a&j watch ASAHI SHIMBUN

ASAHI  http://ajw.asahi.com/tag/ASAHI%20HAIKUIST%20NETWORK

sia and Japan Watch / ASAHI SHIMBUN  FB :   https://www.facebook.com/AJW.Asahi


ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK:   http://ajw.asahi.com/article/cool_japan/culture/AJ201312060057

SKYLARK'S NEST

Submissions to the summer 2014 issue of Skylark are now open (until February 1st). Submissions of tanka in all its forms are invited, as are tanka art/haiga for the online gallery. 

Please refer to the submission guidelines.
http://skylarktanka.weebly.com/skylark-gallery.html

DIOGEN WINTER CONTEST 2013

HAIKU and SENRYU - THEME: cold winter winds (unpublished)

TANKA – Theme: S N O W (unpublished)

HAIGA - your WINTER haigas are very welcome, but if we do not receive a considerable number of entries, they will be selected and published only. They may be published, pls give credit.

Please send no more than 3 of each of your works.

Deadline: January 31, 2014 The results: March 1st, 2014

E-mail: haiku@diogenpro.com

call from Ed Bremson for 2013 Best of Mijikai Haiku

My name is Ed Bremson. Mijikai Haiku, which means short or brief haiku, is a project that was begun by me, with help from my friend Haiku Jin (who gave me the name of the group). Some possible ideas include taking a haiku and paring it down to its bare essentials, eliminating unnecessary words; or writing a haiku from scratch by concentrating on images instead of grammar. Another idea is to paint images with only a few words, perhaps make impressionistic haiku, using broad strokes. Of course there are many ways to do this. I’m not going to tell you how to use your imagination. Much of the time I personally try to make an actual haiku. Let me give an example. Here is a poem I wrote:

spring moonlight –
a black cat waits silently
in the yard

In Mijikai Haiku, how might we change this? Perhaps:

moonlight
black cat
yard

or

black cat
moonlight
yard

Of course it would also be possible to say:

moonlight / black cat / in my yard OR EVEN
moonlight / in my yard / black cat

You might ask, why do you say “in my yard”? Isn’t that being verbose? Well, “in my yard” is just one possibility. And a lot of the process depends on the effect the poet is trying to convey. And I did cut it down from ten words to six, from thirteen syllables down to seven, which fits in with the spirit of Mijikai Haiku, imho.

Of course, there are many ways to make Mijikai Haiku. Some have experimented using one word, two words, three words, etc.

The above examples are not the only possibilities. Given the imagination of human beings, who knows what paths of creativity and expression we might go down. BY THE WAY, particularly with Mijikai Haiku, there are no correct ways to say this or that. There are only new ideas. Also, like Mijikai Haiku, this statement is a work in progress.

One last thing: let’s make this a fun and safe place to carry on this experiment. Let’s be nice and pleasant to each other so everyone can have fun.