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:

http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2012/8528.html

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:

http://www.thebakehouse.info/index.php/22-poets/66-libby-houston

Other poets:

June Hall:

http://www.poetrypf.co.uk/junehallbiog.shtml

Linda Saunders:

http://carrieetter.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/linda-saunders-watchers.html

Lynette Rees:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/11/prweb307744.htm 

Donald Gibson (St. Andrews University):

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/english/people/postgraduates/PhD/gibson/

‘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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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.

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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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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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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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.

New venue for The Poetry School haiku, tanka, renga, and other poetry workshops!

Webpage link: The Slug and Lettuce in Bath
Click for details: The Poetry School Workshops

The Poetry School Webpage link: The Poetry School

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

Space Haiku Competition!

A space haiku competition for under sixteens, fantastic prizes!

Web link: At-Bristol Space Haiku competition


haiku detectives Copyright © 2007 Alan Summers & With Words,
All Rights Reserved.

The new Katikati Haiku Pathway guidebook is now available.

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"The new Katikati Haiku Pathway guidebook is now available. It features a complete set of the 30 poems engraved on boulders in this riverside walk in Katikati, New Zealand, among them a poem by English writer Alan Summers. The walk had its three newest additions blessed at the end of July in a ceremony conducted by local Maori."


almost lost
in the shimmer of water
several ducklings *

The book also includes short author biographies, a potted history of the project and a map of the pathway.

For those ordering from the UK the cost (including P&P) in New Zealand dollars is $12 for 1, or $20 for 2.

Payment may be made through the Katikati Haiku Pathway Focus Committee's PayPal account.

Please e-mail Sandra at: nzhaiku@gmail.com
for details of the payee account, or for the cost if you wish to purchase more than 2 books.

====================
* haiku publishing credits:
====================

1. "water"  (2010) haiga by Kuni  is the 2nd of the haiga eBook series. Just as "wind", this book give you full view of haiku scene in the world. Content: 75 color plates of haiga artwork for haiku poems by well known 65 haijin (poets) from around the world. http://tfship.net/bookstore/bkstore.html
2. See Haiku Here (kuni_san) April 13, 2009  Haiga 197 http://seehaikuhere.blogspot.com/2009/04/haiga-197.html
3. Yomiuri Shimbun  October 2004
4. Narrow Road haiku sequence Various Artists eMagazine  March 2004
5. Haiku Pathway Katikati book ISBN 0-476-00060-2  (2003) Katikati Open-Air Art Inc.
6. First Australian Haiku Anthology ISBN 0 9577925 9 X (2003)
7. Raku Teapot: Haiku Book and CD pub. Raku Teapot Press 2003 in association with White Owl Publishing Book: ISBN 1-891691-03-1 CD:  ISBN 1-891691-04-X
8. Wild Flowers, New Leaves  (2002) Ed. Susumu Takiguchi  Ami-Net International Press ISBN 1 902135 03 2
9. Flowers on a Shoe String a collection of poetry and prose ed. Sacha Tremain in aid of ‘One to One Children’s Charity’ Institute of Physics Publishing 2002
10. HI journal #42, Haiku International, Japan, January 2001 (trans into Japanese)
11. tinywords.com January 2001
12. Haiga site 2001 www.mahorobane.jp/~kuni/haiga_gallery/hai_jin7/summer1.html
13. Haiku Pathway,  Katikati, North Island, New Zealand            handcarved into a river boulder 2000            http://area17.blogspot.com/2007/08/new-katikati-haiku-pathway-guidebook-is.html                     http://members.dodo.com.au/janbos/katikati.html            http://www.katikati.co.nz
14. HI journal #42, Haiku International, Japan, January 2001 (translated into Japanese) include or not?
15. First Australian Anthology 1999 http://users.mullum.com.au/jbird/as1.html
16. It was reprinted in the British Haiku Society Journal article "English/Japanese Haiku" by Nobuyuki Yuasa Blithe Spirit article  vol.8 no.3  ISSN 1353-3320 (September 1998)
17. The haiku was used and translated for an article read at the Baiko Women's College, Oct. 1996 by Nobuyuki Yuasa  who is also the editor/translator of the Penguin Classics book ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches’ ISBN 0140441859                                                                 trans. into romaji by Nobuyuki Yuasa,              mizu haete  hikari ni kasumu  kogamo kana 
18. Blithe Spirit Vol. 6 No. 1  February 1996   ISSN 1353-3320

