#tanka society of america

[tankasocietyofamerica]

Sanford Goldstein International Contest 2024

First Place

 

just this!

the chickadee

in the pine singing

I am here

I am here

 

Elizabeth Black

Haymarket, Virginia

[soracities]

Do you have any recs for beginners who want to write poetry? I love your blog so much!

there's a list of starter poetry recommendations for reading poetry here. For writing poetry I would recommend essays and nonfiction by poets: Upstream by Mary Oliver, Still Life with Lemons by Mark Doty, Now and Then: The Poet's Choice Columns by Robert Hass. If there are specific poets you like and admire, I would read their interviews to see how they themselves approach poetry and writing. I would also subscribe to Devin Kelly's Ordinary Plots substack, Padraig Ó'Tuama's Poetry Unbound (substack and podcast), and the On Being podcast's interviews with poets. There's also this section on The Poetry Society of America which features poets and writers interacting with either their own work, other's work, or simply discussing different aspects of writing and experiencing poetry.

I would also recommend really familiarising yourself with the technical aspects of poetry: poetic structures, rhyming schemes, language and all its textures etc., because those are the essential building blocks more than anything else. Practice writing poems following established formats: try your hand at an abcderian poem, or a sonnet, or a tanka, or a villanelle--the structural limitations are a good way to force yourself to really think about what you want to say and how you want to say it.

At the end of the day, the most important thing if you want to write is to read widely, and read often--and practice and practice and practice again. Learning to write anything is like training a muscle and you have to train and work it consistently. Hope this helps and best of luck with your writing endeavours anon 🤍

[shamandrummer]

What is Animism?

Animism, derived from the Latin word "anima" meaning soul or breath, is a belief system that attributes spiritual essence to all things, both animate and inanimate. It is one of the oldest forms of religious beliefs and is often considered the foundation of human spirituality. This blog post explores the concept of animism, its historical context, core beliefs, and its relevance in contemporary society.

Historical Context

Animism is believed to have originated in the Paleolithic era, long before organized religions took shape. Early humans, deeply connected to their environment, perceived a living spirit in everything around them. Rocks, trees, rivers, animals, and even weather patterns were seen as imbued with spirits. This perspective fostered a profound respect for nature and a recognition of the interconnectedness of all life forms.

As human societies evolved, animistic beliefs laid the groundwork for many indigenous and tribal religions. Shamanism, totemism, and various forms of nature worship can be traced back to animistic principles. These practices were not merely spiritual but also integral to the social and cultural fabric of early communities.

Core Beliefs of Animism

At its heart, animism is about recognizing and respecting the spiritual essence in all things. Here are some of the core beliefs that define animistic traditions:

Spiritual Interconnectedness

Animists believe that everything in the universe is interconnected through a web of spiritual relationships. This includes humans, animals, plants, rocks, rivers, and even celestial bodies. The spirit or soul is not exclusive to living creatures but is inherent in all elements of nature. This interconnectedness fosters a sense of kinship and mutual respect among all entities.

2. Spirit Communication

In animistic traditions, communication with spirits is a common practice. Shamans, spiritual leaders, or medicine men and women often act as intermediaries between the human world and the spirit world. Through rituals, trances, and other practices, they seek guidance, healing, and wisdom from the spirits.

3. Respect for Nature

Animism promotes a deep respect for nature and its cycles. Natural features such as mountains, rivers, forests, and animals are revered and often considered sacred. This respect translates into sustainable practices and a harmonious relationship with the environment, emphasizing the importance of preserving natural resources.

4. Ancestral Worship

Ancestral worship is a significant aspect of animistic belief systems. Ancestors are believed to continue their existence in the spirit world, influencing and guiding the living. Rituals and offerings are made to honor and seek blessings from ancestors, maintaining a strong bond between past and present generations.

Animism in Different Cultures

Animism is not confined to a single culture or region; it is a universal belief system found across various societies. Here are a few examples of animistic traditions from different parts of the world:

Indigenous Tribes in North America

Many Native American tribes, such as the Lakota, Cherokee, and Navajo, hold animistic beliefs. They view the earth as a living entity and emphasize harmony with nature. The concept of "Wakan Tanka" or the Great Spirit in Lakota spirituality exemplifies the animistic belief in a life force pervading all things.

2. African Traditional Religions

In Africa, animism is prevalent among various ethnic groups. The Yoruba religion, for instance, recognizes numerous deities and spirits associated with natural elements. These spirits, known as Orishas, play a vital role in the daily lives of the Yoruba people, influencing everything from health to weather.

