Still time to book up for the Purely Haiku course!

I'm really looking forward to this residential course.

Monday Afternoon 11th - Friday Breakfast 15th April 
Claridge House, Surrey, South East England
(just outside London)
Phone: 01342 832150
Phone: 0845 3457281
 

The Purely Haiku Course details:

http://area17.blogspot.com/2011/02/purely-haiku-unique-uk-based.html

Claridge House:
http://www.claridgehousequaker.org.uk/courses.php#April

I think that's a brilliant price. It's a bargain for what you are offering. I thought it was going to be much more.

Annie Bachini (previous President of the British Haiku Society)

There may be some people who think, I know what haiku is, do I need a short residential course?

The answer is yes!  

photo©Rosee aka ridlydidlysventures

 


It is surprising just how much there is to learn about haiku and how the enjoyment can be tripled, quadrupled even.

The residential course starts Monday late afternoon after scrumptious teas and coffees, cakes and biscuits, in a leisurely get to know each other before we get to any workshopping at all. 

There's just the one session on Monday, and then relaxed sessions throughout Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

photo©Rosee aka ridlydidlysventures

The course is as relaxed and leisurely as you'd personally like,  or can be stepped up to your individual needs.  

The main thing is that I'm there to work hard for you, with gentle prompts and workshop exercises, with encouraging lively, engaging, inclusive group discussion and feedback.

Find out about  
kigo; kireji; gendai; shasei; juxtaposition and disjunctive methods; and how to make concrete images stand out, and even come across as lyrical in so short a poem, and help improve your other writing styles.

For those new to haiku, it will be a delightful introduction;
for those who know a little about haiku, it will be an astonishing journey to find out just how much more there is to know and enjoy.

For those who are seasoned and regularly published in haiku magazines, this is a chance to work on a body of work that can be submitted to various magazines, and become a cornerstone of your next, or first collection.

.

Traditionally 
we always conclude the course with a fun renga party*, and a souvenir Haiku Journal notebook with our renga verses, and exchange of haiku from each other!

Friday is breakfast and saying goodbyes and hopefully staying in touch!

photo©Anne Simpson

Alan Summers

Alan Summers is a Japan Times award-winning writer for haiku and renku.  He has been a Poetry School Visiting Tutor for haiku, tanka, and renga, as well as appointed as the Japan-UK-150 roving renga poet-in-residence.

Alan is a founding editor for the haijinx humor in haiku magazine; renku/renga editor for Notes from the Gean haikai literature magazine; and creator of the Bath 1000 Verse Renga, and Hull Global Renga Projects.

The Purely Haiku Course details:

http://area17.blogspot.com/2011/02/purely-haiku-unique-uk-based.html

*

Comments from previous renga workshops:

"we really enjoyed the renga event...it was a very intensely creative act, and I was really struck by the renga form itself, what it could be capable of...a whole new poetic energy" 

Mark, University of Winchester

"Thanks again for a wonderful poetry session."
Yu Yan, U.S. citizen currently visiting England

"I just wanted to thank you again for such a great event...I want to do some more!"
Susan, Plymouth

"Thanks so much for yesterday's renga event - it was fantastic! Really got the creative juices flowing. Let me know when the next one is, I will definitely attend!" Tracey, Bath

"Looks like I missed a fantastic event..I hope to be at the next one."
Caroline, Bristol (she was!)

"More! More!" Libby, Bristol

"It is so tempting to get involved in renku/renga with all the excitement you...generate."  

Melinda, USA

Alan's haiku attempts for NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month

image©NaPoWriMo

About NaPoWriMo http://www.napowrimo.net/about/

NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.

NaPoWriMo was founded in 2003, when poet Maureen Thorson decided to take up the challenge (modeled after NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month), and challenged other poets to join her. 

Since then, the number of participants has gotten larger every year, and many writers’ organizations, local, national and even international, organize NaPoWriMo activities.

Need more information? See the Wikipedia entry for NaPoWriMo!

Pictures of Karen Hoy and Alan Summers reading haiku at the Dylan Thomas Centre as part of the Another Country: Haiku Poetry from Wales, Gomer Press: double booklaunch programme at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea, Wales, U.K.

