No.2, September 2009 Page 2 - The Haiku Foundation · the rag-pickers' cries for salvation Gautam Nadkarni - India. Notes from the Gean No.2 ... Gautam Nadkarni - India New Year's

Notes from the Gean No.2, September 2009 Page 2

Welcome to Notes from the Gean the haiku journal

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featuring haiku, tanka, haiga, & more.

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We seek to encourage excellence, experimentation and education

within haiku and its related genres. We believe this is best

accomplished by example and not imitation. Our aim is for authenticity

above all else. We therefore solicit your finest examples of haiku, tanka,

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cover artwork Grum Robertson

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contents

haiku pp.4-27

Editor: Lorin Ford - Australia

tanka pp.28-34

Editor: H. Gene Murtha - USA

haiga pp.35-44

Editor: Melinda B. Hipple - USA

reviews pp.45-49

back page p.50

Editor-in-Chief / Resources: Colin Stewart Jones - Scotland


the rattle of a bamboo grove— rising moon

Dawn Bruce - Australia

the old Venetian recounts her life story . . . shadow embroidery

Dawn Bruce - Australia

first light touches the hilltop . . . breathless

Dawn Bruce – Australia

morning glory I tell her everything will be all right

Bill Kenney - USA

gone before it's written dragonfly

Bill Kenney - USA


hot wind the crow's shadow darker than the crow

Bill Kenney - USA

maiden aunt she keeps the secret of her preserves

Bill Kenney - USA

jacaranda petals from here to the corner I step lightly

Bill Kenney - USA

sunlight dappling the silence of a forest trail

Terry O' Connor - Ireland

blank document— staring the clouds into shapes

Terry O' Connor - Ireland


neap tide— loggerhead hatchlings spill down the beach

Nora Wood - USA

bathed in blue dusk the blue heron

Nora Wood - USA

false dawn the lie I pretend not to catch you in

Nora Wood - USA

quavering heat cicadas cry in tempo

Nora Wood - USA

sunflower the day passing slowly

William Sorlien - USA


garage sale— neighbors meet for the first time

William Sorlien - USA county fair— corn fields awash in neon

William Sorlien - USA evening thunder a homeless man comforts his dog

William Sorlien - USA storm's passed a butcherbird sings from the fallen pine

Quendryth Young, Australia

cocktail hour a spider drops to the hub of its web

Quendryth Young, Australia


spring morning a maggot crossing my path

Quendryth Young - Australia

first blowfly— my Airedale concentrates

Genevieve Osborne - Australia

a robin's song— her interest in me reawakens

Joseph Mueller - USA

birdsong arguing over what it is

Helen Buckingham - UK

downtown shoot— watching them mask the legend over the library door



Ladies Room— locked inside a euphemism


400-year-old windows thicker at the bottom all the female cousins

Sandra Simpson - New Zealand

alpine meadow— your words become cow bells


flensing wind— a rattle of coins in the try-pot


midwinter— the grain running down the oak tallboy



well-worn argument— every logging truck hauls its own rain cloud


shooting star— we speculate briefly on the unknown

Garry Eaton - Canada night fishing my bobber wanders across the galaxy

Alan S. Bridges - USA

gray day a heron turns into a wave


deep winter an arc of snow sits in the swing



dead of winter snow angels fill with snow


white out the sound of wind shaping the mountain

Melissa Spurr - USA

shortest day snow drifting higher on the sundial

Melissa Spurr - USA

foreclosure an empty nest in the mailbox

Melissa Spurr - USA

long distance bus I sleep away the dusty plains

Melissa Spurr - USA


hum of blowflies blood from the kangaroo's ear yet to dry

Kevin Gillam - Australia Remembrance Day— Grandpa in white singlet with medals

Kevin Gillam - Australia ebb shoal a stranded canoe points at the moon

Catherine J.S. Lee - USA

first hot night the crescent moon holding water


tourist traffic two crows pick through porcupine quills



mist rising from the valley lake a loon's cry


ducks in flight— bread bobs along the grey pond

Ashley Capes - Australia

dreary sky the blossom-spangled branches of a swamp gum

Leonie Bingham - Australia

wet season the cattle dog's bed littered with mouse tails

Leonie Bingham - Australia

rattling echoes in the empty stock trailer . . . sky full of stars

Bett Angel-Stawarz - Australia


farm country the different colors of an old truck

Chad Lee Robinson - USA

heat lightning the empty drums under the gas station


pile of leaves a clear path for that one big jump


first birthday her hand forgets the yellow balloon


morning snow the weightlifter resets his feet



frosty morning my dog coughs to be let in

Jo McInerney - Australia

a slow fly circling late autumn


the distant tinkle of an ice-cream van early spring


autumn dusk the jazz saxophonist hits the blues

Gautam Nadkarni - India

lunar eclipse the rag-pickers' cries for salvation



New Year's Eve the sole greeting card on my pillow


New Year's Eve way out across the moors silent fireworks

David Serjeant - UK

the passing streetlights— slipping from her fingers teddy sleeps too

David Serjeant - UK

injured moth my presence startles the cat

David Serjeant - UK

racing

across all my hands a

spider

David Serjeant - UK


finally home glimpsed between the houses a wave of starlings

David Serjeant - UK

in the still of night the sound of weary leaves: a full moon

Keith Simmonds - West Indies deep in the night a shiver in my spine: barking owl

Keith Simmonds - West Indies

winter sun her amber necklace warms my skin

Nathalie Buckland - Australia

fluttering moth on each side of the glass door a snapping dog



lush grass the caterpillar stretched between two beaks


funeral flowers: rain blurs my message


deserted playground a trickle of water comes down the slide


shooting stars across a child's sky— rangoon creeper

_kala - India

spring meet . . . a discus thrower's cry rips the air

_kala - India


Gurbani temple music the rhythm of heaven joins in as thunder

_kala – India

summer storm the microwave beeps that it's back

Paul MacNeil - USA

Christmas Muzak in the chemo room Naugahyde recliners

Paul MacNeil - USA

wan sun I skim clamshells into the wind

Paul MacNeil - USA

winter rain a wizened chrysalis under the eaves

Paul MacNeil – USA


on the roof tiles of the maternity hospital cats in love

Vasile Moldovan - Romania

summer dawn a cricket drinks the last dewdrop

Vasile Moldovan - Romania

honeymoon night— untying the umpteen knots of love

Sunil Uniyal - India last of winter the wattles' gold crackles underfoot

Karen Phillips - Australia

sparrows beside an empty birdbath bathe in dust

Karen Phillips - Australia


sudden shower— his newspaper hat illegible

John Bird - Australia crescent moon the neighbour's dog dying slowly

John Bird - Australia kangaroo grass a wind gust flushes two rosellas

John Bird - Australia cemetery kiosk— attending to the taste of herbal tea

John Bird - Australia mountain ash Jack loves Bernie beyond his reach

John Bird - Australia


son up north . . . his father borrows an atlas

Rodney Williams - Australia

silo spillage— native pigeons and galahs crest to crest


mother's hoarding . . . a letter from a stranger signed by me


low tide in the mangroves a spoonbill's poise

Rodney Williams - Australia batter up— my eyes follow an osprey

Susan Constable - Canada


first raspberries the scolding I get from a crow

Susan Constable - Canada waning moon . . . she counts the segments of her orange

Susan Constable - Canada how you waved goodbye . . . the brittleness of autumn leaves

Susan Constable - Canada backlit clouds . . . is there a synonym for holy?

Susan Constable - Canada strawberry moon all night something huge romps in the attic

Carolyn Hall - USA


blossom wind over the moon bridge a toddler leads his mom

Carolyn Hall - USA new moon the light in her eyes

Carolyn Hall - USA summer sky a bedroom window frames the day

Carolyn Hall - USA a window seat on the tour bus autumn drizzle

Carolyn Hall - USA gift of quinces the copperplate script in mum's recipe book

Beverley George - Australia


breakfast news— pollen from a Peace rose stains the cloth

Beverley George - Australia

a bunch of merlot her fat brush strokes the canvas

Rhonda Poholke - Australia

hang-gliders— tandem dragonflies skim the ripples

Barbara A. Taylor - Australia

balloon clouds in the valley a bouncing sun

Adelaide B. Shaw - USA between morning chores I open the door— lilacs in the rain

