Brass Bell: A Journal Haiku (July 2014 Issue)

      So glad to be part of the 4th issue of brass bell: a haiku journal! Thank you, Zee Zahava for accepting my haiku. :-)
     Theme for this month is BIRDS. 
  

Inspired by my trip to Bodega Head -

 a sandpiper

     teeters along a log . . .

     my indecision

Everybody Hurts Sometimes

I walk alone

on the garden path

missing you . . .

everybody hurts sometimes

even withering petals

Written for Carry on Tuesday #163

This week's prompt - "everybody hurts sometimes" -

A line repeated several times in REM's biggest hit record

To listen to the song and to read the lyrics, drop by Carry on Tuesday Plus 

Results of the 1st Haiku My Photo Challenge

     I'm happy to announce the results of the 1st Haiku My Photo Challenge! 

 Judge's Comments:

     Thank you to all the entrants for sharing your haiku with me, and my thanks also to Chrissi, for inviting me to judge her Haiku My Photo Challenge. The three prizewinners are all haiku that stood up to multiple readings and continued to stand out from the crowd. I judged without knowledge of the authors of each haiku and without having previously seen the photo. And first prize goes to:

leafdance

rippling the sky...

sometimes, I think of you

This haiku stood out for me from the first read through. I find so much to enjoy about it, every line and word choice works: alone as a haiku, and then together with the photo as a haiga. It takes me into the photo as well as transporting me to another place, moving me somewhere deeper. I fell for “leafdance” – what a beautiful image! It breathes new life into the leaves, gives them their spirit back. A few of the haiku entered played with the reflection of the sky on water. This poet achieved the effect flawlessly in line two with “rippling the sky”. The image created is not intrusive or forced: it sounds so natural that the “leafdance” would be “rippling the sky”, whether reflected on the water or not. The pause brought about from the ellipses gives the reader a little extra time than just the line break alone to delight in this experience. Then line three moves the reader along, with that addition of “sometimes” speaking volumes. The mystery, the 'other', is created by this final line and yet the journey for the reader, coupled with the photo too, has only just begun. Stunning work!

reflection …

the arresting music

of leaves

The first line, that one word “reflection”, works two ways: reflection on the water and reflection within ourselves. As in the above haiku, the ellipses worked for me here as it gave that extra pause, that silence in time for the reader to begin the reflection process, to start to sink deeper and think on where this haiku might be taking them within themselves, as well as within the haiga (whether the reader knew that this shift had begun happening or not – maybe most great examples of haiku do this without the reader knowing, at least at first). The final two lines again bring in the spirit of Nature with “the arresting music/ of leaves”. I found this powerful and loved it from my first read through. I imagined the sound, then felt the pull outdoors to listen for it first hand on a new journey of discovery and connection.

spring song

how it draws the heart

to reflection

I'm a fan of alliteration and loved the phrase “spring song” on first reading. It works with the photo and then immediately draws the reader to look outside the borders for further signs of spring. The poet here like the first two, has reminded the reader of Nature's song, of the life essence that is all around us and part of us. And also like the above two haiku, the auditory sense of the reader is engaged, which lifts the photo to another level. The final lines “how it draws the heart/ to reflection” worked to draw me deeply into the centre of the photo, and deeper into the experience as a whole.  

Kirsten Cliff

     I want to express my sincerest thanks to all the participants. This haiga contest would not have been a great turnout without your support and interest.  

     I'd also like to thank Kirsten for generously giving her time and effort. She did a terrific job!

     To find out more about her and what's going on in her haiku world, check out her blog Swimming in Lines of Haiku. 

       I hope to see you all again in the 2nd Haiku My Photo Challenge in June. Stay tuned for more details at the end of the month.

Free Postcards From HAIKU MY PHOTO CHALLENGE

     Inspired by various projects and contests happening around me, I've decided to host a collaborative haiga contest in celebration of National Poetry Month. ANYBODY can join! The winner will be receiving this set of 6 postcards created by me using my own photos.

    

    Information you need to know about the contest:

1) On the first  day of the contest, I'll be posting my photo. Submit ONLY ONE haiku for the photo and type it on the   comments section. The haiku must be the work of the submitting author, unpublished online or in print. 

2) Below your haiku, write your full name and email address. If you don't want to post your email address, email me at chrissi731@hotmail(dot)com. I need to be able to email you if you win.

3) Everyone is welcome to comment on any haiku, but please no critiquing.      

4) The judge is Kirsten Cliff. 

5) Contest runs from April 23 through midnight of April 30 (PST). 

6) The winner will be announced on May 4, 2012 at 7 p.m. (PST) with the collaborative haiga. If the winner doesn't reply within three days after the day of announcement, another poet will be receiving the prize.

7) All rights revert back to the authors after the winner has been announced.

    This contest is also my way of thanking all the haiku poets whom I've met online. I feel so blessed to find all of you who've been supportive and helpful in my haiku journey.

    I look forward to seeing you all. Let's all celebrate together and have some fun!:-)

Favorite Haiku of the Month

     If you'd ask me who's my number one contemporary poet, I'd quickly say it's the multi-awarded Chen-ou Liu of Ontario, Canada. It's remarkable that English isn't his first language and yet he has managed to be a great prolific English writer. He's not only excellent in writing haiku, but also in writing other forms of Japanese poetry like tanka and haibun.

