Haiku Anthologies A-Plenty

speckled egg
the sunlight
on my thoughts

The Heron's Nest (XVI:1, March 2014)

So grateful to have had this haiku chosen to appear in The Heron's Nest. I'm looking forward to buying a copy of The Heron's Nest Anthology Vol 15, which comprises all the haiku from the 2013 editions of the journal, including three of mine. (See PayPal button at bottom of this page for purchasing.)

Congratulations to New Zealander Sandra Simpson for winning Favourite Haiku of 2013 and also being voted Poet of the Year in The Heron's Nest Awards. Go Kiwi 'Ku!

I also have a haiku in  fear of dancing: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2013 and have just been informed my haibun 'Damaged Goods' will appear in Contemporary Haibun Vol 15. So that's two more anthologies to buy. Yikes!

How about buying a "Keep Calm and Haiku On" journal from my online shop Haiku On to write your haiku in, and support a poet with big dreams? :-)

http://www.cafepress.com/haikuon

Special thanks to hubby for creating this design.

The Chosen One

I am delighted (especially after a terrible migraine yesterday) to find out that one of my haiku has been chosen for the 2013 Red Moon Anthology, which collects the best English-language haiku published each year and puts them together in book form.

true north
the eucalyptus sheds
a length of bark 

The Heron's Nest Volume XV, Number 4: December 2013

I haven't had any haiku chosen for this annual anthology since 2010, when the below appeared within its pages:

coming home

to an empty house

so many stars

First published in Kokako 12 (April 2010) 

But between 2010 and 2013 I was lucky enough to have work represented in other anthologies that also strive to gather the best haikai published in that calendar year.

2012 saw my haibun 'hair ties' appear in Contemporary Haibun 14, and in 2011 three of my tanka were honoured to be amongst those in the forth and final volume of the Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka series. 

So I'm travelling well, and in good company. Let's see what 2014 brings . . .

 

Stop

Thirty-five and still I travel as I did when I was a child. Head pressed against the cool of the window trying to ward off the carsickness rising within. Asking Dad to stop the car when things threatened to boil over. Mum having to give up her right to the front seat for my spot in the back. Watching the world swerve by in a mess of green as my forehead bumps lightly on the glass. Twirling my hair between finger and thumb, something my husband says I still do when tired. And what I used to do while sucking my thumb for comfort not so many years ago. 

rain-filled
this forgotten shoe
at the path's end 

Contemporary Haiku Online October 2013, vol 9, no 3

Damaged goods

When you have a car accident (although emergency services don't believe in accidents, so they call them car crashes) if the damage to your vehicle is greater than its perceived worth, then it is written off. As I drain my savings account, and that of my parents, seeking to fix what is broken within me, I wonder: is my damage greater than my perceived worth? Maybe nothing is ever an accident . . . 

low moon
the drive home
in silence 

Contemporary Haiku Online October 2013, vol 9, no 3

Nightlight

Somehow I knew about them before I arrived in Japan. But I was beginning to realise it was the small ones that I should be wary of. The big ugly black ones, that you could clearly see inching along the roadside, were much too heavy to scurry up surfaces. The charming little red ones however, would suddenly appear on the wall behind the customer you were with. I would jerk and point, though only my fellow foreigners seemed to cringe at the shocking sight.

godless month . . .
I dream of riding a horse
into my childhood home,
all the family waiting
and expectant

We foreign girls started sleeping with the light on. It seemed the only solution. I was not going to lie in that top bunk with red cockroaches running around my head. Japan was not going to beat me. I needed the money, and anyway, I wanted to hide from real life for a while.

between snowfalls . . .
I wasn't meant to
find a love like this,
my slight resistance
not lost beneath languages

A Hundred Gourds 2:3, June 2013

The Winner of the "A New Resonance 8" Book Draw is . . .

Carole Harrison

Congratulations, Carole! A copy of A New Resonance 8 will be on its way to you soon, along with one of my handcrafted cards.

Here's one of Carole's haibun created during the month:

Day 17

"Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go." ~Hermann Hesse

murrumbidgee -
a submerged log letting go
of the morning

~CaroleH 
Note: Murrumbidgee, a large river in SE Australia

Thanks to everyone who took part in I Quote, You 'Ku this July. Your support of my month-long project is much appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed taking part. It was a great way to celebrate my birthday. :-)

If you'd like to buy your own copy of A New Resonace 8: Emerging Voice in English-Language Haiku (Eds. Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts, Red Moon Press 2013) then please drop me a line. Read the first New Zealand review here.

FYI: All the 52 names of poets who posted went into the online tool 'Pick a Winner!' from which one was randomly selected.

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 31

The taste

    of rain

– Why kneel?

~Jack Kerouac 

Something a little different today, on my birthday. Above is my favourite haiku, which I wrote about here. You can either write a haiku response to today's "quote" or, seeing as it is a haiku, you can choose to write the prose portion of the haibun. It's up to you. Have fun! I look forward to reading your responses.

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 30

"To begin writing haiku, and to make progress to any significant extent, requires two gifts: the ability to be alert to the subtleties of sensory or psychological experience (i.e. to notice things); and a sensitivity to the subtleties of language (i.e. to be able to express things). However it isn't necessary to know that you possess these gifts before beginning to write: the gifts are very often revealed – and developed – in the writing. The haiku path is an unfolding process of discovery , and the only magic words of access are the words of each haiku that you read and write. If there is some special or exceptional condition called 'haiku mind' then I, for one, don't have it. As far as I'm concerned, there are as many haiku minds as there are readers and writers of haiku."

~Martin Lucas, Stepping Stones: a way into haiku

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 29

“The only reason for wanting to be a writer is because you love doing it. All the rest is confetti.”

~Susan Hill

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

 

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 28

“The richer our sensory environment and the greater our freedom to explore it, the more intricate will be the patterns for learning, thought and creativity.”

~Carla Hannaford 

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

 

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 27

“The idea that memory is linear is nonsense. What we have in our heads is a collection of frames. As to time itself – can it be linear when all these snatches of other presents exist at once in your mind? A very elusive and tricky concept, time.”

~Penelope Lively

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

 

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 26

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about."

~Rumi

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

 

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 25

"Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart." 

~Ancient Indian Proverb

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

 

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 24

"If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced."

~Vincent Van Gogh

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

 

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 23

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

~Maya Angelou

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 22

"Jung observed that dreams perform restorative, corrective, compensatory, prophetic, and developmental roles in our psyche; that to attend to our dreams is to attend to the cry of the soul."

~ Jill Mellick in The Art of Dreaming 

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

 

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 21

"True morality consists not in following the well-beaten track, but in finding out the true path for ourselves and in fearlessly following it."

~Mahatma Gandhi

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

 

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 20

"Once I knew only darkness and stillness... my life was without past or future... but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living."

~Helen Keller

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

 

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 19

"You sometimes think you want to disappear but all you really want is to be found."

~Kid Cudi

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.

 

I Quote, You 'Ku - Day 18

"Let you life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf."

~Rabindranath Tagore

Your challenge is to write a haiku or tanka (or choose one of your previously published works) that has a connection with the themes/feelings/images of the above quote, without just restating what has appeared in the text, to create a haibun. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Click here for the first post on how I Quote, You 'Ku works. Every poet who posts a poem this month will be entered into the draw to win a copy of A New Resonance 8.