floating down the dark river
in my tiny boat—
who is that, singing? C M Wilson
leaping salmon
sunlight falls to the rocks Martin
autumn wind
a swimming pool’s worth
of bare trees
New Year’s wind
blowing blowing
blown Michael Henry Lee
winter fog—
stretching a lane
the bald trees Neelam Dadhwal
.
Making a mockery
of my futon-drying day …
fairy hailshowers
come and go
(Saga, Kyoto, 22.1.14)
. Haibun is one of the most rewarding of the haiku arts, both for writer and reader. The deadline for entries to this year’s Genjuan Haibun Contest is coming up fast – January 31st. The Office is apparently lenient with entries received a few days after that date, but only a few days! Please note that the Contest Office is now in Kansai, not Tokyo. This is still Japan’s only haibun contest.
. Nobuyuki Yuasa has announced that he wishes to retire from judging next year, but that he is very much looking forward to reading this year’s entries! Awarded pieces will appear in a book we intend to publish later this year. This is an international contest, and we welcome your participation, whatever country you may live in. Entry is free.
. The Contest Guidelines are to be viewed through the page link at top right of our top page. (Click the photo of hailstones to return to the top page.) Examples of previous years’ decorated pieces are accessed via further page links there.
Happy New Year to all our readers!
An interesting two-part article by Joan Zimmerman has appeared at Contemporary Haibun Online. The first one is published at http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/pages93/aaZimmerman_Article.html
and entitled “What Haibun Poets Can Learn From Non-haikai Western Poetry Practices”.
The second is at http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/pages94/Article_Zimmerman.html and is entitled “”What English-Language Haibun Poets Can Learn From Japanese Practices”.
