f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

We previewed the 12th and newest edition of the annual Red Moon Anthology, dust of summers, three days ago. Since then, my copy of RMA 2007 arrived, allowing me to tell you a lot more about dust of summers and — more important — share many of the “best of 2007” poems written by members of the f/k/a family of Honored Guest Poets, whose work made it through the rigorous RMA selection process.

reversible jacket
the side
I always show

Colonel Mustard
in the library . . .
winter night

my hands at rest
in dishwater . . .
first hummingbird

………………………. by john stevenson in “dust of summers: RMA 2007”
“reversible jacket” – orig. pub. Upstate Dim Sum 2007/1
“Colonel Mustard” – orig. pub. Modern Haiku 38:2
“my hands at rest” – orig. pub. The Heron’s Nest IX:3

“dust of summers: The 2007 Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku,” edited by Jim Kacian and the Red Moon Editorial Staff, Red Moon Press, Winchester, VA, USA, 172 pages, ISBN: 1-978-893959-68-2, $16.95; see cover)

Congratulations to the 152 haijin [meaning writers of haiku-related literature, not obsessive video gamers] whose works have been included in “dust of summers: RMA 2007.” Although we’ve often noted that no “best of” list can please everyone or avoid under- and over-inclusiveness, no publication does a better job than RMA in “assembl[ing] the finest haiku and related forms published around the world in English in a single book.” This year’s volume contains 154 haiku and senryu, 29 linked poems (haibun, renku and rengay), and 5 essays “on the reading, writing and study of the genre.”

gathering dusk
my son bowls me out
for the first time

a colleague’s sigh
arrives before he does
monday morning

february dawn
a tub of washing
all run blue

………… by matt morden in “dust of summers: RMA 2007”
– all from Stumbles in Clover (Snapshot Press 2007)

Of the 127 poets whose haiku or senryu appear in RMA 2007, a mere seventeen achieved the coveted RMA hat-trick in 2007 — having three of their poems selected for inclusion in the anthology. In addition to hat-trickers Collin Barber, John Barlow, Ernest J. Berry, Ferris Gilli, Marcus Larsson, Daniel Liebert, Chad Lee Robinson, and Harriot West, nine members of our f/k/a family were so honored:

Roberta Beary, Yu Chang, Carolyn Hall, Jim Kacian, Peggy Willis Lyles, paul m., Matt Morden, Tom Painting, John Stevenson

In addition, out of that distinguished group, Carolyn Hall also had a rengay chosen for dust in summers (authored with our Billie Wilson); Roberta Beary had two of her haibun selected (short prose pieces with a linked haiku, one of which we posted on Jan. 30th); and Red Moon editor Jim Kacian also had a haibun and an essay chosen by the Editorial Staff for RMA 2007.

All told, 22 of the 27 living poets whose haiku and senryu appear at this weblog, are represented in “dust of summers.” In addition to those listed above, you’ll find the following f/k/a haijin in RMA 2007: Tom Clausen, DeVar Dahl, Alice Frampton, Barry George, David Giacalone, Lee Gurga, David Lanoue, paul m., ed markowski, w.f. owen, Andrew Riutta, George Swede, Hilary Tann, and Billie Wilson.

Because our Honored Guests generously allow f/k/a to re-publish their poems, I’ll be sharing items from RMA 2007 with you over the next week (which, like those in our preview, will be permanently available in our archives). Here, for your pleasure, edification, and evaluation are a dozen or so:

blind date
I ask the waitress
for a candle

autumn colors
we paddle closer
to the mountain
………………………. by yu chang in “dust of summers: RMA 2007”
“blind date” – orig. pub. Modern Haiku 38:3
“autumn colors” – orig. pub. Frogpond XXX: 1

old friends talk
each holding
car keys

………….. by tom clausen in “dust of summers: RMA 2007”
orig. pub. Frogpond XXX:1

autumn light —
the smell of tomato vines
on my fingers

…………………….. by devar dahl in “dust of summers: RMA 2007”
orig. pub. 5th Shiki Poets’ Choice Awards

cloudy water
in the bud vase —
children grown and gone

………………………… by alice frampton in “dust of summers: RMA 2007”
orig. pub. Frogpond XXX:1

winter sunrise__
the night waitress slowly
buttons her coat

…………………………. by barry george in “dust of summers: RMA 2007”
– orig. pub Greieri si crizanteme

followed home
by a dog I don’t know
autumn dusk

splitting wood–
for a moment the log
holds the axe

…………………… by jim kacian in “dust of summers: RMA 2007”
“followed home” – orig. pub. Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Contest 2007
“splitting wood” – orig. pub. mayfly 42

