Kenya, Africa: The Stars & Night Sky Challenge Haiku Competition Results!

Top left photo©David Kimani Mwangi
(all unnamed photos are ©Isabelle Prondzynski)

The Stars & Night Sky Challenge Haiku Competition all started when I challenged students in Nairobi to write haiku poems about the stars and night sky!

To find out even more please make a visit to:
The Kenya Saijiki home page
Saijiki is a kind of poetry almanac for haiku!
A saijiki contains many keywords
and phrases for the seasons called kigo and kidai:
The World Kigo Database Home Page

In March 2007 I posted a challenge to the discussion site of the haiku clubs of Nairobi: WEBLINK: The haiku clubs of Nairobi

Photos©David Kimani Mwangi

[NOTE: Patrick Wafula is in the purple shirt, and as you will see further down in the Adult section, also a very fine haiku poet!]

My Challenge!

"Can I ask something? Can I in fact, challenge you?! ;-)

I don't know how much clear night sky you can see, because of city lights, but where I live, in Bradford on Avon, because I am near the country, there are fewer street and house lights and I can see the Milky Way, and Orion's Belt, very clearly, can you see them?

Do you have different words for stars and groups of stars?

I would love to get to see haiku that involve the stars, from very local names to regional names, maybe your own names for stars too."

Photos©David Kimani Mwangi

[NOTE: Anthony Njoroge is in the cream shirt and a great community leader, and he acts as Master of Ceremonies, as well as being a very fine haiku poet too!]

This is what happened... a full-blown haiku competition for Nairobi students culminating in a prize giving!

These teenagers are from Kayole slum -- I hesitate to say they are slum children, because the students, who come from very poor backgrounds, are rich in life and attitude that constantly leaves me humbled and inspired. They are also very well educated, and I have learnt more from them and their teachers than I can ever teach them.

So, the challenge was met, and 142 haiku were collected by Isabelle Prondzynski (Moderator of the discussion group, Kenya Saijiki) and handed over to me for judging, with the support of Gabi Greve (Director of WHC Worldkigo) in Japan.

Finally, the prizes were announced and awarded at the Outing of the Haiku Clubs in May 2007 -- read more here :

It was a beautiful day, and much fun was had by all, as you will see from the pictures of the ginko that followed the prize giving.

The student prize winners of the Stars and Night Sky Challenge

Photo © Isabelle Prondzynski

Comments by Alan Summers :

1st Prize

story-telling

around the bonfire --

a shooting star

~ Anne Njoki (Bamboocha, Form 1)

Storytelling is such an important part of culture in any country, and here we have other strong words that carry so much weight, in "bonfire" and "shooting star". What a lovely atmosphere is evoked here, and that is a very important part of haiku, evoking (showing) not telling, not putting everything onto the page, yet it's all there to be read if you look for it.

2nd Prize

pointing at the full moon --

the baby stops crying

as she watches the moon

~ Catherine Njeri Maina (Bamboocha)

The other person doesn't need to be mentioned in any more words, because we can all imagine it is either our older brother or sister, an aunt, an uncle, or a parent, sharing the wonder of the moon with a child. Wonderful!

3rd Prize

a thief stealing

from our neighbour's shop --

moonlight

~ Caren Cheptoo (Bamboocha, Form 1)

This has a good allusion to a classic haiku, and I can imagine more than one meaning here. It could be a straight meaning of a thief stealing or trying to steal from a shop at night, or a thief "window shopping" at night and all he can steal is the moonlight. A good haiku is where readers can take different meanings from the poem and add a little of themselves, so a haiku is not only the shortest poem in the world, but when people share their own meanings it also becomes the longest poem in the world!

EXTRA NOTE: this also works as an allusion to a famous haiku from Buson...

the moon-
even a thief stops
to admire

trans. Alan Summers

Please consider visiting this weblink to see more prize winning entries from the schoolchildren, they really are good!

The Kenya Saijiki results page

We even had a section created for adults!