3. Shinto in Japan

Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, is deeply rooted in animistic beliefs. Kami, or spirits, inhabit natural features such as mountains, rivers, trees, and even human-made objects. Shinto practices involve rituals and offerings to honor these kami, fostering a connection between the physical and spiritual worlds.

4. Aboriginal Spirituality in Australia

Australian Aboriginal spirituality is inherently animistic. The concept of "Dreamtime" refers to the creation period when ancestral spirits shaped the land and its inhabitants. These spirits continue to exist in the natural world, and Aboriginal rituals and stories reflect their ongoing presence and influence.

Relevance of Animism in Contemporary Society

In today's world, animism may seem distant from mainstream religious practices, yet its principles remain relevant. The growing environmental movement, with its emphasis on sustainability and respect for nature, echoes animistic values. By recognizing the intrinsic value of all living and non-living things, animism offers a philosophical foundation for ecological conservation.

Furthermore, animism encourages mindfulness and a holistic approach to life. It reminds us to see beyond the material and acknowledge the spiritual dimensions of existence. This perspective can foster greater empathy, compassion, and a sense of responsibility toward the planet and its inhabitants.

Conclusion

Animism, with its profound respect for the spiritual essence of all things, offers timeless wisdom. It teaches us about the interconnectedness of life, the importance of respecting nature, and the value of maintaining spiritual relationships. While modern society may have moved away from animistic practices, the core beliefs continue to inspire and guide those seeking a deeper connection with the world around them.

By embracing the principles of animism, we can cultivate a more harmonious and sustainable way of living, honoring the spirit that resides in every aspect of our existence.

[erdbeerfrosch26]

How to give birth to your poem or in hard labour again

There is a situation, a feeling, a photo, music or even a writing prompt that startled you

Do a mind map. Dot down everything that crosses your mind

Have some fun and start playing: try different words, change the lines back and forth, try different poetry forms: haiku, monoku, tanka, gembun, haibun, haiga, cherita, nonaku, haynaku. Ask yourself which poetry form suits your poem best.

Don't overthink.

Date it.

Come back to it later. Do some editing: add more words, get rid of superfluous words, change the lines usw.

Read it aloud.

Consider submitting your poem. Where would be the best home for your poem? 

Submit!

Let it go!

Start birthing a new poem

Let's have an exemple about the process. Like everything I do change and so some books I cherished before were no longer of great importance for me. So I decided to put them into a box with a label saying that they are for free. I came back into my home with a strong feeling of renewal but there was also a spark of melancholy because I must move on and never get back to the person I used to be. 

I started writing a 2-line-haiku.

books for free

the snake is shedding her skin

But it wasn't exactely right. The main focus was on the renewal and the snake so I decided to get rid of the books a second time and include the feeling of melancholy by adding the word rain. Because I felt that what was ahead was renewal I let it be a warm summer rain. Then I transformed the poem into three lines with a clear break between line 1 and 2.

summer rain

a snakes shed skin

in the grass

I liked it better this way, but I was not satisfied. I started with books, never saw a snake and what was essentially true in this poem was the pain and joy because I was transforming into something new. And even if I was changing, this change was slow so the whole process felt like a continuum and not like a hard caesura. The next I tried was a monoku. I got rid of superfluous words (the snake, some articles) and when I read it for myself I liked the sound. Round and perfect like a polished river pebble in my palm.

summer rain old skin shed in the grass It was published in June 2023 on Poetry Pea Podcast and will be forthcoming in Poetry Pea Journal in July.

This Essay was first published in the Haiku Society of America Newsleter in August 2023

[eelhound]

"The invisible and intangible will not submit to our desire for control: I can order another person to do something and easily determine whether she follows through, but I cannot command that same person to be something. In particular, I cannot require another person to be in love. 'Love' [Dr. William] Thomas says, 'is a product of the intangible being and as such cannot, itself, be physically sensed or measured.'

And if the obsession with doing defines the 'adult' way of living that characterizes our machine age, then being defines what it is to not be an adult. Human infants embody being: they accomplish nothing in the world, and whether they are asleep or awake they have the capacity to draw us into a web of interdependent relations where getting things done is no longer the guiding concern.

Human relationships emerge simply from being together. Some of the most miraculous moments of my life have been spent lying on the couch in the sun with my infant son or daughter asleep on my chest.

