A small selection of sky haiku by Alan Summers

haiku by Alan Summers, artwork by Angelee Deodhar

 
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each of us born

with a number of breaths-

swallow flight

Alan Summers

Publication Credits:

Pulse—voices from the heart of medicine (inaugural haiku, October 2013)

bleu roi

a thousand flying foxes

quarter the moon

Alan Summers

Anthology credit:

Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac ed. William Higginson (Kodansha International 1996)
https://www.amazon.com/Haiku-World-International-Poetry-Almanac/dp/4770020902
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Haiku-World-International-Poetry-Almanac/dp/4770020902

Tribute: The Heron’s Nest Volume X, Number 4 (December, 2008 Celebrating Bill Higginson)

down side streets -

gulls turning the sky

in and out

Alan Summers

Publication credits: Presence 10 (1999)

Anthology credits: The New Haiku (Snapshot Press, 2002); The Disjunctive Dragonfly, a New Approach to English-Language Haiku by Richard Gilbert (Red Moon Press 2012) [Elemental Animism p80]; Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years. ed. Jim Kacian, Allan Burns & Philip Rowland (W. W. Norton & Company 2013)


Feature: seagull haiku blog collection ed. laryalee fraser (2006)

Award Credit: Haiku Presence webpage Editor's Choice 5

in the river reflection

he watches himself

watch the sunset

Alan Summers

Publication credit: paper wasp (Australia, Spring/Oct 1997)

Anthology: Haiku Enlightenment ed. Gabriel Rosenstock
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009
ISBN (10): 1-4438-0521-1, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-0521-6
  
Page 54: There is a relaxed feeling of lightness – karumi – in the above haiku, employing everyday syntax and easily recognised imagery. Karumi became Basho’s ideal in the final phase of his development. Comment by Gabriel Rosenstock

bent

into his overcoat

the winter sky

Alan Summers

Publication credits: Still (1998)

Award credits: Runner up, still magazine haiku competition (1998)

malibu sunset -

a disposable camera

lifted to the birds

Alan Summers

Publication credits: In Buddha’s Temple (March 2002)

Award credits: 2nd Place, In Buddha’s Temple (2002)

misted over river

the Humber Bridge

links to Heaven

Alan Summers

Publications credits: haijinx volume IV, issue 1 (2011)

hard-blue sky

the ghost touch of rain

on sloe-eyed horses

Alan Summers

Publications credits: BlitheSpirit (Vol 22 No. 3 2012)

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Residential Week-end Course just outside London: The Holistic Approach to haiku: self-development through poetry with Alan Summers

We have a wonderful group of people that have booked up, with some more enquiries that Claridge House are answering.
Look forward to seeing everyone over tea/coffee and biscuits (plus a wider range of hot refreshments, cordials etc...)
when we all meet up for the first time, and first day of the weekend course. 
 

Residential Week-end Course just outside London:

The Holistic Approach to haiku:
self-development through poetry
with Alan Summers

Friday to Sunday 21st- 23rd February 2014
Claridge House
Dormans Road, Lingfield, Surrey, RH7 6QH
Registered Charity no. 228102.

ENQUIRIES
Tel.  0845 345 7281 or 01342 832 150
Email:  welcome@claridgehousequaker.org.uk

You can phone Claridge House to ask about the course, and they'll have an info sheet I designed for them, so they can answer your questions about haiku poetry: 

0845 345 7281
or
01342 832 150

A friendly inclusive course that finds out just what makes a haiku poem really tick.  We'll look at how our experiences, both external and spiritual, can become haiku, and act as important records of our life.

There will be time for plenty of one-to-one feedback, and group discussions with lots of time for questions.

Plus there will be a debut of a number of new approaches to haiku to help both newcomers and those still learning.    A lot has happened with haiku in the last handful of years, and I'll show how we keep the traditional form but in Japanese style update it at the same time.

We'll also check out the popular new Yotsumonos derived from Chinese puzzle-poems for fun, and finish the course with the ever popular linked verse poem called renga.

Here’s the schedule of participation time from last time including:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/haiku-holistic-approach-week-end.html

meal breaks, rest breaks, tea, coffee and scrumptious cake and biscuit breaks, oh you lucky people, the food and refreshments are out of this world and available for those who are non-gluten, non-wheat, non-dairy, and vegetarian and vegan diets.

I love all the diets provided, and diet means lots of food if you want, but beware second and third helpings are addictive.

For more information:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/haiku-holistic-approach-week-end.html



ALAN's BIO
Alan Summers is a Japan Times award-winning writer and was awarded a Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto Peace Museum Award for haiku.

