I received two emails recently from poets who submitted poems to Poets Online and had their poem "discovered" online by another publisher who wanted to put it in print.
For example, Violet Nesdoly wrote "In Stitches" for our February 2006 prompt about being "in the moment". Recently, she heard from the editor of Vogue Patterns magazine, asking if they could publish it in an upcoming edition. I'm encouraged that a everyday publication not known for printing poetry would print one for their readers.
The Internet offers so many opportunities to share your poetry and find new audiences.
There are more and more places to put your poetry online or submit your poems online for print publication. An increasing number of established publishers now accept online publication as a first publication.
Louie Crew, Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University has been listing websites (including Poets Online) of Poetry Publishers Who Accept Electronic Submissions
October 27, 2010
October 25, 2010
Haiku 575 Twitter 140
I'm not claiming that Twitter is poetic, but -
I have read several articles online about using that 140 character posting service to share haiku.
Sun Microsystems' ex-CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, was an early company blogger and when he resigned (after the company was acquired by Oracle) he posted the news as a haiku on his Twitter feed.
The public radio show Fresh Air asked listeners once to write comments in haiku form, and tag their haiku with #publicradiohaiku on Twitter to share with others.
It has spread and "twaiku", as some call these Twitter haiku, are now online for NASCAR haiku, cat haiku, zombie haiku et cetera. Jimmy Kimmel offered tickets to his show to whoever tweeted the best haiku about the final episode of the TV show Lost.
Some haiku on Twitter to look at and follow would include http://twitter.com/issa_haiku and http://twitter.com/dengary
You can post your own Twitter haiku and tag them as #haiku for our readers to follow.
October 23, 2010
An Autumn Haiku Lesson
Here are a few by Issa on autumn to start this lesson.
autumn wind--
singing in the duckweed
how many insects?
autumn begins–
lying down, looking at
snowy mountains
sleeping mat--
the autumn gale blowing
the soles of my feet
evening cicada--
a last loud song
to autumn
Bashô, Buson and Issa worked in haikai short for haikai no renga which was a popular style of Japanese linked verse originating in the sixteenth century.
Shiki actually coined the term "haiku" which he viewed as its own poetic genre. In English, the term haiku covers both haikai and haiku.
Unfortunately, these one-breath poems of connection are often not treated in the West as "serious" poetry.
Haiku in English is written as an unrhymed three-line verse. The fragmented images are not typical of English poetry. For modern readers and writers, perhaps even the connecting of nature or the seasons to the human condition might seem foreign.
Does a haiku really need 17 syllables? Traditional Japanese haiku consists of seventeen onji) arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern. Onji is an obsolete Japanese word used in English-language discussions of Japanese poetry to mean the phonetic units or sounds counted in haiku, tanka and other such poetic forms.
Most Japanese words are polysyllabic. English has lots of one-syllable words like fall, sky, and tree, so many haiku poets writing in English don't follow the 5-7-5 syllable rule. (17 syllables could be 17 words which would not honor the sense of haiku.)
We put haiku on the page in three lines. Traditional haiku in the time of Issa was two parts with a pause in between. The juxtaposition of the two images and a sense of surprise or revelation has been compared to a good joke - setup, then the punchline
Haiku always contain nature and that includes human nature. The natural world and season might be invoked by the mention of a single word or image rather than the more typical Western telling. The haiku might mention a cherry blossom, rather than to say it was spring. In fact, the cherry blossom is more specific to a particular part of spring.
There is much discussion of the translation of classical haiku into English by translators such as R.H.Blyth
, Lucien Stryck, Peter Beilenson and Kenneth Rexroth. I am a fan of those done by contemporary American poet Robert Hass.It's interesting to compare different translations of the same haiku to see the process.
Translations by Robert Hass
Two by Basho
Climb Mount Fuji,
O snail,
but slowly, slowly.
Even in Kyoto --
hearing the cuckoo's cry --
I long for Kyoto.
Six by Issa
Mosquito at my ear--
does it think
I'm deaf?
New Year's morning--
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.
Even with insects--
some can sing,
some can't.
The snow is melting
and the village is flooded
with children.
Don't kill that fly!
Look--it's wringing its hands,
wringing its feet.
Don't worry, spiders,
I keep house
casually.
October 15, 2010
Patterns of Poetry Podcast Series
They are presented by the English Department of St Columba's College, Whitechurch, Dublin, Ireland on their blog site.
The first one I stumbled upon through a search is on simile, and looks at how Sylvia Plath uses it in her poem 'Morning Song'.
The series (so far):
1: Introduction
2: Titles - illustrated with 'The Fish' by Elizabeth Bishop, and 'Out, Out' by Robert Frost.
3: Alliteration - 'The Windhover' by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
4: Personification - "Shancoduff' by Patrick Kavanagh.
5: Symbols - 'The Stare's Nest by my Window' by W.B. Yeats.
6. Onomatopoeia - 'A Constable Calls' and 'Sunlight' by Seamus Heaney.
7. Cliché - Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare, and 'Valentine' by Carol Ann Duffy.
8. Simile - Morning Song' by Sylvia Plath.
They have now also put together one handy compilation of the first eight Patterns of Poetry talks, if you want all the lessons at once.
They are available for play from your browser and also available using iTunes which is useful if you want to "archive" a copy for later.
MORE
Patterns of Poetry: An Encyclopedia of Forms
Patterns in Poetry: Recognizing and Analyzing Poetic Form and Meter
Poetry Patterns & Themes
(for younger readers)
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