Two Day Book Launch Events for 
Another Country: 

haiku poetry from Wales
the first ever Welsh national anthology of haiku poetry
Published by Gomer Press and edited by Nigel Jenkins, Ken Jones and Lynne Rees, it features haiku, tanka, haibun and somonka – in both English and Welsh – by forty poets, from Wales's haiku pioneers.

Friday 18th March 2011

Karen Hoy reads a selection of her work

A tri-part reading of headlining Welsh haiku writers MC'd by Lynne Rees

Group 1

Vivien Kelly
Sarah Coles

Humberto Gatica

Noragh Jones

Group 2

Karen Hoy

Rona Laycock

Brian White

Ken Jones

And finally, a reading from Group 3

Alex Morden (for Matt)

Stephen White

Chris Torrance

Saturday 19th March 2011

The Saturday Haiku Night 

At The Dylan Thomas Centre

with music

First Event: Readings from workshop participants from earlier in the day

Second Event: Headlining haiku writers including Karen Hoy and Alan Summers

MC'd by Nigel Jenkins, who explained that as well as playing between performers's readings, the musicians will improvise during the actual readings.   This was a tremendous success.

Order of performers:

Noragh Jones

Karen Hoy

Alan Summers

Nigel Jenkins

Ken Jones

Lynne Rees

Musicians: Peter Stacey and Maggie Nichols

Karen Hoy enthralls the audience!

Alan looking far more serious than he should. ;-)

Weblink to further book details:

http://area17.blogspot.com/2011/03/karen-hoy-and-alan-summers-reading-at.html

Gomer Press: 
http://www.gomer.co.uk/index.php/another-country-haiku-poetry-from-wales.html

.

.

Karen Hoy and Alan Summers reading at Haiku & Music: Dylan Thomas Centre

Scroll down for further information 

on both events.

1. Booklaunch 

Friday 18th March, 7pm:

Another Country: Haiku Poetry from Wales 

the first ever Welsh national anthology of haiku poetry
Published by Gomer Press and edited by Nigel Jenkins, Ken Jones and Lynne Rees, it features haiku, tanka, haibun and somonka – in both English and Welsh – by forty poets, from Wales's haiku pioneers.

2. Music/haiku:

Peter Stacey and Friends including Karen Hoy & Alan Summers

7.30pm Saturday 19 March 2011

Admission: Full price £5; Concessions £3.50; PTL £2

Both events are at:

Dylan Thomas Centre

Somerset Place, Swansea, SA1 1RR

tel: 01792 463980

fax: 01792 463993

email: dylanthomas.centre@swansea.gov.uk

website: http://www.dylanthomas.com

The focal point for fans worldwide, the Centre's home to a permanent Dylan Thomas exhibition, and year-round programme of arts events, including Dylan Thomas Festival. Explore the books and gifts in the bookshop-cafe. Talks and tours available on request. Open from 10am - 4:30pm every day including Bank Holidays. Free admission. VAQAS accredited.

1st EVENT:

Friday 18th March, 7pm:
Booklaunch  

Another Country: Haiku Poetry from Wales 

the first ever Welsh national anthology of haiku poetry:
http://area17.blogspot.com/2011/02/karen-hoy-appears-in-major-new-haiku.html

Karen Hoy will be reading from her work featured in the anthology at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea. 

Another Country: Haiku Poetry from Wales

Gomer Press
ISBN: 9781848513068 

Published by Gomer Press and edited by Nigel Jenkins, Ken Jones and Lynne Rees, it features haiku, tanka, haibun and somonka – in both English and Welsh – by forty poets, from Wales's haiku pioneers.
.

Karen Hoy 

was born in Newport, and lived in Caldicot, Caerphilly and Cwmbran before moving to Hertfordshire.  

She is published by Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar; Presence magazine; and British Haiku Society Journal Blithe Spirit. 

Karen appears in My Mother Threw Knives (Second Light Publications 2006); and was Highly Commended in the BBC Wildlife Magazine's Nature Writer of the Year competition (2009). 

In 2006 Karen founded the TV development company Gilded Lily.  She has previously worked on documentaries and wildlife films for the BBC, National Geographic, the Discovery Channels and other leading broadcasters. 

Karen is also published in the American/British haiku anthology:

http://area17.blogspot.com/2010/11/fifty-seven-damn-good-haiku-by-bunch-of.html
. 

. 

2nd EVENT

Music/haiku:

Peter Stacey and Friends including Karen Hoy & Alan Summers

7.30pm Saturday 19 March 2011

Admission: Full price £5; Concessions £3.50; PTL £2

Tel: 01792 463980

Email: dylanthomas.lit@swansea.gov.uk

Website: http://www.swansea.gov.uk/dtc

A celebration, in words and music, of haiku poetry, featuring some of Wales’s leading haiku poets in creative collaboration with musicians, including the renowned flautist and saxophonist Peter Stacey.

Alan Summers

Japan Times award-winning writer of haiku and renku, with parents from Wales (Monmouthshire and Swansea) proudly serving Wales during WWII in the WAAF and RAF.

Alan was the founder of With Words, which evolved into Call of the Page where he is the co-founder along with Karen Hoy. Both incarnations are UK-based providers of quality literature, education and literacy projects, often based around the Japanese genres: www.callofthepage.org

Alan and Karen regularly run online courses for haiku and its related genres. For further information please don't hesitate to drop us a line by emailing: admin@callofthepage.org

Alan and Karen ran this residential haiku course in Apriln2011, and watch this space for more live events coming up:

http://area17.blogspot.com/2011/02/purely-haiku-unique-uk-based.html 

.

The 2011 Kids Count for Earthday Haiku Contest now open!

Children and young people are getting us to look after our planet through the message of haiku!

For further information: http://kidsearthdayhaiku.blogspot.com/

The Haiku Society of America is sponsoring One Year Memberships as prizes for The 2011 Kids Count for Earthday Haiku Contest created by Planetpals (Worldwide); With Words (U.K.); and Sketchbook Haiku Journal (USA).

The contest is designed to combine the love of Earth with the sheer simple
fun of writing Japanese haiku in English!

  

 
We call it the The 2011 "Kids Count for Earthday" Haiku Contest because we want you to help all of us to learn how to keep the planet clean and healthy!

Kids and young people will only need to count approximately 5-7-5  or use some combination of short, long, short syllables, to create their Earthday haiku.




The Contest has four haiku poets all experienced in judging British and American haiku, and international haiku from children and young people worldwide.

So who can enter?

Children and young people aged from 7 years old right up to 20 years from
the USA, UK and English Speaking Countries (including Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii; as well as Japan; Africa; India; Pakistan; Bangladesh; China; Middle East; and Australia; New Zealand and all other countries). If English is not your first language please do add an English language version of your haiku entry as well.

The Haiku Society of America is represented by an'ya; Alan Summers of With Words (UK); Judith Gorgone of Planetpals (Worldwide); Karina Klesko of Sketchbook, Journal for Eastern and Western Short Forms.

The contest is now open
Starting Date: February 22nd, 2011
Ending Date: Earthday-April 22nd, 2011
 

The competition is open to individual students 7 - 20 years old;  
and the theme is"What Earthday means to you".

There will be winners for each category and entries based age appropriately.

All entries must be postmarked no later than April 22, 2011 
and include the students name and address or school name and address. 
(*NOTE: winners private information will not be distributed to any 3rd parties - all
information is for internal purposes only )

Entries must be e-mailed to:
kidscount4earthday@gmail.com

To be notified of results then email kidscount4earthday@gmail.comagain
saying "Let me know!" in the subject line.

Announcements of the Winners will be by May 22, 2011.

Winning Entries will be published in Sketchbook, a Journal for Eastern and
Western Short Forms.

For further information go to the competition website:
http://kidsearthdayhaiku.blogspot.com/

Enjoy the challenge of writing modern haiku, and best of luck!
Alan, Judith, Karina, and an'ya (judges)

For further information: http://kidsearthdayhaiku.blogspot.com/
.

Purely Haiku - a unique U.K. based residential course

PURELY HAIKU, LED BY ALAN SUMMERS AND KAREN HOY

Monday 11th - Friday 15th April 
Claridge House, Surrey, South East England
(just outside London)
 

I think that's a brilliant price. It's a bargain for what you are offering. I thought it was going to be much more.

