Wholly Haiku

Today’s been all about Haiku and other related originally-Japanese forms. First I received an email from Jim Kacian of the Haiku Foundation, outlining just what’s being done in the Haiku field at the moment and launching a once-yearly fundraiser to “ask for help to sustain efforts to archive the achievements of the first century of English-language Haiku, and to create opportunities for the next.” How can I refuse? If you, like me, are interested in the potential of the form, you might like to read more about successes to date (and also make a donation) by visiting www.thehaikufoundation.org

And then, through the letterbox, came the current edition of Blithe Spirit, the journal of the British Haiku Society. As usual it’s packed with new work across Haiku, Tanka and Haibun – my favourite form and the form I’m judging in the forthcoming BHS (not British Home Stores as my mother thought it was!) Haibun Competition at the beginning of 2014. If you’d like to see what’s on offer to you if you become a member of the British Haiku Society, take a trip to www.britishhaikusociety.org.uk You won’t be disappointed.

In addition to the Blithe Spirit quarterly journal, you get a members’ newsletter called the Brief full of information of what’s on where throughout the year and, an annual anthology of members’ Haiku with focus on a particular theme. This year’s theme was Time and this was my effort:

closed now
the sweet shop in the park
blistered timbers like burnt sugar