Nearer the Mirage 

sun through dusty windows–
so many trinkets
with lost meaning

childhood. . .
my brother’s version

autumn rain
she leaves the weeds
on her father’s grave

the lines
all nodding in unison
last night’s dream

desert heat–
we move nearer the mirage

mayflies–
from the debts of the stream
a trail of bubbles

……………… a rengay by billie wilson and carolyn hall in “dust of summers: RMA 2007”
– orig. pub. Frogpond XXXI: 1 [note: the title above is the correct, original title]

… So far, I’ve only been able to focus on the poems written by f/k/a‘s Honored Guests, so I cannot give an overview on the “too many senryu” and “too many tell-ems” complaints that arose with RMA 2006. I can say that there were fewer tell-ems than I had feared among those written by our Honored Guests, but enough to give me a little case of agita.

The winners of this year’s Mainichi Daily News haiku contest have just been announced — see the 11th Mainichi Haiku Contest (2007) results and commentary. Congratulations to Philippe Bréham (France), who took the First Prize. I’m pleased to see that two of the earliest members of our f/k/a family had honored poems:

chambers pulsing
in the washed-up jellyfish—
waning moon

— Michael Welch (U. S. A.)
2nd Prize, 11th Mainichi Haiku Contest (2007)

. . . …………………………………… . . . .

snow flurries
a childhood friend
reappears

— Peggy Lyles (U. S. A.)
Honorable Mention, 11th Mainichi Haiku Contest (2007)

Déjà-ku scholar Michael Dylan Welch was the second poet to agree to share his haiku at this weblog. Here are a few of his poems that fit my mood and themes this week:

first date
letting her
put snow down my neck

a table for one–
leaves rustle
in the inner courtyard

[photo/poem]

an old woolen sweater
taken yarn by yarn
from the snowbank

………………………. by Michael Welch
“first date” – South by Southwest 10:3; “edge of light: RMA 2003″
“a table for one” & “woolen sweater” – “Open Window” (photos and poems)

Three years ago today, we posted our “inaugural” piece on Peggy Willis Lyles. As often, Peggy touches me with the honesty and empathy of her haiku:

bitter wind . . .
the hand that cups the flame
aglow

snowed in
the wedding-ring quilt
lumpy with children

winter night
he patiently untangles
her antique silver chain

wind and rain
the hand I reach for
in the dark

…………………. Peggy Lyles, from To Hear the Rain (Brooks Books, 2002)

In a day or two, we’ll be featuring some of the poems by “our” Carolyn Hall that can be found all this month on Cornell’s Mann Library Daily Haiku page. Please don’t wait for our posting to get over there and enjoy and appreciate a month’s worth of fine haiku by the much-honored Ms. Hall, chosen by Tom Clausen. For example:

a butterfly
so long at my window
summer dusk

fieplace glow
first signs of fraying
in the cane-back rocking chair

………………………………………. by Carolyn Hall

Almost lost in the pile of Christmas packages that arrived at my door last week was a thick envelope that helps prove the old saw “better late then never.” It contained a copy of “flower of another country: the Haiku Society of America 2007 Members’ Anthology” (edited by Wanda D. Cook and Linda Porter, 2007). The stubby volume (4.25 by 5 inches), with a purple cover and a lime green bookmark ribbon, presents 186 poems, one per page, written by 186 members of HSA. (As the editors prominently remind readers, each member is assured that one of his or her submitted poems will appear in the anthology.) I want to thank Linda and Wanda for undertaking a time-consuming and often unheralded and under-appreciated job.

