Friday, August 14, 2009

Haiku Friday

Hosted by Jen at It's a Jen's Life

I write haiku in the Japanese tradition, not counting syllables or always restricting them to a three line form.


Haiku are about images and the five senses, they do not use the poetic devices of Western literature. Read them very slowly, one line at a time, and do not think with your mind, but visualize and engage all your other physical senses. Enjoy.

Here are three haiku that were chosen as winning entries in The Herb Barrett Award anthology Prairie Sunset (2000) edited by Denver Stull.



slow drip

of the garden tap
the sparrows take turns



charcoal

drawing the tree

it was



and just to prove that I can write one in the 5-7-5 rhythm in English:



plum blossoms falling
the gardener softly singing
in my father's tongue



I am happy to announce that winning copies of The Tree It Was will be going to Marie at The Boston Bibliophile and Serena at Savvy Verse and Wit. I'm sorry I don't have more copies for everyone. E-mail your mailing addresses please ladies.

But I do have a spare copy of Through The Spirea, the 1998 anthology of winning poems for the Herb Barrett Award anthology, 36 pages, and edited by Michael Dylan Welch. Followers may enter to win by indicating that they'd like to be included in the draw.


*All of the poetry on this page is copyrighted by Sandra Fuhringer and may not be used without permission from the author.
E-mail me.

6 comments:

  1. i love your haiku. however, normally i don't conform to 5-7-5. I try to use less syllables because of the sometimes longer nature of English syllables compared with the Japanese syllables.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sandra,
    I loved them all. I read the first one several times then closed my eyes to envision the birds drinking from the dripping water. How lovely!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks so much for the Haiku! I'm excited.

    ReplyDelete
  4. If I remember to do Haiku Fridays it will be a miracle, Sandra. I love your poems and they are so inspirational to me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congrats to Marie and Serena, if Sandra's poetry is any indication, you ladies are in for a treat!

    If it's not too late to enter, I'd like to be included in the draw for Through the Spirea.

    Thanks!
    wanda_waiting[@]hotmail[.]com

    ReplyDelete

Labels

"25 Books That Caused A Commotion" (1) 4 1/2 stars (5) 4 stars (6) 5 stars (8) American literature (21) Asian American authors (1) Australian literature (3) book awards (10) book giveaways (23) book news (4) booking through thursday (3) Books Read This Week (2) Books TBR in 2009 (1) Burma (1) Cambodia (2) Canada (11) Canadian lit (3) Canadian literature (11) Columbian literature (1) Cover Attraction (3) doctors (1) education (1) elephants (1) England (3) English literature (5) environment (1) epistolary fiction (4) Ex-Cottagers in Love (1) family (3) fiction (2) five stars (2) forewords (1) four and a half stars (1) four stars (1) French literature (3) Friday Finds (6) Giller Prize (2) Giller Prize longlist (1) Giller Prize Winner 2008 (1) guest reviews (10) Hachette (2) haiku (4) Haiku Friday (5) historical fiction (6) humour (1) immigrants (1) Index of Books Reviewed (1) interview (1) Iraq (1) Israel (2) Israeli literature (1) It's Monday What are you reading this week? (2) Italian literature (1) Italy (1) Jerusalem (1) Jewish Book Month (3) Jewish Literature (6) Jewish Literature Challenge (2) Judaism (1) Latin American literature (1) Latin American Reading Challenge (1) library books (1) Library Loot (28) Library Loot July 22 (1) literary fiction (38) literature (20) literature in translation (1) love stories (2) Mailbox Monday (19) male friendship (1) marriage (1) medicine (1) memoir (1) music (1) Musing Mondays (2) My Favourite Reads (1) my work (1) mystery (1) Native Canadians (1) New Crayons (6) New Crayons July 5 (1) New England (1) New York (1) Nigeria (1) Nigerian literature (1) Nobel author (3) Nobel authors (1) Nobel Laureate (1) non-fiction (1) Norway (1) Norwegian literature (1) Nova Scotia (1) Orange Prize (2) ornithology (1) Orthodox Judaism (1) psychological fiction (3) Pulitzer Project (1) rating system (1) Read 'Em Yet? Wednesday (1) Read in 2008 (1) reading challenges (62) reading challenges 2010 (1) reviews (46) Russia (1) Russian literature (1) Salon Sunday (1) Scandinavian mystery (1) short stories (2) Show Me 5 Saturday (2) Spanish literature (2) Sunday Salon (3) The Complete Booker Reading Challenge (1) The Martel-Harper Challenge (1) The Sunday Salon (12) Thursday Tea (4) Toronto (1) translation (2) triplets (1) TSS (2) TSS June in Review (1) TSS March in Review (1) TSS May in Review (1) TSS Week in Review (2) Turkish literature (2) Venice (1) Waiting on Wednesday (8) Waiting on Wednesday July 15 (1) war stories (2) Weekly Geeks (11) What Are You Reading On Mondays? (10) What's On Your Nightstand? (8) winners (14) women writers (2) Wondrous Words (1) Wordless Wednesday (3) writers (1) WW II (2) Wyoming (1)
free logo design

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin