Online internet courses by Call of the Page

Are you interested in a Call of the Page course? We run courses on haiku; tanka; tanka stories/prose; haibun; shahai; and other genres.

Please email Karen or Alan at our joint email address: admin@callofthepage.org
We will let you know more about these courses.

Call of the Page (Alan & Karen)

Monday, February 27, 2012

Free to enter Kids-Count-For-Earthday-Haiku Webfest

Kids-Count-For-Earthday-Haiku Webfest





































The 2012 Kids Count for Earthday Haiku Webfest is in association with The Haiku Society of America; With Words (UK); Sketchbook Haiku Journal (USA); and Planetpals (Worldwide). Partnering together with the planet to bring positive messages about your world.

This is not a contest, just a fun to join in webfest celebrating our planet, with no deadlines!

Theme:
The Webfest theme is "What Earthday means to you".
 
Who Can Enter:
Children and young people aged from 7 years old right up to 20 years from the USA, UK and English Speaking Countries (including Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii; as well as Japan; Africa; India; Pakistan; Bangladesh; China; Middle East; and Australia; New Zealand and all other countries). If English is not your first language please do add an English language version of your haiku entry as well.

***ONLY ONE ENTRY PER STUDENT!
Age Groups: 7 - 20 yrs old

PLEASE NOTE: This year all poems will appear on the FACEBOOK PAGE. Only Entries and no other posts are allowed on this page! Duplicate and unrelated posting will be removed.

RULES:

You must include:
Name
Age/grade


You must post your haiku or haiga here: http://www.facebook.com/KidsCountForEarthday?sk=wall

*Must be posted by parents (for under age children) or teachers as a classroom list.

For further information:

http://www.facebook.com/KidsCountForEarthday?sk=info

Examples of last year's haiku and haiga are here: http://www.planetpals.com/earthdayhaikucontest.html 


We look forward to your entries!



Wednesday, February 08, 2012

The Purely Haiku Residential Course at Claridge House


New website!



















www.callofthepage.org
email: admin@callofthepage.org
















PURELY HAIKU
A unique residential writers' course 
and Retreat  led by Alan Summers
Monday May 21st - Friday 25th 2012 
(mid-week)  

Claridge House, Surrey, 
Dormans Road
Lingfield
Surrey RH7 6QH

South East England
(just outside London)


For enquiries and booking information
Phone: 01342 832150
Phone: 0845 3457281
 

Monday fab tea and home-made cakes afternoon 
to Friday morning scrumptious breakfast

A gentle immersive course where we study what makes a haiku poem, and how to write them. Using Classic and Contemporary haiku examples from Japan and other countries, we will learn that our own experiences can become haiku poetry, and act as an important record of our life.  

*[more about haiku poetry at the end of the page]


"I think that's a brilliant price. It's a bargain for what you are offering."
Annie Bachini (former President of the British Haiku Society)


The Purely Haiku Course details:


 There may be some people who think, I know what haiku is, do I need a short residential course?

The answer is yes!  





photo©Rosee aka ridlydidlysventures


It is surprising just how much there is to learn about haiku and how the enjoyment can be tripled, quadrupled even.

photo©Rosee aka ridlydidlysventures


The residential course starts Monday late afternoon after scrumptious teas and coffees, cakes and biscuits, in a leisurely get to know each other before we get to any workshopping at all. 

There's just the one session on Monday, and then relaxed sessions throughout Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.



The course is as relaxed and leisurely as you'd personally like,  or can be stepped up to your individual needs.  

The main thing is that I'm there to work hard for you, with gentle prompts and workshop exercises, with encouraging lively, engaging, inclusive group discussion and feedback.

Find out about these mysterious terms in a relaxed atmosphere:
kigo; kireji; gendai; shasei; juxtaposition and disjunctive methods; and how to make concrete images stand out, and even come across as lyrical in so short a poem, and help improve your other writing styles.