My son Sam was 3 years old when he taught me something of what it means to be cumbered by serving. It was a beautiful summer day and I had planned on taking him to the park. We only got as far as the driveway before he bent over and started examining the gravel, sifting through some small stones. After a moment he plopped down on the ground so he could see more clearly and give the pebbles his full attention. Meanwhile I was standing over him, a bit agitated, urging him on, focused, in my own way, on the goal I had set for us: to have fun together in the park. But Sam was no longer interested. He was entirely captivated by those little stones. I was about to pick him up when I realized, with the force of a small epiphany, that he was already 'having fun.' So instead of rushing off to the park, I sat down next to him and let him show me the perfect stones he had found right there in our driveway...

This ability to simply be survives infancy and continues well into childhood. But being isn’t valued in the adult world. Contemporary American society is dominated by the forces of corporate business, science, and technology, which place primary value on people who get things done. As parents, we are increasingly anxious to move our children as quickly as possible into the adult world. We educate them to be active citizens who set and achieve goals and encourage them to forge an identity based on their accomplishments. Then, as we get closer to death, our depth of being returns. Thomas points out: 'It has been said, and with good reason, that dying people never wish they had spent more time in the office. Doing matters little to the dying. As death draws near, it is relationships — with family, with friends, with God — that hold the greatest appeal.'

The Plains Indians of North America traditionally see children and old people as closer to Wakan Tanka, a Lakota phrase that is best translated as 'The Great Mystery.' This Great Mystery lies at the heart of being.

If we, as contemporary adults, have become alienated from this mystery, then what are we to do? You see the problem?

There is only one way to approach The Great Mystery. We must give up on the whole idea of doing. The compulsive search for explanations and reasons must end, for it is always linked with a desire to do something, to have something, to make something happen, when what is called for is humility, reverence, and unconditional self-surrender."

- C. W. Huntington, Jr., from "The Miracle of the Ordinary." Tricycle, 21 December 2016.

[natsthinkitythinkthinkthonk]

Other authors that can join BSD

Come on, with the amount of side characters in BSD, I think we can throw more in. You already know what I said about Raichou Hiratsuka (with accessibility, she can easily be added as Yosano’s former colleague or something). 

Here are some other authors, and while I won’t go as extensive as I did for Hiratsuka, I might include some reasons why. All of this is from Wikipedia because I’m a scrub.

Takiji Kobayashi - He writes proletarian literature meaning he wants to support the working class. He wrote a short novel called “Kanikosen” (Crab Cannery Ship) which tells a story about workers who revolt against the company and managers. The author died due to violent torture at age 29 by the Tokko Police.

Takuboku Ishikawa - He was a poet who was known for his tanka and modern-style poetry. He supports socialistic values and naturalism and was acquaintances with Yosano. His major works were two volumes of tanka poems “A Handful of Sand” and “Sad Toys” plus his diaries. 

Naoya Shiga - He was a novelist and short story writer. Okay, I know he married his cousin, but we can leave that part out. His works were praised by Akutagawa but other contemporaries including Dazai were critical of him. We already have some connections.

Takeo Arishima - BSD has a habit of making male authors female (Kyouka and Kouyou). Takeo is another good option since one of his most notable works is called “Aru Onna” (A Certain Woman) which is about a strong-willed woman struggling in a male-dominated society. Yes, he and his lover Akiko Hatano both worked in literature and committed suicide together. He was critical of Christianity and supported socialism and humanism.

Yone Noguchi - Also known as Yonejirou Noguchi, he was a writer of poetry, fiction, essays, and criticism. He was fluent in both English and Japanese. he did live in western society for years and had various romantic encounters. Personally, I think this is an opportunity to use him as a character that’s a spy between the Guild and the Port Mafia or Armed Detectives Agency. 

Ayako Sono (and Shusaku Endo) - Both are Japanese Roman Catholics, but I find Sono far more interesting of the two (because there was more information on her). She was a hardcore conservative and can face off against Yosano since she believed that women had no right to work after giving birth or getting pregnant. She was racist and believed that South African people should live in a segregated zone. She had a best-seller that depicted domestic violence, but a lot of her works depicted normal life. She’d make a good antagonist.

Sawako Ariyoshi - She is far more modern than the rest, but she wrote about the racism within America (especially since she lived before and after WWII). She described relationships between mothers and daughters. I think she would offer a unique perspective, but I highly doubt them adding her since Japan seems to shy away from that dark side of their history (but what country doesn’t?)

Toyoko Yamasaki - I think she might be a little bit too modern to be considered though.

Kono Abe - This has a similar issue to the previous entry, but he has a connection to the universe already. He admired Dostoyevsky, Kafka, and Poe. He’s known for his surrealism and absurd fiction. That means it leaves a lot open for ability.

Ryotaro Shiba - He was known for his historical and detective fiction.

