A Haiku Video

Poem Studios in association with Brooks Books brings you the first full length feature film about English Language Haiku and The Short Poem. The film features Sonia Sanchez and some of the top haiku poets of the 21st Century.



This is just a trailer for a full length DVD and book, HAIKU: The Art of the Short Poem a film haiku anthology edited by Tazuo Yamaguchi & Randy Brooks, published by Brooks Books, who also produce the magazine Mayfly.

caucasus carcass

caucasus carcass is one of the latest publications by Atlantean Publishing.

It is a collection of "Reissian Haiku" - so-called because it derives from the work of poet Ed Reiss and the poems are in the style of haiku. "in the style of" is a fair enough description. The main rule of the form is that only letters with no ascenders [d, f, h, l] or descenders [g, j, p, y] can be used in their composition.

This restriction actually produces some excellent poems, particularly the ones by Steve Sneyd and D J Weston who are the major contributors to this anthology.

My favourites (all by D J Weston) are

rain runs on us,
on crosses, moss, our names -
our veins are ice

*

war-zone mess
enemies cower in ruins
no-one wins

*

warm summer comes
as sun-cream oozes over me
sere verses simmer

the last, although it has eight "m"s, has only one "n". I don't think there is a single poem here that doesn't include at least one "n" and most have several.

It is certainly good value at just £1.

I have to confess to being much less happy with editor D J Tyrer's collection THE ATLANTEAN. It is called "Collected Haiku" but hardly any of these compositions are haiku by almost any stretch of the imagination. He says he

came to haiku fairly late, initially as a challenge, then for the practical reason of needing occasional filler material for his magazines

and unfortuneatly he seems to have bought into the notion that any collection of seventeen-syllables split into three lines can automatically be called a "haiku".

There are a number of good short poems, clerihews, brief jokes, proverbs here:

Ten-sixty-six: fight!
Invade blood-red foam sword slash
King dead new king now

*

Too much sun skin cracks
Red-raw, head hurts, lotion
Rub it in and trust

*

a snowfall in March
how strange! cry amnesiacs
forgetting past snows

*

editorial
letters of comment reply
debate if you dare

so I do dare, because I care. Tyrer is a writer who could do so much better if he didn't try to shoe-horn his verse into something it doesn't fit. Whether he would be better discovering more about haiku (which takes years rather than weeks) or better honing his skills in other directions is for the author to decide.

Atlantean also publish five magazines titles including Bard (latest issue #64) and Awen (latest issue #51)

Atlantean Publishing
38 Pierrot Steps
71 Kursaal Way
Southend on Sea
Essex
SS1 2UY
UK

visit the website of Atlantean Publishing

Read reviews of earlier issues of Bard.
Read a review of another collection by D J Tyrer.

World Haiku 2008

World Haiku 2008 is the fourth in a series of annunal anthologies edited by Ban'ya Natsuishi and published by the World Haiku Association.

If your language is English, you read the book forward for a total of 107pp - the haiku are all in English or the writer's native language (except for the Japanese) with a translation into English. If your language is Japanese, you start at the back and read forward for 114pp - this section contains the original haiku of the Japanese contributors and translations into Japanese of the others.

Between the two sections are six pages of haiga. All the images are grey-scaled which in some cases is possibly to the good, though a few would probably be better seen in colour.

As well as the haiku and haiga there are four essays. Ban'ya Natsuishi writes about the FUTURE OF WORLD HAIKU. I won't attempt to summarise his essay, but will give you some quotes which should give readers an idea of where he is coming from and going.

Why are we interested in haiku writing, not as a classical short poetry peculiar to Japan, but as a contemporary short poem which may be creative in any language, in any country? Why is haiku writing still creative in our own days?
...
One of the most typical misunderstandings [I have encountered] is that a person inspired by a trivial moment can write a good haiku.
...
Everybody knows that haiku is a short poem, but the fact that a verbal universe made by an excellent haiku is boundless is not so well known. ... Basho's haiku as a basis for our haiku is written from a moving and free viewpoint, and it can build up a dynamic and vast universe including contrasting elements. These charachters are extremely suitable to contemporary art and literature and explains why haiku is always avant-garde, why it always has a feeling of freshness to it.
...
Free form poems may be connected with modern democracy in the West, therefore fixed form is anachronistic in the West. ... What is the difference between free form haiku and free short poem in 3 lines? ... Nobody can give a perfect reply to this problem.
...
Haiku is shorter in line, more suggestive, tight, and intense in expression, and it contains more concrete images. In haiku, each word is filled with more potential power. ... haiku is always the essence of poetry.
...
we [would] rather promote haiku writing in any language, in any country, than make up a world-wide definition of haiku to narrow its possibilities.

Authors from Cuba, Latvia and Romania also provide astute essays on the history and present state of haiku in their respective countries.

The submission deadline for the 2009 anthology is 2nd May 2008. Only members of the WHA may submit work. Membership cost varies depending on where you live in the world. See the WHA website.

Read a review of World Haiku 2006.