For those new to haiku 
it will be a delightful introduction

for those who know a little about haiku 
it will be an astonishing journey to find out just how much more there is to know and enjoy.

For those who are seasoned poets and regularly published in haiku magazines 
this is a chance to work on a body of work that can be submitted to various magazines, and become a cornerstone of your first or next collection.


photo©Anne Simpson
Traditionally 
we always conclude the course with a fun renga party* 
and a souvenir Haiku Journal notebook with our renga verses, and exchange of haiku from each other!




 
Friday is breakfast and saying goodbyes and hopefully staying in touch!


Alan Summers has a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and he is a past General Secretary of the British Haiku Society.
-->

He is a Japan Times award-winning writer for haiku and renga, and was awarded a Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto Peace Museum Award for haiku.

Alan is an experienced workshop leader, and editor (for two magazines), for haiku and other haikai literature disciplines. He has appeared in literary festivals, and readings, all over Britain. 

Alan’s 1000 verse renga city-wide projects have been supported by local councils and libraries, and reported on by the BBC’s Poetry Season.


* 
Comments from previous haiku and renga workshops:

--> "Very many thanks again for all your constant and splendid help, support and patience.  I am well aware of the fact that I wouldn't be having such an amazing journey with my haiku if wasn't for you."

student, SW England, October 2011


"As you probably know by now, I use every corner of my life as a way of reflection of my psychological personal development - haiku in itself is great for this, but working with you has just elevated the experience a 100 fold.  I can not put into words how much this has meant to me, so as I tried to say on the phone the haiku is almost secondary, but of course both mean a lot to me.  Your support over the last couple of years or so have just been such an amazing gift to me - bless you." 

student, SW England, September 2011
 
"we really enjoyed the renga event...it was a very intensely creative act, and I was really struck by the renga form itself, what it could be capable of...a whole new poetic energy" 
Mark, University of Winchester

"Thanks again for a wonderful poetry session."
Yu Yan, U.S. citizen currently visiting England

"I just wanted to thank you again for such a great event...I want to do some more!"
Susan, Plymouth

"Thanks so much for yesterday's renga event - it was fantastic! Really got the creative juices flowing. Let me know when the next one is, I will definitely attend!" Tracey, Bath

"Looks like I missed a fantastic event..I hope to be at the next one."
Caroline, Bristol (she was!)

"More! More!" Libby, Bristol

"It is so tempting to get involved in renku/renga with all the excitement you...generate."  
Melinda, USA


By the way, did I mention the food?  

It's out of this world!  Good traditional food created by a kitchen staff morning breakfast, day (lunch) and night (dinner) who also provide us with tea/coffee/non-caffeine drink breaks through the day with superb cakes and biscuits!

The food is really amazing, and I can vouch for that as my background was in the family restaurant business.

We've had first timers to haiku as well as seasoned haiku writers attending, and everyone benefits from the atmosphere, and doesn't need to lift a finger to have food and liquid refreshments.

The vegetarian and vegan food, covers all dietary needs,
non-gluten,
non-wheat, non-dairy etc... and is fantastic.

Plenty of organised tea, coffee, non-caffeine hot drinks, cold drinks,
homemade cakes, lots of biscuits including non-gluten and non-wheat etc...


This is our second time with Purely Haiku, and the whole experience is excellent value, and it isn't just for the price of the course, but superb food, accomodation, being catered for throughout the day etc...



*What is haiku?


"Today it may be possible to describe haiku but not to define it." Hiroaki Sato: Author; Columnist; and Editor of "One Hundred Frogs: From Matsuo Basho to Allen Ginsberg"

"There are as many descriptions of haiku as there are stars in the night sky: this is mine." Alan Summers, founder of With Words.

An English-language haiku is often written in three short lines and read out loud in about six seconds. 'Haiku' is the singular and plural spelling, there's no 'haikus'.

They're written in the present tense, in ordinary language, and work well as two different images that spark off each other.

It's good to include one or more senses such as sound, smell, taste or touch, and not just what we can see.