Juza Unno - He is credited for being one of the founding fathers of Japanese science fiction. A lot of his works were influenced by the defeat of WWII which he took as a hard blow. His scientific work was influenced by Tesla.

Chiyo Uno - Another woman ahead of her time, she was a writer and a kimono designer. She was a short story writer, serial writer, and magazine editor who was heavily influenced by American and European culture (like many in the 1920s). She wanted to be more than a wife and mother and became part of the “Bohemian world of Tokyo”. 

Masuji Ibuse - His history is interesting since he was a propaganda writer, but he was also a respected writer at the time. He was heavily impacted by the war and wrote a novel called Black Rain which was based on the historical records of the devastations caused by the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. Again, they will probably shy away from WWII, but I thought Black Rain sounded like a cool name, and I don’t really like the idea of shying away from that part of history.

Jun Ishikawa - In real life, he had interests in many people of the BSD universe including the dark era trio (Oda, Dazai, and Ango), Mori, and Mishima who isn’t canon yet but is suspected to be joining eventually.

Fumiko Enchi - She was one of the most notable writers of the Showa period. 

Ayako Miura - She wrote a novel called Freezing Point which sounds like a cool ability. She respected Dazai and Natsume.

Miyamoto Yuriko - She had a different view of socialism and feminism. She was an anti-imperialist, wrote about working-class women, was imprisoned for her beliefs, and was even turned away by fellow feminists because her work was “too masculine”. 

Yasunari Kawabata - He was a naturalist who was the first Japanese author to win the Nobel Peace Prize in literature.

Murasaki Shikibu - She was a very early but a very prominent writer. She wrote the famous “The Tale of Genji”. She was instrumental in developing Japanese into a written language and is regarded as a classical writer.

W. W. Jacobs - One of these things is not like the other! I blame @awkward-akutagawa and their Twitter AU for making me want to make a character that can resurrect people and @awkward-oguri for providing the fuel for this (they have an OC with a similar ability). Known for his humorous writing, he was an English writer (which makes me question whether he’s elligible for the Guild. Maybe he just upped and left?) He wrote a story called “The Monkey’s Paw” which is basically another cautionary tale of “BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR BECAUSE KARMA’S A BITCH”. That would be the basis for the ability. The rest is up to @awkward-atsushi and the other wonderful OC makers.

[abbyschoolman]

Last month I went to New Orleans to take part in the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) “Booksellers Showcase” at the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) conference. I was fortunate enough to be one of 40 ABAA booksellers participating. For more about the conference, and upcoming ABAA events, just follow the link below.

https://www.abaa.org/blog/post/2018-rbms

While there I featured an eclectic selection of contemporary art bookbindings, artist’s books, fine press, and pop-ups. Click here for my recent catalogs, including what I brought to RBMS.

Among the artists I showcased at RBMS were bookbinder Gabrielle Fox  and printer Leonard Seastone of Tideline Press. Definitions in the book arts can be fuzzy: Fox sometimes prints and Seastone personally binds most of his Tideline Press work.

Fox’s miniature, Haiku and Other Poems , a limited edition printed by her in gold on Japanese tissue, is one of only three copies specially bound by Fox and happens to be her personal copy. The book is housed in a matching box decorated with a triangular “button” made from Kentucky agate adorned with a pink topaz set in gold. Signed by both Fox and the jeweler, Dennis Meade, it is a precious gem itself.

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The lovely recent collaboration on Ann Muir, Master Marbler is also a miniature. Printed by Seastone, the book was designed by Fox, Seastone, and collector/publisher Neale Albert. This tiny treasure was bound in a unique binding by Gabrielle Fox exclusively for Abby Schoolman Books and is a rare opportunity to own a collaboration by two contemporary book arts masters.

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Leonard Seastone’s interpretation of Ronald Baatz’s poem The Invisible Fly buzzes with interpretive interest, and has been lauded in Parenthesis 33 (the journal of the Fine Press Book Association) by David Esselmont, who said it “simply sizzles.”

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The collection of poems The Delicate Work of Song, also by Ronald Baatz, features ideograms by Guyang Chen. Michael McClintock, President of the United Haiku and Tanka Society, calls Ronald Baatz a “master…in the high art of the short poem.” Seastone’s printing and binding is just as masterful. The boards of Seastone’s binding are quarter sewn old growth Red Cedar, hand fashioned by him to accept the visible leather sewing supports. Lovingly beveled, waxed, and varnished, the boards glow with warmth.