The Adult Section Prizewinners
With the comments of Alan Summers :

Adult prizewinners of the Stars and Night Sky Challenge

Photos © Isabelle Prondzynski

1st Prize

a twilight girl

running on the street --

glittering stars

~ James Macharia (Bahati)

I love the stunning "a twilight girl" which falls headlong into a great poem!

2nd Prize

---

moon and stars

the only witnesses --

two lovers eloping

~ Patrick Wafula (Patron, Bamboochas [In the middle])

Very very atmospheric!

3rd Prize

clouds move

some stars are covered

it darkens

~ Adelaide Luvandale (Patron, Peacocks)

A very chilling, moody, atmospheric last line, I love it!

Please consider visiting these weblinks also:

The Kenya Saijiki home page
The World Kigo database home page

.

river light-
two girls 'quack compete'
with the ducks


Check out The Lock Inn's own pictures where I was eating a Summer Sunday lunch: The Lock Inn Café

Where in the U.K. is this? Click here!

two ducks image©Alan Summers 2007

Kent, Saturday 9th June THE APPLEHOUSE HAIKU & GINKO WORKSHOP

Only two spaces left as of last night (Thursday 3rd May)!

For further information:

write to: The AppleHouse, Aldon Lane, Offham, Kent ME19 5PH
or email: applehousepoetry@yahoo.co.uk

==============
DETAILS BELOW:
==============

THE APPLEHOUSE HAIKU & GINKO WORKSHOP, KENT, U.K.
10am to 4.30pm on Saturday 9th June 2007

AppleHouse is a financially independent project supporting poets in the South East through levels of excellence in intensive, small-group workshops, masterclasses, and anthology and pamphlet publication.

For further information:

write to: The AppleHouse, Aldon Lane, Offham, Kent ME19 5PH
or email: applehousepoetry@yahoo.co.uk



A LONG POET'S GUIDE TO HAIKU:
THE APPLEHOUSE HAIKU & GINKO WORKSHOP
10am to 4.30pm on Saturday 9th June 2007

Suitable for poets and writers of all levels – maximum of 12.

No previous experience of writing or reading haiku is necessary.

Haiku is simple, but requires discipline to write well. Learn the techniques behind contemporary English-language haiku with writing exercises and discussion. We will cover the world's shortest literary form, from its origins in Japan, to its current world-wide practice.

There will also be an opportunity for a traditional Japanese haiku-writing walk (a 'ginko') in the AppleHouse orchard.

Feel free to bring thirteen copies of any haiku you have written already.

10am to 4.30pm on Saturday 9th June 2007
Day Workshop for £42 including two-course lunch with wine



Tutor
Alan Summers is a Japan Times award-winning haiku poet and a Visiting Tutor for The Poetry School.

He's widely published with work translated into eleven different languages.
Alan is a judge for numerous haiku competitions, including The Sasakawa Prize for Original Contributions in the Field of Haikai, and is a former General Secretary of the British Haiku Society.

He is currently judging haiku entries from children and students from the poor areas of Nairobi, Kenya, Africa.

================================
WEBPAGE LINK ABOUT OFFHAM, KENT
================================

Offham is a charming typical Kentish village surrounded by hop gardens and orchards: webpage link about Offham, Kent

STREETMAP:
Streetmap webpage

MULTIMAP:
Multimap webpage

APRIL 11th EVENT: haiku & open mic

================ USEFUL WEBPAGES ==================
====================================================

THE BATH ROYAL LITERARY & SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTE venue:
The BRLSI website

PDF FILE showing accessiblity and floor plans:
BRLSI accessibility PDF

TO FIND BRLSI: STREETMAP

Charlotte Street Long Stay Car Park is just a few minutes away from the BRLSI venue:
webpage link

Car Parking Map:
Car Parks Map - Bath webpage link

.

Celebrating diversity

Frenchay Campus
University of West of England (UWE)
11 a. m. Friday, 16th March

Destination: World celebrates UWE's diversity, brings the different cultures at UWE closer together, and stimulates interest and appreciation in the cultures and the diversity of the world.





Kristina & Yvonne at the Japan stalls.



