Scorpion Prize and Albert Huffstickler

Back a number of months ago, I was contacted by Paul and Scott of Roadrunner ("best short poetry magazine ever") to judge the 18th installment of their haiku selections, The Scorpion Prize. I was simultaneously flattered, honored, and a bit intimidated.

After all, what do I really know from haiku? If you are looking for an expert, here's the place to be. And there are many more "well-versed" folks who could be chosen, but I accepted the invitation in the generous spirit in which it was extended. Still, I was kind of haunted by the idea of being a judge; here's the opening of the essay:

-------------The Scorpion Prize of Issue IX:3

---After studying this collection of some 80 or so haiku, I've
come to the conclusion that it is, more likely than not, the
judge who needs judging.

---There is much here I am unqualified to read, no less
deliberate over. We are deep in the land of modern English
language haiku (or ku), advanced division. Reading through
I was often confused, frequently bemused.

---So, what manner of judge is this, one might rightly ask?

---Well, let's put it on the table: if I have a bias (and I'm an
editor, so what's with the "if"), it is toward what is known in
English language Haikuville as the one breath poem: screw
the syllable counting, the poem is the length of one breath -
in, out, pause.


---Period (or not).

---The groaning in the distance is, no doubt, audible over
large land masses, as well as sizable bodies of water. ...

The quality of the work was excellent; deciding which were the top three poems was truly a test of humility, liberally shot through with hubris. A little like that coffee-infused vodka going about these days. A contradiction in terms, like judging poetry, or being an editor for that matter.

To see how I worked it all out, check out the full essay with top three haiku (pdf document). If you are a poet or connoisseur of the short poem, Roadrunner is a must. My thanks to both Scott and Paul for their faith in me - I greatly appreciate it.



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Some misc notes of interest: of the 6 prizewinning haiku in the 2nd Annual Bashô Haiku Challenge, only one was from the United States (Peter Newton). The others were from Japan (William Appel), Poland (Jacek Margolak), Romania (Eduard Tara), Canada (Terry Ann Carter), and Croatia (Dubravko Korbus). The only one I've been unable to contact about winning: Peter Newton from the US. So, if anyone knows Peter's email (I have an email address - it didn't bounce, but no reply) or knows him, if you would give him a shout out from me, I'd appreciate it.

He knows where I am.

Also, there has been some Albert Huffstickler related news. There is an interesting spiritual-themed post at Thousand Voices that features a great poem by Huff, entitled "The Cure." Also outlaw poetry and free jazz has posted a notice about emailing Austin City Council to get a local park named after Huff. I posted here about this back in August, but evidently its getting down to the wire so now is the time to be heard.

If you have enjoyed Huff's work as much as I have, drop them a line. There is even a sample of what you might say in the outlaw poetry post. Here's one of the many poems Huff published in Lilliput over the years. I've posted this one before but there are no good poems that don't bear a second reading.

Cafe Poem

The woman in
the corner,
white on black,
white skin,
black hair,
black dress,
lights a
long, white
cigarette,
the orange flame
bright
against her cheek.

Albert Huffstickler

best,
Don

2nd Annual Bashô Haiku Challenge Winner

After weeks of working through nearly 500 haiku from 99 poets, I've made a final selection of 56 poems to be published in the 2010 2nd Annual Bashô Haiku Challenge chapbook. Though I received 3 times as many entries as last year, the task seemed a thousand times more daunting. I set no particular limit or had no particular length in mind for the chapbook, so the final selection represents only the highest quality of work I received. Last year's chapbook contained 25 haiku, making this year's over double the size. I would have been happy to publish another chap of the same size, but the quality of entries demanded a weightier book and I am even happier to oblige with that.


The winning poem comes from William Appel of Japan:

Leaf
falling off
the mountain

William Appel

I will let William's poem speak for itself, only saying that to evoke the entire macrocosm via one of its smallest components, in just 5 words, is a daunting accomplishment and the stuff of great haiku, indeed.