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Seastone’s MFA thesis project, Good Movies, was prominently displayed, too. Seastone describes Good Movies in cinematic terms; its large size mirrors the silver screen, and the reader participates in creating a film noir by turning the page. This oversized book was bound for Seastone by Jack Fitterer in 1988 using Seastone’s prints as the board covering material.

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The blog is back with Eye Candy: Gabrielle Fox and Leonard Seastone #bookbinding #printing #bookfairs #booksforsale #eyecandy #AbbySchoolmanBooks #gabriellefox #leonardseastone #tidelinepress @NYBookGeek Last month I went to New Orleans to take part in the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) “Booksellers Showcase” at the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) conference.

[thepask]

Tanka

2 mie tanka sui numeri “1 Winter” e “2 Spring/Summer 2020” di Ribbons, pubblicazione triannuale di Tanka Society of America

[finishinglinepress]

Happy National Poetry Month!!! Please consider supporting FLP by purchasing a book. FLP can only survive if we get purchases or donations.

FINISHING LINE PRESS CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY:

One Last Scherzo by Margaret Chula

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/one-last-scherzo-by-margaret-chula/

RESERVE YOUR COPY TODAY

Margaret Chula fell in love with classical music at age ten while repeatedly listening to an LP of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 on her mother’s Victrola. She wanted to learn piano, but her family could not afford lessons, so she settled for playing clarinet in the high school band.

Her first book, Grinding my ink, appeared when she was in her forties and received the Haiku Society of America Book Award. Since then, she has published ten collections: This Moment; The Smell of Rust; Shadow Lines; Always Filling, Always Full; What Remains: Japanese Americans in Internment Camps; Just This; Winter Deepens; Daffodils at Twilight; One Leaf Detaches; and Shadow Man. Chula has been awarded fellowships to the Vermont Studio Center, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and Playa. Grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and Oregon Literary Arts have supported collaboration projects with artists, musicians, photographers, and a quilt artist. She has been a featured speaker and workshop leader at writers’ conferences throughout the United States, as well as in Poland, Peru, Canada, and Japan. Chula served as President of the Tanka Society of America and as poet laureate for Friends of Chamber Music. After living in Kyoto for twelve years, she now makes her home in Portland, Oregon.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR One Last Scherzo by Margaret Chula

Far beyond a mere meeting of art forms, Margaret Chula‘s One Last Scherzo opens up intricate worlds in which works of chamber music, some quite well known, are given a new voice with which to speak. Chula reminds us in these poems something practicing musicians often forget: music doesn’t need to stop when sound does.

–James Falzone, Composer & Clarinetist, Chair of Music, Cornish College of the Arts

Poetry and music have walked hand in hand for centuries, but Margaret Chula—in this exciting new collection—leads us on a parallel but very different path. Instead of words about pieces she heard during her stint as Poet Laureate for Friends of Chamber Music in Portland, Oregon—pieces composed by world-renowned as well as less widely known artists—Chula gives us the emotional essence of the compositions themselves. Through exquisitely rendered images and narratives, each poem becomes music’s verbal equivalent.

Scriabin saw musical notes as colors. Chula sees them as cohesive parts of a painting or photograph, sometimes static, sometimes in motion. In One Last Scherzo, she captures, in the details as well as the pacing of each poem, the heart and soul of each composer at the moment of creation and, sometimes, the life events behind each note. Here strolls Johannes Brahms, with his beloved, but untouchable, Clara Schumann; here is Shostakovich’s rendition of wartime terror; here, Vivaldi’s mercurial nature. Here, also, is music heard as pictures in the poet’s own mind, as she sits in the audience, letting her thoughts wander where they will, letting the soul of the music conjure images out of lived experience or out of imagination. If you love chamber music—and even if you don’t—what a bounty of beauty and insight awaits!

–Ingrid Wendt, Oregon Book Award recipient, author of Singing the Mozart Requiem and Evensong.

“This is amazing! Her poetry so represents the program Tapestry put together. Thank you so much for having a Poet Laureate and for having one with such perception and insight. I will not only forward this to Tapestry, but also to some of the composers whose music was presented. Reading this, they will want to write some more.

–Shupp Artist Management for Tapestry

PREORDER YOUR COPY TODAY

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/one-last-scherzo-by-margaret-chula/

#POETRY #preorder #lit #read #book

[zazamatic]

‘If one hadn’t been oneself, it wd. have been worth while to have been Sadakichi’—Ezra Pound, Guide to Kulchur, 1938

Carl Sadakichi Hartmann (1867-1944), art historian, writer, critic, and raconteur, is today as forgotten a Bohemian as can be imagined. During his lifetime, however, he seemed at moments to be known — first-hand, second-hand, or by reputation — by just about every artist in every field at work between 1885 and 1945.

