a curatorial content blog of modern and contemporary poetry, poetics, photography, philosophy, permaculture, and the arts

a jet

out of a cloud

white peony

Donna Fleischer

The MahMight submission requirements in addition to the obvious was to include something on the haiku submitted as well as the inclusion of one’s favorite haiku by someone else, and finally, one’s favorite quotes from Bertolt Brecht’s play,”Waiting for Godot” and Bruce Robinson’s British black comedy film, “Withnail and I”. This poet’s submission process was gloriously fun, owing to Alan Summers, poet, writer, author, editor, teacher, and publisher extraordinaire. The following is a favorite haiku by someone else —

On a night of insects

and in a sky of stars

the earth afloat

Ōmine Akira

Translated by Kōko Katō and David Burleigh

“This haiku is also the title of the new “The Earth Afloat Anthology of Contemporary Japanese Haiku” (Kadokawa Shoten, 2021), edited by Kōko Katō, and translated with commentary by Kōko Katō and David Burleigh. I favor it for being vast and timeless, momentary and small, and how it positions earth between time and space.” – Donna Fleischer

Alan Summers, MahMight’s editor and publisher further notes:

Ōmine Akira

author of The Genealogy of Sorrow: Japanese View of Life and Death

Translated by Taitetsu Unno

published in The Eastern Buddhist New Series 25 (2),14-29 (1992)

Translator Kōko Katō is also co-editor of A VAST SKY, Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku (2015) ed. Bruce Ross, Kōko Katō, Dietmar Tauchner, Patricia Prime.

You also get a bonus haiku from Donna if you click onto the link:

https://donnafleischer.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/a-vast-sky-an-anthology-of-contemporary-world-haiku-2015-paperback-bruce-ross-koko-kato-dietmar-tauchner-patricia-prime-editors/

Translator David Burleigh is author of In and Out of Japan: The Contours of Haiku

In response to Professor Shirane’s emphasis on literary allusion in Japanese haiku, David Burleigh notes the relative absence of allusion to Western literary or artistic history in haiku collections from the West, compared with several Japanese examples, with Paul Muldoon the notable exception.

see In and Out of Japan: The Contours of Haiku

Presented at the Haiku North America Conference, Ottawa, Canada, August 2009.

Parts 1 & 2

http://haikureality.theartofhaiku.com/archives/esejeng76.htm

http://haikureality.theartofhaiku.com/esejeng81.htm

The Earth Afloat: Anthology of Contemporary Japanese Haiku

Kôko Katô, Editor
Translated by Kôko Katô & David Burleigh

https://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/translations/earthafloat.html

Juxtaposition in haiku:

The Moon is Broken

https://area17.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-moon-is-broken-juxtaposition-in.html

Source: MahMight haiku journal: Donna Fleischer joins the MahMight jet stream with guest Ōmine Akira . . .

Source: SUNWORKER — smudge studio

Double Trio by Nathaniel Mackey (New Directions) (photo by Rodrigo Corral)

Memories appear and disappear in a meditative work that feels as if it could stop at any moment or continue on forever.

Source: Nathaniel Mackey’s Epic Poem