Annie Bachini (previous President of the British Haiku Society)

Claridge House April 2011 Course details:
http://www.claridgehousequaker.org.uk/courses.php#April

The retreat is fantastic, the venue is peaceful, and everyone and
everything is catered for: no-one gets hungry and thirsty, and it's all
done for us too! The food is amazing, and I can vouch for that as my
background is in the family restaurant business.

We've had first timers to haiku as well as seasoned haiku writers
attending, and everyone benefits from the atmosphere.

The vegetarian and vegan food, covering all dietary needs, non-gluten,
non-wheat, non-dairy etc... is fantastic.

Plenty of organised tea, coffee, non-caffeine hot drinks, cold drinks,
homemade cakes, lots of biscuits including non-gluten and non-wheat etc...

The courses we lead, this is a new one, are excellent value, and it isn't
just for the price of the course, but superb food, accomodation, being
catered for throughout the day etc...

It really is a good course for anyone serious about haiku, or anyone
wanting an intensive course in haiku.

A week is perfect for getting a good grounding, rather than workshops
spread over a year.

It's also great fun, as it has to be, as we have four workshops per day,
but plenty of tea and coffee and non-caffeine hot and cold drinks too!

No matter how large the group every individual gets special treatment.
There are lots of opportunities for private one-to-one sessions, not just
once, but throughout the day, and the week.  It means I get to bed
exhausted but very happy. ;-)

We end the course Thursday night with a fun renga session.  There's
nothing intense in our intensive course.

Claridge House April 2011 Course details:
http://www.claridgehousequaker.org.uk/courses.php#April

 
TUTORS:

Alan Summers

Alan is founder of With Words, a UK-based provider of quality literature,
education and literacy projects, often based around the Japanese genres.

He is also the judge of The With Words International Online Haiku Competition.


Alan is also a founding editor for haijinx online magazine for humour
within haiku.

Along with being an editor for a number of anthologies, and two
haiku/renku online magazines, he is also co-editor of Fifty-Seven Damn
Good Haiku by a Bunch of Our Friends ISBN 978-1-878798-31-2 (2010) with highly-respected American publisher and poet Michael Dylan Welch that features the work of British, American, African and Japanese writers of haiku:
http://area17.blogspot.com/2010/11/fifty-seven-damn-good-haiku-by-bunch-of.html

Alan is an experienced workshop leader, and a Japan Times award-winning
writer, with an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University.

QUOTE

Alan is able to work with people who have no experience of poetry to
encourage them to try it.  He watches and listens with patience and
respect and offers guidance that is flexible enough to empower the
workshop participants but firm enough to support them.

School of Applied Community and Health Studies Centre 
for Personal and Professional Development



Karen Hoy

Karen is a published haiku writer with Snapshot Press (both journal and
Haiku Calendar); Haiku Presence magazine; and British Haiku Society
journal Blithe Spirit (and BHS anthologies).

Her non-haiku work includes My Mother Threw Knives (Second Light
Publications 2006); and she was Highly Commended in the BBC Wildlife
Magazine’s Nature Writer of the Year Awards, 2009.

2010 and 2011 found Karen featured in the American/British anthology
Fifty-Seven Damn Good Haiku by a Bunch of Our Friends edited by Michael Dylan Welch and Alan Summers (Press Here 2010); and Another Country, Haiku Poetry from Wales, edited by Nigel Jenkins, Ken Jones, and Lynne Rees (Gomer Press 2011) showcasing Wales's haiku pioneers:
http://area17.blogspot.com/2011/02/karen-hoy-appears-in-major-new-haiku.html

IMPORTANT UPDATES: Haiku North America in Seattle, August 3-7, 2011

Haiku North America 2011 – Seattle, Washington

Save the date! Haiku North America 2011 will be held August 3 to 7, 2011, in Seattle, Washington.

Members of the Haiku Northwest group have generously offered to host the 2011 conference and they have many exciting plans already in the works, including a harbor cruise.

The conference itself will be held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle, providing easy access to haiku writing and walking opportunities such as Pike Place Market (via the monorail), the Olympic Sculpture Park, the Experience Music Project rock-and-roll museum and Science Fiction Museum, and countless other attractions—including fleet week and the Seafair festival, with the Blue Angels performing overhead.