More bio details: http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/london-haiku-poetry-event-plus-south.html

We also run:

Online Haiku Courses, tanka, and other genres:

We also run our regular and popular online With Words courses in haiku and tanka. 

For further details contact Karen at: karen@withwords.org.uk



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Online haiku poetry workshops starting in February 2014

A very successful February haiku session!

For details about online haiku sessions through the rest of 2014 please don't hesitate to contact Karen:

Karen's email:  karen@withwords.org.uk
 


We have now started receiving bookings for the February online haiku class.

If you are interested in details and quotes from our wonderful students and participants please do contact Karen.

Karen's email:  karen@withwords.org.uk

warm regards,

Alan

Great offer on the With Words online tanka poetry course - Machi Tawara sold three million copies of her first tanka collection just in Japan alone, become inspired!

We now have a brand new name and website!

www.callofthepage.org

For tanka:

https://www.callofthepage.org/learning/tanka-courses/

For more information about courses in 2018 don't hesitate to email Karen at the new email address of:

admin@callofthepage.org

If you are interested in a tanka class, that is a tailored individual course, to set you up before Christmas, just drop Karen a line for an information pack.

Machi Tawara sold several million copies of her first tanka poetry collection in Japan, and the USA; France; and many other countries too!
France: http://www.amazon.fr/Lanniversaire-salade-Machi-Tawara/dp/2809702187/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1383263035&sr=8-2&keywords=machi+tawara

Akiko Yosano was the first major modern tanka poet inspiring thousands of people including Machi Tawara, and now that could by you!

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November 2013 Online Haiku and Tanka poetry courses

We have now become Call of the Page. If you would like to enquire about our online courses you can email Karen at: admin@callofthepage.org

We would be delighted to hear from you, and let you know about our exciting courses planned through 2017 and beyond. 

www.callofthepage.org

With Words tanka online courses

With Words haiku online courses

We're busy on our 2014 With Words course schedule, but we will be running both tanka and haiku classes, tutored by Alan Summers, starting November 1st.  We're late promoting this, so early bird rates - US$70 and £45 - will apply if paying by Monday November 21st.  

Please email karen@withwords.org.uk for details of either course and comments from previous students.

Thank you!

London Haiku Poetry event plus South East England Residential course: The Holistic Approach to haiku: self-development through poetry with Alan Summers

As well as our regular yearly residential haiku course in S.E. England, just outside London, we are looking forward to planning a London Haiku event in the new year too, but more about that later!

For now, our residential course details, where the food is incredibly delicious, and the refreshment breaks are filled with the aroma of hot drinks of all kinds, and wonderfully fresh cake and biscuits.  And we can relax into the holistic approach of haiku...

Residential Week-end Course in South East England:

The Holistic Approach to haiku:

self-development through poetry

with Alan Summers

February 2014
Friday to Sunday 21^st- 23^rd 
Claridge House
Dormans Road, Lingfield, Surrey, RH7 6QH
Registered Charity no. 228102.

ENQUIRIES
Tel. 0845 345 7281 or 01342 832 150
Email: welcome@claridgehousequaker.org.uk

You can phone Claridge House to ask about the course, and they'll have an info sheet I designed for them, so they can answer your questions about haiku:  

0845 345 7281 
or 
01342 832 150 

A friendly inclusive course that finds out just what makes a haiku poem really tick.  We'll look at how our experiences, both external and spiritual, can become haiku, and act as important records of our life.

There will be time for plenty of one-to-one feedback, and group discussions with lots of time for questions.

Plus there will be a debut of a number of new approaches to haiku to help both newcomers and those still learning.    A lot has happened with haiku in the last handful of years, and I'll show how we keep the traditional form but in Japanese style update it at the same time.

We'll also check out the popular new Yotsumonos derived from Chinese puzzle-poems for fun, and finish the course with the ever popular linked verse poem called renga.

Here’s the schedule of participation time from last time including:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/haiku-holistic-approach-week-end.html

meal breaks, rest breaks, tea, coffee and scrumptious cake and biscuit breaks, oh you lucky people, the food and refreshments are out of this world and available for those who are non-gluten, non-wheat, non-dairy, and vegetarian and vegan diets. 

I love all the diets provided, and diet means lots of food if you want, but beware second and third helpings are addictive.

For more information:

http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/haiku-holistic-approach-week-end.html

ALAN's BIO

Alan Summers is a Japan Times award-winning writer, editor with two literary magazines, and awarded a Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto Peace Museum Award for haiku.