Although I am far too lazy and self-absorbed (and tired of reading haiku in massive numbers) to ever volunteer for the task of editing the Members’ Anthology, I am also far too opinionated to refrain from making a couple suggestions to future editors and contributors, based on my personal preferences: 1) these annual anthologies deserve to be preserved on our personal library shelves, and can more easily be honored and housed if they are published in a more conventional shape and size (such as last year’s award-winning version, fish in love, which was 8 inches tall and 84 pages); 2) to make the HSA Members’ Anthology more valuable and memorable, the chosen poems should, to the extent possible, be previously unpublished; therefore, members should submit and editors should choose poems that aren’t already widely known and available in the most-read haiku journals; and, naturally, 3) for the sake of quality and pedagogy, “show-ems” should always be vastly preferred over “tell-ems.”

The 2006 anthology has been sold out for quite awhile. You can still order the 2007 edition: The price per copy is $11.50 in the United States, $12.00 for Canada / Mexico and $15.00 elsewhere. To receive a copy, send your check to Paul Miller, HSA Treasurer, 31 Seal Island Road, Bristol, RI 02809-5186.

As expected, most of our f/k/a Honored Guests participated in this year’s HSA Members’ Anthology. Here, in alphabetical order, are the 19 poems submitted by the f/k/a family and selected by the editors of flower of another country:

morning mist
a bent back sweeps
yesterday’s blossoms

…………. roberta beary – Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival 2006 (Highly Commended)

a dandelion or two
none of her new friends
best friends yet

……………… randy brooks

banana leaf
our small talk
in the rain

…………. yu chang – The Heron’s Nest 9:1 (2007)

in the garden
right by St. Francis
the woodchuck hole

…………….. tom clausen – Upstate Dim Sum 2006:2

eyeing
that mosquito —
frog and I

…………….. david giacalone (see original haiga here)

a butterfly
so long at my window
summer dusk

………. carolyn hall – The Heron’s Nest 9:1 (2007)

no old habits–
the newborn’s
cry

……………….. gary hotham – The Heron’s Nest 8:1 (2006)

the end before the end September rain

……. jim kacian – Kusamakura Haiku Contest 2006 (2nd place)

beer bottles on the table
a chess
problem

…………….. david g. lanoue

Sunday afternoon–
butterflies sweep the slow end
of the soccer field

………… peggy willis lyles – Mayfly #41, 2006

snow patches
the bones of bears
in this dirt

……… paul m.

dinner with an old lover
the tang of unripe olives

……… pamela miller ness – Acorn #17, 2006

Indian summer
his name comes to me
then is gone again

…………. w. f. owen

first crocus
I make a promise
I can’t keep

…………… tom painting – Shiki Monthly Kukai, April, 2007

winter night
i lie in bed
and imagine it

………….. john stevenson – Upstate Dim Sum 2007:1

from this ridge
not another in sight–
wind and wheat

…………… george swede

mountain stillness
the loon call
held by the lake

……………. hilary tann – The Heron’s Nest 8:4 (2006)

into the lake,
our skipping stones’
intermingling rings

……………………… michael dylan welch

from deep in the forest
a haunting birdsong
sung just once

…………………… billie wilson – The Heron’s Nest 8:4 (2006)

p.s. If you’re still in the holiday mood, you can find year-end and New Year poems by our Honored Guests by clicking here, or take a look at the f/k/a Christmas Season Haiku page, as well as our Holiday Haiku from Schenectady.

[Image: cover of May Sky:]

October sky —
the ginko crowd
complains about the rain

……………… by david giacalone (In mem. Violet Kazue de Cristoforo, d.o.d Oct. 5, 2007)

Violet de Cristoforo is best known for writing and collecting “kaiko” [modern, free-verse] haiku about life in the Japanese-American internment camps of World War II. Her life’s work culminated in the publication of the 287-page volume May Sky: There Is Always Tomorrow; An Anthology of Japanese American Concentration Camp Kaiko Haiku (Sun & Moon Classics, 1997). In 1987, she published a 35-page book of her own haiku, “Poetic reflections of the Tule Lake Internment Camp, 1944,”

Shortly before she died this month, at 90 years of age, Ms. de Cristoforo was honored as a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts, Heritage Fellow.