The conference theme will be “Fifty Years of Haiku,” celebrating the past, present, and future of haiku in North America. 

The deadline for proposals has been extended to February 28, 2011 (http://www.haikunorthamerica.com/pages/2011.html), but sooner is better. Proposals do not have to fit the theme. 

If you’ve already submitted a proposal, please confirm with Michael Dylan Welch at WelchM@aol.com that you can come to Seattle on the new dates. 

Speakers already include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others.

Detailed information on registration, lodging, and the conference schedule will be available in March. 

For further information as it becomes available, please visit www.haikunorthamerica.com. And check out the new HNA blog at http://haikunorthamerica.wordpress.com/.

See you in Seattle!

Garry Gay, Paul Miller, Michael Dylan Welch
Haiku North America

Karen Hoy appears in a major new haiku anthology alongside T.S. Eliot Award, and Wales Book of the Year, poet Philip Gross

Karen Hoy appears in the major new haiku anthology:
Another Country, Haiku Poetry from Wales.

Gomer Press ISBN: 9781848513068 

Edited by Nigel Jenkins, Ken Jones and Lynne Rees, it features haiku, tanka, haibun and somonka – in both English and Welsh – by forty poets, from Wales's haiku pioneers.

Gomer Press: http://www.gomer.co.uk

Contact details: http://www.gomer.co.uk/gomer/en/gomer.About/contact

Free entry and wine, in association with Gomer Press.

Please RSVP: Lowri Walters at Gomer Press: lowriwalters@gomer.co.uk
by Wednesday 16th March latest. 

The poets involved are:

Tony Curtis, Philip Gross, Peter Finch, Karen Hoy, Caroline Gourlay, Arwyn Evans, Matt Morden, Rona Laycock, Hilary Tann, Jon Summers, Jane Whittle, Humberto Gattica, Chris Torrance, Stephen Toft, Tony Conran, Rick Allden, Pamela Brown, Marion Carlisle, Sarah Coles, Gillian Drake, Robert Drake,  Marc Evans,  Eirwyn George, Joan E James, Noragh Jones, Alan Kellerman, Vivien Kelly,  Leslie McMurtry, Jayne Rafferty, John Rowlands,  Vicky Thomas,  Mary B Valencia, Brian White, Stephen White, Jan Wigley, Eloise Williams, Rhys Owain Williamns, and the three editors.

More about Karen Hoy:

http://area17.blogspot.com/2011/01/karen-hoy-reading-haiku-at-dylan-thomas.html

.

Karen Hoy reading haiku at the Dylan Thomas Centre from the first Welsh haiku anthology: Another Country: Haiku Poetry from Wales

This fine anthology is still available at Gomer Press: https://www.gomer.co.uk/another-country-haiku-poetry-from-wales.html

Friday 18th March, 7pm:
Booklaunch  

Another Country: Haiku Poetry from Wales 

the first ever Welsh national anthology of haiku poetry:
http://area17.blogspot.com/2011/02/karen-hoy-appears-in-major-new-haiku.html

Karen Hoy will be reading from her work featured in the anthology at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea.

Another Country: Haiku Poetry from Wales

Gomer Press
ISBN: 9781848513068 

Published by Gomer Press and edited by Nigel Jenkins, Ken Jones and Lynne Rees, it features haiku, tanka, haibun and somonka – in both English and Welsh – by forty poets, from Wales's haiku pioneers.

Dylan Thomas Centre:

http://www.dylanthomas.com/dylan-thomas-centre/history-dylan-thomas-centre/

Free entry and wine, in association with Gomer Press.

Please RSVP: Lowri Walters at Gomer Press: lowriwalters@gomer.co.uk
by Wednesday 16th March latest.

Karen Hoy 

was born in Newport, and lived in Caldicot, Caerphilly and Cwmbran before moving to Hertfordshire.  

She is published by Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar; Presence magazine; and British Haiku Society Journal Blithe Spirit. 

Karen appears in My Mother Threw Knives (Second Light Publications 2006); and was Highly Commended in the BBC Wildlife Magazine's Nature Writer of the Year competition (2009). 