His collection of contemporary haiku poems called:
Does Fish-God Know
(released Autumn 2012) is available at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Does-Fish-God-Know-Alan-Summers/dp/1479211044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381254823&sr=8-1&keywords=does+fish+god+know

Alan also appears in the Norton anthology on haiku, available at Amazon or Norton:

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Haiku-English-First-Hundred-Years/dp/0393239470/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382004914&sr=8-1&keywords=haiku+in+english+the+first+hundred+years

Norton:

http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=4294972241

For more on Alan:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/haiku-holistic-approach-week-end.html

Haiku Online Courses, and other genres:

We also run our regular and popular online With Words courses in haiku and tanka.  

For further details contact Karen at: karen@withwords.org.uk

.

A selection of haiku short verse poems around BIRDSONG and the SOUND OF BIRDS

BIRDSONG and the SOUND OF BIRDS -
A Series of haiku around birds and birdlife 

sunflower heart

the chiffchaff sings

its name

Alan Summers

tinywords 13.2 2013  (ISSN 2157-5010)

eJournal/eMagazine San Mateo, CA : D.F. Tweney : El Camino Press

http://tinywords.com/2013/09/13/13405/

Chiffchaff song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_C2Z9PWEaM
http://www.bto.org/about-birds/bird-id/willow-warbler-chiffchaff


Chiffchaff/Common Chiffchaff:
http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/chiffchaff.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Chiffchaff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Chiffchaff

roll of the apple…

I decide to let birdsong

back out of the box

Alan Summers

Under the Basho Vol 1.1 Autumn 2013

http://www.underthebasho.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70&Itemid=90

an up-too-late moon

the blackbird whispers its song

as I stumble home

Alan Summers

Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum (Japan 2013)

this small ache and all the rain too robinsong

Alan Summers

Publications credits: Modern Haiku vol. 44.1 winter/spring 2013

         cool morning

birdsong

light on a distant cloud

Alan Summers

Publications credits: Modern Haiku, (1999); Azami Haiku in English Commemorative Issue  (Japan 2000); Birmingham Words Magazine Issue 3 (Autumn 2004); Birdsong - a haiku sequence  Together They Stood, Poetry Now (2004); Haiku Friends Vol. 3 ed. Masaharu Hirata (Japan  2009)

down side streets -

gulls turning the sky

in and out

Alan Summers

Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years. Ed. Jim Kacian, Allan Burns & Philip Rowland (W. W. Norton & Company 2013) http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=4294972241; The Disjunctive Dragonfly, a New Approach to English-Language Haiku by Richard Gilbert (Red Moon Press 2012) [Elemental Animsim p80] http://www.redmoonpress.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_id=179

cumulus clouds

a clattering of jackdaws

rearrange their pattern

Alan Summers

Publications credits: Blithe Spirit  vol. 20 no. 3 (2010)

note:

An archaic collective noun for a group of Jackdaws is a "clattering."

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Jackdaw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackdaw

First recorded in John Lydgate's Debate between the Horse, Goose and Sheep, c.1430, as "A clatering of chowhis", and then in Juliana Berners Book of St. Albans, c.1480, as "a Clateryng of choughes."

A "clattering" of Jackdaws:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thekrankis/4375039089/

Other names for Jackdaws include caddesse, cawdaw, caddy, chauk, college-bird (from dialectal college "cathedral"), jackerdaw, jacko, ka-wattie, chimney-sweep bird, from their nesting propensities, and sea-crow, from their frequenting coasts. ..or just plain "Jack"

talkwildlife.com: http://www.talkwildlife.com/photo/a-clattering-of-jackdaws

four rosellas distant sounds to blue

Alan Summers

Publications credits: Azami #34 (Japan 1996)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosella

through an open window

a kookaburra laugh

enters

Alan Summers

Publications credits: Frogpond (Haiku Society of America journal, Summer 1994); Scope Feature (FAWQ, Australia, 1994); Micropress magazine; Micropress: best poems Ed. Kate O'Neill, Micropress NZ (1997; Moonlighting; sundog haiku journal: an australian year  (sunfast press 1997 reprinted 1998);   California State Library - Main Catalog Call Number : HAIKU S852su 1997

Kookaburra calls:   

http://www.soundboard.com/sb/KooKaburra_sound_clips

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feJZ7heOK2I

Seven Sisters the call of owls either side

Alan Summers

Publications credits: Blithe Spirit (British Haiku Society journal, March 2012)

train whistle
a blackbird hops
along its notes

Alan Summers

Publications credits:

Presence #47 (2012): The Haiku Foundation Per Diem (September 2012): The Elements

V to U

a parliament of rooks

shift their flight

Alan Summers

Publications credits: Icebox, Hailstone Haiku Group, Japan (2010)

Selected by Hisashi Miyazaki

fading last note

torresian crow sounds

the darkening sky

Alan Summers

Publications credits: Paper Wasp (Australia 1997); Azami (Japan 1998); Blithe Spirit, (June 2004); Shamrock Haiku Journal, Irish Haiku Society, Spring 2006; Sketchbook, A Journal  for Eastern & Western Short Forms Nov. 2007; Haiku Hike; THFhaiku app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (2011)

Calls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=079uBwOi2w8

Torresian Crow: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=5786

http://www.graemechapman.com.au/library/viewphotos.php?c=85

the names of rain

a blackbird’s subsong

into dusk

Publications credits: Haiku News Vol. 1 No. 35 (September 2012); featured poet at Cornell University USA (Cornell University, Mann Library haiku showcase March 2013.)

haiku news: http://www.wayfarergallery.net/haikunews/?p=4018

http://www.wayfarergallery.net/haikunews/?tag=alan-summers

subsong soundtrack: http://tinyurl.com/blackbirdsubsong

 

A Blackbird in the rain...

Al.

Alan Summers, a Japan Times award-winning writer, regularly runs online classes and workshops on haiku, and related genres such as tanka, haibun, and tanka prose.  

For further information, please don't hestitate to contact Call of the Page Course Director Karen Hoy, who will only be too delighted to send you information about these intriguing short verse poetry genres.

Karen's email: admin@callofthepage.org

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Now out! Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts Vol.1., No.2., August 2013 plus Special Feature on haiku, tanka, and haibun

“A Brilliant Journal. Truly International.” 
- Hanif Kureishi

New Issuu updates on Lakeview Journal second issue: 

Now a little more than 21,000 reads from across the world - popular in the UK, USA, India, Ireland, Canada and Australia plus readers from other countries where English is used for another purpose.

2113 Impressions in 20 days!
Top Five Countries: 

USA - 379, India - 368, UK - 348, Ireland - 159, Canada - 68 (Malaysia - 53 and Australia - 39 too)

6 days after the upload:
Total Impressions - 1338,
Reads: United Kingdom - 262, United States - 261, India - 223, Ireland - 114, Canada - 57, Malaysia - 49, Australia - 31, New Zealand - 17, Lithuania - 15, United Arab Emirates - 15, Greece - 12, France - 11, Netherlands -10, Germany - 7, Denmark - 5, Spain - 4, Italy - 4, Philippines - 4, Japan - 4, Mexico -3, Sri Lanka - 3, Sweden - 2, Finland - 2, Turkey - 2, Saudi Arabia - 2, Oman - 2, Israel - 1, Colombia - 1, Bangladesh -1, Qatar - 1, Nepal - 1...

Issuu updates on Lakeview Journal second issue, 3 days after the upload: 
Total Impressions - 1015
Reads: United Kingdom - 230, India - 174, United States - 170, Ireland - 82, Canada - 51, Malaysia - 48, Australia - 29, Lithuania - 12, Greece - 12, New Zealand - 10, Netherlands - 9, France - 9, United Arab Emirates - 9, Germany - 7, Spain - 4, Italy - 4, Philippines - 4, Mexico -3, Japan - 3, Sri Lanka - 3, Sweden - 2, Finland - 2, Turkey - 2, Saudi Arabia - 2, Oman -2, Israel -1, Colombia -1, Bangladesh -1

Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts Vol.1., No.2., August 2013 

http://issuu.com/lijla/docs/lijlaaugust2013 
n.b. To know how to download the magazine see further below.

A journal that features creative work by internationally acclaimed and emerging writers/artists like Peter Daniels, Vanessa Gebbie, John MacKenna, Jonathan Taylor, Ashley Stokes, Gopikrishnan Kottoor, Murali Sivaramakrishnan, Nabina Das, Kevin Kadwallender, Archana Mishra, Gina Gibson and many more.

There is also a special feature that focuses on haiku and related poetic forms, guest edited very effectively by our advisory board member Alan Summers.

Runner Up in the Best Magazine category of Saboteur Awards 2013, London. We got a reader comment that goes ‘Lakeview is a breath of fresh air, no clichés and obvious choices. Here to stay.’ It is indeed a great achievement to get an international recognition soon after the publication of the first issue of our journal.

