Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
My wee poem (yes it's a haiku) which was selected as one of the seven winners in the Great Big Little Poems comp has just been published on the Every Day Poets website http://www.everydaypoets.com/senryu-by-marion-clarke/
Comments
Alan Summers (in the comments) is the haiku teacher I (and my poet friends) employed a little while ago to do an internet haiku course.
I don't think visitors to EDP can comment unless they're registered but I think you can rate it by clicking on the star system - if you think it's good enough, that is!
you wouldn't believe how chuffed i was when Alan Summers commented - im sure my husband wondered why I was so excited!!! :)
Did you enjoy the course?
Marion
The course was amazingly difficult. We were all poets, some VERY well known. On several occasions when we have been together we have discussed haiku and at a poetry exhibition I did in 2009, Alan visited and was grilled by a few of them. They were somewhat resentful (probably too strong a word) of the fact I said what they were writing were not haiku - I feel very strongly that if you publish a poem in a children's book and call it a haiku, particularly as an example of a haiku, it should be one!
So, wanting to do something more intense earlier in the year I asked Alan if he would do me a course over the internet, as I'm unable to get to his things. He agreed, and said if anyone else wanted to do it it would be cheaper. So i mailed all my poet friends, and they ALL wanted to do it, in fact we had to split into 2 groups.
One gave up! We all feel we learned a lot, but the trouble is, there is just so much to learn. He was very strict as we were of a high standard poetry wise and I think he was a bit too strict really as it took a lot of the enthusiasm away for some of us.
That said, we all wrote at least one real haiku. Some wrote quite a few.
Bloomin 'eck it's difficult though, and I'm not surprised it's been dumbed down into a 3 line poem in many instances by people who just don't or can't 'get' it.
(A sight I hope not to see if ever I holiday in Ireland... then again, depends who's doing it!!)
If anyone is interested in studying the form a bit, you could try visiting the Haiku Foundation - I've learned so much since registering there http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/