Introduction
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The Bird Haiku series is a series of haiku about birds that was started in early January, 2005. Hugh Bygott and Zhanna Rader invited everyone on January 24, 2005 to contribute to the series with the following posting:
Bird Haiku Series
Series I
I
Coming in from the sea:
this mysterious longing -
albatrosses return.
Zhanna and I invite subscribers to add to this sequence of bird haiku. The idea is that the next poem links with some idea of the preceding one. The only common element is the presence of a bird species.
My poem has been influenced by the research of British scientists who have electronically tagged albatrosses. One remarkable finding is that some birds circumnavigate the world flying over very large expanses of ocean. The British Antarctic Survey tagged birds on Bird Island, South Georgia, Antarctica.
I have imagined birds coming in to breed in the late summer. In world wide haiku, the kigo is always difficult. The tagging of birds was done in April in the Southern Hemisphere before the birds moved elsewhere.
Hugh Bygott |
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How to Contribute
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If you wish to join the sequence, write your style of haiku which should relate to birds and add it to the list. Ideally, the poem should have a kigo, but many of the entries do not. It is quite remarkable how one person's haiku can often inspire another person to write.
You are invited to post different bird haikus as often as you like, but please let at least one other person post a haiku after yours.
We leave just four haiku on the page each time. Thus, when you post your haiku, please erase the top one. We would hope for the best ones to be eventually published some place (with authors' permission, of course). Hugh & Zhanna |
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| The following is the postings to simply_haiku that took place prior to this announcement and the introduction of the sequence numeration that is currently employed within the series. |
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Jan 10, 2005
Zhanna P. Rader
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Anyone is welcome to join.
Afternoon heat...
Even the mockingbird's song
seems to seek the shade.
Zhanna
Very nice!
andrew riutta
Thank you, Andrew. We may also have a bird sequence as a separate sequence.
Zhanna |
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Jan 10, 2005
ogaks
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a gull
on the roof, this
morning
o |
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Jan 10, 2005
Craig Mclanachan
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These from 3rd edition of The Haiku Anthology, edited Cor Van Den Heuvel.
morning surf
a dog fills the sky
with seagulls
Jim Boyd
after Christmas
a flock of sparrows
in the unsold trees
Dee Evetts
The crow flies off...
mountains fall away
beneath him
Larry Gates
Craig
These are simply wonderful, Craig. I especially like the first one. That's the way to write! I cannot equal them. Still, I'll do my best. Another mockingbird haiku.
Chilly air –
the winter-flowering cherry
hosts a mockingbird.
HM, 2004 with Simply Haiku contest
Simply Haiku, January-February 2004, Vol. 2, # 1.
See and hear our mockingbird here:
http://tinyurl.com/67grh
A small fraction of the song repeats here. In reality, the song varies very much. Mockingbirds begin singing in spring, and they may sing all day and all night here in Georgia, USA.
Zhanna
This has been one of my favorites from a long time ago:
A bitter morning:
sparrows sitting together
without necks
J.W. Hackett
Taken from here:
http://www.hacketthaiku.com/haiku.html
Zhanna |
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Jan 11, 2005
Robert Wilson
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sunday morning --
men in a bus
talking to roosters
Robert Wilson
I chuckled. :) Zhanna
thanks, Zhanna..every morning in the Philippines the ants would be at the kitchen table when i sat down for my morning cup of coffee. On Sunday mornings in the Philippines, people either stay home, go to church, or to the cockfights.
robert wilson |
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Jan 11, 2005
Benita Kape
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this is the opening beak
of a tiny bird to the dawn ~
his earliest meal
This is the only one I found at the moment. But then it is after midnight and I am so tired ... trying to catch up on reading.
Some great haiku everyone.
Benita |
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Jan 11, 2005
Fred Masarani
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another caw-
by now
I'm used to gray mornings
Fred Masarani
nice one, fred...i like the way this haiku flows and the mood it evokes
robert wilson |
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Jan 11, 2005
Tim Lang
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Daybreak? I remembered this but can't find where it came from - who's is it ???
daybreak
a crow darkens
in the light
insp. . .
1
nightfall
a wise owl
becomes the light
2
nightfall
two yellow moons
a wise owl
t/z c/05
I composed [it] a week or two ago, and I love your second one. An absolutely wonderful sister to mine. Heck, we ought to do something with them together.
andrew |
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Jan 12, 2005
an’ya
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bitter cold—
a juniper berry parts
the jay's beak
an'ya |
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Jan 12, 2005
Andrew Riutta
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GOD...
a bird's eye view
of birds
andrew riutta |
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Jan 16, 2005
Craig Mclanachan
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Snow buntings whirl
on a stark white field ~
cut glass reflections
goodanevil
five blue jays
play the birch
outside the window
a redpole snatches drops
from an icicle
winter is a bird
of lavender plumage
a still heart
keep having fun Zhanna (and everyone).