Born in Nagasaki to a German father and Japanese mother, Hartmann was brought to Europe in his early teens after the latter’s death. His father enrolled him in the German Military Naval Academy; he responded by running away to Paris. Once returned, his father disinherited him and shipped him off to the US in 1882 to live with an uncle. Hartmann and his uncle evidently got along no better; and before long he was on his own, working low-paying jobs at printing houses while studying the arts, in traditional autodidact fashion, at the Philadelphia Mercantile Library.

Although it is uncertain how they met, in 1884 Hartmann began to work for Walt Whitman as secretary, translating letters he received from German correspondents. After writing an article for the New York Herald, loosely quoting Whitman’s opinions of other writers, the elderly poet denounced him, claiming to have been misquoted. This did not stop Hartmann from publishing the “interviews” after Whitman’s death in a small book, Conversations With Walt Whitman.

(This was far from the last time he managed to offend major figures in the arts; Hartmann worked briefly for noted architect Stanford White before losing his job after publicly describing White’s drawings as “to be improved upon only by the pigeons.”)

He married his first wife in 1891, following an unsuccessful suicide attempt; she had been his nurse while he was in the hospital. Finding work that same year as a correspondent for the McClure Syndicate, he traveled to Europe, meeting James McNeill Whistler, Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Anatole France, entering into a short correspondence with the latter. (He was able to trade France’s letter to an autograph hound in exchange for dinner for two, with fine wine, at Maxim’s).

Influenced greatly by the writers he met, he wrote a symbolist drama entitled Christ, in which he strongly implied that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had known each other in the Biblical sense. In response, almost all 1,000 copies of his play (published in 1893) were burned in Boston by the New England Watch and Ward Society; he was arrested and spent Christmas in jail. All the same, he went on to write subsequent religious dramas which featured Buddha, Confucius, Moses, Mohammed, and Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science. These were evidently less successful.

His non-fiction writing brought him much greater renown, for a time. By the mid-1890s he’d become a popular lecturer on art and a well-known critic, becoming the first to treat seriously the work of such artists as Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, and Alfred Pinkham Ryder, as well as being one of the first American critics to seriously consider photography as an art form. Alfred Stieglitz, with whom he was friends for some years, published Hartmann’s work in his Camera Notes and Camera Work. (In later years Stieglitz, like many, avoided him due to his tendency to get through life via an unending succession of handouts and loans).

After moving to Los Angeles he met and got along with architect Rudolph Schindler, at whose open houses he met such figures as Edward Weston, Theodore Dreiser, and Richard Neutra; as well as local artists including Ejnar Hansen and Peter Krasnow, both of whom he came to know well.

Rexroth without qualification names Hartmann the first to write haiku and tanka in English.

By the early twentieth century, Hartmann was living in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, and had become quite a well-known figure in the Bohemian community there. Hartmann fit right in among the unconventional, unattached artistic vagabonds of New York.  Guido Bruno, an eccentric Bohemian editor who published a number of poems, essays, and other musings by Greenwich Village regulars, even crowned Hartmann “King of the Bohemians.”

Marigold Linton suffered more than the usual mortifications while growing up on the Morongo Indian Reservation — where the Cabazon outlet stores are today. She was poor (no television or electricity). She was outcast (white kids shunned her because she was Indian, and Indians shunned her because she was part Japanese). And her kooky grandfather living out back in his homemade “Catclaw Siding” shack did not help her cause.

Though she had been warned to stay away from the old man because of his drinking, Linton remembers sneaking over to pick chokecherries and browse in the alcove where he taped up newspaper clips of his famous friends: Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, Isadora Duncan, John Barrymore, and others.

Kichi, as he was called, wrote the first history of American art, was the first to critique photography as an art form, and edited and published two of the first avant-garde magazines in America. He was the first to write haiku and tanka in English, influencing poets such as Ezra Pound. He engineered the first light show and the first perfume show years before the hippies were born. He also was a playwright, an actor, and a dancer, famous at Hollywood parties for his “hands dance.” In sum, Hartmann was a brilliant dervish who spun through the world setting off sparks in others.

