Stella Pierides

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in the mirror world
my reflection smiles back
bamboo shoots
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NaHaiWriMo prompt: mirror

blue moon

why am I reminded

of Mount Fuji?

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in French:

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lune bleue –

pourquoi me rappelle-t-elle

le mont Fuji ?

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and in Romanian :

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lună albastră

de ce îmi aminteşte

de Muntele Fuji ?

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I wrote this haiku as a response to the painting  by André Derain: Mountains at Collioure, 1905, posted on FB by  Virginia Popescu (see here).

Virginia very kindly, and enthusiastically, translated my haiku into French and Romanian! Once again, thank you, Virginia! I like this idea!

You can see Virginia Popescu and other poets’ responses to paintings, and indeed contribute to her project yourself, on her FB page here

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Instead of
cherry-blossom-viewing
she counts syllables
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My poem in the Asahi Haikuist Network, From the Notebook, http://www.asahi.com/english/haiku/ 4 May 2012

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writing on the wall
the drum beat grows
faster

écriture sur le mur
le rythme du tambour s’accélère
rapidement
.
scriere pe perete –
ritmul tobei se accelerează
cu rapiditate
.

Virginia Popescu posts paintings on her FB page and invites poets to write a haiku on them. I wrote this haiku to go with Rembrandt‘s Balthazar’s Feast, and Virginia translated it into French and Romanian! Thanks, Virginia!

It is also a response to the NaHaiWriMo prompt: drums

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rolling the tense head of his timpani set

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: drum

Delighted that my tanka was selected to be included in Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume 4!

It can now be ordered through Amazon, or the link here

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cloistered garden
scent of roses drifts
over the wall
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NaHaiWriMo prompt: rose(s)

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south wind
a ball rolls across
the lawn

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: green

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Today, an old poem from 2011:

spilling its seeds
a broken pomegranate
bleeds for luck
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First appeared in Unfold magazine, 2011

(NaHaiWriMo prompt: broken)

And the great news:

My poet page is up on The Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Registry site. It can be seen by clicking here

Many thanks to Billie Wilson for creating it and putting it up.

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sundial
waiting for the clouds
to move along
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NaHaiWriMo prompt: sun/shine

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dirty dishes
even after finger-licking
food

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: meal

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ballgame prayer
knowing where
the portal lies
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NaHaiWriMo prompt: ball

Inspired by article in Science Daily: see here

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my garden
the grass longer
since yesterday
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NaHaiWriMo prompt: power

My haibun ‘Drawings’ is included in Contemporary Haibun, vol. 13, of Red Moon Press.

I am delighted to be in such a good journal and in such good company!

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orange flowers
how this bee loses
her head

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: orange

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Included in Gabi Greve‘s blog Washoku Japanese Culture and Cuisine

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fear not
these open skies -
trembling leaves
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NaHaiWriMo prompt: fear

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perigee
the heather moor holds
its breath

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: intimacy

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happy tidings

arriving at the Black Sea

leaf from the Schmutter

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: water

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ruby cheeks -
the color
of conscience

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: ruby

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tidal flats
the breadth
of her patience

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: mother

The Haiku Foundation, a non-profit organization whose aim is “to preserve and archive the accomplishments of our first century of haiku in English, and to provide resources for its expansion in our next,” is the place to hang around if you are trying to make April, the National Poetry Month, last all year long!

There’s a lot to do there! There’s the Per Diem: Daily Haiku, in its box, on the Home page, bringing you specially selected haiku each and every single day of the year;  the Haiku Registry, with over 400 poets and poems to browse through; archives of contest-winning poems, and awards, with judges’ commentaries; an exciting blog with thought-provoking posts and information; contest and event calendars, a digital library, and forums for any haiku-related questions you can come up with…

And now, there is going to be more! The Haiku Foundation plans to create

“the first collection of in-depth interviews documenting the development of 20th century haiku. Poets, translators, and scholars…will share their work and discuss their ideas. The resulting video and audio recordings will be available FREE of charge on the The Haiku Foundation (THF) website: http://www.thehaikufoundation.org …”

Now that’s a worthy cause!

The Foundation is asking for your help with this project. Running a Video Archive Campaign, it aims to collect through donations the $6,000 it needs to buy the audio and video equipment necessary. Will you help them reach their goal?

They say:

“Imagine if you could watch your favorite poets talk about their craft and lives and respond to questions you always wanted to ask them. While the technology wasn’t available during the lifetime of some of our favorite poets, today we have the opportunity to create a rich resource for our generation and those to come. As we move forward into the 21st century, many haiku poets who led the way in the 20th have already passed away. We need to start working immediately to preserve the voices of those who are still with us. Their stories deserve to be heard.”

I can well imagine…

“If a haiku has ever stirred your heart, pitch in! We will return your generosity with hours of enriching interviews, and you will help preserve a fast-fading history.”

Please follow this link here for a lot more information, including various gifts/perks you receive with your donation, tax free advice, gallery of gifts, comments etc.

The National Poetry Month is now over. What a month it has been! Such wonderful celebrations!

The big, month-long party at ‘Couplets,’ the multi-author poetry blog tour, organized by Joanne Merriam of Upper Rubber Boot Books, has now finished. If you are already missing the buzz, missing seeing more of the new poet friends you’ve made, then you can at least look back and reminisce; leaf through the posts again: the whole month is summed up (posts and links, names and titles of posts) here

See if you can find my entries there!

A big THANK YOU to Joanne Merriam; and a big WELL-DONE!

I am thrilled to report that:

my short story/flash ‘The Silence in my Cell’ is now online in the May edition of Tuck Magazine. They say it is a MUST read! See what you think. It can be read here

my tanka ‘Tin Mug’ now appears in ‘ars poetica 2′ – newest poems of Poets Online. It can be found on their site here  (This is a bit more complicated to find: go to Archive, click newest poems/ ars poetica 2)

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watermelon seed

the root

of everything

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: root(s)

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sun and showers

a line of cars stop and go

stop and go

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NaHaiWriMo

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spring first light
the history of the world
in bird song

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NaHaiWriMo prompt

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balmy breeze
one more stone
for my cairn

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: one kigo

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pine

a line of breadcrumbs

climbs the trunk

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: tree

In the continuing  celebrations of National Poetry Month I am thrilled to host

Mary Alexandra Agner, whose wonderful poetry I have been recently savoring.

She can be found online at: www.pantoum.org

Mary writes:

Female Science Professor (FSP) posted an article last month entitled “The
Hate Stage of Writing“. She discusses the ups and downs of attachment to your
work while writing scientific papers, including a brightly-colored graph showing her
attachment to the papers she’s written (ranging from hate to love) as a function of
the writing lifetime of the paper. I was struck by the similarities and differences
between her commentary and that in Diane Lockward’s thoughtful
discussion of when a poem is finished.

FSP’s article explores the idea that you know the paper is finished when you hate
it. And while Diane’s article doesn’t address that directly, her advice about
letting the poem sit while you “get uninvolved with it” is, to me, a similar stance.
Anger can make you objective. (It can also make you completely subjective, so
apply it to your writing process with caution.) Anger can give you a distance like
the one Diane is discussing but I’m intrigued that I don’t see poets blogging about
hating a poem and knowing it’s ready to go out, while a scientist does. Undoubtedly
my sampling technique needs improvement.

It is the graph in FSP’s post that catches at me. I would like to see similar ones
for poems, especially some that include the impact of the publishing process on our
attachment to our own work. We should all take to heart FSP’s comment that she
“certainly [doesn't] submit or finish any of [her] papers in the hate stage.”
Diane, perhaps, might add that we shouldn’t submit our poems in the love stage
either, when you are too close to the work to be objective.

It should not surprise you, this many words into my own commentary, that I enjoy
crossing the boundaries between science and literature, two cultures that have never
seemed that different to me, even after all the energy expended to display how far
apart they are. All the poems in my newest book, The
Scientific Method, came to me as a guilty pleasure, bridging that gap and making
art out of what I was told was not possible. And the majority of them finished the
revision process with a resounding thump, excepting “Jump the Chromosome”
which I fear I revised away into too little, mostly based on some kind commentary by
an editor (who did not publish the poem). My graph, for the book as a whole, was one
flat line up between “like” and “love”. The only thing that kept my spirits up,
waiting to hear back from publishers, was that the poems continued to ring true for
me year after year. And that, rather than the objectivity of hate, is what allows
me to keep offering poems to editors for publication.

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You can read a really scientific poem of Mary’s here

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This post is part of the multi-author poetry blog tour  Couplets, the brain-child of Joanne Merriam, of Upper Rubber Boot Books.

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Anzac Day –

adding those who died

of a broken heart

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This poem appears in the entry for Anzac Day, see Gabi Greve’s World Kigo Database here.

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jasmine rice                                                                   Jasminreis
the tongue twists into a new                                   Zungenbrecher in einer neuen
language                                                                        Sprache

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In Bregengemme / Chrysanthemum Vol. 11.1, 2011

(With many thanks to the editors for the translation into German)

In November last year, I moved to a place near the river Schmutter, in the Greater Augsburg area. Some of you may remember my posts, and pictures, on ‘Leaving Ammersee’ from last year. Given the spectacular Ammersee lake and those sunsets – those sunsets! – it was difficult to imagine then how I would take to my new surroundings. Indeed, it has taken time for me to settle – still many unpacked boxes in the cellar! – but at least I have started going out for walks in the vicinity.

Almost next door, there are the Schmutter meadows: a nature reserve marshland by the river Schmutter (a tributary to the Danube), which is flooded several times each year. The soil is enriched by the flooding, and meadows become home to numerous rare plants, birds, and other animals.

And here, in the local marshland, its grassy paths, sludgy mud, numerous water channels, sluices, and flooded pools, the river itself twisting and turning, I have found beauty, again! This is a beauty I can neither own nor grasp in one go, i.e., in one picture, in one season, or one year. It is a beauty that develops, changes; a fragile, weather-beaten, marshland eco-system that I can only experience piecemeal on my walks through it.

If you have the time, take a look at this picture and haiku, imagine walking by the Schmutter. I will be posting more pictures from this area and writing haiku responding to my walks in the future. Am I trying to make this area ‘mine?’ Perhaps I am! You can come along for the experience.

Better still, choose an area near your own home, observe it, write about or take pictures of it, and turn it into your ‘most beautiful thing.’

This post is written in response to Fiona Robyn’s call for writers to write (and blog) about what they consider to be their most beautiful thing: a ‘blogsplash’ . In the context of her launching her new novel ‘The Most beautiful Thing,’ Fiona is making the novel available for free on the 24th and 25th of April 2012. Visit her blog for details here

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marshland storks –
this year too paths emerge
along the Schmutter
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NaHaiWriMo prompt: local season

River Schmutter

Aubrie Cox’s PDF collection of poetry on the theme of Fox Dreams is now ready and up on her blog, yaywords, to be downloaded, shared and above all, enjoyed.

My own poem is on page 10, together with a number of really great haiku. To read them all, click here

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stealing away
from my yard again, little fox!
first blossoms

.

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earth day –
the darkness inside
leaf veins

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: earth day

I am pleased to report here that Cara Holman, in her blog Prose Posies, celebrated April the 17^th, National Haiku Poetry Day, by hosting a virtual haiku poetry reading event. Several poets, including myself, were given the space to ‘read’ their haiku at this event.

Thank you, Cara, for organizing this wonderful space, and for including my haiku. In such good company!

The link, which makes the poetry reading accessible to those interested is here

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light rain -
I leave the cherry blossom
to the birds

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NaHaiWriMo promt: observation (3)

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moonless night

a pair of gumboots

inside the door

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In Gabi Greve’s World Kigo Database: Gumboots, Saijiki for Kenya and Tropical Regions, here (scroll down)

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spring sky
on my screen
tag clouds

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: observation

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spring night
the lit spire across
the valley

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: description/observation

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searching your face
for my childhood friend
Welsh onion heads

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: cool/warm spring

For ‘Welsh onion head’ see Gabi Greve‘s World Kigo Database here

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after the picnic
and the drive home
cool air

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: cool, autumn

Happy National Haiku Poetry Month, everyone!

Tomorrow, April 17, is National Haiku Poetry Day, a day dedicated to celebrating haiku – locally in the United States and globally in the hearts of all those loving this genre. The Haiku Foundation has organized a number of events all around the country. You can see the schedule of events here

If you live outside the US, there’s still lots to do. Explore the website of the Foundation, taste the Per Diem: Daily Haiku straight from its box, write haiku, spread the word…

Whatever you do, Happy National Haiku Poetry Day!

National Poetry Month 2012 – Update. Taking part in Couplets, the multi-author poetry blog organized by Joanne Merriam of Upper Rubber Boot Books, I was honoured to be featured:

On the 1^st of April 2012 at Margaret Dornaus’ wonderful blog ‘haiku-doodle’

On the 6^th of April 2012, at Angie Werren’s great blog for micropoetry ‘feathers’

In the same project, Couplets, 1^st of April, I hosted the exquisite poetry of Margaret Dornaus on my own blog. Margaret offered three of her excellent tanka poems.

I also had the pleasure of hosting Lisa Cihlar, whose poetry I love. Lisa wrote a fascinating article about the creation of one of her characters, ‘Swampy Woman.’

There is more to come in the second half of the month. And there are so many good poets taking part in this project! Visit the Couplets site and enjoy! And don’t forget to come back!

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toll house
the groundless optimism
of daisies

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: tax

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shimmering heat -
pine-scented water
over glowing stones

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: shimmering heat

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no longer entire-
his shrinking world

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Micropoem on the NaHaiWriMo prompt: cats

My kitten Emile’s operation is coming up soon and this is also about taking his point of view, in advance…

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rest-home yard
a garden swing
creaks

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: swing

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mountains -
looking for my childhood
in buttercups

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: mountain(s)

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spring tide
flocks of waders rise
and fall

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‎NaHaiWriMo prompt:  water/earth/spring

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Easter light
a seed
splits open

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: religious observance

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the stillness between
this day and the next-
paschal lily

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: religious observance

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April full moon –
instead of herself
her shadow

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: moon +

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air traffic -
giving the kites room
to manoeuvre

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: Spring kigo, human activities

Don’t you sometimes wonder where poets and writers’ characters come from? I do! Several times a day! Especially when I am waiting for mine to appear. Well, Lisa J. Cihlar, celebrating National Poetry Month with me today, is posting here exactly about this matter.  And about the gestation, birth and life of her books. Fascinating … Enjoy! 

 I.   A Character Emerges From the Swamp

Somewhere around a year and a half ago I wrote a poem and there was a character in it called Swampy Woman.  Who knows where she came from?  It happens that I grew up on a farmette in the middle of a swampy area in Door County WI, so I had wetlands always in my psyche, but I didn’t intentionally bring the swamp to my poem.  Besides, that was just one poem and I had no design to write any more.  But then, months later, who shows up but Swampy Woman.  I was hooked after that.  At that time I was writing a poem-a-day with a group of online poet friends and I took off with the character and wrote one poem after another.  When I had about 25 of them, they just stopped coming.

Now that I had them, I wondered what to do.  With the help of my wonderful teacher/mentor Terri Brown Davidson, I revised the poems and shaped the whole bunch of them into a chapbook titled The Insomniac’s House, from a line in one of the poems.  I sent them out to a half dozen contests, and had no nibbles.  Plus it was expensive.  The book was now languishing in a computer file.  Then I saw that “Dancing Girl Press” was accepting submissions—no money involved—and I sent the manuscript off and forgot about it.

A couple of months later I got an email saying that Kristy Bowen of DGP loved the book and wanted to publish it.  I was over the moon.  Kristy hand-makes chapbooks and she does lovely work.  When I asked if she would mind if I got my own cover artist she was happy to let me do that.  I knew Siolo Thompson through Facebook and thought her artwork fit Swampy Woman perfectly.  Siolo read the manuscript and went to work.  When I saw the cover design, I knew I had picked the right artist.  I love the deconstructing bear on the cover and the woman in red; weird and haughty enough to be Swampy.

I got the first of the books in my greedy hands in January 2012 and it was wonderful holding something I had made from nothing but the thoughts in my head.

The thing about this character is that she seems to have caught the imagination of a lot of folks.  Women especially are intrigued.  I think it is because the character has sass.  She is not Mother Nature as we typically see her, all gauzy and pastel.  Rather she is sexy and pushy and apologizes for nothing.  Because of this, the book has sold very well.

As a post script to this story of the genesis of a character, I can add that I have written a couple more Swampy Woman poems.  She just pops up now and then, kind of showing me that she is still stomping around in the cattails.  I’m always excited when she does.

II. A Character Who Remains Unnamed

After The Insomniac’s House poems were done I went back to writing poems on disparate topics.  Then I became interested in prose poems.  I bought a copy of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry and devoured it.  After that I wrote some pretty bad prose poems.