Hmmm, in my defence, this was Yvonne's idea! ;-)

Globe Café, Octagon, Frenchay Campus
I read some of my own haiku, as well as haiku from students in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa.

People also had an opportunity to purchase a haiku mug and T-shirt souvenir of the day!

The event was aimed at all students at the university (more than 30,000).
Ffi contact: Kristina Nink Telephone: 0117 32 82010 Email: Kristina.Nink@uwe.ac.uk

For more information visit: Destination: World

Weblinks:
Disability Resource Centre

How to get to Frenchay Campus

Friday Evening 2/2/07

The Art House Gallery website with map link (little green square)

The Poetry School haiku & senryu Saturday February 17th workshop: there are just a few spaces left

For more details about my haiku & senryu workshop please click onto this link: More details

Guest Speaker on Basho

At local BRISTOL CAN OPENERS this coming Thursday lunchtime I'll be giving a short talk on Basho and his famous haiku poems.
BASHO:
A TALK ON THE FAMOUS JAPANESE HAIKU POET


Alan Summers, Tokyo, Basho Haiku Museum, Japan


GUEST POET:
Naomi Woddis
WEBLINK: Naomi Woddis Myspace website

plus
OPEN MIC SLOTS
one before the break
one after the break

ALL WELCOME!

FIND A HAIKU AND READ IT TOO!

Bristol Central Library
Thursday 4th January 2007
12-1.30pm

BRISTOL CENTRAL LIBRARY :
MAP DETAILS web link

Part of the ambidextrous/Soft C/Alan Summers & With Words haiku project at Newton Park campus, Bath Spa University, U.K.

Link: BroadcastLab project: Haiku with Alan Summers by Ambidextrous and Soft C (ArtsWork Bath Spa University)

24 hour haiku answerphone details, and ambidextrous & Alan Summers with even more haiku on the campus

Just leave a haiku on the answerphone! A haiku only takes six seconds to read over the phone so the cost won't be much at all!

The 24 Hour Haiku Answerphone:
mobile number 0779 4835 809
U.K. Calls charged at normal to-Orange tariff.

"The haiku answerphone: we accept calls of haiku around the clock!"

Note to American Poets:
Dialing from America: 001-44-7794-483-5809 will get you through, it only costs pennies, since a haiku is about six seconds to read.

Other American codes:
Boston 617, Chicago 312, Dallas 214, Denver 303
Houston 713, Los Angeles 213, New York 718 (Manhattan) 212
Washington DC 202

Note to Canadian Poets:
Dialing from Canada is 001:
Quebec 001-418-7794-483-5809
Toronto (Metropolitan) 001-416-7794-483-5809, 001-647-7794-483-5809
(All Other) 001-289-7794-483-5809, 001-905-7794-483-5809
Vancouver 001-604-7794-483-5809

Note to Norwegian writers; and spoken word artists:
00 + 44 + Area Code + 7794-483-5809


It can be your own go at haiku, or find one on the internet, or check out
With Words website: Click onto the more haiku at the top of each webpage to get a new haiku!







Alan's Haiku worksheet & blog at Myspace

Bath Spa University, Newton Park campus


UPDATE:
You missed a great Renga poetry & saké Party!

==========BUSES & MAPS==========
Travelling By Bus: Bright Orange buses (service 418 operated by First) runs every 20 minutes between Bath city centre and the Newton Park Campus. (A return ticket currently costs £2.50). Check it's the 418 that goes to Bath Spa, and not University of Bath. Don't ask me why they can't give them two different numbers. ;-)
FirstGroup website: South West First Group

Virtual Tour (crucifix looking building no.19): Virtual Tour
Click onto no.19 and you get a virtual tour. The room ne101 is through the door where the girl is leaving.

Bath Spa map of surrounding area

Overview of Newton Park Campus (Site Code NP) building no.29:
Newton Park Campus


Click here if you'd like a Virtual Tour of the whole of Newton Park and village etc...

Irish Poetry Night

IRISH POETRY NIGHT at The George on Woolley Street
in Bradford on Avon - 8p.m. Thursday November 16th 2006
Plenty of fantastic Irish music and poetry happening!
Poets reading the work of Irish poets are Carrie Etter, Matt Bryden (reading Paul Muldoon), Claire Crowther (reading from Medbh McGuckian and Eavan Boland), Karen Hoy (reading from Louis MacNeice), T.S. Elliot Short-listed poet Tim Liardet (reading Tom French), and Alan Summers reading Brendan Kennelly and Raglan Road to Raglan Lane.


THIS IS A VERY KEENLY ANTICIPATED EVENT
I'd recommend that you come early and get a good table!

WEBSITE FOR: The George on Woolley Street



IRISH POETRY NIGHT AT THE GEORGE

National Poetry Day 2006

=========================
NATIONAL POETRY DAY 2006
=========================

NATIONAL POETRY DAY
Theme "IDENTITY"
THURSDAY OCTOBER 5TH 2006

BSL HAIKU EVENT
UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

This was an intimate event from 5pm to 7m
Centre for Deaf Studies

Rachel Sutton-Spence gave a talk:
"Sign Language Poetry and Deaf Identity"
which was interpreted,
followed by an analysis of a poem, and we had an exclusive on Linda Day performing for the first time, and with a haiku.

Please Click here
for more details about National Poetry Day at the Centre for Deaf Studies.


===================================================
Stand Up Poetry: The Bath Spa University Reading Series 2006-07
===================================================
Here are the readings for the upcoming academic year.
All readings are on Thursday nights beginning at 8 p.m.
and convene at The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute's Duncan Room, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath. Please e-mail me (carrie dot etter at gmail dot com) if you have any questions.
Entrance fee: £6 (£4 concessions)

30 November: Fiona Sampson and John Burnside
14 December: Greta Stoddart and Penelope Shuttle
11 January 2007: Annie McGann and Philip Gross
8 February: Patrick McGuinness and Peter Porter
(No March reading on account of the Bath Literature Festival)
12 April: Richard Price and Mimi Khalvati
10 May: Lucy English and Rachel Pantechnicon
14 June: Carrie Etter and Moniza Alvi



Poetry School haiku workshop details

Also extremely highly recommended are the following
Poetry School courses in Bath this October:

Carrie Etter's The Opportunities of Form

Tim Liardet's The Poetry Surgery

BRISTOL POETRY FESTIVAL September 2006

the COMPETITION Details (deadline now passed)

MR TALLSTORY read the results and entries for the competition
Bristol Old Vic Theatre
Kings Street
The Stalls Bar area
Sunday 2.15 p.m. - 2.45 p.m. 10th September 2006
Presented as part of the Bristol Poetry Festival 2006

Once upon a time in Mole Valley: Mr Tallstory's Modern Fairytale Competition

===========*============

RIPPED WORDS
Wednesday 6th September 2006
The Oppo} Coffee House
72 Park Street (wheelchair access off Park Street Avenue)
Presented as part of the Bristol Poetry Festival 2006
Many thanks to Lawrence Pettener, and to the utterly mesmerising music from Anil and Beth.
It was a great night, and made even better by all the fine guests!

RIPPED WORDS was:

Alan Summers


Lawrence Pettener


with music from Anil & Beth
Picture from Beth's blog (possibly taken by Russell?)
Anil's myspace site
Beth's myspace site

BRADFORD ON AVON ARTS FESTIVAL: poetry events including Open Mic

Bradford-on-Avon Arts Festival 2006 : BOAAF2006 WEBSITE
Bradford-on-Avon Arts Festival 2006 : BOAAF2006 pdf Brochure

POETRY READINGS & OPEN MIC information
follows after workshops information

POETRY WORKSHOPS at Ale & Porter Arts Sunday 1st October
Ale & Porter : Ale & Porter WEBSITE
Ale & Porter : multimap
Ale & Porter : Streetmap
The current exhibition: "JOURNALS" is highly recommended:
Click for more information

