by Gene Myers on May 17, 2012
Publishing. Could there be a more loaded word? It’s loaded with hopes and dreams of getting vetted by selection. Vindication leading to canonization and being part of the conversation. For my day job, I am a journalist. Journalists talk a lot about a few of these aspects — namely, selection, vetting and conversation.
How do you know what is a good source? Journalists are trained how to find them and judge their merit. If a poem is a good one, you won’t need to worry about this. You will open up to a good poem, get a burst of energy from it. (At least that is how I am describing what happens to me today.)
Next to vetting, being part of the conversation is the other key element of publishing. This is what I hunger for most–an exchange of ideas with people who aren’t just your friends, neighbors or family members. You get honest feedback from strangers who come across your work. That conversation can be immediate (blogs, Twitter, etc.) or it can come down through generations.
So how does one get to be a part of the dialogue? That is the question I am posing. The answer isn’t as obvious as it used to be. A tidal wave of change is coming!
by Mark Harris on May 16, 2012
Wouldn’t it be great if we had better records? If Thomas Wentworth Higginson had digital recording equipment, he might have augmented his recorded insights into Emily Dickinson:
Interspersed with these confidences came phrases so emphasized as to seem the very wantonness of over-statement, as if she pleased herself with putting into words what the most extravagant might possibly think without saying, as thus: “How do most people live without any thought? There are many people in the world,–you must have noticed them in the street,–how do they live? How do they get strength to put on their clothes in the morning?” Or this crowning extravaganza: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?” I have tried to describe her just as she was, with the aid of notes taken at the time; but this interview left our relation very much what it was before;–on my side an interest that was strong and even affectionate, but not based on any thorough comprehension; and on her side a hope, always rather baffled, that I should afford some aid in solving her abstruse problem of life.
–Thomas Wentworth Higginson, from “Emily Dickinson’s Letters” [Atlantic Monthly, 1891]
And William Shakespeare? Looks like we dropped the ball on that one:
With so little to go on in the way of hard facts, students of Shakespeare’s life are left with essentially three possibilities: to pick minutely over legal documents as the Wallaces did, to speculate (‘Every Shakespeare biography is 5 per cent fact and 95 per cent conjecture,’ one Shakespeare scholar told me, possibly in jest); or to persuade themselves that they know more than they actually do…In fact, it cannot be emphasized too strenuously that there is nothing—not a scrap, not a mote—that gives any certain insight into Shakespeare’s feelings and beliefs as a private person. We can know only what came out of his work, never what went into it.
–Bill Bryson, from Shakespeare [Harper, 2009]
Times have changed. Or have they?
Please help support The Haiku Foundation Video Archive.
by Dave Russo on May 14, 2012
We’ve had so much going on lately that we forgot to mention that we’ve updated THF Haiku App, our app for the Apple platform. The latest version includes almost 400 new poems that we selected from the Haiku Registry.
Early in 2012, Billie Wilson and Jim Kacian contacted as many poets in the Haiku Registry as they could. They asked permission to republish poems from the Registry. As a result, we added almost 400 new poems to the THF Haiku App. The app now includes over 700 poems. Thanks to all who allowed us to feature your work!
You can download THF Haiku from the App Store on your Apple device.
by Jim Kacian on May 12, 2012
Hi Folks:
I’m happy so many of you were able to participate in one or another of the many National Haiku Poetry Day events that took place across the country. But I know you couldn’t get to them all, so here’s a chance to read up here on what happened where you weren’t. We look forward to next year, buoyed by our excellent results from this. And if you’d like to add an NHPD event in your community, let us know and we’ll help. Thanks to all who have contributed so much, and enjoy!
—Jim Kacian
by Mark Harris on May 4, 2012
If you love haiku, you probably feel a special connection to a poet. That connection might begin when a single poem sends a thrill through you, a jolt of recognition. How does that happen and why? Through what art is the poet able to reach out to you through language, sound, rhythm, image?
What of those who are no longer with us? What if we could go back across space and time with digital video and audio recording equipment, ask our favorite poets a few concise questions, and then let them expound? To see their gestures and facial expressions, to hear their unique voices colored by regional and personal nuances—that would be something special, wouldn’t it?
What of the scholars and translators who helped bring haiku into the English language? Wouldn’t it be great if we could bring digital a/v equipment to New York City circa 1935 to converse with Harold G. Henderson about topics that puzzled him then, and still puzzle us today?
Going forward, what if we could stop asking “what if” and create a Video Archive, which we would make available to everyone for free on THF’s website?
If that hope resonates with you, please check out our campaign to raise funds for
The Haiku Foundation Video Archive
and be sure to check out the terrific video that leads off the presentation.
To all of you who have helped out so far, thank you!
