Online internet courses by Call of the Page

Are you interested in a Call of the Page course? We run courses on haiku; tanka; tanka stories/prose; haibun; shahai; and other genres.

Please email Karen or Alan at our joint email address: admin@callofthepage.org
We will let you know more about these courses.

Call of the Page (Alan & Karen)

Thursday, August 28, 2008

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)
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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




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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


Friday, July 18, 2008

.
Hokusai's wave
on her T-shirt:
she strokes my ankle








This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.
This applies to the United States, Canada, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

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channel-billed cuckoo
from beneath the dying fruit tree
I hear its storm cry


weblink:
channel-billed cuckoo on wikipedia
Description
A juvenile, displaying the pale tipped feathers on the wings.
In adults the tips are dark.

IMAGE/Photograph by Zarni02 at en.wikipedia
Released into the public domain (by
Zarni02, the author).
(Original text : Public Domain)

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Poetry School Renga workshop

 

With a nod and thanks to Alec Finlay for his inspiration
and superb renga book: shared writing: renga days


Slug and Lettuce renga
(see below)
Renga Sabaki: Alan Summers
participants:

  • June Hall
  • Libby Houston
  • Donald Gibson
  • Linda Saunders
  • Be Mattingly
  • Lynette Rees
  • Karen Hoy


Nijuin Renga
A renga is a series of very short verses, linked into one long poem, composed collaboratively by a group. 'Nijuin' means a 20-verse renga created by 20th Century renga master Meiga Higashi. He considered the Nijuin renga to be the shortest form that could be both contemporary yet capture some of the classic feel of renga.

There are three movements in Nijuin Renga: a four verse section; a twelve verse; and another four verse section. We started in Spring going through the seasons, as well as writing love, and moon verses, to end back in Spring.
The intrepid rengaistas get their first few verses down:

 

Reflective rengaistas*
(*Alec Finlay's term for renga poets)



More thinking and working out a verse
that has to both link and shift!
 



Renga fun moments!
Although we look serious and reflective at times,
there was a lot of fun too, especially with the 'love verses'.


Action renga!


 

Last verse! Then some of us went on to Yen Sushi,
it's a hard life for rengaistas!


Nijuin Renga


A renga is a series of very short verses, linked into one long poem, composed  collaboratively by a group.

'Nijuin' means a 20-verse renga created by 20th Century renga master Meiga Higashi.  He considered the Nijuin renga to be the shortest form that could be both contemporary yet capture some of the classic feel of renga.

There are three movements in Nijuin Renga: a four verse section; a twelve verse; and another four verse section. We started in Spring going through the seasons, as well as writing love and moon verses, to end back in Spring.

This was composed jointly by the Poetry School workshop led by Alan Summers, which met in the Slug & Lettuce Restaurant in Bath in April 2008.


four hundred species

nesting gulls–
leaves carved
in Bath Stone

demolition reveals
hills and archaeology

we've lost the moon
on the way
to the station

cherry muffin
or wasabi peas

ninety-three million miles
is too close
sometimes

cider-headed
stuck in the hedge again

collapsed
in the middle
of a banking crisis

warm tattoos
Harley lovers' engines purr

text me
fizzed the love heart
on my tongue

all the screens in Curry's
have gone dark

the imprint
of a departed leaf
on the pavement

bracken light
kipper smoke

in their window
the luminous goose
rivals the moon

breaking cups
screams below

tea time
limbs thrown
in the cauldron

fleecy vests wait
for the coming child

we are hiding
from chaos
behind the sofa

a really thorough
one-eighth spring clean

four hundred species
of dandelion
ready to tell the time

are cuckoos
allowed?


Renga Sabaki: Alan Summers

Participants:

June Hall
Libby Houston
Donald Gibson
Linda Saunders
Be Mattingley
Lynette Rees
Karen Hoy

Breaking news as of May 2012:

Libby Houston wins major award:

The Linnean Society is one of the premier scientific societies in the world, whose mission is the cultivation of the science of natural history in all its branches. 

Libby Houston is also a great poet:

Other poets:

June Hall:

Linda Saunders:

Lynette Rees:

Donald Gibson (St. Andrews University):
‘Pseudo-statement or Creative Misreading: What Happens to Science in Poetry?’  

Karen Hoy works in TV Development and is a published haiku poet:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/karen-hoy-appears-in-major-new-haiku.html 

Bea aka Be Mattingly is an adventurer and adores bikers.

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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

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.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Promenade: haiku beside the sea

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A number of my haiku will be appearing in 3LIGHTS GALLERY.

Update:









beachcombing...
a periwinkle rotates
deeper into itself


Alan Summers

Publications credits: Shamrock, Irish Haiku Society (Spring 2007); 3Lights Gallery - Promenade: haiku beside the seaside (2008) Presentation Curator & Photographer LIAM WILKINSON (April – July 2008); Haiku Friends Vol.3 (Japan, 2009)

perwinkle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_periwinkle

Castle Beach, Falmouth, Cornwall, England:
The most northerly of all the Falmouth beaches, situated alongside Pendennis point. Rocky sections mean that at low tide it is regarded as an excellent beach for rockpooling:
http://www.falmouth.co.uk/see-and-do/beaches/castle-beach
http://www.watergatebay.co.uk/blog/2013/07/03/our-guide-to-rockpools/



































falling down
onto rush hour traffic
seagull feathers


Alan Summers

Publications credits: haijinx  vol. I issue 2 (Summer 2001); City: Bristol Today in Poems and Pictures  Bristol Docklands - selected haiku (Paralalia 2004); tinywords (2007); 3Lights Gallery - Promenade: haiku beside the seaside (2008) Presentation Curator & Photographer LIAM WILKINSON (April – July 2008)