Haiku don't tell, or merely describe, they allow the reader to enter the poem in their own way.

They are ideal for non-fiction observations as a kind of short-hand for remembering events or incidents.

They can be therapeutic and they exercise both the right and the left side of the brain.

Traditionally haiku are rooted in natural history and the seasons, and make us conspirators with wildlife, as nature half-writes the haiku before we've even put pen to paper.

Haiku have a seasonal clue called kigo in Japanese. Obvious season words are snow for winter; and heatwave for summer; but you could use less obvious kigo like beer for summer, and Orion or Orion's Belt for winter.

Where does haiku come from?

Haiku evolved from a "first verse" called hokku; they often look incomplete as they originated from a linked verse poem where the first verse (hokku) was finished by the second verse and then the second verse was completed by the third verse and so on.

'Hokku' held a special place in the multi-poet-multi-linking-verse-poem known as renga, or renku, which enjoyed a renaissance in 17th Century Japan: people started collecting them, as not all the composed hokku, on the day could be chosen to start off the renga.

Japanese writers began to adapt foreign literary techniques into their poetry as Japan in the late 18th century, when it was opened up to the West. Journalist, writer, and poet Masaoka Shiki took full advantage when he officially made hokku an independent poem in the 1890s and called them "haiku" (singular and plural spelling) bringing this poem into the 20th Century.

Alan Summers (2009)

.

 



Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Alan Summers: haiku on iTunes

 


One of the better apps that features haiku is the THFhaiku app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.




lime quarter
an ice cube collapses
over jazz

Publications credits: Presence No.13  (2001); Bristol Evening Post article//Latimer’s Diary (2002); BeWrite.net  (2003); Haiku Friends Vol. 1 (Japan 2003); BBC 1 - Regional arts feature  (November 2003); tinywords, (2004);  City: Bristol Today in Poems and Pictures, Paralaia (2004); Seven magazine feature: “Three lines of simple beauty” (2006); BroadcastLab, ArtsWork Bath Spa University (2006 - 2007); : Blogging Along Tobacco Road: Alan Summers - Three Questions (2010) Twitter Seven By Twenty (2010); See Haiku Here haiga (Japan, 2011); haijinx volume IV, issue 1 (2011); Derbyshire Library Service Poem a Month (June 2011); THFhaiku app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (2011)



the rain
almost a friend
this funeral

Publications credits: Azami #28 (Japan 1995); First Australian online Anthology (October 1999): Blithe Spirit article On minimalism and other things  DJ Peel Vol 9 No.3 (1999); tempslibre (2001); Cornell University, Mann Library, U.S.A. "Daily Haiku" (Oct 2001); The Omnibus Anthology, haiku and senryu  (Hub Editions Hub Haiku series 2001); Hidden (British Haiku Society Anthology 2002); The New Haiku (Snapshot Press, 2002); First Australian Haiku Anthology (2003); BeWrite.net  (2003); Birmingham Words Magazine Issue 3 (Autumn 2004); seven magazine feature: “Three lines of simple beauty”  (2006); tempslibre (2010); Blogging Along Tobacco Road: Alan Summers - Three Questions (2010); Travelogue on World Haiku Festival 2002 , Part 2  (Akita International Haiku Network 2010);  The Temple Bell Stops: Contemporary Poems of Grief, Loss and Change (2012); THFhaiku app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (2011)




turning into the thermals
unknown birds
into white then dark again

Publications credits: Azami #26 (Japan 1998); THFhaiku app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (2011)



blue moon
you believe there's nothing
up my sleeve


Publications credits: THFhaiku app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (2011)



fading last note
torresian crow sounds
the darkening sky

Publications credits: Paper Wasp (1997); Azami (Japan 1998); Blithe Spirit (June 2004); Shamrock Haiku Journal, Irish Haiku Society, Spring 2006; Sketchbook, A Journal  for Eastern & Western Short Forms Nov. 2007; Haiku Hike; THFhaiku app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (2011)