Astronomical Haiku
total solar eclipse
the growing shadows
of glaucoma
-Kim Klugh, Lancaster, PA
frost-bright moon
a deer’s breath rises
to meet it
-C.X. Turner, UK
double meteor shower …
this urge to hold
onto what has been
-Chen-ou Liu
far from home
a comet flicks its tail
across our sky
-Tracy Davidson, Warwickshire, UK
a carriage of stars
this sweltering night
on your porch swing
-Ceó Ruaírc, UK
the empty page
devoid of muse
total eclipse
-Nitu Yumnam, India
summer evenings
Perseid meteor showers
stellar dandruff
-Karl Klip, BC
rivaling the orange
of the chrysanthemums
–October supermoon
-Nancy Brady, Ohio, USA
Michele’s Musings
Hard to believe we are halfway through November already! So many beautiful images to behold with the changing colours and even a little snow in some places. I’m sure lots have you have been writing haiku, and also perhaps capturing the season with paintings or photographs. I’ve had a few questions about what haiga is. Haiga is a magical Japanese form that combines art, words, and calligraphy. The three don’t repeat each other, but rather reflect to produce an entirely new work. In modern day, haiga are created using paintings, sketches, and photographs (sometimes called shahai). I’ve even seen some done with sculptures. The haiku can be inspired by the art, or the art inspired by the haiku. The calligraphy (or font) has taken a backseat, although it can still be a useful consideration in terms of size, style, shadow or colour. The real key is to understand that the haiku isn’t simply describing the image. Instead it is carrying the image forward, adding a new dimension. That’s where the magic happens. I hope you will enjoy trying your hand at this issue’s prompt!
Member News
The results of the Jane Reichhold Memorial Haiga competition are in! Big congratulations to Nitu Yumnam for receiving an Honorable Mention in the Traditional Haiga category and Debbie Strange for receiving 2nd Place in the Photo Haiga category.
The latest issue of Failed Haiku is available online to read. So many of our subscribers have senryu in this issue I couldn’t name them all. But please know we see you and appreciate your fantastic work!
Reposted on Charlotte Digregorio’s blog were the following works:
folding away a map
inside my heart
leaving you
to count the cost
of unseen feelings
by Joanna Ashwell, UK
cattails, Spring/April 2021
up a canyon
footsteps stop . . .
the sound of a breeze
by Emil Karla (France)
Haiku Dialogue, Aug. 7, 2024
The Haiku Foundation
bullets of crows
on gunmetal nights . . .
a deeper shade
of anguish echoes
in her bones
by Debbie Strange (Canada)
Atlas Poetica, No. 29, 2017
Congratulations also to Paul Callus for jointly placing first in the Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Prize! Way to go, Paul.
Sally’s Notebook
*Correction: In the last issue I made two errors in the same paragraph, and I’d like to apologize to Michael Dylan Welch for misspelling his name and for listing his website incorrectly. Graceguts is one word! I should have known both but apparently, I was asleep at the wheel.
The last few weeks have left me feeling very unsettled. I don’t know if it’s the shock of the US election results, or unexpected medical issues, or both, but I have found myself unable or unwilling to do anything. Thank goodness for my friends Michele and Jaki. Every morning at 9:30 am, my phone rings. The three of us have a conference call in which we pull a prompt from a lovely little box and have ten minutes to write a poem. We have been doing this every day for the month of November. If it weren’t for those daily prompts, I likely wouldn’t be writing anything at all. But it does remind me that February isn’t that far off, and of course, February is NaHaiWriMo – 28 days of writing a haiku every day.
Are you planning to participate? Between now and the beginning of February, Michele and I will work on a list of prompts we will share with you. At the end of the month, you will have the opportunity to assemble 15 of your prompt-driven haiku and send it to us. We will choose our favourite and print the whole thing in the next issue of The Solitary Daisy. Sound like fun? I hope so because I haven’t even discussed it with Michele yet.
Remember a few issues ago when I said even though we only choose eight submitted haiku for each issue, occasionally one sticks with us? Well, that happened after our last issue, and so, I’d like to share the one haiku that didn’t make it on the page but is sticking with us, nonetheless..
plastic flowers
adorn her grave
constant winter
Jeral Williams, Mobile, AL
Thanks, Jeral, for sharing this haiku with us. It definitely made an impression.
Deadlines and Other Fun Stuff
Submissions for United Haiku and Tanka Society’s 3rd Edition of Songbirds Online are open now until December 1. Please read all the relevant information before submitting.
Failed Haiku is open until November 25.
Frogpond’s submission period ends November 30
Some of the deadlines listed in the last issue are still open, for those of you, like myself, who tend to procrastinate.
Jacob Salzer interviews Jeff Hoagland
Yavanika Press has free e-books available to download!
Ben Gaa’s Haiku Talk on YouTube
This Week’s Prompt
A really fun way to practice haiga is to follow along with Josiah at Complete the Haiga. They post regular images on various social media sites.
For this week’s prompt, pick one of Josiah’s prompts and make sure to keep the idea of the art and the text making something new together.
In the cherry
-Issa
blossom’s shade there’s no such thing as a stranger.
Sally Quon is a disabled poet and photographer living in the Okanagan Valley of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. She is an associate member of The League of Canadian Poets and a member of Haiku Canada. Her work has been published in numerous journals including The Heron’s Nest, Modern Haiku, Frogpond, First Frost, and Time Haiku. She is currently working on her first book of haiku, haibun, and haiga, tentatively titled, “My Valley, My Home.”
Featherstone Creative
Michele Rule is a disabled writer from Kelowna BC. She is especially interested in the topics of chronic illness, relationships and nature. Michele is published in the Asahi Shimbun Haikuist, Pine Cone Review, the Enchanted Garden, Five Minute Lit, Shadow Pond, WordCityLit, and the anthologies F*ck the Patriarchy, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and To Live Here, among others. She is an associate member of the League of Canadian Poets and Haiku Canada. Michele has been awarded honourable mention twice for the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational and also for the Haiku Northwest Porad Award. Her first chapbook is Around the World in Fifteen Haiku. Michele lives in a beautiful garden surrounded by people who love her just the way she is.
