The other day I was delighted to find the latest issue of Modern Haiku (54.1) in my mail box. Every issue is packed with haiku, senryu, and on this occasion a delightful color spread of haiga by Alexis Rotella.
As with every issue, most contributors I personally know, have read with, corresponded with, and yes, sent haiku postcards. Still others are those whose work I admire and look forward to reading. Alexis Rotella, for example, has been on my radar for years, ever since her haiku leapt off the pages of Cor van den Heuvel’s The Haiku Anthology, which I heartily recommend. Still others (Ben Gaa, Stephen Colgan, Roberta Beary, Don Wentworth, Annette Makino… I could go on forever) are always a welcome site and never fail to please.
Truly, Modern Haiku delivers regularly a feast of great poetry, always on schedule and always in a beautifully published edition.
Which makes me all the sadder that I am unlikely to find my own work there. This is nothing against MH. (In fact, my work has appeared there in the past.)
A key aspect of my Daily Haiku Actual Postcard project is posting photos on social media. However, that very act disqualifies the haiku from being submitted. Most editors — and I do not blame them — don’t want to consider haiku that has appeared in blogs, social media, and so on.
Still, seeing so many friends and colleagues in one journal… I feel like I’m outside the party, looking in.
Anyway, here are the past week’s haiku, and their destinations.
haiku 20230206 >> Albany, CA
online meeting someone's dog barks and mine barks back
haiku 20230207 >> San Francisco, CA
window washing every unwanted streak brilliant with sun
haiku 20230208 >> Oakland, CA
winter moon and clouds my misting breath made of the same stuff
haiku 20230209 >> Duvall, WA USA
the bird we thought dead has flown off -- winter bamboo
haiku 20230210 >> Oakland, CA USA
these long winter hours my breath turns to mist then vanishes
haiku 20230211 >> St. Paul, MN
bare winter branches another bird from my youth flutters away
haiku 20230212 >> Cedar Ridge, CA
dinner with old friends how bright the stars the walk back to the car
See you all next week.
And don’t forget, if you want me to mail you one of my haiku postcards, all you gotta do is ask.
As a consumer of haiku, I do find some utility in having previously published( online) haiku collected in a book like container - print or online. Rope Marks from Snapshot Press is a good example of the extra value a collection might offer, a curated collection. I'd be prepared to pay for a collection of curated works that had been published online in the previous year, just for the fact that it would save me look for the Haiku. Not sure if I'm making myself clear hmmm.
The not previously published rule is pretty standard across poetry/ short story field though. as I said in my email though I couldn't be bothered with the submissions process most of the time.