An L.A. Times article earlier this month, celebrating her life, contained three internment camp poems by Violet de Cristoforo:

Myriad insects
in the evening
my children are growing

Misty moon
as it was
on my wedding night

Foolishly — simply existing
summer days
Castle Rock is there

Violet de Cristoforo was featured this morning in a Remembrance on Weekend Edition Saturday, at National Public Radio (October 13, 2007). You can read much more about her in the L. A. Times book-section obituary, “Violet de Cristoforo, 90; California haiku poet survived WWII internment camps” and the IHT/Associated Press story, “Violet de Cristoforo, known for haikus on Japanese-American internment camps in US, dies” (October 5, 2007). Last year, the California Writer weblog had a lengthy post on her work.

When I first introduced John Stevenson to the then mostly-lawyer readership of f/k/a in March 2005, I began “Trust me, nobody has better haiku credentials than John Stevenson.” Well, John’s about to gild his haijin resume with yet another indication of the esteem he has garnered in the haikai community: Christopher Herold, founding editor of The Heron’s Nest, announced today that he is about to give up his role as Managing Editor of that much-admired haiku journal, and is passing the mantle to John Stevenson. [Kudos and many thanks to Christopher for creating and maintaining one of the most valued treasures of English language haiku.] Here’s some of what Christopher had to say about John and his prior relationship as a poet with The Heron’s Nest:

“I am delighted to tell you that, beginning with the first issue of Volume X 2008, John Stevenson will be the Managing Editor of The Heron’s Nest. As most of you know, John is currently the Editor of the Haiku Society of America’s journal, Frogpond (Associate Editor, 2002-2004; Editor, 2005-2007). . . .

“Beyond his considerable contributions to the Haiku Society of America, John Stevenson has been one of the most consistently applauded poets in The Heron’s Nest as well as its most prolifically published poet. Two of John’s poems appeared in the inaugural issue of The Heron’s Nest (September 1999) and since then he has only been absent from its pages on four occasions. To date, 88 of his poems have been published in The Nest. Of those, three have won Heron’s Nest Awards [as best in the issue], five have been runners-up to the award, and three more received numerous votes in the end-of-the-year Readers’ Choice Awards and were subsequently chosen for Special Mention. A magnificent accomplishment and all the more reason to welcome John Stevenson as the most natural successor to my position of Managing Editor (the unanimous wish, by the way, of the entire Heron’s Nest team).”

Back in February, we noted with pride that John was chosen as the Most Popular Poet in THN’s Readers’ Choice Awards for 2006. The f/k/a Gang agrees that John was indeed “the most natural” choice to head The Heron’s Nest and continue its role as a foremost haiku publication, “where tradition and innovation meet … and complement each other.”

Here are the first two haiku published by John Stevenson in The Heron’s Nest — Vol. 1, #1 (1999):

my son noticing . . .
the attention i pay
to butterflies

falling leaves—
several trees
in the woodpile

If there is one downside for The Heron’s Nest and its fans, it is that John, as Managing Editor, may not be presenting his own poems at THN. Other haiku publications will surely be looking forward to receiving more of his poetry. You can see some of John’s best and freshest work in Upstate Dim Sum, the biannual anthology of the Route 9 Haiku Group.

update (Feb. 4, 2008) : See “latest edition of Frogpond is Stevenson’s last.”

Some of the Silence (Red Moon Press, 1999) was John Stevenson’s first full collection of haiku. I continue to recommend it highly. You can find much more of John’s work right here at f/k/a, through links on his archive page. We have featured his poems in over 80 posts in the past 30 months.

