UK haiku journal Presence is always a good read and Presence 63 is no exception with 105 pages of poems, haibun, essays and reviews. It includes the results of the 2018 Martin Lucas Haiku Award, which I can now reveal that I judged!
spring
the dead owl
mostly soil
Brad Bennett, First
Judging contests is easy compared with the ongoing, laborious work of editing a journal. I daresay there’s some fun to be had too, but hearing Stanford M Forrester (editor of bottle rockets press) say he’d changed his posting address to an anonymous box number due to receiving death threats from a disgruntled submitter put a whole new light on what editors have to deal with!
The process of putting together number eight wire, the newly published fourth New Zealand haiku anthology, prompted me to write a (slightly tongue-in-cheek) piece for Haiku NewZ, Learning Better Habits.
breech birth
the old cowhand
unbuckles his belt
Lew Watts
relapse –
through an icy blast
bleat of a lamb
Andre Surridge
hesitating
in my prayers –
linnet song
Mary White
swapping seats
on an empty train
afternoon sun
Debbi Antebi
cross-country train –
the little place where we stop
being strangers
Sandra Simpson
Creatrix is the online quarterly publication of Western Australia Poets, with the journal being split into two – one link for ‘regular poetry’ (submissions open only to financial members) and another for the haiku section (open to all).
The only odd thing about submitting to Creatrix is that no one tells you if you’ve had anything selected, you have to wait for the journal to appear to find out! Given they have three selectors and a submissions manager that seems a little, well, poor. If anyone knows of a good reason why this happens, I’d be happy to hear it.
first light
gum branches
tangle the mist
Gavin Austin
country cemetery
the last shop in town
boarded up
Louise Hopewell
floating dandelion
all the locked windows
at the hospital
Bee Jay
end of summer —
the hurdy-gurdy cries
of gannets
Sandra Simpson
And in the past few days I learned that one of my poems has judged a Haiku of Merit in the RH Blyth Haiku Award (UK). Read all the winning entries here.
Persian garden —
every avenue lined
with bitter oranges
Sandra Simpson
Read more about ‘narenj’, the bitter oranges of Iran, used to scent gardens and flavour food.
breath, a collection of haiku 