Luckily practice makes better.  I was writing a lot of poems and themes were emerging.  When going back over the work I noticed I had a bunch of poems written about a character that had no name.  They were all about She.  And She was losing parts—her voice, her ears, her scream.  I didn’t want to look into the psychology of this too deeply, so I just kept writing.

One day I was noodling around on Facebook and John Burroughs who runs Crisis Chronicles Press announced that he was doing a 24 hour chapbook contest.  He would publish his favorite chapbook that was sent to him in the next 24 hours.  That was too fun to pass up so I threw a book together and sent it in.  I expected nothing so when I got an email from John telling me he loved the book and wanted to publish it, I was amazed.  After I digested the news, I asked if I could have some time to edit and put the book in better order.  John graciously gave me the time I needed.  Again I worked with Terri Brown Davidson and made some huge changes to the chapbook:  swapped out some poems, wrote new ones, changed the title, and gave the whole thing a loose storyline.

I sent the changed manuscript to John and kept my fingers crossed for two days until he wrote back that he liked the new version better than the first one.  Huge sigh of relief on my part.  He will publish the chapbook this year under the title “This is How She Fails.”  Again I got an artist friend of mine, Lisa Marie Peaslee, to design the cover and I can’t wait to see the final product.

For me there is something special about following a character through a collection of poems.  I feel like I know these people like I know my best friends.

….

Lisa J. Cihlar‘s poems have been published in The South Dakota Review, Green Mountains Review, In Posse Review, Bluestem, and The Prose-Poem Project. One of her poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Her chapbook, “The Insomniac’s House,” is available from Dancing Girl Press and a second chapbook “This is How She Fails,” will be published by Crisis Chronicles Press in 2012.  She lives in rural southern Wisconsin.

This blog post is part of the Couplets project, a multi-author poetry blog tour coordinated by Joanne Merriam of Upper Rubber Boot Books “to help promote poetry and poets for National Poetry Month”.

out of the fridge

the tortoise and I return

to the sun

.

.

.

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Good news! Snapshot Press has announced the results of The Haiku Calendar Contest 2012, selecting the entries for next year 2013. I am very pleased that one of my haiku, ‘winter wind,’ written in response to a NaHaiWriMo prompt, has made it as a runner-up and will be included in the Calendar! The complete results can be seen here

About  the Haiku Calendar (I quote from their site):

“The Haiku Calendar has appeared annually since the 2000 edition was published in 1999. Edited by John Barlow, and featuring haiku poets from around the world, the calendar continues a rich tradition exploring and celebrating the relevance of seasonal references in English-language haiku.”

Of course, this proves the point: my daily haiku training at NaHaiWriMo  is doing me good!

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hawthorn blossom -
the thorny issues no longer
matter

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: blossom

April rain -
this year too the water butt
half full
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NaHaiWriMo prompt: rain

Well, April, the cruelest month, is upon us! Thank God we have poetry to help us survive it. Poetry, Poetry, Poetry, Poetry!

The Haiku Foundation, the Poetry Foundation, Poets.org, brim with wonderful poetry to feed the soul – and the senses! Visit them and forget about April; or at least enjoy it! There is also Per Diem, the Daily haiku offered by The Haiku Foundation on their home page (bottom right-hand corner); Couplets, the multi-author poetry blog, coordinated by Joanne Merriam of Upper Rubber Boot Books, the Facebook pages of NaHaiWriMo,  and numerous other projects, workshops, readings, and poetry-related events.

On this first day of Poetry Month, I am very happy to host Margaret Dornaus, ‘writer, a teacher, wife, traveler . . . as well as a haiku-doodler.’  Margaret says about herself, ‘I live in a beautiful woodland setting, surrounded by native oak forests, that inspires me to record haiku snapshots of luna moths and our resident roadrunner, and even an occasional black bear as it hightails it across the top of my road, my mongrel dog barking at its heels as I watch with wonder’.

In her post hosted here, Margaret  kindly states, ‘I’m thrilled to exchange places with Stella for the day in observance of National Poetry Month and to have her wonderful work featured on my blog, Haiku-doodle (www.haikudoodle.wordpress.com).

Margaret herself chose to offer three poems (see below).  This is how she reflects on her offering:

‘After we decided to share three of our poems on each other’s site, I contemplated whether I should contribute haiku or tanka.  I    began writing both about a year and a half ago, and, although I was already familiar with haiku, I knew nothing about tanka until I accidentally stumbled upon a call for submissions to Pamela A. Babusci’s journal Moonbathing.  When I started studying this ancient lyrical form and reading the work of other tanka poets, I knew I’d found a home . . . .  And so I’ve chosen three tanka to feature here today.’

you remind me

how it felt that night we met . . .

our universe

filled with possibilities

and the soft hum of tree frogs

 .

Simply Haiku, vol. 9, no. 1, Spring 2011

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years from now

I promise to remember

how you looked that night

alone on the verandah

holding moonlight in your hands

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First place, Tanka Society of America

2011 International Tanka Contest 

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in darkness

we forget our anger . . .

suddenly

the sound of wild geese

piercing the starless night

.

Ribbons: Tanka Society of America Journal,

vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 2011

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This blog post exchange is part of the Couplets project, a multi-author poetry blog tour coordinated by Joanne Merriam of Upper Rubber Boot Books “to help promote poetry and poets for National Poetry Month“.

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running scared -
April fool catches
his shadow
.
NaHaiWriMo Prompt: April fools

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rice paper -
how often do I eat
my words

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: writing

In honour of International Women’s Month, Michelle Elvy produced a great mini-blog fest ‘March on, Women‘,  featuring women from around the globe.
You can visit and enjoy the writing Here

In this collection, Michelle included the link to my haibun ‘The Tree’! Thank you Michelle, and well done!

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growing old -
I get to know the back
of my eye
‘
NaHaiWriMo prompt: growing

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theater night

my dress the same color

as the seats

NaHaiWriMo prompt: Theater

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hanami
a girl asks
for cherries

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: cherry tree (viewing)

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Epitaphios
in the procession
he gives her lilacs

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: religious ceremony

The Munich Readery, Augustenstr 104, is my favorite bookshop in Munich. I enjoy walking around the shop and discovering the amazing books that crop-up on its shelves. Lisa and John, the proprietors, are friendly and book wizards, so I know and can rely on their knowing! I love taking part in their author readings, coordinated by Lisa. Today’s reading (21.03.12) must be my fifth at this venue, though the first to be documented The other readers read excellent poetry and prose. And there was wine, water and cookies afterwards!

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morning walk
sweet song of a bird
I don’t know

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: sweet

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gloaming
after gathering leaves
an early night

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: weather

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sweating the neck of the clay water pot

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: water

April is not only the cruelest month. It is also National Poetry Month – for some of the world, anyway. Let’s not split hairs. We all want to celebrate poetry, so let’s do it. Poets, writers, publishers, readers, poetry lovers are planning get-togethers for poetry-related events: fests, readings, workshops, write-ins, stay-in-bed for poetry, day-dreaming…this kind of thing.

This is what I will be doing: I’ll be celebrating at ‘Couplets,’ a multi-author blog tour for April, to help promote poetry and poets for National Poetry Month. Co-ordinated by Joanne Merriam of Upper Rubber Boot Books  it is going to be a fe(a)st.  I am taking part and will be posting, besides my daily haiku, poetry-laden posts during the month. Come over to my web home and we’ll eat poetry words together!

Meanwhile, here are a few links to keep us going till then:

The Haiku Foundation: They say: “April 17, National Haiku Poetry Day, is a celebration of the genre of haiku, a kind of poetry whose origins date back a millennium in Japan; and more specifically, of English-language haiku, which has now been written for more than a century”. But you don’t have to wait till the 17^th! You can explore this wonderful site, founded by Jim Kacian, and enjoy the best haiku and haiku poets in the world.

While visiting THF, check out their Per Diem: Daily Haiku series. In March they post my selection of haiku of the senses: haiku by some of the best poets highlighting the interconnectedness of sensory experience (Per Diem can be found on the front homepage of the Foundation, at the bottom right-hand corner). In April they post  “Poems from Aotearoa, New Zealand haiku, featuring flora and fauna specific to those favored isles, and human activities, such as Anzac Day (April 25).” Editor: Sandra Simpson.

The Facebook page of National Haiku Poetry Month, or NaHaiWriMo, moderated by Michael Dylan Welch, has been running since February 2011. Although their haiku ‘month’ is February, they ‘haiku’ the whole year round. You can read or indeed “write at least one haiku a day, inspired by daily writing prompts”. The community is friendly and warm, encouraging…join them and surprise yourself! I have!