Craig.
i enjoyed these, craig, especially:
outside the window
a redpole snatches drops
from an icicle
excellent observation coupled with a well formed haiku.
robert wilson
I enjoyed your haiku Craig, as well as looking up and seeing snow buntings and redpolls on the Internet. We have some finches that resemble redpolls, but we do not have snow buntings in Georgia, USA. I wonder if your blue jays look like ours in Georgia.
This morning again
a hummingbird checking whether
the rosebush bloomed
Zhanna
Thanks for your comments. I have to make a confession. These haiku were inspired by the work of another poet. He is American and writes wonderfully about Vermont, among many subjects. His name is Hayden Carruth and he is my major influence in poetry as Constantin Brancussi is with my sculpture. I have read that it is common in Japan to create haiku from famous haiku. It is a form of homage and this explains my approach to Hayden's work. I am often inspired by artists, writers and philosophers. Does anyone else feel this way?
Craig. |
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Jan 17, 2005
Ed Schwellenbach
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how differently
the gulls cry –
death littered beach
Ed Schwellenbach
i like this haiku, ed...powerful, poignant, has something to say and is said well.
robert Wilson |
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Jan 18, 2005
Gene Murtha
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Dear Members:
I cannot thank the haiku community enough for their support, and many of you have submitted your published bird haiku.
We are still projecting two years to complete this project, and poems have started to be selected. The first deadline was extended since I did not feel that we has enough specific genus of bird haiku, and I did not want to publish an anthology.
Think of this project as a bird field guide with published bird haiku within the text, which is basic field notes along with an illustration. I do have a local artist, but since this manuscript will be written to target the birding community, and a mainstream publication (which is different from haiku publication) said publications will pretty much take over your work and tell you how they want it to be. So, not to waste an artist friend's time, I will only be submitting only a couple of example of her work, since a publisher may want to use their own artist, photographers, illustrators, etc.
As poem are selected, I will contact you. I have 1000s of haiku to review by poets from around the world, so this process may take a couple of months.
If you have not submitted any published bird haiku, and you would like to have your bird haiku under consideration, feel free too e-mail them to me, along with the publication, vol. & Number & date.
As soon as the haiku are selected, Me and Tom Painting can start writing the text, possible a couple of other poets too, and maybe one or two celebrity birders?
Have a safe, and wonder 2005!
All my best,
waxwings
exchange rose hips
Christmas morning
The Heron's Nest 03
the gleam
in a child's eyes--
starlings shift direction
Hermitage 04 (I received a copy of this book on Derek's 7th birthday, we wrote this poem together when he was 4 or 5? and of course, he argued with me that they were blackbirds).
summer haze--
a crow flaps free
of the asphalt
Frog Pond 04
first warm day
a hermit thrush
pumps its tail
The Heron's Nest 04
dreary day
my neighbor takes down
the hummingbird feeder
The Heron's Nest 04
mid-May
an oriole draws me
up the tree
South by Southeast 04
first light
slow to rise
a phoebe's tail
Shinzounokodou 04
flapping from the pond
a V takes shape
twilight chill
The Heron's Nest 04
Gettysburg
the children pause
to watch a dove
The Heron's Nest 02
spring mist--
a mallard paddled
through our stillborn's ashes
The Heron's Nest 02
(IMO Jacob Ryon)
I have more that I won't be including, & I may use two of these poems?
Sincerely,
Gene
H. Gene Murtha
Dear Gene san
Haiku has gone to the birds!!!
(I could not resist... you know
ganbattene
ai... chibi
Thanks for chiming in Chibi! Who knows, it may go to the dogs next? But, think of the outlets, and the door that this may open for haiku poets, and haiku itself?
Congrat's on your award winner if you did not read my message. I was so pleased that you went to Japan to receive the award.
Both you and Etsuko sparked my interest in haiku in 1999 when you were a member in one of my old yahoo Clubs.
I have been thinking about this project for 6 years, though I changed the format from free form poetry to haiku.
Always, Gene |
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Jan 19, 2005
ogaks
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heard the great tit
yesterday
too
o
i like this haiku, o......simple yet complex.....
almost Issa-asque.....and it has a nice flow to it.
robert w |
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Jan 22, 2005
Andrew Riutta
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song of the meadowlark---
a tossed frisbee
measures the distance
andrew riutta
**How FAR was it??
Seriously, Andrew, this is a Superb ´ku!
JJ |
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Jan 24, 2005
Andrew Riutta
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first chickadee---
O to mean
what I say
Andrew Riutta |
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