The five runner-up poems, each of which will receive a book from Jim Kacian's red moon press (page down a bit at this link for the titles), plus a 6 issue subscription to Lilliput Review and two copies of the chapbook upon publication, are as follows:




waiting for you --
the window changes
into a mirror

Jacek Margolak

Up the river –
a boat splits
the Milky Way

Eduard Tara

in and out
of the ambulance's wail
birdsong

Terry Ann Carter

standing among the aspens just one of the grove

Peter Newton

a cloudy night
only croaking of the tree frog
gives shape to the bush

Dubravko Korbus

Choosing these 6 poems among the 56 selected overall proved to be quite a challenge, so the title, Bashô Haiku Challenge, swings both ways, for the editor as well as the poets. I'd like to thank everyone who participated this year and say sincerely that, though the task was massive, it was well worth the effort. The work brought great joy, sadness, and the myriad gamut of emotions that move between.

Part 2 of the "daunting task" begins with the shipping out of the 6 prizes and 6 issue subscriptions to all 50 plus poets whose work will be included in the forthcoming chapbook. I anticipate publication of the 2nd Annual chap to be sometime mid-year 2010. I sincerely hope to get all of the new subscriptions out in the mail over the next 4 weeks. Since this happens to dovetail with the new issues going out to current subscribers, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to pull it all off. Bear with me, folks - all good things are worth the wait, as the cliché goes.

One last note for the moment about the contest; I'd like to particularly thank the online haiku community for embracing and promoting the challenge. The amount of international submissions I received (and accepted for the chapbook) was truly amazing. Thanks particularly to haiku societies in Australia, Canada, Croatia, and Great Britain and, I'm sure, others I wasn't even aware of that sent out notices about the challenge. Thanks, too, of course to all who submitted and the stateside folks, such as Jim Kacian at red moon press, that really gave the whole idea a nice lift. I'm sure I've forgotten someone but you get the idea: I am grateful, indeed.



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The new issues, #'s 171 and 172, begin going out this week, contributors having just received their copies. With an additional 50+ copies to be printed, collated, folded, and stapled (see above), it will be awhile before they all get in the mail. I'm hoping to post the majority of them over the next 4 weeks, but chances are it may take a bit longer.

Ah, the price of success of a one-person operation.

This week's featured issue is #169, from July 2009. With next week's feature, almost all of the anthology issues from the last 20 years will have made been highlighted on the blog over the years. I've been thinking about what direction to go in future posts. More about that soon. Meanwhile, enjoy these highlights in their attempt to counter the darkness of the coming season:

A good poem
Should smell of tea,
earth or newly split wood.
A few words piled together
To make something of a hut.

Dennis Maloney

there was a time
when thinking of sunflowers
sunflowers appeared

Constance Campbell

My childhood flowered :: with a color I can't finish

Grant Hackett

Oh

rose
that blew
apart

Stephanie Hiteshaw

And the master's final word:





in autumn frost
lushly blooming again
roses of Sharon

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

Georg Trakl and James Wright

I mentioned in last week's post on James Wright's "Milkweed" that, while doing some research, I discovered Wright's love for the work of Georg Trakl. I recently finished Trakl's Autumn Sonata: Selected Poems, translated by Daniel Simko, and I thoroughly understand Wright's attraction. Here's a standout poem that shares a tonal quality similar to Wright:

In Springtime

Snow sank softly from the dark footsteps.
In the shade of a tree
Lovers raise their rosy eyelids.

The dark calls of sailors are always followed
By stars and night;
The oars beat softly in time.

Soon the violets will begin to blossom
By the crumbling wall,
The lonely man's temples softly turn green.

Georg Trakl

The nature imagery is reminiscent of work in The Branch Will Not Break. The closing revelation is not, however, typical of Trakl and, in this case, really stands out. Like all great poets, Trakl works the same territory over and over, tilling and re-tilling his garden to bring forth myriad varieties of the genus lyrical. Some images are so constant as to be all pervasive: a deer, tentative and feeding at forests' edge; the sound of bells, blending together as they fade; the clarity of twilight; autumn's pervasive sadness; the sensed presence of the dead, all around us; small details of village life, with human activity strangely absent; and a deep, resonant melancholy.