================
USEFUL WEBLINKS:
================
If you would like to learn more about the pathway, please go to:
Poetry Society New Zealand

Janice's Katikati webpage with images:
http://members.dodo.com.au/janbos/katikati.html

The Katikati Town Web Site:
includes details of the Haiku Pathway

Katikati’s Millennium Project, The Haiku Pathway:
Katikati Mural Town: haiku park

Gerald England's blog and Katikati record:
Ackborn born, gone West: ABC Wednesday - K is for Katikati Haiku Pathway

For New Zealand, and international haiku news please check out:
New Zealand Haiku News

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SWOT: arts & literary magazine, haiku article

Article©Swot Magazine 2007

Please click onto image for large text format.

Writer in Residence, Frome Festival, 7th July 2007

photo©Crysse Morrisson
Check out Crysse's blog for more background information: weblink
and at Hazel Stewart's blog: Hazel's blog link



Here I am, as writer-in-residence with manager Kate, staff members Becky, Jen, Sally, and Saturday volunteer orangey stripy Helen!

Jen Pickup even wrote two haiku with me in!

Resident writer
sitting in the window shade
scribbling lines.

Noise from the stream street
Drifting in past the poet
Into the shop cool.

Jen is wearing the No. 3 purple top! ;-)

The result of my writing, which this time wasn't haiku or other haikai, was revealed on the 23rd July event at Christies Café in Frome.

Check out Crysse's and Hazel's blogs for information on the Frome Festival: crysse's blog weblink and Hazel's: Hazel's blog link

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Haiku balloons at the POW Festival of Arts & Literature, Bath Spa University

photo©Alan Summers 2007

This image is of the haiku balloons, each one of them with a haiku written by students during my workshops, and by visitors to the POW Festival of Arts & Literature:

POW festival poster images designed by Abby Keverne

The POW Festival
Bath Spa University
Newton Park
Friday 15th June 2007


I was involved with a number of haiku & renga workshops at Bath Spa University, hired by ambidextrous who were behind this great festival along with another student society called Play on Words Productions.

Watch the video made by Ambidextrous and Soft C, and leave a comment to encourage current and future Bath Spa Univ. students.
Weblink: haiku video

Here you can see Emerson Leese, of Ambidextrous, checking out my Haiku Wall during the time I was a haiku poet-in-residence at Bristol central cafe Oppo}, as mentioned in this year's "Lonely Planet" guide for the U.K.!
Weblink: click for image of Emerson with me and my haiku wall!

Alan & Emerson photo©Sam Reader, ambidextrous

More weblinks:
Weblink: ambidextrous Myspace site
Weblink: The POW Festival
Alan's "haigu" [sic]
"back by popular demand"
One of many of the Haiku Walls at Bath Spa University

Here you can see some of the balloons in "The Haiku Room". Weather brought them out, but weather later took them out and up up and away too!

First 3 images in this grouping by Abby Keverne, POW 
4th image©Alan Summers 2007

You can see a student hard at work composing a haiku poem.

(haiku writing photo©Alan Summers 2007)

haiku wall/balloons photo by Abby Keverne, POW

The POW Festival team (red POW T-shirts) were out in force for the launch of the haiku balloons.

(1st photo©Alan Summers 2007
Last 5 photos by Abby Keverne, POW)

:

And except for the single spooky silver haiku UFO near my feet, I think a few haiku balloons might still be floating over mainland Europe and even heading over to Japan.