Poets.org has a page listing events and poetry resources here

Feel free to add/share any other events you may know of.

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equinox
standing on my own
two feet

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: nature/equinox/earth

Every year on the 21^st of March UNESCO  celebrates World Poetry Day. A decision to proclaim 21 March as World Poetry Day was adopted during the UNESCO’s 30th session held in Paris in 1999.

For UNESCO, “the main objective of this action is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities. Moreover, this Day is meant to support poetry, return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals, promote teaching poetry, restore a dialogue between poetry and the other arts such as theatre, dance, music, painting and so on, support small publishers and create an attractive image of poetry in the media so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art…” Link here

So, Happy World Poetry Day everyone!

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change of heart
on the back seat a single
rose

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: change

 According to scientists, we humans have receptors for between nine and twenty one senses available to us. Imagine! Up to twenty one points of entry to the world! I say imagine, because we do not appear to be aware of most of those senses. Beyond the five well-known ones, who thinks of their sense of equilibrioception (the sense of balance) or proprioception (the sense of the body’s position in space) – unless they go wrong, of course. What is more interesting is the use we make of these ‘inputs’! The emotional, geographical, cultural, historical worlds we build around them.

In this issue, twenty one contributors explore the senses – the primary but also some of the secondary ones – and the ways these interact to create a sense of place, rootedness, memory, history, and cultural identity. Using the taste and feel of words, the images captured on camera and in paint, their own individual experiences and associations, the artists reflect on the senses in diverse, entertaining, fascinating, remarkable ways and create the world of the senses anew for us to savour and celebrate. It has been a pleasure to host their contributions to the theme of edition #14: Locating the Senses in Language/Place!

 Alegria Imperial, originally from the Philippines, now writing from Vancouver (Canada), explores in her haibun, “the tiresome coldness of winter, the longing for spring and its blossoms to spark again, a self-consoling reflection on what eventually awaits yet for now ‘this longing/at moonrise/the only star’”. See here

Elizabeth Kate Switaj, writing from Ireland, in her ‘Memories of Place: Fruit’ considers the way the taste and sight of two different kinds of fruit, persimmons and mangoes, can bring back memories of place. A slight difference in the variety of fruit means a different experience of memory entirely… here

Kristina shares with us a walk among the ruins of Paestum, an incredibly peaceful place, and draws our attention to the neighboring museum and the ways it imbues the ruins with a sense of place and time. And after the sights and the history, pizza with mozzarella and courgette flowers! What a treat! Here

Penn Kemp, writing from London (Canada) says, the “two poems in ‘A Carnival of Senses’ celebrate the senses, celebrate language, celebrate place, in this case my bedroom”.  Here

Brigita Orel writes: “Senses are the inciting sparks of stories and poems and the places and times at which I became aware of them shape how I use them, maybe even how I interpret them.” In her essay, she reflects on the difficulties and challenges of writing in a foreign language rather than her mother tongue, and what it means to think, feel, or sense in a language other than your own. See here

Driving Rain

Maria Pierides, Kent (UK), explores her sense of landscape using a non-verbal medium, painting. In her blog, she speaks in the language of color, image, movement, shape, density, contrast… In Gallery 3, Time and Tide, she explores the seascapes and landscapes of Kent and their relationship to time, culture, and history. Here

Martin Willitts Jr, writing from upstate New York (USA), in his poem ‘Dear Diary’ interprets the story of Hansel and Gretel; and he knows a trap when he smells one! Here

Jean Morris (UK), in her haiku/haiga reflects on her experience: it “has been lingering as a taste and texture of
icy cold in my mouth since the moment I saw/wrote it, last month before the weather changed.” Here

 Steve Wing, a visual artist and writer living in Florida (USA), in his work reflects his appreciation for the extraordinary in ordinary days and places. In this contribution, he writes about the unique cultural texture that some fragrances like copal acquire. Here

Abha Iyengar, writing from New Delhi (India), in ‘The Senses: Diverse Renderings’ immerses herself in sensations – she has jasmine under her pillow – in poetry written for this theme. Here

Fiona Robyn, from the UK, whose ‘mission is to help people connect with the world through writing’ writes: “To prepare yourself for nourishment, you need to allow your eyes, ears, nose, fingers, mouth, head & heart to open.” A true feast in ‘Feed your Head’ Here

Jim Martin, writing from Munich (Germany), in his ‘The Visitors’ takes us on a fascinating and mysterious journey, beginning and ending in a Tuscan farmhouse. Here

 Cathy Douglas, writing from the US, says:  “In my adopted home state of Wisconsin, winter is a big part of our image.  As the snow melts and the lakes thaw, we experience a brief, muddy identity crisis known as March”. Here

 Karyn Eisler, Vancouver (Canada), in her blog ‘Living ?s’ reconnects with her senses in Heviz. Where is Heviz? More important: what is Heviz for Karyn? Read Karyn’s post and see! Here

Michelle Elvy, writing from New Zealand, in ‘Close your Eyes’ explores the body and its history as a landscape, or rather an open book… Here

Dora, of ‘turns of endearment’, finds sanctuary in immersing herself in the experience of color… “an almost religious, aesthetic experience”. Here

Sherry O’Keeffe writes: “The Shoshoni Indians had made the river valley their home long before I showed up on the gravel bars, looking for the sound of a crow. I learn from their language to see the world as never belonging to any one, not even to the crows”. Here

Nine’s memoir piece is filled with emotion, color, images. Looking back, now in New Zealand, she tells us how she said goodbye to Berlin. Even now, she says, “it’s still largely what I think of when I think about Berlin” in a blog entry, which “I wrote almost about year and a half ago” Here

Siddartha Beth Pierce contributes 6 poems, each covering sensitively and thoughtfully one of the six senses… “making angels on the ground”. Enjoy here

 Steve Wing and Dorothee Lang, in an e-logue that moves back 35.000 years in time, reflect on neolithic art and modern works that reach back in time to capture the past in film, in image, and in story: “A sense of place in time” Here

Stella Pierides, writing from Germany and UK, in her haibun ‘Other Worlds’ explores the sometimes hallucinatory qualities of the senses. Here

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to this edition. I enjoyed reading your entries and getting to know your blogs – do let me know of any mistakes in your entries and I will try to correct them. I am going to be a more regular reader and contributor from now on! A huge thanks you to Dorothee Lang, too, the founder of this blog carnival, and the ever-present support and inspiration to the changing guest editors.

Edition #14, this edition, was put together by Stella Pierides. She is a poet and writer and blogs here. She tweets @stellapierides. She also has a facebook page and would like more friends! Apart from that, she looks forward to the next edition #15.

Edition #15 will be hosted by writer and poet Abha Iyengar, who lives in New Delhi (India) and blogs at abhaencounter.blogspot.in and tweets at @abhaiyengar. The feature theme of Abha’s edition is “Encountering the Other in Language/Place“. Contributions are invited from writers, poets, and anyone with an interest in this topic. As always, we welcome a wide variety of posts. Guidelines here

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spring tides
the clay at the centre
of my being

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: arts and crafts

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lazy Sunday
a choir boy misses
the bus

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: Sunday

diamond jubilee—
a girl practices
her curtsies

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conflict diamonds—

boy soldiers sharpen

machetes

 .

diamonds—

the glaze on this girl’s

eyes

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In Sketchbook 7 Jan/feb 2012, Haiku Thread ( in John Daleiden’s Touchstone Perspectives)

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fortune telling -
I study the flight patterns
of doves

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: luck

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in my neighbors’ yard-
a blue tit pecks
his wisteria buds

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: hidden

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Ides of March-
I cross the road
halfway

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: Ides of March

Delighted and honoured that my tanka was shortlisted for the Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Vol 4.

The anthology series founded by tanka poet and editor, M. Kei, announced the short list for the fourth annual volume (2011) in March 2012. The nine editors headed by M. Kei (USA), Patricia Prime (NZ), Magdalena Dale (RO), Amelia Fielden (AUS), Claire Everett (UK), Owen Bullock (NZ), David Terelinck (AUS), Janick Belleau (CAN), and David Rice (USA), embarked on the amazing feat of reading all tanka published in English during 2011 with the goal of selecting the best individual tanka, kyoka, waka, gogyohka, gogyoshi, tanka sequences, tanka prose, and responsive tanka for inclusion in the annual anthology. The team read approximately eighteen thousand poems to choose about three hundred for inclusion in this, the fourth and final volume in the Take Five series. Well done to the editors and to the poets among us who got selected! I for one am thrilled and hugely encouraged!