     I discovered his haiku in 2010, when I shared the same issue with him in Berry Blue Haiku. I was a frustrated newbie that year, managing to write only one decent publishable haiku, but at the same time I was an eager reader, full of admiration for Chen-ou's remarkable talent.

    These two captivating haiku below were among the June 2010 Haiku Picks of Berry Blue Haiku.

butterflies

wing over cherry petals—  

shadows embracing

on maple leaves

glittering raindrops gather—  

floating worlds

    Since I had resumed writing haiku in the second half of 2011, I've been coming across Chen-ou's works. I have so many favorites, but I'm sharing some of the ones which have garnered him high praises and awards.

spicy chicken...

this impulse to ask

if she's married

                                  Editor's Choice Senryu (Modern Haiku, 43:1 February 2012)

a deceased friend

taps me on my shoulder--

plum blossoms falling

                                  Grand Prize Poem of the Year 2011 ( Heron's Nest)

attic window--                                                    

a few moonlit shadows                                       

come and go 

                               2nd Prize (The Klostar Ivanic Haiku Contest 2011)      

                

moonlit branches . . .

glazed with autumn rain

droplets of me 

                              Commendation (The Klostar Ivanic Haiku Contest 2011)

her face

in my whisky

the moon floats

                             Grand Prix (The Klostar Ivanic Haiku Contest 2010)

             

cherry petals

falling on cherry petals...

I dust your photo

                             Sakura Award (Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival 2010)

    Included in my list of favorites is this unforgettable haiku sequence published in Frogpond 34:1, 2011.

     A Life in Four Seasons

I write her

one poem every day

spring dewdrops

a butterfly

tattoed on her buttock

summer heat

autumn dawn

before the mirror I count

gray hairs

snow on snow

thoughts of her emerge

one at a time

     Most of his published haiku are highly evocative. As Neal Whitman has said, he has "the gift of tugging at our hearts." If you like to read more of his haiku, go to Poetry in the Moment. You'll be able to see where to purchase his books. One of them is Following the Moon to the Maple Land, the first prize winner of the Spring Haiku Pix Chapbook 2011. On the cover of his chapbook is a photo that I had taken. Can you imagine how thrilled I was when the editor of Haiku Pix requested my photo for Chen-ou's chapbook?

     For some unexplainable reason, I don't have a free copy of this, but thanks to Chen-ou because pretty soon I'll be getting my own copy. I'll be reading on my couch, following the moon to the maple land. 

Prize Poem Contest - (first prize)

 

     I found out a few days ago that I'm the February Love Poem Winner, the first awardee of Prize Poem Contest. Yippee!

     The judge decides the winner according to her preference, not on the number of votes. Check out the website to have a chance of winning an Amazon Gift Certificate. This month's competition theme is Spring. You can submit your haiku even if it had been published elsewhere.

What Is Haiku?

     I read a book about of one of the greatest haiku masters, Kobayashi Issa. In the author’s introduction, I came across these lines. I love the way he describes haiku.

 　

                                                   

Like many of the delicate Japanese ink drawings, haiku uses clear outlines of thoughts in order to convey a multitude of images, moods, and sensations. Every word is carefully balanced by every other word and no word, thought, or image is ever used to excess. In one respect a haiku poem is like a tree in winter without leaves, suggesting through its shape, nakedness, and the imagination of the reader what it will look like, full-bloom, in the summer. What is not said in a haiku poem is as important as what is said- or as one poet put it: “It is a hand beckoning, a door half-opened, a mirror wiped clean.”

                                                                                                             

Richard Lewis

Of This World: A Poet's Life in Poetry      

       

Bouquet of Flowers

 

 A Handful of Stones (December 3, 2011)

     If I'm not mistaken, I think I've only received a bouquet of flowers once in my life. I guess it's because I've always made it clear that I'm not crazy about receiving one. First of all, I think it's a waste of money. I prefer a greeting card or a gift that I can keep forever. Secondly, I think I'm allergic to flowers, especially those that have a strong fragrance. 

     The irony is, when I see a bunch of flowers or a flower arrangement at a store, hotel lobby, restaurant, etc., I always end up hovering around it like a bee. Honestly, I'm easily amazed by simple things, like how different a flower is from another even if it's of the same kind. I also get excited when I discover a kind of flower that I've never seen before.

     To share a secret with you, this photo was actually taken at a grocery store. I couldn't resist taking out my camera. I wished they were mine...       

*only the haiku appears in A Handful of Stones

Autumn Haiku

 

colored leaves

painting dreams

on a grey afternoon

Asahi Haikuist Network (October 21, 2011)

* Another photo of mine that inspired me to write this haiku. 

Orange Leaves

orange leaves

the fragrance

of pumpkin pie

Asahi Haikuist Network (October 21, 2011)

Semifinalist for July 2011

    watercolor sunset

  somebody's brushstrokes

  paint my window

  ITO EN North America New Haiku Grand Prix

  Seminfinalist for the month of July 2011

Shukan New York Seikatsu newspaper

*This photo which I took one winter day was the inspiration of my haiku.