PUBLISHING YOUR POETRY with Carrie Etter from 10 - 12 p.m.
Carrie will be doing 20 minute tutorials on publishing poems.
Participants should bring 3-4 printed pages of poetry they'd like to publish. If you'd like any further details please feel free to e-mail carrie at:
carrie [dot] etter@gmail [dot] com

American expat Carrie Etter teaches as Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and as a tutor for The Poetry School. She has published hundreds of poems internationally in 'The Forward Book of Poetry 2005', 'The New Republic', 'New Writing 14', 'Poetry Review', 'The Rialto', 'The Times Literary Supplement', and other journals and anthologies. Her Blog site

DEMYSTIFYING HAIKU: HOW TO WRITE AND PUBLISH HAIKU
with Alan Summers from 2 - 4 p.m.

This is a relaxed group workshop introducing haiku.
You are most welcome to bring copies of favourite haiku poems to share.
Alan Summers is a Japan Times Award-winning poet, published in over fourteen countries.
Alan is also a visiting tutor for The Poetry School.
Alan's website: WITH WORDS

WORKSHOP FEES: Both Carrie and Alan's workshops are £10 per person, with a minimum enrollment of five people.

HOW TO BOOK TICKETS
Tickets are available from the
Bradford-on-Avon Tourist Information Centre (TIC).
The Tourist Information Centre is open daily from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Tel. No. 01225 865 797
email: tic@bradfordonavon.co.uk

ALE & PORTER ARTS current exhibition "JOURNALS":
Click for more information


========POETRY READING with OPEN MIC========
OPEN MIC FOR BOTH POETS & MUSICIANS
Thursday 28th September 8pm
FREE EVENT: at The George on Woolley Street

The Guest poets:

Matt Bryden teaches English as a Foreign Language in Bath and has work in current issues of The Interpreter's House and Smiths Knoll and forthcoming New Welsh Review.


American expat Carrie Etter teaches as Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and as a tutor for The Poetry School. She has published hundreds of poems internationally in 'The Forward Book of Poetry 2005', 'The New Republic', 'New Writing 14', 'Poetry Review', 'The Rialto', 'The Times Literary Supplement', and other journals and anthologies. Her Blog


Karen Hoy is interested in human beings as part of the natural world, and this is revealed through both her film-making and her poetry readings & events. Gilded Lily Productions


Alan Summers fresh from the Bristol Poetry Festival.
"astonishingly moving haiku" and "widely known haiku poet...as dry as vintage champagne" YOMIURI SHIMBUN (Japan, and the world's largest newspaper circulation).
Alan is published in The Iron Book of British Haiku; The New Haiku; Haiku World: an international poetry almanac; Haiga - illustrated haiku poems; Haiku Anthology of the European Union, thanks to the French-Japanese Sasakawa Foundation.



OPEN MIC
Anyone interested in signing up for the OPEN MIC just tell us on the night, and don't worry, the theme isn't compulsary for you!

VENUE WEBSITE: The George on Woolley Street.
About The George Pub, described by one regular
unreconstructed and comfortable...where I can relax without any pressure and enjoy the conversation or listen to the music, whatever takes my fancy

*******************MAPs & INFO ***************************

MAPS to show Bradford-on-Avon and its Art Galleries :

Click onto the little green box and check out the Art House Co-Operative, which is opposite Ale & Porter. The Art House are still showing their Summer exhibition for a while longer: recommended.

If you are arriving by train, the first art gallery you will come across is The Bay Tree art gallery which also has a useful map on their site, and worth a visit in itself. Say hello to Jane Gibson who is the wonderful gallery owner! The Bay Tree is both close to the train station and next to the Green where the Tourist Information Centre is based. Jane's current exhibition is in full swing, and is highly recommended too!
The Bay Tree Gallery

TIC: How to get to Bradford on Avon & Parking

Map showing the George on Woolley Street Map

THE POETRY SCHOOL SPRING 2007 PROGRAMME

Haiku and Senryu: An Introduction
Date: Saturday 17 February, 2007
Time: 10.30am - 4.30pm
Tutor: Alan Summers
Level: suitable for all levels
Activity: Writing Feedback Exercises
Study Mode: One Day Workshop
Venue: Murch Room, Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institute

This one-day workshop introduces haiku, and its sister form senryu, through discussion and exercises. Participants will learn the ‘real rules’ of these ultra-compact forms and consider their relevance to modern British poetry. We will aim to have finished poems at the end of the session, and you may bring work-in-progress to the group (please bring 16 copies).
The workshop is designed for all levels.