The announcement can be read here

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your touch
in the shape of this bowl -
Raku

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: gift; Joys of Japan: Raku

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Cassiopeia -
in her laughing mouth
sparkle of a star

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: star

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Fukushima moon

wave after wave

of prayers

.

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Fukushima sky
waiting for the first signs
of spring

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Other Worlds

I had been walking for hours. Hungry, thirsty, sweat dripping down my face, I was hardly capable of thinking, or imagining, my usual pastimes. Yet, here it was, in front of me, an impossible sight, a mirage. What else could this door-frame be in the middle of fields, in the center of the Peloponnese?

The air around me was hot, suffocating, as if half of the baked earth had floated upwards and was now swimming in it; it resonated thick with the sound of cicadas. The relentless sun had been plaguing me all morning. And it was the sun – more than anything else – that made me sit under that frame; on the thin band of shade it provided.

Resting my head on my knees, I lost consciousness. I don’t know how long I was out, but when I came to the frame was casting an elongated shadow.

Getting up, I felt my knees stiffen. I took a closer look. I could now see this ‘thing’ was not really a door frame. It was carved out of a kind of wood I had not seen before, of a tree I’d never encountered in my life.

Puzzled I touched it lightly. It moved! Alarmed, I jumped back. It stopped moving. I started feeling the frame for clues.

At the top right hand corner I traced something protruding, something like a splinter or a thin nail. I pulled gently. A slight breeze brushed my face, as if a door had been opened. I could smell jasmine, lemon and tar all mixed up; I could taste the salt of the Aegean sea! I heard the cries of sea-gulls and the flutter of their wings. A door had really been opened to another world.

doors –
butterflies
on wild thyme

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A version of this haibun was published in Contemporary Haibun Online, Jan 1, 2012, vol 7 no 4

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your gentle glow
outshines this solar storm -
full moon

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: moon

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autumn wind –
the weight of loneliness
lightens

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In Issa’s Untidy Hut, 7 March 2012

Wednesday Haiku on the occasion of the 1st anniversary of the Japanese tsunami

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wiping the plate clean forgiveness
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NaHaiWriMo prompt: food

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layers -

hidden behind her claws

angel wings

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: two sides

Language\Place Blog Carnival: Call for submissions to edition #14 on the theme of The Senses in Language\Place. If you have written a short story, a flash, a poem, a non-fiction piece involving any one of the five senses – or indeed any of the twenty one senses we humans are supposed to possess - this is the time to send in your link(s): see here

You haven’t written such a piece? Looking for inspiration? Visit The Haiku Foundation Home page for the Per Diem: Daily Haiku ; the NaHaiwriMo facebook page; they are sure to tingle your writing!

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spring poppies -
not knowing who closed
her eyes

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: death of someone…

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talking doll -
all those empty
endearments

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: doll

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old paths
still the sound of crunching snow
underfoot

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: old

Throughout March, The Haiku Foundation is featuring in its Per Diem, Daily haiku series my selection of haiku of the senses. Rich and sensual, these 31 haiku, by some of the best poets from all over the world, illustrate the interconnectedness of sensory experience. Read it and see how a particular haiku/senryu may evoke an image in one, dominant sensory modality, only to set off a cascade of associations in other modalities. For instance, while the sense of hearing may be in the foreground initially, eventually the senses of smell, touch, temperature, weight or time (or others) may come to be tingled. Uncannily (as we neither expect nor pay attention to it normally), in some way similar to synesthesia, a haiku/senryu gives rise to a 3-D, or multi-modal experience of the world the poet conveys. Read it and see! Every day a new poem; everyday a new test!

The Per Diem series can be read on the Home page of THF

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at the bottom
of the glass
sentiment

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In A Hundred Gourds, p. 14, March 2012

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leap year
the rooster’s extra shrill
crow

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: leap year

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snow at night –
the magic of a child’s
owl dream

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NaHaiWriMo prompt

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butterfly moon
the delicate structure
of white lies

.

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spring dawn
a fox zips past
the gate

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: zip

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homework –
drawing a big sun in bright
yellow

NaHaiWriMo prompt: yellow

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shooting stars…
the fizz of champagne
on my tongue
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2nd place in the Free Format theme, Shiki Kukai February 2012
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.

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stifling heat -
the judge‘s wig
drips

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: wig

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lovebirds -
coming through their vent
scent of jasmine rice

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: vent

NaHaiWriMo prompt: #21 umbrella
. 
silk umbrella
how this butterfly hovers
over your head
..

NaHaiWriMo prompt: #20 talus
.
gravity
a landslide settles into a scree
on her jowls
.
NaHaiWriMo prompt #19 sandals
.
hung out to dry
on the clothesline
Hermes’ winged sandals

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skipping stones -
a walnut rattles
downhill

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: rattle

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food queue biting its tail around the block

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: queue

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fighting for space
in our childhood rockpools -
sea anemones

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: pool

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near the stage
the illusion fades –
moth moon

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: opera

Red Boat

.

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nightingale song –

life becomes

lighter

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: nachos/love (n)

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wearing white
at the moon party –
moonflower

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Haiku Bandit Society, Moon Viewing Party, February 2012: My haiku got a Dottie Dot Award! Thank you, Dottie!

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almond blossom
my neighbor pounding cloth
all night

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: laundry

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kitchen drama
the catfish jumps out
of the frying pan

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: kitchen

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fruit jam
two apples roll
away

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: jam

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ice house
storing her gall
for all seasons

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: ice

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after the snow melt-
the snowman’s hat
a bit smaller

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: hat

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longitude

east by degrees too numerous

to measure

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: grief

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freeze frame-
the snowman at my door
speaks

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: frame

.

breakfast-

a hen gathers her chicks

under her wings

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: egg

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cold snap -
a stray dog bares his teeth
at the wind

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: dog

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waxing gibbous
this catfish stays
in the deepest pool

NaHaiWriMo prompt: catfish.

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quay dawn
twelve cats waiting
for the fishing boat

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: boat

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bare tree
in its core dreams
of apples

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: apple

Today is the beginning of the second year of NaHaiWriMo! I look forward to another year of writing one haiku (and more) a day! Gratitude to Michael Dylan Welch and all the people in the Fb Community for making it possible.

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lime-scented
a gentle breeze blows through
syllables

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: nahaiwrimo (!)

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white sails
her billowing
skirt

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: wind

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chicks hatching
if only we knew
the time…

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: birth/death

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spring rain –

a smile I cannot

forget

.

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silent evening
I lift the cover off
the water butt

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: water

In March I will be hosting the Language/Place blog carnival on the theme “Locating the Senses in Language / Place.”  Submissions of poetry, fiction and non-fiction are open from February 1 – March 10, 2012.

My own contribution will be in haiku; here’s why. When I first came across haiku, I was puzzled by its brevity, and, given the size, the disproportionate impact it had on me. There was something in this form that attracted me in mysterious ways, enough to start me reading it and, much later, trying my hand at writing it.

Then in January 2011, I joined the small stones project (A River of Stones, then), focusing, noting, and writing down an immediate experience from my day; in February 2011, the National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo for short), and felt I had found something precious, an area of writing and thinking that with study, practice and discipline would be rewarding to me.

And so it proved to be. This coming together of daily attending to my sensory experience of the world, and putting it into words, shaping it to the short form of haiku, became both an invaluable experience and a developmental practice, a sort of daily meditation on a material, physical input. The essence of this experience was not in the mind (where I lived for many, many years), but in this lived moment where, for me, both the work and the rewards were found.

So I didn’t need to think twice when it came to choosing a theme for the blog carnival Language / Place, #14. My contribution will be in the form of haiku. Yours might be in the form of a short story, a flash, a non-fiction piece, a travelogue, a recipe, an image.

Listen, taste, feel the weight, and lightness of the world and share this experience with us. Does a place associate in your mind with a smell, an image, a sound? Does a taste, say of aniseed, of olives, of papaya define a place for you? Do bird song, drumming, waves move you? Where do you stand on body odor? And how do you react as a writer? Do you have a voice recorder, notepad, or the back of your hand on the ready for recording your experience? Is the result a ‘small stone,’ a flash, or haiku? Do you have a Proustian gene in you? Perhaps a non-fiction piece detailing a sensation-awakened memory? Tell me. Tell us. I can’t wait to hear from you!

If you have already written something on this theme, great. Please submit your link(s). If not, and you are looking for inspiration, then have a look at The Haiku Foundation website: lots of (haiku) moments to inspire you, including Per Diem: Daily Haiku.  In March, my selection of sense-based, mainly non-visual haiku will appear, illustrating not only how good these sense-based poems can be, but also how the senses interconnect, each one stimulating one or more of the others. There is a digital library on the site with free books to download and enjoy, discussion boards, calendars of events and contests and more.

There is the ‘official’ NaHaiWriMo coming up in February once again, too. Perhaps you might like to join and write a haiku a day. Michael Dylan Welch has set up this site with iinformation about haiku and the NaHaiWriMo facebook community. I joined last year doubting I could keep it up. Well, I haven’t. I have been writing not one but several haiku a day! (FB community site here)

If you didn’t join the January Small Stones project, no need to worry! You can keep your senses alert with a little help from Fiona Robyn and Kaspalita Thompson’s  Writing our Way Home

Fiona and Kaspalita’s blog is full of ideas on how to record polished moments of experience. You could start from here:

Other contributions, not restricted to this theme are, of course also welcome. Submissions will open on the 1st of February and close on the 10th of March.

For information on how to submit your links to you posts see here

The blog roll of those taking part in the blog carnival so far can be read on Dorothee Lang’s BluePrint blog site.

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white rose –
a falling petal catches
the light

This poem is the result of two prompts:

1: NaHaiWriMo,  Annie Juhl’s  prompt: metaphor

2: Katherine Gallagher, writers’ workshop prompt: ‘one petal in a full-blown rose’

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still swaying last year’s eucalyptus

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: one-line haiku

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spring clean -
in the dragon’s gullet
moon dust

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: dragon

A Happy New Year of the Dragon!

Delighted that my tanka “bending light” appears in Issue 5, Fall/Winter 2011-2012 of Moonbathing: A Journal of Women’s Tanka. A wonderful journal of tanka! I am honored to be included in such company. Many thanks to Pamela A. Babusci, editor of “Moonbathing.”

Also, “Gray morning (haiku),” in the notebook of the Asahi Haikuist Network, edited by Prof David McMurray, here.

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dark moon
balanced finish of a wine
long forgotten

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: taste

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shooting stars
all you need to know about
sciatica

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: pain

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eating alone -
I measure the distance
to the moon

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: food/eating

.

song of the earth
a blackbird sings
the first notes

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: music/song

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moist earth
a simple gadfly knows what’s best
for its eggs

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Posted on FB site Joys of Japan

The International Capoliveri Haiku Contest 2011 has announced the names of the authors selected to be included in their anthology 2011. Winners of the Contest will be selected from the authors included in their list, by March 2012.

According to the announcement, the winning poets will be granted a 7 day stay for two people in Capoliveri (on the Elba) and will attend an awards ceremony in May 2012. I feel honored to be amongst those chosen for the anthology. Now please cross your fingers for me to go to the next phase, I’d love to visit Elba.

The list of the anthology selections of international haiku poets can be seen here.

And if you are wondering what and where is Capoliveri, you could start from this site here.

I am looking forward to the anthology!

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moon flower
I wrap my dreams
in furoshiki

.

What on earth is furoshiki? Please visit Gabi Greve’s Daruma Museum to find out! Wonderful patterns on the cotton cloth wrappers too. And don’t forget to scroll down the page to find my haiku.

(First shared on Fb group Joys of Japan wall)

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guessing game -
from dusk to dawn
the sea darkens

.

In ‘a handful of stones‘ 12 January 2012

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wintersweet -
shifting my weight
to the other foot

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: narrowing focus.

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harvesting lies
a paper moon splits
open

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Haiku Bandit Society, Moon Viewing Party, January 2012

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before the rain -
the air fills with the scent
of rain

.

before the rain the scent of rain

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: scent/smell

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salmon roe

he rubs his wife’s

pregnant belly

.

.

handiwork -
snowball by snowball
we receive winter

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: hands

Delighted to find out today that my haiku received Honorable Mention in The 15th Mainichi Haiku Contest!

‘fish kites’ can be found on page 13 of the PDF announcement See here

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1
daydream
frost flower
garden
2
foot mirage -
trickling water from the hot
water bottle
3
daydream
how time
flies!

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: daydreaming

time and time again
clocks render me
speechless

.

time piece
a kitten knows when it’s time
to eat

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: here and now (time)

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flowering only

in soft moonlight—

dragon fruit

.

In anticipation of the year of the dragon, a delightful collection of dragon haiku edited by Aubrie Cox, of Yay Words! The language of Dragons is heart-warming, playful, witty, and wonderful.  I am delighted that one of my own dragon haiku made it there. The entire collection can be downloaded as PDF from Aubrie’s site, here.

The Tree

Sitting under a mulberry tree by the sea, in Alexandroupolis, Greece, near the border with Turkey, I stare across the sparkling water. A melancholy mood is sapping my energy. The ferry to Samothraki makes me wish to travel further on, but I know I’ve come far enough. This place, at the intersection of continents, symbolizes the crossroads in my own life, leaving behind my youth and entering middle age. I need a push, something to give me strength to take the next step.

I must have fallen asleep because when I come to dusk is falling like rain. I rub my eyes. The town lights flicker simultaneously with their reflections on the water. The notes of a flute pierce the air.

I muse about the times this town has passed between the Bulgarians, the Greeks, the Turks, the Russians; shudder at the thought of how much blood has been spilled. And yet humanity continues, the spirit survives whoever the ruler, whatever the belief. I realize the smallness of my own problem, the disease of vanity and self-preoccupation.

A crow lands next to me. We eye each other for a minute or two, then he flies away. Feeling a sense of acceptance wash over me, I walk to my Pension. The hostess noticing the lifting of my mood offers me a theory about what happened.

“It must have been the dervish, the Holy man of the fifteenth century,” she says. “He spent his days under a tree… he is buried there…”

“They buried him under his tree?”

“They say he still heals those who go to sit under it.”

“Is that the Mulberry tree…?” I start, trying to locate ‘my’ tree for her.

She shrugs, and then I know it does not matter.

.

in the salty air

a single leaf from his book -

dove with crow

In Contemporary Haibun Online, January 2012

1
long after you left
your warmth on the feather
cushion
2
after the rain –
a ball of fur on
the sunlit sill

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: fur/feather

.

at my door
singing out of tune
three kings

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: January first week

1
all the way
across three generations
Forget-me-nots
2
silver clouds -
on the second day
we argue
3
singing the alphabet
on the way home
good-luck cat
4
nature programme
my kitten searches for birds
behind the telly

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: family / friends

It is January and time for noticing, for paying attention to, well, whatever attracts our attention on a daily basis and writing a small poem, sentence, something about it – what is called a small stone. It is not difficult, believe me. The world calls to us all the time; in the words of Mary Oliver,

“The world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-“

From Wild Geese, Mary Oliver’s poem in Wikipedia

Let‘s not be deaf to it this year. Let’s start small, noticing one thing at a time, writing a small stone.

If you’d like to join in, take a look at the founding fathers, ooops, founding couple: Fiona and Kaspa’s site here  They explain everything… And you can even get a lovely badge from their site for your blog. I will be getting one soon myself…

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Oh yes, I almost forgot, here is the distillation of today’s noticing in the form of a haiku:

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first day

the rootedness

of everything

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See also NaHaiWriMo prompt: New Year’s day/beginnings

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one year older
I learn to notice blades
of grass

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1
New Year‘s walk
pampas grass plumes
rustle
2
so  much is clear
this year too in my purse
the tides tables

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: New Year resolution/review

1

packing tackle
the fishing line teasing
the cats
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Inspired by Jane Reichhold’s ‘frayed rope’
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2
a shape no other
than the humble horseshoe
four-leaf clover
.
Based on Cherie Hunter Day’s ‘a skull no bigger‘

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: Influence (another poet/haiku) This is the prompt:

Write a haiku based on/influenced by another poet’s haiku. I know, I know, we are always under someone’s influence, but still! Anything goes, except ‘old pond’

If you are stuck for choice, have a look at the link below, the Haiku Foundation’s Montage Archive, where the work of haiku poets is juxtaposed in relation to a theme, for instance, The Little Truths  or any other comparative haiku piece. Or, pull on the ‘frayed rope’ here
See you there!

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against loss
sewn into the mattress
gold coins

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: gold/silver/coins

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what might have been
but for frangipani blooms
December evening

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: taking stock

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oiling

the wheel of fortune

horseshoe

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: oil

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peace and joy -
on the Christmas tree
a red felt heart

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: Good-wishes-ku

Happy Christmas and a Merry, Healthy and Joyous New Year!

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This haiga, using my haiku, was created by renowned haiga artist  Kuniharu Shimizu. Kuni-san is also priest of Tenrikyo, advisor to the  World Haiku Association, and judge of their haiga contests. I feel most honored that one of my snowman haiku was included in his current series of Snowman haiga.