Adelaide B. Shaw - USA


humid night— insects and I whining

Adelaide B. Shaw - USA click the abacus and cricket sing the same song

Karen Reynolds - USA

a Christmas beetle inside my slipper . . . wind in the pine

Cynthia Rowe - Australia

pre-dawn light the high-pitched whirr of a street cleaner


maple leaves the wind unveiling one flagstone at a time



steamed broccoli the fog across his spectacles


winter morning— The Rites of Spring on the radio Mike Montreuil - Canada


moonrise katydids resound in the shadows in the small hours of morning will he stay, will I want him to?

jennie townsend - USA

remember when on that wet November night you proposed? the drumming on the roof the drumming of my heart


the elderly widow prefers red instead of black her grief hidden; she has gentlemen for tea who sometimes stay the night



daughter with my eyes looking back at me can you forgive me what I have given you


neither of us what we said we were old love letters the ink slowly fading the ribbon still tied


rocket warning . . . a million leaflets drop too late for the innocent seeking refuge

Barbara A. Taylor - Australia


sometimes in my dreams a life I never lived— wind rustling prairie grasses

Jeanne Emrich - USA

dusk settles softly over the mirrored lake so still this little sunfish as I take out the hook

Jeanne Emrich - USA

what shall I do with this old photo of us hugging? were you alive today we'd be strangers

Jeanne Emrich - USA


what small piece of you do you surrender to me each and every night my loneliness a gaping maw the part of me that's undead

C W Hawes - USA

a page ripped in two a story torn asunder nothing left but parts a world of swirling fragments searching for the other half

C W Hawes - USA

life sometimes gets too overwhelming that i just want a man to rain upon me

Pamela A. Babusci - USA


buy one get one free— kidnapping all the lucky bamboo plants at the garage sale


blood-red stilettos the power i feel in them the power i surrender when removed


huddled under welfare blankets he sings salvation songs for just-in-case sins

Jack Prewitt - Australia


drunk, I crashed in a van gogh haystack, being in love I lay there laughing— are you with me so far?

Jack Prewitt - Australia a stranger appears in the room surely locked . . . don't be scared waking boy by the man you'll become.


laughing over old stories . . . suddenly I feel that mother is young again

_kala - India


coffee lounge . . . I reach for the mug wondering what on earth the others have so much to talk about?

_kala - India

midsummer darkness envelopes the orchids her green thumb will soon be missed in her untimely death . . .for Marivie

Victor P. Gendrano - USA


Alan D. Taylor - UK


Alan D. Taylor - UK


Alan D. Taylor - UK


Alan D. Taylor - UK


Maya Lyubenova - Bulgaria






Mike Keville - UK


Mike Keville - UK


Mike Keville - UK


The Onawa Poems 1999-2008, Edited by Paul W. MacNeil

A Review by Colin Stewart Jones

Contributing poets:

Yu Chang Ferris Filli Gary Hotham Kirsty Karkow Paul MacNeil Paul David Mena Paul m. John Stevenson Hilary Tann Paul Watsky

Paul MacNeil is known to many as one of the editors of The Heron's Nest. He also established The Onawa Haiku and Renku Invitational and Moosebreath Ale Festival in his 'spare time'. The Onawa Poems is a collection of the writings of ten poets who have visited MacNeil's family retreat, beside Lake Onawa, over the last ten years. After reading The Onawa Poems one is struck by the majesty of the lake environs and the camaraderie of the participants of the haiku invitational.

warm kitchen the rise and fall of friends' laughter "to us" the wine tilts that way and this

Yu Chang John Stevenson

I have never stood close enough to a moose to smell its breath but I imagine it would be strong enough to knock out a grown man — I imagine a few glasses of Moosebreath Ale does much the same. The beer is, of course, secondary yet the festival has provided its founder with many poems of strength and depth.

cool night a passing cook bends the rice steam

Paul MacNeil


As one would expect from a volume dedicated to a particular place there is a great deal of similarity of imagery in the collection. This is testimony to the shared experience of the poets.

two hawks circling — countless breaths to get here mountain ginko all the haiku a little breathless