I was totally taken over by this work. It dominated me for the last few weeks and, though it is as different from my own as possibly could be imagined, it stimulated me to write and write and write. Wright of The Branch Will Not Break shares with Trakl the approach of recording in detail, imagistically, what is about him. In Wright, it gives the sense of the present moment, of seeing what the poet sees as it is observed. With Trakl, there is a sense of the eternal quality of what is observed. A denouement often results from these images of Wright; with Trakl, normally the images and tone are the end in and of themselves. Wright's images aren't in any sense repetitive; Trakl's are very much so and, though this might challenge the modern reader, it is this repetitiveness that gives them their eternal, immortal quality. Trakl's work is predominately in the 3rd person, Wright utilizes a 1st person persona in many cases, particularly in Branch. Both share a quality of sadness that occasionally implies unnamed, past transgressions. The flawed quality of human nature is never far from the surface in the work of both these fine poets. Here is another haunting piece by Trakl:




Hohenburg (Second Version)

No one at home. Autumn fills the rooms;
Moon-bright sonata
And the awakening at the edge of the twilit forest.

You always think of the white face of mankind
Far from the turmoil of the times–
A green branch bends willingly over the one dreaming.

Cross and evening.
The star of the one singing embraces him with purple arms
As it rises to the empty windows.

Therefore, the stranger trembles in the darkness
As he softly raises his eyelids over a human shape.
In the distance, the silver voice of the wind in the hallway.

Georg Trakl

I've yet to read the twenty poems by Trakl translated by Wright and Robert Bly (pdf file). I am looking forward to it very much. I'll close these thoughts with Wright's poem, "I Was Afraid of Dying." The library poetry discussion group I co-moderate will be considering three poems by James Wright next week, which I am also looking forward to. It will be difficult, indeed, to keep my enthusiasm for his work in check. I have a feeling others will match it.





I Was Afraid of Dying

Once,
I was afraid of dying
In a field of dry weeds.
But now,
All day long I have been walking among damp fields,
Trying to keep still, listening
To insects that move patiently.
Perhaps they are sampling the fresh dew that gathers slowly
In empty snail shells
And in the secret shelters of sparrow feathers fallen on the
------earth.

James Wright

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The submission period for the 2nd Annual Bashô Haiku Challenge has ended and the response was excellent. This year there are 99 entries from all over; the UK, Eastern Europe, Japan, and New Zealand are all well represented, as well as the US. The total is close to 500 haiku. Last year there were 34 entries with around 150 poems. So, the reading period has begun and it will be taking quite some time, no doubt.

I'll keep everybody posted on my progress.




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This week's featured issue of Lilliput Review is #153, from November 2006. Enjoy.

Vespers

In this life where, from the womb,
---we step from dark to darkness,
what joy when a few fireflies
---rise up
------------to light our way.

Dan Stryk

Black Bread
-- found phrase (after a poem by Anna Akmatova)

Made of tears, blood and bile, mixed to
a paste of black sorrow and yeasty obedience,
you rise like an envelope full of stale air.
Pounded, meek and quiet into a mass of hope,
fibrous connections tearing, kneaded
again and again, torn and prayered, cornered.
I taste your salty promises of flesh and suckle
the finger offered. I breathe the moist air
made of grief tissue. I eat the corpse proffered.

Lita Sorenson

Credo

Never turn away from
a blessing,
no matter how
severe

Greg Watson

full moon
half moon

I
just don't know

Ed Baker

And Issa's parting word(s) ...







in every direction
ten thousand blessings...
croaking frogs

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

2nd Annual Bashô Haiku Challenge: Reminder, with Poems

Seven full days to the deadline for the 2nd Annual Bashô Haiku Challenge. 11:59 pm, Saturday, October 31st will be the final postmark.

Much good luck to all!

Don't imitate me;
it's as boring
as the two halves of a melon.

