THF Tech Update: We Lost Some Data

by Dave Russo on January 31, 2012

Today, one of our technical consultants accidently deleted a folder that should not have been deleted. As a result, some of our applications lost data that was added between Sat Jan 28th at 4AM to Tues Jan 31 at about 12:00 noon.

The Haiku Now! Contest entries are not affected by this data loss.

However, the blog and the forums were affected. Updates before Sat Jan 28th at 4AM are still there in the affected applications. Updates after Tues Jan 31 at 12:00 noon are still there. But updates between these two end points are lost.

I’m sorry for this inconvenience.

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A National Haiku Writing Month challenge

by Gene Myers on January 31, 2012

Last February was the first National Haiku Writing Month (Twitter tag #NaHaiWriMo). The premise was simple—write a new haiku each day of the month. Organizer Michael Dylan Welch offered a variety of web resources, a homepage, a Facebook page, background information and writing prompts. The level of participation was left up to the writer’s taste.

 

For my level of participation, I chose to number each new poem and post it on the NaHaiWriMo Facebook page daily. This held me to a level of accountability, and gave me instant feedback on my creations in the form of “likes” and “comments.”

 

The trick to avoid writer’s block is simple, keep writing! It’s only when you prostrate yourself to intangibles like a muse or inspiration that you lose control of your faculties and become prey to insecurities, like “What if I get stuck and can no longer write?”

 

That’s where NaHaiWriMo comes in. Don’t believe me? Write me in March after you’ve taken part and written a poem each day!

 

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Basho neither saw an old pond nor a frog…it was a desk haiku!

by Gene Myers on January 24, 2012

A while back there was a controversy on the Haiku Now Facebook page. I wrote a poem about a spider slipping on ice. Quickly, someone said you didn’t see that, that was a desk haiku and the debate began!

Contributors admonished me so thoroughly for this egregious act that even I was convinced I had done wrong.

The mob with sticks had cornered my little poem.

But what if I told you that Basho never saw that famous frog? He never saw that old pond!?

That’s right! I just read that in an essay from the book Poems of Consciousness by Richard Gilbert. In this essay entitled, Basho’s Old Pond, Realism and Junk Haiku, that is exactly what is said.

“Therefore, we can say that this ku is not consecutive, and on the contrary has a break within it — there are two different levels, two different elements, intermixed.

“So, Basho neither saw an old pond nor a frog…

“Examining these two ideas leads to the conclusion that Basho was listening to the frogs-jumping-into-water-sound, and then he imaged an old pond. This means he was listening to sounds of frogs jumping into water, and a vision of an old pond arose in his mind.”

So if the most famous haiku in the world was a desk haiku, how do you feel about desk ku?

Is it a fine idea or a no-no?

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Do you think haiku requires its practitioners to be more spiritual?

by Gene Myers on January 15, 2012

One of the greatest gifts I was given in 2011 was given to me by Michael Dylan Welch. He didn’t just invite me to Haiku North America, he sent email after email pitching it to me; he worked out logistical details to make getting across the country easier for me — how could I say no?

What I found when I got to Seattle was life changing. I filled one notebook after another taking notes at the presentations.

Three line haiku works, but does it suit the demands of modern life? “Are you getting a better experience?” Jim Kacian asked while Bruce Ross talked about space having a pre-existence before feeling.

I’ve been a poet for I don’t know…25 years…? I’ve been a lit mag editor for seven or so, and I’ve never been happier than I’ve been in the last two years, since I’ve been diving deeper and deeper into haiku.

The more I’ve studied, the more I’ve found to study. Somehow this art manages to reach far back into history while simultaneously offering so much fertile territory.

But the most pleasant surprise — outside of the art itself — has been the people. Haiku poets, for some reason, are nicer, more welcoming and more likely to share and discuss the art openly than the poetry world at large.

Does this have to do with money and institutions? As magazines like Poets and Writers have explored, the po business, with its highly sought after teaching positions creates and supports careers.

The haiku world, at least in this country, is not as established. We’re all doing this whenever we can scrounge up the time or energy, stolen moments that find us hungry and reaching out.

Maybe it’s just what I’ve seen. But I also wonder if the ku world has less of the lit world neuroses because its practitioners are older. From talking to people I also think more artists come to haiku for spiritual reasons.

Does its practice require an erasing of self that’s at odds with the younger hipster mentality found in the creative writing programs at universities?

More than reveling in one’s idiosyncrasies, haiku tends to temper its  flintknappers, grounds them in the lessons of their forebears.

Or am I crazy?

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The 2011 Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards: Shortlist

by Mark Harris on January 13, 2012

We had a terrific response to our call for submissions to the Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards in 2011. To all who participated, thank you. The results of your efforts reveal a haiku publishing scene that is thriving and diverse. You have our admiration.

After much deliberation, the panelists are agreed on a shortlist of contenders that will move on to the final round. This was no small job—they received 79 books! Final results will be announced on April 17, National Haiku Poetry Day.

Award recipients will be selected from the following list:

Beyond the Reach of My Chopsticks: New and Selected Haiku; written by Fay Aoyagi, published by Blue Willow Press

Haiku Roadsign: Axle Contemporary; edited and designed by Matthew Chase-Daniel and Jerry Wellman, published by Axle Contemporary

Penguins/ Pingviner; written by Johannes Bjerg, published by Cyberwit

A Narrow Road/ Uska Staza; written by Ljubomir Dragovic, published by Liber Press

The River Knows the Way; edited by Cynthia Cechota, et al, published by Haiku Dubuque

Dreams Wander On: Contemporary Poems of Death Awareness; edited by Robert Epstein, published by Modern English Tanka Press

A New Resonance 7; edited by Dee Evetts and Jim Kacian, published by Red Moon Press

My Favorite Thing; written by Michael Ketchek, Bob Lucky and Lucas Stensland , edited by Stanford M. Forrester, published by Bottle Rockets Press

Few Days North Days Few; written by Paul M., published by Red Moon Press 

St. John’s Wort; written by John Martone, published by Samuddo / Ocean

The Neighbours Are Talking: Haibun; written by Mike Montreuil, published by Bondi Studios/Baby Buddha Press

An Unmown Sky/ Nepokoseno Nebo; edited by Boris Nazansky, et al., published by Haiku Association Three Rivers

Things Being What They Are, written by John S. O’Connor, published by Deep North Press

The Future of Haiku: An Interview with Kaneko Tohta; trans. from the Japanese by the Kon Nichi Translation Group, published by Red Moon Press

Past All Traps; written by Don Wentworth, published by Six Gallery Press

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