Check out the new UNITED HAIKU & TANKA SOCIETY

There's a new international haiku and tanka group online: The United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS). I'm ticked pink to have been invited to be a charter member. They're just getting off the ground, and looking for submissions (see "cattails" or "Haiku" on the left of the homepage). I'm familiar with some of the previous publishing offered by a couple of their Officers and know this new effort will develop beautifully.

I was particularly delighted to read the following on the UHTS homepage: "Nowadays, boundaries are being pushed to accept mainstream short poetry under the guise of Japanese short forms. Believing this desensitizes age-old aesthetics, we seek to continue the simple values of the natural world, and time honored guidelines (while at the same time focusing on the evolving 21st Century impacts). UHTS strives for that fine-line balance between the historic and the contemporary."

Anyone not familiar with these small forms, might find it surprising to know that each writer brings a different style and spirit to theirs. So I encourage you to read work by a variety of writers. One good place is an issue of KernelsOnline.

With the above UHTS quote in mind, I'll close with some of my own haiku, senryu, and monoku. For those of you accustomed to my dream-based writing, please know that the below are not from dreams. Except for the last one -- "a fleeing doe..." -- which was composed during a dream as I saw the scene. (The above photo, titled "Voices in the Wind," is also by me.)

one hundred steps down
the bluff to lie on the beach
one hundred steps up

* * * *

indian summer
the plumber and I laugh
about growing old

* * * *

piled russet leaves the child's leap

* * * *

seed pod harvest
dried glory vines
cling to the gate

* * * *

the crooked stack
of boxed clementines
a running child

* * * *

the rips let in more light lace curtains

* * * *

the dragon sniffs
at a sleeping fairy's foot
rummage sale

* * * *

what would you wish,
tiny sparrow in a big
pot of clover

* * * *

strolling a lone crow on the manicured lawn

* * * *

do you see me?
tiny brown lizard peeking
from behind the rock

* * * *

look, up in the sky
a lone after dinner mint
sweet sickle moon

* * * *

a fleeing doe
in the fleeting light
the world just so

* * * * * * * * * * * *

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, monoku, free verse, etc. -- are offered in the spirit of collaboration. I have done my part. Now it’s your turn to jump in and see what comes up for you. I.e., there is no right or wrong way to relate to any of these dream offerings. Even my own understandings of them change over time. And it gives me joy when a reader sees something in any of them that I have not.

Also please note that a dream poem is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. It is my attempt to get down dream imagery/action that grabs me and, as I write about it, elicits my conscious written association and response. Nor do I believe that one has to remember dreams in order for them to do their work. In my understanding, we are much more than our conscious selves.

You may also note in any further reading on dreamku (the specific forms of dreamku, tanka, two-liners and monoku) you may do here, that in the beginning I stressed "showing, not telling." However, this has been changing for some time now. I now tend to "show" (the dream narrative) and cap if off with a "tell" (some reaction and/or insight I've had to the dream as I was writing about it). This pretty much applies to free verse dream poems as well.

For more in-depth exploration of the dreamku forms specifically (and one post in which I also address my photo choices):

-- very brief comparison of dreamku and haiku: DREAMKU ARE NOT HAIKU

-- a brief post about both dreamku and my photos THE AREN'TS OF DREAMKU & ACCOMPANYING DIGITAL PHOTOS.

-- detailed three-part post about dreamku: "A DREAMKU PRIMER: Writing Haiku-Like Poems About Your Night Dreams": PART ONE: Introduction & Writing Dreamku as Dream Work; PART TWO: Elements of the Haiku Form Used in Dreamku; and PART THREE: How to Write Dreamku (the second and third parts have some overlap).

-- a short up-dating post about the three-part "A DREAMKU PRIMER" -- Important Up-date to A DREAMKU PRIMER....".

* * * *

‘til next time, keep dreaming,






If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.