Matsuo Bashô
translated by Robert Hass

a farting contest
under the moonflower trellis...
cool air

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

Albert Huffstickler's Soul Gallery

An early chapbook by Albert Huffstickler, entitled Soul Gallery, has appeared on Scribd, so I thought I would share it with you all since so many folks love Huff's work. Soul Gallery was originally published by Bard Press back in 1987. The first poem, "Unshed Tears," is pure Huff, reflective of many of the fine works which he would write in succeeding years.

Here is one of my favorite poems of Huff's which was published in Lilliput Review, #91 and has made an appearance or two in this blog over the years. It is seasonal and this is the season, so I once again cannot resist the beauty of its shared wisdom:

And you too shall
pass, the autumn
tells me, shaking
its leaves
in my face.

Albert Huffstickler

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In the recent Bashô Challenge update, I mentioned that Jim Kacian of red moon press was going to generously donate 5 poetry volumes to serve as additional prizes for the five runner-up poems in the Challenge. The volumes have arrived and here they are:

Ksana by john martone

john is one of the, if not the, preeminent master of haiku in America today. This volume collects scads of the small self-produced booklets of work that recipients cherish. Simply, a masterpiece.

white lies: The Red Moon Anthology of English Language Haiku, 2008, edited by Jim Kacian and the Red Moon Editorial Staff.

Divided into 3 major sections - haiku/senryu, linked forms, and essays - this annual volume features some the finest purveyors of haiku writing in English today. Included are Fay Aoyagi, Roberta Beary (last year's Bashô Challenge winner), Tom Clausen, LeRoy Gorman, Ruth Holzer, paul m., ed markowski, Tom Painting, John Stevenson, George Swede, James Tipton, Cor van den Heuvel, and many more. Not to be missed.

A New Resonance, 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, edited by Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts

These future voices are, of course, actually the voices of now. Regular readers of Lilliput will recognize many of these names, including Andrea Grillo, Jeff Stillman, and Richard Straw.

A Future Waterfall: 100 Haiku from the Japanese by Ban'ya Natsuishi

The second revised edition by the award winning poet. Included are 5 essays plus one interview. This is unique work by a innovative purveyor of haiku: "Sucking in the blue sky / a cicada hole / disappears"

A String Untouched: Dag Hammarskjöld's Life in Haiku and Photographs by Kai Falkman

This is selection of 50 haiku with photographs by Dag Hammarskjöld, translated with exegesis and biographical details by Kai Falkman. Hammarskjöld was one of the preeminent diplomats of the 20th century and the only person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after his death, whose book "Markings" was a worldwide bestseller. A fascinating and unique approach to the life and work.

These 5 books will be given away in addition to the 1st prize volume, Bashō and His Interpreters: Selected Hokku with Commentary, edited by Makoto Ueda. For additional information, please see the 2nd Annual Bashô Haiku Challenge.


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This week's featured issue from the Lilliput Review archive is #157, from August 2007. Here are the 4 poems from the opening 2 pages. Enjoy.





gentle,
the wish of not to wish

Sean Perkins

half
a snail-
shell

full
of earth

John Martone

July 23, Sunday

the butterfly
a Tiger Swallowtail
pale yellow
with black stripes
scorched down her wings
nestles in between
the petals of all
the six-stalked
scarlet day-
lilies blossoming
in the garden

Robert Schuler

just squeeze into
----hollow sycamore
--------& close my eyes

John Martone

And, of course, last word to the master:

garden butterfly--
the child crawls, it flies
crawls, it flies...

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

Kenneth Rexroth: Songs of Love, Moon & Wind, and a Bashô Haiku Challenge Update

Night Without End

Night without end. I cannot sleep.
The full moon blazes overhead.
Far off in the night I hear someone call.
Hopelessly, I answer, "Yes."

Anonymous (Six Dynasties)

Songs of Love, Moon & Wind: Poems from the Chinese is the companion volume to Kenneth Rexroth's Written on the Sky: Poems from the Japanese, which I discussed in a previous posting. Utilizing Scribd, New Directions has provided some sample poems from the collections, a nice touch, which I've linked to via the titles.