Along the way, according to a 1944 obit in Time Magazine, he managed to marry three times and fathered 15 children, naming one set of offspring after jewels, another after flowers.

http://www.boo-hooray.com/journal//2014/07/six-degrees-of-sadakichi-hartmann

http://themargins.net/bib/D/d12.html

http://spartanideas.msu.edu/2014/12/19/hartmanns-whitman-remembrances-from-the-king-of-the-bohemians/

http://www.palmspringslife.com/rear-view-king-of-the-bohemians/

[naviarlab]

Naviarhaiku183 – arriving on the farm

Kwaku Feni Adow is a writer, poet and student from Ghana. He is a member of Africa Haiku Network, Ghana Haiku Society and UHTS (United Haiku and Tanka Society, America). He writes Haiku from his home country and has received publications in haiku journals the likes of The Mamba, Brass Bell, Under the Basho, Frameless Sky, Cattails, Failed Haiku, including Honourable Mentions in online haiku contests. He is the winner of Babishaiku 2016, Africa’s first haiku contest organised by Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation, Uganda. 

Seven days to make music inspired by a haiku poem: more info at http://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku

DEADLINE: 12th July

Poem by Kwaku Feni Adow http://livinghaikuanthology.com/poet-portfolios/400-a-poets/adow,-kwaku-feni.html

Picture by Jez Timms https://unsplash.com/@jeztimms

[tankasocietyofamerica]

2023 TSA Anthology Eye to Eye

the cat stretches

in morning sunlight

as if to remind us

what pleasure is,

this simple life

Mary Kendall

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

[janeaddamspeace]

Faith Ringgold's Art Frees Absent and Buried Voices #JACBA Newsletter

Special Announcement

April 30th: Video announcement and press release made public Watch this space for a special announcement regarding the announcement of this year's Jane Addams Children's Book Award Winners and Honorees!

Faith Ringgold

Faith Ringgold's famous 'story quilts' come to the Crocker

Artist, activist and author Faith Ringgold works in many media - painting, drawing, prints, sculpture, masks and Tankas (painted fabrics inspired by Tibetan textiles) - but she is best known for her vibrant "story quilts" that deal with family life, jazz music, relationships, race and slavery in America.

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POWER IN THE PAINTING: FAITH RINGGOLD AND HER STORY QUILTS

Through this didactic retelling of history, Faith Ringgold uses her quilts to reframe the past, freeing absent and buried voices while offering new and stronger voices to future generations.

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Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold 1993 Awardee

Five questions for Winifred Conkling

Like it or not, the women's movement was divided by racism in the nineteenth century. The issue needs to be openly discussed because it happened. It's also important that young readers learn to appreciate their heroines as flawed and complex human beings.

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Sylvia & Aki by Winifred Conkling 2012 Awardee

Picture Books to Help Kids Weather Our Age of Anxiety

New York Times Article by Linda Sue Parks

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A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park 2011 Awardee

When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park 2003 Awardee

The Book That Helps Me Survive In A Racist World

Virginia Hamilton and illustrators retold The People Could Fly in a collection of black vernacular stories published in 1985, and when my mother read those stories to me as a child, the words burrowed deep.

The best children's books make the most vulnerable among us feel proud. Strong. It's a forever gift, like a parent's unconditional love. Yes, Hamilton sets out to portray the realities of slavery, but in doing so, she carefully guards the humanity of her audience.

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Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave by Virginia Hamilton 1989 Awardee

Naomi Shihab Nye

Painting poetry portraits of influential people

Themes of "Voices in the Air" include the act of listening, political and civil unrest, cultural differences and the wonder in everyday living - themes Nye has addressed throughout her work.

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Poets Nye, Sotelo and Tartt to headline April 15 fundraiser for Laura Riding Jackson Foundation

Nye, a self-described "wandering poet," has traveled the world, leading writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages for 40 years. Born to a Palestinian father and American mother of German and Swiss descent, Nye spent her adolescence in Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas.

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Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye 1998 Awardee

Sitti's Secrets by Naomi Shihab Nye, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter 1995 Awardee

American Students Have Simple Demands

On May 2, 1963, thousands of students walked out of their schools in Birmingham, Alabama, to protest the racially segregated society in which they were meant to live. By the end of the day, over 1,000 of them were in jail. More of them walked out the next day. Some of them were blown down the concrete sidewalk with fire hoses, blown like trash into the gutters of the city. One of them was a nine-year-old named Audrey Faye Hendricks. In Cynthia Levinson's excellent account of those days, there is a conversation that Audrey Faye Hendricks had with her mother:

But, before she could be free, there was something important she had to do. "I want to go to jail," Audrey had told her mother.

So, when tens of thousands of schoolchildren walked out of class all over America on Wednesday, they weren't merely acting in a brave and proud tradition.

Depending on how rigid their principals and school boards are, they also were taking a considerable chance.