In 2006 Karen founded the TV development company Gilded Lily.  She has previously worked on documentaries and wildlife films for the BBC, National Geographic, the Discovery Channels and other leading broadcasters. 

 

Karen is also published in the American/British haiku anthology:

http://area17.blogspot.com/2010/11/fifty-seven-damn-good-haiku-by-bunch-of.html

.

More about Karen: 

https://www.callofthepage.org/about-1/

Karen Hoy is the Course Director (designer, manager) of Call of the Page: https://www.callofthepage.org/courses/

.

Mini-memoirs course led by Karen Hoy, Claridge House, Surrey U.K.

Want to write memoirs of your earlier life?   Don't know where to start? 

There are still places available on our Mini-Memoir residential course, run by workshop leader Karen Hoy and assisted by Alan Summers, at the wonderful Claridge House, running from Monday 17th January (a week this Monday) to the Friday morning.  
 

We'll use themes, exercises and discussion to help you unlock and write those short pieces of writing that are complete in themselves.   

You can then extend them into fuller memoirs in your own time.

We first used the Mini-Memoir exercises in a workshop setting to generate ideas for haibun, so haibunistas will be at home here.

n.b. haibun is economic prose with one or more haiku.

 
 

Themes will be on many subjects, in a friendly supportive atmosphere, where humour will always be a vital ingredient.

Claridge House January 2011 Course:

http://www.claridgehousequaker.org.uk/courses.php#January

Karen Hoy is a published writer (and poet) and has led a number of memoir based workshops for With Words which promotes the love of words.   

Karen has a Diploma in Creative Writing from the University of Bristol.

Alan Summers 

is the founder of With Words, and has been involved with the BBC Poetry Season.  

He is an experienced workshop leader, and a Japan Times award-winning writer, with an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. 
 

Winning haiku including Highly Commended : The 2010 With Words International Online Haiku Competition Results

We would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

Alan, Karen and Kathy, With Words

A Full Report and Judges Commentary will appear up on With Words later in the New Year.

1^st Prize

the coot's lobes
just melting the ice
snow in the wind

John Barlow

Ormskirk, England

2^nd Prize

after chemo--
finding more beauty

in the petal bare bloom

 

Terri L. French

Alabama USA

HIGHLY COMMENDED

in their roost
of bark and brambles
the wintering owls

John Barlow

Ormskirk, England

family photo box
how my father smiles
in black and white

Sandra Simpson

Tauranga, New Zealand

bright moon
light years
between starfish

Ernest J Berry

Picton, New Zealand

Commended

Brett Brady, Hawaii, USA 

Sandra Simpson, Tauranga, New Zealand 

Susan Richardson, Cardiff, Wales
John Barlow, Ormskirk, England 

Congratulations to everyone, and many thanks to every entrant who entered the competition and helped support our literacy programme and charities.

 

The 2010 With Words International Online Haiku Competition Results

.

Congratulations to the winners, Highly Commended and Commended entries, but also to the incredible number of well written haiku that made judging so delightfully difficult.

A full report and details will go up onto the With Words website in the New Year.

Happy Christmas to all,

Karen, Kathy, and Alan at With Words


1st Prize


the coot's lobes
just melting the ice
snow in the wind


John Barlow
Ormskirk, England



2nd Prize


after chemo--
finding more beauty
in the petal bare bloom


Terri L. French
Alabama USA



Highly Commended

Sandra Simpson, Tauranga, New Zealand
Ernest J Berry, Picton, New Zealand
John Barlow, Ormskirk, England



Commended

Susan Richardson, Cardiff, Wales
Sandra Simpson, Tauranga, New Zealand
Brett Brady, Hawaii, USA
John Barlow, Ormskirk, England











 

Jean Rasey 1925-2010 haiku poet and good friend

Jean Rasey  (1925-2010)

Much loved Aussie haiku poet Jean Rasey passed away early Sunday morning 5^th December; she will be sorely missed by so many of us.

Jean’s Austalian Haiku Society biography states she became interested in haiku when hosting a Japanese exchange student in 1979/80. When Paper Wasp formed in 1994 it was the beginning of a rewarding participation in this succinct and evocative form of poetry.