THE POETRY SCHOOL
To book, please download a booking form and
return it to the office.
More information can be found under booking information.
Cost: £35, £25 concs

====================================================
================ USEFUL WEBPAGES =================
====================================================

THE BATH ROYAL LITERARY & SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTE venue:
The BRLSI website

PDF FILE showing accessiblity and floor plans:
BRLSI accessibility PDF

TO FIND BRLSI: STREETMAP

Charlotte Street Long Stay Car Park is just a few minutes away from the BRLSI venue:
webpage link

Car Parking Map:
Car Parks Map - Bath webpage link

BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE HAIKU FESTIVAL

British Sign Language Haiku Festival was a highly successful two-day event aimed to encourage more Deaf people to create "haiku" poems in British Sign Language.

To read more about the BSL haiku festival go to: http://www.bslhaiku.co.uk/events.html
and click here for some great BSL haiku: BSL haiku

Sponsors: University of Bristol; Centre for Deaf Studies; The Dorothy Miles Cultural Centre; Japan 21; The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation; and With Words.

RESULTS of the 1st With Words @ Oppo} haiku contest

Check it out: Haiku Bulletin News

Claire Williamson's poetry comes to Oppo}

Claire Williamson, Arnolfini's first Visiting Writer in 2005 brings her poetry collection "RIDE ON" to Oppo} .
-----------------------------------------
Things said about RIDE ON
-----------------------------------------
"Beautiful brave writing... this poetry that is honed to a sharpness of light, bright with spirit, transcendent.”
ROSE FLINT - Arvon Foundation tutor, and broadcaster.

"These are poems with a job to do - to show how poetry can help us gain clarity and find value in some terrible passages of life. They deserve to be read.” PHILIP GROSS - Prof. of Creative Writing at Glamorgan University

“I read the poems in one reading, and came out a different person: a better person.” ALAN SUMMERS - Visiting Tutor for The Poetry School


Ride On:
http://www.clairewilliamson.co.uk/publications.html

The Poetic Image: haiku & photography

The Poetic Image - Haiku and Photography 

Birmingham Words / National Academy of Writing Pamphlet 2006 

Edited by Alan Summers, Roger Brown, and Will Buckingham
Cover Image: Gareth Thompson 

Those images that yet fresh images beget…
W. B. Yeats

Welcome to the first in our new series of Birmingham Words pamphlets.
These pamphlets are a new venture for us, in which we are seeking to publish
high-quality new writing in a format that is accessible from anywhere in the
world.

It has been a pleasure to launch this series with the present collection, The Poetic
Image: Haiku and Photography, and to work with Alan Summers and Roger
Brown, this issue’s guest editors. What makes a poem or a photograph succeed
is hard to put your finger on. But for me at least, a poem or photograph has
the power to open up chinks in my world, to allow in a flicker of light or flame.

This collection of fleeting images will have done its work if even a single image
– whether a poem or a photograph – succeeds in catching fire in your
imagination, leading to fresh insights, new moments of clear seeing.
 
Will Buckingham


The Haiku.

“Today it may be possible to describe haiku but not to define it.”
Hiroaki Sato: Author, columnist, and editor of “One Hundred Frogs: From
Matsuo Basho to Allen Ginsberg” http://hiroakisato.org

“There are descriptions of haiku as there are stars in the night sky: this is mine.”
Alan Summers http://www.withwords.org.uk

Haiku are possibly the shortest, and the longest regularly written form of poetry in the world. They are of incidents of everyday proportions: whether crossing a busy road: noticing a flower in a crack of concrete; running from a downpour of rain; or just those many episodes in our lives we unknowingly share with people from other cultures and backgrounds.

Haiku can allow you to respond not only as a reader, but as a “co-poet” with the original writer. This isn’t unique to haiku but may equally be one of the defining characteristics of haiku: where we are able to experience within our own lifestyle something that links us all...the piquancy of the moment.

“For me nature is not landscape but the dynamism of visual forces - an event rather than an appearance.” Bridget Riley “Working with Nature” from “The Mind’s Eye” 1973

When I found this quote I immediately thought of Basho and one of his most famous haikai verses (Basho wrote before the term haiku was used). I have visited the place this poem originally related to, but I also feel it is only too universal:

these summer grasses:
the remains of warriors
with their dreams

(English-language translation version by Alan Summers)

natsu-gusa ya / tsuwamono-domo-ga / yume no ato
summer grasses (:!) / strong ones’ / dreams’ site
 
(romanised version with literal English-language translation)

Haiku are not ‘Nature Poems’ although:

“I try to capture the feelings of "The Fours": in a year – the four seasons; in a month – the four stages of the waxing and waning of the moon; in a day – morning, afternoon, evening, and night.”
Dr. Akito Arima: Minister of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture (1998-2000). Simply Haiku interview October 2003, Vol.1 No.4

The Photographs

I have chosen 12 photographs on the basis of what seemed to me the intention behind making them, their poetics and aesthetic appeal especially with the use of light, the interest of the subject matter and how well these three strands were woven together in a satisfying whole.

Some of the images I admired for their elegant simplicity, others for their more complex significations. All of them I find subtle and richly enjoyable. I hope you do too.

Roger Brown
Guest photography editor.

Selected haiku from the collection:

in the dream
they called me brother –
pounding rain

the tremor
in his hand
blue hydrangeas

Peggy Willis Lyles


pitch black night
the glow of temple lamps
on bejewelled women's faces

Angelee Deodhar

autumn winds
the old man dances
with butterflies

Narayan Raghunathan

Haibun (prose with haiku) 

EARLY MORNING IN THE MIST

Like being in a large bowl, the hills, glaciated, unglaciated, making a ragged edge. Always a bank of clouds rising over them in the fall. Sometimes the cloud cover is so low that the car barely has enough room to squeeze through underneath. If I stopped, I could climb on the roof and haul myself up, run across the tops of the hills, valley and ridge, valley and ridge. Rise and dive, rise and dive.

Girl
(why not)
on a dolphin

Helen Ruggieri

More selected haiku 

fresh earth
on the lifeline of my palm
a tiny worm

winter full moon
the ebb and flow
of her headache

Graham Nunn 


a shy man
half in shadow...
spring sunset

only a pebble
yet nothing can replace it...
the child's pebble

Keiko Izawa 


CHRISTMAS IN VERNON

jazz radio –
delicacy of snowflakes
on the keys

Men's Studies –
the only book in the section
What I Meant To Say

Richard Stevenson
 

radio off...rain
without
interference

Christmas
City...
a fairy-lit crane

Helen Buckingham

 
































A Birmingham Words/National Academy of Writers pamphlet.

The Pdf can be received on request at:
alan@withwords.org.uk

The Poetic Image - Haiku and Photography 
This collection, guest edited by Alan Summers and Roger Brown, contains work by an international cast of thirty-one poets and photographers, from Birmingham to Brazil, and several points in between - whatever way you decide to travel.

.

Seven Magazine: Literature Feature

The Oppo} resident poet Alan Summers

inside the bar at 72 Park Street Avenue, just off the top of Park Street, Clifton, Bristol

Photo by: Paul Gillis

Seven Magazine Article:

THREE LINES OF SIMPLE BEAUTY

29 April 2006

Cris Warren visits a Bristol cafe where you will get more than just a coffee.

Poets in residence tend to be the preserve of universities and libraries so it's something of a non-dusty and dry pleasure to find one has set up shop in an airy and relaxed Bristol coffee house equally famed for its food as it is its music playlists. Even better, Alan Summers' poems only last six seconds.