Jose Varghese
Chief Editor
August 2013

Jose Varghese's work can be found at: http://www.saltpublishing.com/shop/proddetail.php?prod=9781844719198

He will be appearing at The 13th International Conference on the Short Story in English, (15*)16 to 19 July, 2014, Vienna, Austria: http://www.shortstoryconference.org/jose-varghese

To download the magazine from Issuu.

There is no need to register with Facebook, there is an 'or' choice: 

Once you have confirmed your registration by clicking onto a confirmation email, it will direct you to start your preferences in publications.  You get to a second screen page where top left is a search finder icon of a magnifying glass.  Type in Lakeview Journal, and voilà! :-)

 First, click onto the lower right box with two arrows in different directions (which is highlighted in white).

Then go to top right where the box with an arrow is, and click that, which gives you this:

 

Click onto download and hey presto a pdf version of the magazine!  

I do recommend registering with Issuu as there are other fine magazines of various genres that you can download too.

warm regards,

Alan

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NOW FULLY BOOKED! Two places left on the Haiku Online Course starting October 1st

The Haiku Journal©Alan Summers

Fully Booked. The October 1st group. 

Due to demand we have created a November haiku class which is filling up fast.

You can email karen@withwords.org.uk for details 



Weblink: 
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/fully-booked-tanka-course-but-still.html



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Now in Print! Bones - a journal for contemporary haiku

U.S.A.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Bones%20-%20a%20journal%20for%20contemporary%20haiku

U.K.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Bones%20-%20a%20journal%20for%20contemporary%20haiku

Online editions:  
http://www.bonesjournal.com/archive.html

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Fully Booked: The Tanka Course, but still places available on the October 2013 haiku course - With Words Group Email Courses

With Words Group Email Courses

The tanka course starting Sep 1st 2013 is fully booked, but there are still places available on the haiku course starting Oct 1st. 

The cost is $85/£55, but the early bird rate ($70/£45) is available if booking for the October course by September 2nd.

Please email karen@withwords.org.uk for full details on these and future courses, and nice comments from earlier participants.

We also run a haiku reading and comprehension course for those who would like a rigorous introduction to the form, starting the beginning of any month.

Best wishes

Alan and Karen

UPDATE FOR 2017:
With Words is now called Call of the Page:

Please do ask Karen for spaces on our popular online tanka and haiku courses throughout 2015 as well as our new courses launching this year.

Karen's email: admin@callofthepage.org


Alan Summers

 
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Major haiku poetry anthologies that Alan’s work appears:

Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years ed. Jim Kacian, Allan Burns & Philip Rowland with an Introduction by Billy Collins (W. W. Norton & Company 2013) http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Haiku-in-English/ 

The Disjunctive Dragonfly, a New Approach to English-Language Haiku by Richard Gilbert, (Red Moon Press 2013): “While nowhere denying the value of objective realism, Richard Gilbert has helped demonstrate how the innovative, and yes, disjunctive core of haiku, like the force of life itself, moves in many directions and by all means possible (and sometimes impossible), illuminating both outer and inner landscapes, and what is held between. He has given us what has been sorely lacking: ‘a new vocabulary of haiku techniques . . .‘”

—Peter Yovu

The Humours of Haiku

(Iron Press 2012) ISBN 978-0-9565725-4-7

Stepping Stones:  a way into haiku      

(British Haiku Society, 2007) ISBN 978-0-9522397-9-6

The New Haiku

ISBN 978-1-903543-03-0 (Snapshot Press, 2001).

Iron Book of British Haiku

(Iron Press; ISBN: 0906228670 First published 1998, Third print 2000)

Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac

 Kodansha International, Japan, ed. William Higginson ISBN 4770020902 (1996)

Co-Editor of five Haiku-based Anthologies:  

Parade of Life: Poems inspired by Japanese Prints ISBN: 09539234-2-8  (Poetry Can/Bristol Museum and Art Gallery/Japan21/Embassy of Japan 2002); The Poetic Image - Haiku and Photography (Birmingham Words/ National Academy of Writing Pamphlet 2006); Fifty-Seven Damn Good Haiku by a Bunch of Our Friends published by Press Here ISBN 978-1-878798-31-2  (2010 USA); Four Virtual Haiku Poets (YTBN Press 2012); and c.2.2. an anthology of short-verse poetry and haiku (YTBN Press 2013).

Four Haiku Collections: Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012); The In-Between Season With Words Pamphlet Series (2012); Sundog Haiku Journal: an Australian Year (Sunfast Press 1997 reprinted 1998); Moonlighting British Haiku Society Pamphlet (1996).

 

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