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We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson 2013 Awardee

How former Michigan autoworker Christopher Paul Curtis became a beloved chronicler of Canadian History

In January, Scholastic published the third book in what it is calling Curtis's Buxton Chronicles, The Journey of Little Charlie.

When we first meet Charlie in 1858, he's a product of his environment, who has never had a reason to question the ways of the South. Things change once he makes his first journey away from home, accompanying a local plantation overseer north to retrieve a family of runaway slaves. Witnessing the ignorance and vileness of his travelling companion - a self proclaimed "slave catcher" - and faced with the task of shackling the former slaves in the streets of Detroit, Charlie's conscience is awakened and he becomes a character today's readers can get behind.

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Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis 2008 Awardee

The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis 1996 Awardee

Underground Railroad Heritage Center

Storytelling will be enhanced by engaging digital media, graphics and other programming, as well as animated watercolors from award-winning illustrator E.B. Lewis and voice-over work by Emmy Award-winning actor Keith David.

"Our goal is to help visitors recognize that some modern injustices have direct roots in slavery, while other contemporary struggles parallel those of nineteenth century freedom seekers,"

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First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial, written by Susan E. Goodman, illustrated by E. B. Lewis, 2017 Awardee

Each Kindness written by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E.B. Lewis 2013 Awardee

Night Boat to Freedom, written by Margot Theis Raven with pictures by E. B. Lewis 2007 Awardee

Students learn life lessons from Battle of the Books

"Wolf Hollow" by Lauren Wolk, set in a rural Pennsylvania community during World War II, was mentioned more than once as a favored book this year. "It taught me that when things are hard to do, what's good is to do the right thing," said Waynesville Middle's Mariel Ottinger. Her teammate Scarlett Strickland added that it taught her about "how to deal with bullies and be responsible."

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Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk 2017 Awardee

Don't burn the opportunity to participate in, support Big Read

Joseph Bruchac, renowned writer of Native American heritage and traditions, will be present to lead families along the trail and give out free copies of his book "How the Chipmunk Got Its Stripes."

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The Heart of a Chief by Joseph Bruchac 1999 Awardee

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The Jane Addams Children's Book Award annually recognizes children's books of literary and aesthetic excellence that effectively engage children in thinking about peace, social justice, global community, and equity for all people.

Read more about the 2017 Awards.

[char27martin]

Haiku Society of America: Poetry Spotlight

One goal of these poetry spotlights, for me, is to share different things happening in the poetry world. After all, one of the great strengths of poetry is its diversity. After a few weeks of spotlighting performance poetry, let’s get a little more traditional with the Haiku Society of America.

As always, I appreciate all poetry spotlight ideas people send my way. Keep them coming at robert.brewer@fwmedia.com with the subject line: Poetry Spotlight Idea.

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Order the Poet’s Market!

The 2017 Poet’s Market, edited by Robert Lee Brewer, includes hundreds of poetry markets, including listings for poetry publications, publishers, contests, and more! With names, contact information, and submission tips, poets can find the right markets for their poetry and achieve more publication success than ever before.

In addition to the listings, there are articles on the craft, business, and promotion of poetry–so that poets can learn the ins and outs of writing poetry and seeking publication. Plus, it includes a one-year subscription to the poetry-related information on WritersMarket.com. All in all, it’s the best resource for poets looking to secure publication.

Click to continue.

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Haiku Society of America: Poetry Spotlight

Haiku is no secret, but it’s possible some poets are unaware of the Haiku Society of America. HSA was founded in 1968 by Harold G. Henderson and Leroy Kanterman with the goal of promoting haiku, both as a poetic form to read and write. Today, this not-for-profit organization has around 800 worldwide members.

The HSA website says that it’s goals include: “Promoting the creation and appreciation of haiku and related forms (haibun, haiga, renku, senryu, sequences, and tanka) among its members and the public. Fostering association, friendship, communication, and mutual support among haiku poets in the United States and around the world.”

The HSA meets quarterly in various locations around the country, but they also have regional coordinators who may have information on events closer to home. Plus, the society offers a journal titled Frogpond that is published three times a year and contains haiku and other related forms, articles, and more.

Click here to learn more.

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Robert Lee Brewer is the editor of Poet’s Market and author of Solving the World’s Problems. He loves writing haiku. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.

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Check out these other poetic posts:

Bryan Borland: Poet Interview.

Collecting Poems Into a Book: 5 Poets Share Their Method.

Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 400.

The post Haiku Society of America: Poetry Spotlight appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/haiku-society-america-poetry-spotlight

[tankasocietyofamerica]

Bird Special Feature Day 6

one more

anti-depressant pill

a hoot owl

questions

my life choices

Vandana Parashar