The haiga is accompanied by a lovely commentary on his own blog, seehaikuhere. Click and see.

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1
tree of life
a stray gene from
Andromeda
2
olive tree
as blessed as it is
humble

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: Tree

December 23 prompt: All about trees. From frankincense trees, to olive and fig trees, Eucalyptus, Jacaranda, cinnamon, Christmans trees, take your pick!
I saw this piece of news re frankincense tree

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cosmic cushion –
pulling the darkness out
pin by pin
.
moment of stillness
just before the light changes
direction

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: solstice. The actual prompt ran like this:

Solstice (what else?), cosmic time, longest/shortest day, cosmic light… .
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A haiku I love by Svetlana Marisova:
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incoming tide …
the writing fills
both sides
..
More of her poems in the recently created page here (The link takes you to the Haiku Foundation page with several of Svetlana’s poems. Go and see!)

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1
funicular inner monologue bursting out in laughter (ku-ku)
2
snow storm
all the pigeons become
doves
(cuckoo-ku)
.
My haiku plays with the misperception that pigeons are grey and doves white. I came across a site with pictures that corrected me (at least) for good: here

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NaHaiWriMo prompt runs as follows:

December 21 Prompt: Let’s have some serious fun. Pick a genre from Michael’s essay „ku-ku: Because You Can’t Have Enough Haiku“ and write a haiku in that genre. Please indicate which one you’ve picked, eg chai-ku.
See here

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count-down to solstice
two cormorants dry their wings
in the sun

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: numbers

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sheltering
under your wings
fly

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: refuge

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melting
the snowman on the patio
now kneels

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: knee

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avalanche
the sound comes before
the fury

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: snow

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winter forest work
a hairdresser clips
his bonsai

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In Gabi Greve’s World Kigo Database, under Ikebana/Bonsai (scroll down)

(first appearance in FB page: Joys of Japan)

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layer after layer
the same old stink -
onion

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NaHaiWriMo prompt (by Yours, truly): onion (s)

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frosted camelia
the dancers‘ skirt
higher and higher

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In Gabi Greve’s Haiku and Happiness. The photo is beautiful, have a look!

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wild winter roses
the impersonal color
in your cheeks

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NaHaiWriMo prompt:  Haiku involving color

I’d like to share a haiku I read today on the Haiku Foundation site Archive (HaikuNow! winning poem, First Prize for 2011):

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Indian summer
mother dyes her graying hair
the color of straw

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—Tom Painting (USA)

For more winning Haiku and an excellent analysis see the Haiku Foundation Archive

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pines along the shore
and the sea unfolding -
so cold this winter

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I hope this poem conveys something of the difficult situation that Greece is facing…

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Today’s NaHaiWriMo prompt (by Yours truly) as follows:

You are/were on holiday in Greece and this is how your haiku senses sing about /remember it…

By the way, you may know Shamrock, #17 had a Greek focus, with several haiku translated by its editor, Anatoly Kudryavitsky. You can find it here:

From the same issue, I copy a haiku by Giorgos Seferis, transl. Anatoly Kudryavitsky.

empty chairs
the statues returned
to another museum

.

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winter gusts
again the broken window
rattles

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I copy below today’s prompt for NaHaWriMo that I posted earlier on their FB site. It occurs to me that I should have collected the prompts as I posted them over there in this site too – it is so exciting and an honor to be doing this! Anyway, at least today’s:

December 13 prompt: Write a haiku that tells a story…

Issa:
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mopping sweat–
at his tomb I tell my story
then go
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Trans. David Lanoue. See more here

Also, if you have the time, you might like to have look here

Curious? Interested? Wondering about tomorrow’s prompt? See  here.

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reading room
the soft tapping
of laptop keys

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: Book(s)/reading

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for a clear head
malt, hops, yeast, and water -
old brewer’s trick

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: recipe-ku

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moonlight -
below the Acropolis
a man sells drachmas

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: place names

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dissecting her heart
they find the sea and the crater
of an old volcano

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: heart

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..

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driving rain

through the porthole

sight of land

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painting by Maria Pierides (www.mariapierides.co.uk)

haiku by Stella Pierides

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: weather/painting by Maria Pierides: Driving rain

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one-breath poem
cut short
by a cough

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: breath/air

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a branch of pine
broken in the storms
Christmas tree

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: gift

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winter wind –
feathers and fishbones shift
inside the eyrie

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: nest

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lighthouse -
on the way we observe
the inner light

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false log beams
I wonder who is holding up
the ceiling

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NaHaiWriMo prompts (by Stella Pierides, by the way!) lighthouse/beam

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suckling
at the mouth of the river
ocean

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: tongue, mouth

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advent wreath –
wax spreading on the table
counts down the days

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: garland or wreath

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slow stream

a heron stretches his beak

towards the sky

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soft rain

how benevolence

works

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I am very pleased that these two haiku were included in the inaugural issue of A Hundred Gourds, alongside contributions by many fine poets. A Hundred Gourds is a new international journal for haiku, haibun, haiga and more, edited by Lorin Ford and a team of distinguished poets. Congratulations to everyone on the team, and many happy returns!

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weaver’s hut –
by the loom a goat chews off
threads

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: carpet

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homesick -
a tree bends
towards the light

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NaHaiWriMo November 2011 prompt: a photo prompt by Carlos Colon, also known as Haiku Elvis. You can find him on Facebook here and on twitter here.

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soft afternoon light -
from behind open curtains
purr of a kitten

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: a 5-7-5 haiku

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dance studio -
learning to ignore
wrong moves

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: dance

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crisp
autumn
leaves
musical
chairs

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: write a five-word haiku in five lines

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in synchrony -
only now her silver thimble
fits my finger

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: heirloom/antique tool

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ten-week-old kitten
how the world calls out
to you!

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: relationships

Living in Germany and England, while having Greek roots, I thought I could lay claim to an international outlook!

Then came the call from the hostess of Language\Place #12, Linda Hofke, to produce work on the theme of food. Armed with my ‘search’ button, I looked for my food haiku and found too many to mention in one post! I mean hundreds … My choice here is limited to (gulp) 17. Some of them either published, or posted on my or other poets’ blogs. But there was a surprise in this for me. The ingredients in the haiku are not that diverse, not that varied! Perhaps I am less international than I’d like to claim. What do you think?

1

celery crunch -
I always knew you threw
the dice

2

beets -
and he wonders how he got
kidney stones

3

pumpkin -
the car park attendant scoffs
at my car

4

in this rain
even the eggplant weeps -
billowing clouds

(These haiku appeared in Sketchbook 6-3, May/June 2011, in the Haiku thread/Editor’s Choice).

5

tomato -
sometimes even stars are not
enough

Featured in Melissa Allen’s Red Dragonfly: Across the Haikuverse no 20

6

through the fog -
mountains of orange
pumpkins

7

mushroom garden -
in the damp, dark corner
full moon

8

magic mushrooms -
under the duvet I find
stars

Nos 7 and 8 featured by Melissa Allen, of Red Dragonfly, together with other haiku,  in her blog post ‘Mushroom Harvest.’

9

pale moon -
sugar crystals travelling
south

Featured in Melissa Allen’s Red Dragonfly: Across the Haikuverse, no 23

10

ruby wine -
the song of a canary
on my tongue

11

wild goose chase -
even the duvet tries
to fly south

12

summer cool -
the blossom lingers
in the cherry

13

vesper bell
on the tree so many
pomegranates

14

chamomile –
drinking the fields
from my teacup

15

so here is the tree
of the liquid gold Homer spilt
so liberally—
between epic verses and
bare rocks it grows its olives

Greece

Olea europea

in Atlas Poetica Special Feature From Lime Trees to Eucalypts: A Botany of Tanka, poem #20, (26 August 2011)  [tanka]

16

full moon tea
my book of beasts
lies open

Featured in Aubrie Cox’s Yay Words‚ Tea with Trolls

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I guess after all this food the next haiku is a must:

17

super moon 2034
robotic arm
brushes my teeth

.

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breaking bread
the sound of glass clinking
against glass

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: thanksgiving

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grilled sardines
beyond the pines
whispering sea

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: holiday food

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knowing how we fail
I keep my eye on the ball
pilgrims

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: ball games

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off the isle of Skye -
two whales break
the surface

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: joyous event

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kindness -
collecting the acer
from the grass

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: weekend activity

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once again
she inverts the hourglass –
Cinderella

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: deadlines

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late grapes –
birds making a meal
of the vine

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: feeding birds

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moving house –
my mother’s tea plates clink
inside the box
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(I am finally moving house tomorrow! I did wrap those plates in extra paper!)