First Known Use of SEAGULL
1542


sea·gull also sea gull

NOUN:  A gull, especially one found near coastal areas.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition
http://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=seagull

Pero's Bridge, Harbourside, Bristol U.K. Image by: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rodw
This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Rodw at the wikipedia project. This applies worldwide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perosbridge.JPG


Pero’s Bridge -
the dock’s ice gathers
new year resolutions


Alan Summers

Publication Credits: City: Bristol Today in Poems and Pictures (2004); 3Lights Gallery - Promenade: haiku beside the seaside (2008) Presentation Curator & Photographer LIAM WILKINSON (April – July 2008)

 

City: Bristol Today in Poems and Pictures (2004)
http://www.amazon.com/City-Bristol-Today-Poems-Pictures/dp/0954811704
http://www.amazon.co.uk/City-Bristol-Today-Poems-Pictures/dp/0954811704




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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Herefordshire Haiku: poems on the move



I'm going out on Herefordshire's new mobile library this Saturday, 15th March 2008, meeting people in each location. The van visits a variety of countryside and village locations, and we're going to try and capture some of those surroundings in haiku with the people we meet. The haiku can then be shared and displayed around the county. If you are local, please come and find us, and write a haiku or two!



"Sat, 15 Mar 2008: come along and join Haiku poet Alan Summers on the Mobile Library. Using the fabulous scenery of Herefordshire as inspiration, Alan will be on hand to encourage your imagination and enable you to write your own haiku. Feel free to bring along your own Japanese Haiku poetry, or have a go whilst choosing your books as the mobile visits Fownhope, Goodrich, Lea, Whitchurch and Llangrove."

images from sign-rite

weblink: Council brings Japan to Herefordshire this Easter

myherefordshire.com weblink: Herefordshire Haiku: Poems on the Move

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Sunday, March 09, 2008

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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Kingsfield School goes haiku!



The first half of Friday February 15th became a poetry day for pupils at Kingsfield Grammar School in Bristol. Kingsfield is a Specialist Mathematics and Computing College. I was part of a visit from Bath Spa University and took 3 one hour sessions in the dept.computer room AG7 with Yr 7 ATk, Yr 10 JTn, Yr 8 CSw classes.

One pupil from year 8 proudly handed me her handout of well placed images with haiku poems:

Dark blanket of sky
Silent screech owls flies with grace
Braking midnight's depth


Wow!


Tim Anderson, teacher/governor at Kingsfield said:
"Many, many thanks for coming to Kingsfield. All the teachers involved in the workshops have said how much they enjoyed them and how valuable they were for the pupils."

"Alan's Haiku went down well with the Yr 7s, and we were impressed at how the sometimes turbulent Yr 10s tackled them."

"The acid test, of course, is: "Was it worthwhile? Should we do it again?"
Again all the teachers involved gave a resounding affirmative to both questions."


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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

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.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

The Poetry School 2008 courses

I'm giving the following Poetry School courses in 2008:

Haiku & Senryu
Activity: Writing Feedback Exercises
Study Mode: One Day Workshop
Venue:
Slug and Lettuce - Bath
5/6 Edgar Buildings, George Street
Bath BA1 2EE
Slug & Lettuce weblink: Slug & Lettuce
Date: 23 February, 2008
Day: Saturday
Time: 10.30am-4.30pm

Participants will learn the ‘real rules’ of these ultra-compact forms and consider their relevance to modern British poetry.

==========================

Korean, Japanese & Chinese Forms
Activity: Writing Feedback Exercises
Study Mode: One Day Workshop
Venue:
Slug and Lettuce - Bath
5/6 Edgar Buildings, George Street
Bath BA1 2EE
Slug & Lettuce weblink: Slug & Lettuce
Date: 29 March, 2008
Day: Saturday
Time: 10.30am-4.30pm

This workshop introduces the forms of Sijo, Sedoka, Tanka, and Jueju. Participants will learn how these forms are still active today.

==============================

Renga
Activity: Writing Feedback Exercises
Study Mode: One Day Workshop
Venue:
Slug and Lettuce - Bath
5/6 Edgar Buildings, George Street
Bath BA1 2EE
Slug & Lettuce weblink: Slug & Lettuce
Date: 26 April, 2008
Day: Saturday
Time: 10.30am-4.30pm

This workshop introduces the shared writing linked verse form of renga (both haiku and senryu originate from renga). Through group activity we will aim to complete a twenty verse nijuin renga by the end of the day.

For the renga workshop, if you have never written renga, then there is no need to bring work, just bring yourself!
The purpose of these three workshops is to examine and practice, through group discussion and participation, both the traditions and contemporary possibilities of various classic Asian poetry forms. Participants will aim to have finished poems at the end of each session and are invited to bring work-in-progress as well (16 copies of each poem).

Each workshop fee: £35, £25 concs

The School office in London is staffed part-time, so if you don't catch them in, please leave a message and they will get back to you as soon as they possibly can:
Phone: 0845 223 5274
Email: programme@poetryschool.com

USEFUL WEBLINKS

The Poetry School weblink: The Poetry School

Slug & Lettuce, Bath weblink: Where to find the Slug & Lettuce, and contact details