Programs of Interest
During the shortest month of the year, we are hosting a short poetry contest.
Teen Haiku Contest
Saturday, February 1-Saturday, February 29, 2020
A haiku is a short Japanese poem consisting of three lines and a total of 17 syllables. The first and last lines of a haiku have five syllables and the middle line has seven syllables. Teens can submit two original haiku poems via the library’s website. Judges will award prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Winning will be announced by March 6, 2020.
Entries can be submitted at https://homewoodpubliclibrary.org/teen-haiku-contest
Haiku
- The haiku is a form of Japanese poetry over 1,000 years old
- In Japan these poems are valued for their simplicity, openness, depth and lightness.
- Haiku poets are challenged to convey a vivid message in only 17 syllables.
- Tanka, a more complex structure of poetry that Haiku, was common in the royal courts as a literary game.
- Haiku poems can describe anything, but are not very complicated or hard to
understand. - Almost all Haiku has a main idea, that appeals strongly to one of the five senses
- Traditionally, each Haiku must contain a kigo, a season word, which indicates what season of the year the Haiku is set.
Titles of Interest
Baseball haiku : American and Japanese haiku and senryu on baseball / edited with translations by Cor van den Heuvel & Nanae Tamura
One of the most unusual baseball books of the 2007 season, this remarkable new collection, which includes poems from both America and Japan, captures perfectly the thrill of baseball a double play, a game of catch, or the hushed pause as a pitcher looks in before hurling his pitch. Like haiku, the game is concerned with the nature of the seasons: joyous in the spring, thrilling in summer’s heat, ripening with the descent of fall, and remembered fondly in winter. Featuring the work of Jack Kerouac, the king of the Beat writers, who penned the first American baseball haiku, and Alan Pizzarelli, a major American haiku poet, the collection also includes Masaoka Shiki, one of the four great pillars of Japanese haiku, who fell in love with baseball when he was a student in Tokyo. Baseball Haiku, a literary and baseball treasure, will make a marvelous gift for the baseball fan in your family.”
All the words are yours : haiku on love / Tyler Knott Gregson
Every day for the past six years, Tyler Knott Gregson has written a simple haiku about love, and posted it online. These heartfelt poems have attracted a large and loyal following around the world. This highly anticipated follow-up to Chasers of the Light, presents Tyler’s favorites, some previously unpublished, accompanied by his signature photographs, which capture the rich texture of daily life. This vibrant collection reveals the intimate reflections of one of poetry’s most popular new voices — honest, vulnerable, generous, and truly present in the gift that is each moment.
The art of haiku : its history through poems and paintings by Japanese masters / Stephen Addiss
In the past hundred years, haiku has gone far beyond its Japanese origins to become a worldwide phenomenon—with the classic poetic form growing and evolving as it has adapted to the needs of the whole range of languages and cultures that have embraced it. This proliferation of the joy of haiku is cause for celebration—but it can also compel us to go back to the beginning: to look at haiku’s development during the centuries before it was known outside Japan. This in-depth study of haiku history begins with the great early masters of the form—like Basho, Buson, and Issa—and goes all the way to twentieth-century greats, like Santoka. It also focuses on an important aspect of traditional haiku that is less known in the West: haiku art. All the great haiku masters created paintings (called haiga) or calligraphy in connection with their poems, and the words and images were intended to be enjoyed together, enhancing each other, and each adding its own dimension to the reader’s and viewer’s understanding. Here one of the leading haiku scholars of the West takes us on a tour of haiku poetry’s evolution, providing along the way a wealth of examples of the poetry and the art inspired by it.
Haiku : the travelers of eternity / haiku by Charles Ghigna
The handsome book contains twelve haiku and sixteen sumi-e (pronounced soomee-ay), which represent the twelve months and four seasons of the year. The book has been specially designed to showcase the art, with beautiful case materials and elegant paper chosen for its endurance and appearance.