![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/10\/cover-72-242x300.jpg\")
<\/a> D<\/strong><\/em>on Wentworth of the Lilliput Review<\/em><\/a> and the weblog Issa’s Untidy Hut<\/em><\/a>, has announced today<\/a> (October 16, 2008) that our lawyer-poet friend Roberta Beary<\/a> is the winner of the 1st<\/em> Annual Basho Haiku Challenge<\/a>, with this poem:<\/p>\non the church steps
\na mourning dove
\nwith mother’s eyes<\/p>\n
….. by Roberta Beary (1st Place, Basho Haiku Challenge 2008<\/a>) Don was so impressed with the quality of poems submitted for the contest that he has decided to make it an annual event, and will be “publishing a chapbook of the best 24 poems received sometime after the 1st of the year.\u00a0 19 poets will be featured.”\u00a0 Congratulations to our much-honored<\/a> friend and Honored Guest Roberta Beary, and to Don, who honors f\/k\/a<\/em> with his frequent visits and friendly comments.<\/p>\n Roberta has often touched us with poems involving “mother.”\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n mother\u2019s day mother\u2019s visit from here \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026 by Roberta Beary We checked out that column<\/a> and found George bemoaning, “A long laudatory review that includes not even minor quibbles.” George suggests: “To foster more balanced, objective appraisals, we need critics who are devoted first to high standards of criticism and scholarship and only second, if at all, to careers as poets.”<\/p>\n Editor’s Note<\/em>: The f\/k\/a<\/em> Gang agrees with Roberta Beary that we need to think of constructive criticism as an important and encouraged<\/em> part of our haiku community’s life and spirit.\u00a0 It’s possible that Haiku Wars over definitional issues got so ugly in the 1990’s that haijin have sworn off confrontation and criticism.\u00a0 But the result is whiny private email to our friends instead of public “criticism” in the sense of evaluation and analysis of a work of literature.\u00a0 When someone [e.g<\/em>., me] does go public with a serious critique, he or she can feel very lonely and out on a limb, with any support coming only in private messages and not in a public comment.<\/p>\n The self-censorship is such that even the courageous Ms. Beary has not named names.\u00a0 Thus, in pieces here at f\/k\/a<\/em>, yours truly has so far not talked about individual<\/em> poems, poets or editors in my extensive criticism of the spread of “pysku<\/a>.”\u00a0 Once, when I publicly criticized an editor here at f\/k\/a<\/em> for not living up to a journal’s published standards, I lost a friend.\u00a0\u00a0 On another occasion, at a group website, when I gingerly questioned whether a particular poem constituted either haiku or senryu, I was immediately told to lighten up.<\/p>\n If we are adults and consider haiku to be a “real” literary genre, we must accept, honor, encourage criticism.\u00a0 Because print publications come out infrequently and have such limited space for criticism, I want to recommend that every publication have a website section — or a weblog (they’re free and easy to use) — with a Critics Corner that is moderated only to assure civility.<\/p>\n Please feel free to respond here to any of the points made by Roberta or myself.\u00a0 For now, I’ll leave on a lighter Beary note:<\/p>\n first date \u2014 family picnic ceremony over \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026 by Roberta Beary<\/a> Don Wentworth of the Lilliput Review and the weblog Issa’s Untidy Hut, has announced today (October 16, 2008) that our lawyer-poet friend Roberta Beary is the winner of the 1st Annual Basho Haiku Challenge, with this poem: on the church steps a mourning dove with mother’s eyes ….. by Roberta Beary (1st Place, Basho Haiku […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1852,555,900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haijin-haikai-news","category-haiku-or-senryu","category-viewpoint"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-2DU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12148,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10162\/revisions\/12148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/10\/robertabearytunphotogs_2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\na nurse unties
\nthe restraints<\/p>\n
\nside by side we outline
\nour lips<\/p>\n
\nto there
\nmother\u2019s silence<\/p>\n
\n“mother’s day” – The Heron\u2019s Nest<\/em> VII:2; Big Sky: RMA 2006<\/em>;\u00a0 The Unworn Necklace<\/em> (2007)
\n“mother’s visit” –\u00a0 from an untitled haibun, Modern Haiku Vol. 37:1 (Spring 2006); “from here” –\u00a0 The Unworn Necklace<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Snapshot Press<\/a>, 2007)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/10\/robertabearytunphotogs.jpg\")
.. M<\/em>s. Beary is also on the minds of many of us in the haijin community this week, because the Revelations: Unedited<\/em> section of the latest issue of Frogpond<\/em><\/a> (Vol. 31: 3, Fall 2008; see our prior post<\/a>) has her four-page op\/ed piece “Five Musings on Matters Haiku<\/em>.”\u00a0 We can’t type up the entire Revelation for you, but will briefly touch upon each musing:<\/p>\n\n
\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/10\/frogpond2008coverpage-194x300.jpg\")
Civility in Haiku USA<\/em>:\u00a0 Roberta notes that constructive criticism was enouraged among haijin in America in the 1990’s.\u00a0 She believes “things have gotten much less civil lately,” with her email box “full of complaints about the mediocrity of haiku published in today’s journal.”\u00a0 Roberta recommends, instead, the more “thoughtful approach” of using “a closely reasoned critique in a letter to the editor for publication.”\u00a0 She also reminds editors that “each haiku submitted to editors should stand on its own, regardless of the name that appears below.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2007\/01\/sunglassesG.gif\")
Serial Presenters<\/em>: Roberta muses over the soporific benefits of having the same people give virtually the same presentation at more than one conference.<\/li>\n
\nthe little pile
\nof anchovies<\/p>\n
\nthe new wife\u2019s rump
\nbigger than mine<\/p>\n
\nthe bride unveils
\nher tattoo<\/p>\n
\n“first date” – 1st Place, HSA Gerald Brady Senryu Award 2006; The Unworn Necklace<\/em><\/a><\/em>
\n\u201cfamily picnic\u201d – Modern Haiku<\/em> (favorite senryu award, 2003) The Unworn Necklace<\/em><\/a><\/em>
\n“ceremony over” – Simply Haiku<\/em> (senryu, Winter 2005)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"