As Oppo on Park Street's house poet, Alan's brief is to teach customers the ways of haiku, the brief but epic Japanese verse form that has adherents across the globe.

"The wonderful thing about haiku," says Alan, "is that it's the world's shortest poem and the world's largest poem at the same time. It works on many different levels and means different things to different people."

"If I spoke a haiku to you, whatever meaning you got out of it would add to my poem. Some poetry can make people feel awkward if they don't understand it because you're supposed to know what the poet is saying. But haiku is about your interpretation of the words, and the space between the words."

The table is strewn with yellow Post-It notes containing three-line musings on nature and cappuccino, written by Oppo customers and posted in the red haiku postbox in the middle of the cafe.

"Once you get the knack," he says in explanation, "it becomes addictive. You start to think in haiku."

Alan's beginnings as a poet started simply enough.

"I'd look for blank greetings cards and just write a verse or a ditty for friends' birthdays and the like. I didn't really think anything of it, I just thought they'd throw them away when their birthday or whatever had passed."

Much to Alan's surprise, he discovered that far from filing his cards in the bin his poems were becoming treasured and desirable collectibles among his friends and family.

"It felt quite strange, being collectable - I mean, I really hadn't thought anything of it, but that people liked what I wrote kind of gave me confidence to take things a little more seriously and from that I got into writing haiku."

Or rather, as is the nature of the form, haiku got into Alan. Either way he showed an almost effortless command for haiku and, in a classic case of coals to Newcastle, even picked up a prestigious award for his terse verse recently from the Japan Times.

Now he has an almost evangelical zeal to spread the word through poetry events, blogs on the internet and chance encounters, and he's now haiku poet in residence at the Oppo music cafe on Park Street, a venue big on promoting local arts and music and the perfect place for a spot of poetic reflection between shops.

Oppo customers can, for the price of a coffee, sit down with Alan for five minutes and get a crash course in haiku before graduating to writing their own zen masterpieces, aided and abetted by a latte.

"Haiku is poetry, but it's not and that's why it's so suited to all walks of life. It's something you can spend hours on your own writing, or minutes while you're sipping a coffee."

"I'm not teaching people to write haiku as such, I'm just pushing them in the right direction and showing them the guidelines."

Academic approaches to haiku tend to swaddle it in rules about the correct amount of syllables but, argues Alan, its beauty is in its brevity and space. He also prefers the term guideline rather than rule when it comes to writing haiku.

"All it needs to be is three short lines and the whole haiku lasts six seconds long, no longer. I try not to bombard anyone with too much information, I want people to discover it for themselves and write it their way."

"I don't want people to be bogged down by the rules, I want them to enjoy it."

"It's quite a therapeutic exercise and the sheer range of people who write haiku, from high-ranking government ministers to prisoners on death row, illustrates what a democratic process it is."

It takes a pen and a scrap of paper to get started, but even if you don't have those to hand, the style is so short you could compose them as a text message or just in your head.

Haiku is written in the present tense in everyday language and it works best with two different images that spark off each other. Traditionally haiku is rooted in the seasons of the year, but there's no reason to be tied to this.

It's about trying to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, or even vice-versa, and it's full of senses like sound and taste, touch and smell, not just what you see with your eyes. Take two of Alan's recent verses, for instance.

lime quarter

an ice cube collapses

over jazz

or

the rain

almost a friend

this funeral

The thing is that haiku doesn't tell you anything or really even describe anything. It's about letting the reader or the listener enter the poem and have a good look around before making their own interpretation.

As a way of filtering out all the noise of the information we're constantly bombarded with, writing haiku is a way of finding some clarity in the modern age. The trick is not to think too hard about it.

Says Alan: "Haiku brings you back to what's simple but it works best when you're not trying to be clever or philosophical. You have to almost step aside from yourself to write what you feel."

Meet poet in residence Alan Summers at Oppo} Music Coffee House, at 72 Park Street (entrance via Park Street Avenue) Thursday and Friday lunchtimes between 1pm and 2pm

You can visit Alan's With Words haiku website

Cris Warren, Bristol Evening Post
Feature Writer of the Year 2005