We became close haiku friends via the hugely popular Osaka, Japan based Azami magazine.  After Azami’s editor’s demise, we carried on sporadically via other magazines and email including her wonderful book "easy with the ebb" :

http://www.postpressed.com.au/index.html?verse/ebb.html

 "Jean Rasey ...writes haiku of pure deliquescence... they melt in the mouth, leaving a delicate after taste of mono no aware, "an empathy to things"... There is a simplicity that skirts plainness or sentiment... When you read her haiku you may well find yourself holding your breath with hers..."

Alan Summers — With Words

 

This book has become a With Words recommended book for all our students.

"Long have I waited for sincerity. And here it is from far across the ocean, laden with the truth of why we write and why we live!"   vincent tripi — Summer 2007

Here are just a few of her haiku over the years:

first flush of dawn

down river a lone oarsman

easy with the ebb

Finalist, Seventh Annual Jack Stamm Paper Wasp Haiku Contest (2005)

moonrise

shadow to deeper shadow

the whisper of wings

Finalist, Seventh Annual Jack Stamm Paper Wasp Haiku Contest (2005)

night rain

I snuggle deeper

into the sound

"A poem Presence readers acknowledged as one of the world's best"  H F 'Tom' Noyes

This one published in the British Haiku Society’s Blithe Spirit magazine:

all night the rainbird
not until midday
a rumble of thunder

Blithe Spirit Vol 12 No 1 (2002)

 

The new issue of haijinx is out!

haijinx 2010
volume III, 
issue 1
December 2010



The new issue is out, our first new issue since 2002.

We have familiar faces and some new ones for you, enjoy!

Click here to enter our special 2010 issue: weblink

Alan Summers,
haijinx team editor

FREE WORLDWIDE Haiku Competition for children and teenagers!

WIN SHOUTING AT THE OCEAN

If you're aged between 4 yrs to 18 yrs you could win a free copy if you write a haiku!

The Poetry Zone have five copies to give away.

Simply write a haiku poem.

Send it to the Poetry Zone at haiku@pzone.freeserve.co.uk

The deadline is December 31st 2010.

The winning poems will appear here in January 2011. 

Don't forget to include your name, age and a contact address.

This is a FREE competition and open to everyone around the world aged between 4 years old and 18 years old!

Good luck everyone!

Important. Read these Rules.

1 Send your haiku to haiku@pzone.freeserve.co.uk

2 Send poem in body of the e-mail NOT as a file or attachment

3 Remember to give your name, age and a contact address (No addresses will be published here)

4 The competition is open worldwide (written in English) for children or teenagers between the ages of 4 and 18.

5 Closing date for the competition is December 31st 2010

6 Poems MUST be your own, original work.

Alan Summers is the Poetry Zone’s Guest Haiku Competition judge, all haiku entries sent to: haiku@pzone.freeserve.co.uk

Alan is a Japan Times award-winning poet for haiku, and founder of With Words (www.withwords.org.uk) which promotes the love of words through literacy and literature events using haiku and its related forms.

He also runs The With Words International Online Haiku Competition, and judges children’s haiku competitions around the world.

What is a haiku?  
Alan says:
Haiku are short three line poems that don't rhyme and are six seconds long.
Ask a friend to count how long your haiku is by getting them to count the seconds by calling out OCEAN HAIKU! six times. 

Competition weblink: 

http://secretlivesofpoets.blogspot.com/p/competitions.html

THE BOOK!

Shouting at the Ocean: Poems that make a splash!

Edited by Graham Denton, Andrea Shavick and Roger Stevens

Cover illustration by David Parkins

Illustrations by Cathy Benson, Liz Brownlee, Philip Waddell and Sue Hardy-Dawson

Price £4.99 ISBN 978-0-9555589-0-0

Dive into this wonderful collection of children’s poems compiled by top poets - Graham Denton, Andrea Shavick and Roger Stevens. 

Discover who ate Grandma, who sold Mum and who swallowed a stopwatch.

Find out who threw the first doughnut, who caught the three-legged dog and how you can get much, much more pocket money.

Haiku Competition sponsored by The Secret Lives of Poets:

http://secretlivesofpoets.blogspot.com