Paul m. John Stevenson

Stevenson's haiku is a clever take on the 'one breath' notion for haiku. The front cover features a rather attractive photograph of the lake taken by MacNeil himself. The appearance of the book is, however, let down by the layout: the pages look like they were printed by a daisy-wheel printer and the use of bold capital letters is distracting. Better use could have been made of the white space. Nevertheless, that does not spoil what is truly a great read. If there is a place where haijin can pull together in the spirit of the summer camp, then Lake Onawa seems to be it. Pack your bags, poets! — and your pint glasses! ___________________________ The Onawa Poems, 1999-2008 Edited by Paul W. MacNeil Ship Pond Press Monson ME, USA, 2009 ISBN: 978-0-615-29449-0


A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku Edited by Jim Kacian & Dee Evetts

A Review by Colin Stewart Jones

Featured poets:

Allan Burns Glenn G. Coats Susan Constable Kristen Deming David Grayson Andrea Grillo Paul Hodder Jörgen Johansson Eve Luckring Bob Lucky Scott Mason H. Gene Murtha Roland Packer Michele Root-Bernstein Jeff Stillman Richard S. Straw Tony A. Thompson

Some of the writers within A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku may be more well-known in haiku circles than others. Indeed, I work with one, know another personally and I am familiar with the poetry of a few others. For the purpose of this review, however, I will briefly examine the first five poets only. Nevertheless, the other twelve are all outstanding poets and each of their fifteen poems is worthy of further discussion. Burns' haiku use colour, light and shadow to great effect – he is particularly fond of the colour blue. He can, however, create a sense of sadness without stating the colour directly:

distant virga the ranch dog's eyes different colors One immediately sees a far-away-look in the dog's eyes and expects one of the eyes to be blue.


Coats' poems view the world from an outsider's perspective. He writes of solitude and uncomfortable silences. In the haiku below he notes: clouds in April the trespasser's reluctant "hello" Coats' use of the word 'reluctant' may at first seem like a value judgement. However, this is simply a matter of fact. Just like the April clouds are noted with complete detachment, the poet also seems ambivalent to the trespasser's presence on his land and is perhaps toying with him by forcing a "hello". Constable has a mastery over juxtaposition of the concrete image. There is an equal weight given to the phrase and fragment of each poem. She can also utilise opposites to great effect, however, and is more philosophical when she does so:

mountain air breathing deep enough to remember One usually takes to the hills to get away from it all; to forget about the cares and worries of life for a while. Yet here, on the mountain, the poet finds herself remembering. The antonym to deep is unsaid but we know mountains are high; and as the air is thin so the memory is full. As to what the memory is we can only speculate. Deming's haiku contain an almost unbearable longing yet conversely, and as is often the case in such circumstances, there is an acceptance of what already is. This dichotomy is neatly expressed in the following poem:

sleepless — waiting for the fan to turn my way again On the surface this is a simple expression of the concrete, namely, an insomniac waiting for the fan to direct its cool air towards her on a humid night. However, there is a sexually charged imagery that is clearly evident on closer reading. One sees a woman unsatisfied or perhaps hoping for an encore staring at the dark shape of a lover's shoulder in anticipation – in hope. Grayson's poems record events and occasions that happen in and around the family unit. Family life is recorded warts and all:

Halloween party — after a few drinks the masks come off


This wry observation hides an underlying sadness that is all too familiar. As the drinking increases the inhibitions and guards come down and people let others know what they think of them and show themselves for who they really are. NR6 has been lovingly crafted and there is not one bad poem in it. Other than having an 'emerging voice' the criteria for selection are not stated in the foreword by Kacian and Evetts. However, inclusion is a measure of the editors' expectation for a greater future for each writer. After reading NR6, I am in no doubt the editors' hopes will be fulfilled. ________________________________________ A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku Edited By Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts Red Moon Press, 2009 Winchester, VA, USA ISBN 978-1-893959-79-8


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No.2, September 2009 Page 2 - The Haiku Foundation · the rag-pickers' cries for salvation Gautam Nadkarni - India. Notes from the Gean No.2 ... Gautam Nadkarni - India New Year's

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