers
Publications credits: Asahi Shimbun (Japan 2010)



Monet’s pain–
the shadows of haybales
lengthening the sunset

Alan Summers
Publications credits: The Bath Burp: Poetry, Music & Arts Monthly Issue No. 10 (2012)
 

The painting that inspired me from the time I saw it at this museum:
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=1088&handle=li 

Monet's Pain: 
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=260 

[Monet] remained loyal to the Impressionists' early goal of capturing the transitory effects of nature through direct observation. In 1890 he began creating paintings in series, depicting the same subject under various conditions and at different times of the day.

His late pictures, made when he was half-blind, are shimmering pools of color almost totally devoid of form. 


Discover... Claude Monet:  

http://www.impressionist-art-gallery.com/claude_monet.html 

 




Van Gogh’s wheatfield
the width of a hand fills
with crows

Alan Summers
Publications credits:  The Bath Burp: Poetry, Music & Arts Monthly Issue No. 10 (2012)



Waterloo sunset
the Thames disappears
from the Tube map

Alan Summers
Publications credits: haijinx  vol III issue 1 (2010); Across the Haikuverse, No. 10: Bleak Midwinter Edition (2011)

Newspaper article: http://travelblog.dailymail.co.uk/2009/09/who-stole-the-river-thames-from-the-london-tube-map.html





the blue
of the aubergine
a spider is caught
in the netsuke

Victoria and Albert Museum

Alan Summers







 Publications credits: Snapshots Seven (2000)

netsuke...
the hare with amber eyes
jumps back in again

Alan Summers
Publications credits: Mainichi Shimbun (Japan 2011)

Quest Gallery | The Ekphrastic Haiku Sessions

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