Just one response to

native grasses
bending west
and old woman

this is by Al Pizzarelli from The Haiku Anthology, ed. Cor van den Heuvel:

the fat lady
bends over the tomatoes
a full moon

Forgive me! I couldn't resist!

Lee

Steve, I don't want to deny you a taste (yuk!) of glory! I will find another judge. I will see if Charlie Trumbull, who is now editor of MH is around. I am sure he would enjoy making a selection.

Lee

P.S. I will follow Steve's lead and recommend my own book! Seriously now, the copyright is owned by Modern Haiku Press, which is a not for profit, so i don't get anything out of it except i have to take them to the post office. we usually sell them for US$20 postpaid. if anyone is actually interested, for US orders $15 to MHP, POB 68, Lincoln, IL 62656 will do it. For foreign orders, the postage would be more, so let's make it $18 in U bills. You might be interested in hearing that we are almost through our second 1000 and will have to reprint it again after the first of the year. http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/smile.gif

Hi Lee,

Yes, I can see it. And yes, "empty" makes perfect sense in that case.

It's a funny thing: we sometimes get attached to our own readings of poems as much as we get attached to our poems. I guess my thing with "empty" was just that it seemed to close off (or at least, leave less room for) the interpretation of the poem that I preferred. I wanted to see it as a happy "expectant" scene, and "empty" seemed to preempt that possibility. (I can't get away from the puns this morning, it seems.) As you say though, the poem may have other designs entirely--or at least, be every bit as determined to open itself to multiple readings as readers are determined to find their own preferred interpretation. And that's always a point well taken.

Anyway, as for turds in the pool, watch out! We're a regular flotilla of them around here.

Ducking out!
Steve C.

I am afraid maybe you are trying to do too much here?

Lee

Steve, speaking of reading/misreading, here is haiku of mine:

the smell of the iron
as i come down the stairs
winter evening

this was in an anthology issued as a children's book a while back, edited, by the way, by Bill Higginson. The poem is about the smell of an iron for ironing clothes, as i hope the reader would immediately see. but the illustrator for the book, a young woman from san francisco, illustrated the poem with an outdoor staircase with an iron rail covered with snow. boy, did i feel like an anachronism!

Lee

Or maybe, Seree, it is that "charged" is an interpretation. perhaps you could let the earthworms speak for themselves?

Lee

my rewrite with accent for the toilet-

dawns dunny dinner
little blister with big sister
way down in the dump


Lets raise up the anti
Full house flush lay down
Ace it with stoned face


people --


I think I’m getting false praise for Callys work "the old lady and the grasses one" I did a line change for her, my crap is still near the top of page 6 if anyone can bear to take a look that far back.
I am missing posts as well. And I hate missing reading anything in this thread

thanks-- henie

http://ppqsda.bay.livefilestore.com/...sy%20Snail.JPG

Psst. Fellow gastropods! Good times in Lee's wine cellar!

*

Hi Folks,

Lee sent me this to post on his behalf, since he wasn't sure of the tech details involved in uploading images. (He may have been worried that we wouldn't believe him otherwise.)

Anyway, talk about gourmet. Lee has his own little breeding stock of pre-soaked escargots in the wine cellar.

Bon appetit!

Steve C.

lee just saw this request to fiddle-- so i did


I think you are missing a perfect opportunity to bring in a new image that of the Grail in place of bowl .

I think this meets all the requirements and gives a result of positive in this case.~~henie


Filling the rich grail
Test of survival what joy
you help with results

Lee,

All right, I confess that the strict 5-7-5 and the complete sentences are irresistible compulsions for which I have little defense. I will say they are useful constraints in the first stages of composition for me in that they help me dig for word choice and keep the imagery to a necessary minimum. But you are convincing me to drop them during revision. Excuse me now while I go back over every haiku I have ever written and try to re-flush the turds.

Thanks again Lee, sometimes I need to be pushed. I am grateful.

David R.