As companion volumes, they make a fine set in their physically attractive and appealing designs, and as an introduction to the overall body of Rexroth's Japanese and Chinese translations. The same flaws with the previous volume stand; no bibliographic history of where these poems previously appeared is provided, so those owning volumes such as and 100 Poems from the Chinese and 100 More Poems from the Chinese have no idea if these selections come from these, or for that matter, any other volumes by Rexroth.

Again, all that being said, this is another fine selection of work, although personally my preference is with the Japanese selection Written on the Sky. This, however, probably reflects my overall attraction to Japanese poetry.

The following two poems chronicle a closeness to nature; in addition, an affinity with the first two of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths makes that closeness readily apparent, something this volume illustrates again and again. First, Master Tu Fu:

Loneliness

A hawk hovers in the air.
Two white gulls float on the stream.
Soaring with the wind, it is easy
To drop and seize
Birds who foolishly drift with the current.
Where the dew sparkles in the grass,
The spider's web waits for its prey.
The processes of nature resemble the business of men.
I stand alone with ten thousand sorrows.

Tu Fu

How easy it is to seize birds that foolishly drift in the current! And the business of men seen as the extension of the preying hawk and lurking spider. Ten thousand sorrows, indeed.

As was frequently the custom in Chinese poetry, poems were set to the tunes of well-known songs. Here is a song that one day we all must sing:

To the Tune "The Fair Maid of Yu"

Once when young I lay and listened
To the rain falling on the roof
Of a brothel. The candlelight
Gleamed on silk and silky flesh.
Later I heard it on the
Cabin roof of a small boat
On the Great River, under
Low clouds where wild geese cried out
On the Autumn storm. Now I
Hear it again on the monastery
Roof. My hair has turned white.
Joy--sorrow--parting--meeting--
Are all as though they had
Never been. Only the rain
Is the same, falling in streams
On the tiles, all through the night.

Chiang Chien

Today, this is a song of life sorrow familiar to admirers of Jack Kerouac, Albert Huffstickler, the Romantics in general, and so many of the great poets. This astute, resonating collection by one of the master translators and major poets of 20th century, Kenneth Rexroth, fits neatly in the palm of your hand or the back pocket of your jeans. Take into the woods. Read it. Breath it. Live it.

Then leave it for the next seeker.

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Jim Kacian of red moon press has written to me and generously offered to sweeten the pot for the 2nd Annual Bashô Haiku Challenge. Jim is going to provide 5 books from red moon's exemplary catalogue to be given away to participants. So, with his approval, I've decided to give a book to each of the first five runners-up to the first prize winner. To recap, here's the full dope:

1. Until October 31st, send up to five haiku via email to:
lilliput review at gmail dot com (spelled out to fend off
pesky bots). I will need a minimum of your name and
email.

2. Accepted works will be published in the 2nd Annual Bashô Haiku Challenge Chapbook to be published some
time in 2010.

3. The winner of the challenge will receive a copy of
Bashō and His Interpreters: Selected Hokku with Commentary, edited by Makoto Ueda, a 15 issue
subscription to Lilliput Review and two contributor
copies of the chapbook.

4. 5 runners-up to the winning haiku will receive a
book from red moon press, a 6 issue subscription to
LR, and two copies of the chapbook.

5. Everyone else whose work is published will receive
a 6 issue subscription and two copies of the chapbook.

So, that's the update. Again, the deadline is October 31st. Send work along and good luck.


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Cover by Wayne Hogan

Poems highlighted this week come from issue #159, November 2007, something of a menagerie, human and otherwise. Enjoy.




At the Marsh in Wartime

With its too-big head
the kingfisher in federal blue

dives and dives into the much
and brings up a fingerling every time.

Jennifer Wallace

concave
nut-shard
next to

convex
mushroom

thank you
brother
squirrel

John Martone

Split the Lark--and you'll find the Music--
--Bulb after Bulb, in Silver rolled--
Scantily dealt to the Summer Morning
--Saved for your Ear when Lutes be old.

Loose the Flood--you shall find it patent--
--Gush after Gush, reserved for you--
Scarlet Experiment! Sceptic Thomas!
--Now, do you doubt that your Bird was true?

Emily Dickinson

And one from 159, to introduce Master Issa:

bored
i found a new haiku
on my tongue

John Grochalski

ripples on water--
mingling with the larks
a fishing boat

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

2nd Annual Bashō Haiku Challenge

Well, folks, it's that time: this year I will be reading for the 2nd Annual Bashō Haiku Challenge beginning today and continuing through the entire month of October. With a couple of slight adjustments from last year (i.e. a different 1st prize), here are the instructions as outlined last year:

So, here's the deal: for the next four weeks, send along up to
5 haiku to lilliput review at gmail dot com (spelled out
to fend off pesky bots) and the best haiku wins a copy of
Bashō and His Interpreters: Selected Hokku with
Commentary, edited by Makoto Ueda. Minimally, I will
need your name and email to contact you with the
results. In the subject line of your email, please put
"2nd Annual Bashō Haiku Challenge" so I can easily
differentiate it from the scads of other things that come my
way. The final date for submissions will be October 31st and
the winner will be announced in either November 18th or
December 2nd postings. My definition of haiku is about as
liberal as you can get: I follow no one particular method,
school or theory and there is no seasonal requirement.
Your haiku can be 1, 2, or 3 lines (over 5 would be a bit
much, folks, but I will keep an open mind for
experimenters). The one restriction would be that it be
in the spirit of haiku (I've always liked the definition of
English haiku as lasting the length of one breath, in and
out and pause, but that's just me - and, oh yeah, I'm the
judge, but, again, it's the spirit of the thing that counts)
and that the haiku be previously unpublished in either
paper or electronic form (ok, that's two requirements).

In addition, the winning poet will receive a 15 issue
subscription to Lilliput Review (or have their current
subscription extended by 15 issues), plus two copies of
the 2nd Annual chapbook, to be published sometime in
2010. Other poets whose work is selected for inclusion
will receive 2 copies of the chapbook plus a 6 issue
subscription.

That's it. This is an electronic submission contest only; it is my way of giving back to the online community that has been so vibrant and encouraging since I started actively blogging in July 2007.

Some of you may remember the genesis of this contest, some may have come along since then. In brief, I was contacted last year by Tomoe Sumi of Kodansha America Press, who had been following an ongoing series of posts and discussions about the work Matsuo Bashô. At that time, she offered a reviewer's copy of their fine new volume, Bashō: The Complete Haiku, translated by Jane Reichhold, to throw into the discussion mix. Since I'd already purchased it for myself, I politely declined and she offered to send it anyway, suggesting I give it away. And so the contest was born.

To continue in the tradition of a volume of Bashō as first prize, I've decided this year to purchase and give away the selected work, with critical commentary, as listed above. Again, I own a personal copy; it is a fine selection of Bashō, accompanied with criticism from a wide variety of sources, historical context, and scholarly discussion. For the novice, it may be read as a selected poems. For the more experienced or simply curious, it is a rich rewarding journey into the essence of haiku in general and Bashō in particular. It is a high quality, pricey trade paperback that will make a fine addition to anyone's Eastern poetry collection. Makoto Ueda is one of the finest authorities on the work of Bashō and his 1970 biography (link is to google books and is a perfect illustration of what can go horribly wrong there) is considered essential reading for those delving deep into the work of the haiku master. You can get a glimpse into Bashō and His Interpreters at the link above to google books, where there is nice little preview.

Spread the word and let the games begin!


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This week's featured issue is #160, from November 2007. If you are so inclined, you may literally (after a virtual fashion) flip through the entire issue here. Enjoy.




#213

Only a wisp
Of cloud above,
But like a
Sacred Song
It pointed the way

Yosano Akiko
translated by Dennis Maloney

Autumn wind,
nudging me down the mountain,
quivers a grass seed
that clings to my skirt.

Suzanne Freeman

rail cars
stacked with wood
slowly pass the living-
i whisper to them
kaddish

Donna Fleischer

And a little seasonal thought, from the master:

wildflowers--
all we say or speak about
is autumn wind

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don