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siesta
my sister and I peep through
half-closed shutters

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: childhood memory.

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lunch
a fishbone swims down
my throat

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: bad luck

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running along
the rim of the crater –
old soldier

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: veterans

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weeping meadow -
every time love loses
its dream
.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: scene from a movie

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Inspired by Theo Angelopoulos’ film The Weeping Meadow (watch the trailer)

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volcanic ash -
the taste of the market
fallout

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: natural disasters

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Mars swallows –
we beam them down
for winter

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: scifi ku

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dark moon–
at the foot of the Parthenon
last throw of the dice

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: gambling

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flowering–

on your face the ghost

of a smile

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@CuentoMag #165, 5 November 2011

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changing gear –
instead of inscribing
I tweet

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: social media

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Rosetta Stone -
a life
in three languages

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(Why is this not a senryu? It is, too!)

NaHaiWriMo prompt: ancient Egypt

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cactus needle –
loneliness turned
inside out

.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: tactile

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under the red maple
red maple –
autumn’s harvest

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NaHaiWriMo prompt: autumn foliage

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full moon tea

my book of beasts

lies open

.

tea leaves —

a fate worse than

cuticles

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kallikantzaroi—

drinking tea they forget

the World tree

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Three haiku included in Aubrie Cox’s collection Tree with Trolls, in her blog Yay Words. Twenty seven poets saying, in their own unique way, Happy Halloween! And thank you Aubrie!

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ant lines -
weaving a pine needle
necklace

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NaHaiWriMo extension; prompts this month by Carlos Colon: sweet indulgence

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no-go area –
her recipe-book
on the top shelf

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: secret

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on her tombstone dove
two snails
mating

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: cemetery

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telegraph wires –
swallows too are waiting
for your news

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Nahaiwrimo extension 2011; prompt: migrating birds

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charred blankets -
the doll
still smouldering

.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: consequences of war

.

chill wind -
remembering
the things I forget

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: frightening

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winter’s beginning –
last year’s coat
two sizes larger

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Or,

winter’s beginning –
last year’s coat
two sizes too big

.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: beginning

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when you blush -
the faintest shade of pink
above the horizon

.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: dawn

.

squall –
learning to blow
against the wind

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: windstorm

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as if the word for peace were war cloudy skies

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cloudy lens –
looking without
seeing

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: peace

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curling
against your warmth
ebb tide

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: place of peace

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perfume wars -
her statement still lingers
in my study

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: scent

bee hive 

where the workers never

strike

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Sketchbook 6-4, Editor’s Choice Haiku, John Daleiden: Life in the Mostly Unexamined World (scroll down)

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eternal life
only the roaches
come close

.

in my salad
a green caterpillar—
life lesson

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Sketchbook 6-4, Guest Editor’s Choice Haiku, Bernard Gieske : A Glimpse into the Past (scroll down)

and Editor’s Choice Haiku, John Daleiden: Life in the Mostly Unexamined World (scroll down)

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gut feeling –
blinking
the third eye

.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: belly

.

nightfall -
losing the certainty
of youth

.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: dusk

Two one-line haiku

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the unrelenting waves under your pillow

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portentous below the belt oracles

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: one-line haiku

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hairline -
wading on the riverbank
terns

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: baldness

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never too late -
listening to the silence
of the moon

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: late/too late

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such innocence
the soft curve
of your lip

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: innocence

Delighted! My haiku “starry night” came second (tied) in the July/August 2011 Sketchbook Kukai (peer-reviewed contest).

Here it is:

starry night—
growing old
together

Delighted also that several of my fellow haijin from NaHaiWriMo did so well, esp Terri Hale French (1st), Michelle Harvey, Cara Holman, and others…

Two other haiku I submitted received no votes! Food for thought, of course.

The entire thread can be read by clicking here

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last kiss
i unplug
the telephone

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: kiss

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rose-tinted clouds
in Broadstairs -
marshmallows

.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011.

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missing you -
on the ocean floor
conch shells

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: telephone.

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on this spot
the sun has been –
moonshine

.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: loss

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balance -
perched on a wire a dove
and a crow

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt Pris Campbell: beauty

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out of Ithaca –
a poem about
life

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: journey

Happy National Poetry Day!

The National Poetry Day Patchwork Poem 2011, Pelmanism, collated by Andy Jackson from lines taken from contributions by a number of poets/writers appeared today. To my delight, it includes a line from my own poetry: ‘war games, the unbearable logic’. The Patchwork Poem, published in the North Carr Light, can be read here. It is a multi-layered, thoughtful poem… I cannot imagine how Andy Jackson put it together from all those separate poems and poets! What a feat!

This afternoon, I went to the Royal Festival Hall for the National Poetry Live event. A fantastic afternoon of poetry, poetry, poetry; all sorts of poetry. Simon Armitage, Lemn Sissey, Jackie Kay, Jo Shapcott, Jo Bell and others… Wonderful work. My absolute fav though, was Joelle Taylor, who read her poetry from the heart. Wrote it from the heart… Hard-hitting as well as thought-provoking work set in the  wastelands of high rise buildings in London’s poorest areas, it spoke of dispossessed children, women, people, and lives, finding hope in poetry and its transformational  powers.

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moving house –
a snail and the same old
me

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: home

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bamboo screen -
not a single
butterfly

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: butterflies

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gnarled olive
the tenderness of human
love

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: courtship etc

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coming home -
the garden has forgotten
my hand

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: sabi

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sunrise -
the singular beauty
of a rose petal

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011. New prompter, Pris Campbell, prompt: awe

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crocus-
cutting your first
tooth

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: beginnings

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making ends meet –
I sew an extra button
on my waistband

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: ends

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harvest festival
the last apples before
the Fall

.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: celebration.

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harvest -
so much food for
the soul
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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: harvest.
September challenge 19 Planets.

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autumn circus -
keeping all her juggling-balls
in the air

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011; prompt: circus

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so many bees
on the Autumn Joy…
Octoberfest
.
Autumn Joy = one of the sedum family (flower)

Oktoberfest: oh well…

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011, prompt: autumn flowers.

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city life -

inside the belly

of the whale

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Matchless Magazine 18 September 2011

….

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.

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setting sun -
I too let go of
attachments
.
.
.#.

Thinking about this haiku, hm, it seems better without the ‘my’. I’ve made the change in the haiku, but not in the haiga.

photo: Hermann Mueller; haiku: Stella Pierides.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011 prompt: sunset

Taking part in Rick Daddario’s 19 Planets September challenge (almost there!)

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growing up -
I learn to live
with the tides
.
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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011, prompt: beach.
Taking part in Rick Daddario’s 19 Planets September challenge.

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…

..

….

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011: animals

Taking part in Rick Daddario’s 19 Planets September haiga challenge.
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your patience -
the way a river
cuts through rock

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NahaiWriMo extension 2011. Prompter: Johnny Baranski, prompt: river(s).

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Taking part in Rick Daddario’s 19 Planets September challenge: A haiga a day … or so…

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what I know
each lake has its own
full moon

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This haiku was written in response to a prompt for  a haiga using Margaret Rosenberg’s artwork. You can see the whole artworld + haiku (haiga) in here

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through the fog -
mountains of orange
pumpkins

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011: mountains

.

summer -
this bee
gets lost again

.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011: Haynaku

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in this asphalt jungle
money grows on trees -
blood moon

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011: prompt ‘asphalt jungle’

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lucky charm -
on the crest of the wave
sound bubbles

.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011: luck

.

blood moon

how the light changes

direction

.

NaHaiWriMo extension 2011, prompt: moon viewing.

,

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laying nets they beat
olives from the trees
merciful moon

.

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setting out
to dispel darkness?
moon

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NaHaiWriMo extension 2011: light and dark

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this old city

a river runs through

its heart

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Taking part in Rick Dadario’s 19 Planets September Challenge: A Haiga a day, or every few days … .

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..
..

..

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angel
meeting the endless
light
.

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Taking part in Rick Daddario’s 19 Planets September Challenge: A Haiga a day, or every few days …

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.
blue moon
which came first the fall
or the apple?
.
(Leaving Ammersee)

Taking part in Rick Daddario’s 19 Planets September Challenge: A Haiga a day, or every few days …

.

waiting for the tide -
fishing boats line
the harbour

…

I was thinking of Wells-next-the-Sea, but please feel free to supply your own harbour …

NaHaiWriMo: vacation memories