Also try John’s fine 2004 collection, Quiet Enough (Red Moon Press)

p.s. I hope John won’t mind too much this spotlight on his newest accomplishment — not to mention the dorky graphic that I stuck at the intro to this posting. I’m sure he’ll take it out on me the next time we get to play bocce in Schenectady’s Central Park. With the help of his stellar crew of Associate Editors at The Heron’s Nest, he’ll surely have time this winter for another round of snow bocce.

snow bocce —
left the pooper scooper
at home

………………. by dagosan

No Controvery & No More Waiting: There may be agita and anticipation in Schenectady today over Sex Offender legislation, but there is nothing but joy in the Haiku Community, because the newest edition of Simply Haiku, (Autumn 2007, vol. 5 #3), went online overnight. As usual, in this combination haiku journal and magazine, you will find excellent examples of Japanese short-form poetry (such has haiku, senryu, haibun, renku, and both modern and traditional haiga), along with essays and commentary.

This month, they even presented five poems by dagosan‘s alter ego, including this pair:

first the scent –
lilac bushes
’round the corner

blustery day
one tulip
keeps his head

…………………………………….. by David Giacalone, Simply Haiku, Autumn 2007, vol 5 no 3

You will also find, for example, haibun (prose with a linked poem) by our never-disappointing Roberta Beary, plus the experimental “alphabet jazz‘ by Ed Markowski; haiga (an image with a linked poem) by f/k/a‘s honorary daughter Aurora Antonovic; and five tanka by Tom Clausen, including this pair:

overly familiar
to me now,
this way of seeing people
as being like someone
I’ve known before

I sit on a stool
nursing the furnace
looking into where
our warmth has come
and gone…

…………………………………… by Tom Clausen – Simply Haiku (Autumn 2007)

Oi Ocha is “The most popular green tea beverage in Japan,” and its parent company Ito En, Ltd. has been sponsoring the “ITO EN Oi Ocha New Haiku Contest” every year since 1989. Ito En says:

• This contest has contributed to the rejuvenation of haiku, a Japanese traditional short poem only seventeen characters in length. Endorsed by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture and Science,
• this contest features haiku promoting free expression . . . What makes this contest unique is the acceptance of both “New Style” haiku and traditional haiku. To encourage as much participation as possible, any themes can be chosen, and “New Style” haiku do not have to include kigo (words symbolizing one or more of the four seasons). Moreover, “New Style” haiku, whether in Japanese or English, do not need to follow the 5-7-5-syllable format—the most common taught outside of Japan.
• Last year, the seventeenth contest drew over 1,650,000 entries and different haiku (the most entries ever).
• The award-winning haiku are not only compiled and printed in an annual ITO EN publication entitled Jiyu Gatari (Free Expression) but also printed and appear on Oi Ocha brand products.

At least four of f/k/a‘s Honored Guest Poets had winning haiku in Ito En 17th Contest last year — Andrew Riutta, Roberta Beary, Ed Markowski and Jim Kacian. The winners in this year’s 2007 ITO EN Oi Ocha New Haiku Contest — #18 — have been announced. Congratulations to Roberta, Ed and Jim, who have repeated their success. [If other f/k/a family members have also won, I hope they will let haikuEsq know.] You can find their winning poems, with Japanese translations here. Because few of our readers outside of Japan will get to see the winning haiku in the 2007 Free Expression anthology or on Oi Ocha tea products, we’re presenting the poems by our Honored Guests for your entertainment and edification — and to urge you to submit poems for the 19th Contest. [Need more incentive? Ed and Jim each won Y30,000 in prize money last year for their Judge’s Award poems; Roberta’s Sponsor’s Award comes this year with Y20,000 in prize money.]

rolling thunder
the deeper darkness
of distance

…………………………………. by Jim Kacian

just enough moon
for this firefly to land
on my finger

…………………………………………………. by roberta beary

hunting stories
the old cat yawns
& walks away

……………………………… by Ed Markowski

Here are Jim and Ed’s Judge’s Award winners from last year’s 17th Ito En Oi Ocha New Haiku Contest:

Lightning—
the fly resettles
in the same spot

…………………………….. by jim kacian

factory entrance
moths spin round & round
a bare light bulb

………………………………….. by ed markowski