hosts: Firdaus Parvez & Kala Ramesh
A Thursday Feature.
poet of the month: Alan peat
7th March 2024
Alan Peat: ALAN PEAT is an English author and haiku poet. His haiku first appeared in ‘Blithe Spirit’ in 1997 and his tanka first appeared in the international tanka anthology, ‘In the ship’s wake’ (Iron Press 2000). After an extended pause, during which Alan wrote numerous educational and art history books, he returned to short form poetry in 2017. In 2021 he placed third in the International Golden Triangle Haiku contest; second in the New Zealand International Haiku contest, and placed both first and second (with Sherry Grant, and Pris Campbell) in the Otoroshi Rengay contest.
In 2022 he was runner up in the British Haiku Society, Ken and Norah Jones Haibun Award; honourable mention in the Haiku Poets of North California International Haibun contest; second in the Sandford Goldstein International Tanka contest; second in the Heliosparrow semagram contest, and joint third place in the 2022 Time Haiku ekphrastic haibun contest. He was also a guest author at Cornell University’s Mann Library for October (2022). In 2023 he was long-listed for the Touchstone Award (individual poems) and won a Touchstone Award (haibun). Another of his haibun has been turned into a film for the HNA Haibun Film Festival. He was also the joint winner of the 2023 Time Haiku ekphrastic haibun contest. A collaborative collection of surreal haibun, Barking At The Coming Rain, (Alba Publishing) written with Réka Nyitrai was also published in 2023. In 2024 he had two honourable mentions in the Rachel Sutcliffe Memorial Haibun contest as well as a first-place haiku in the same contest.
Alan has judged numerous international poetry contests including the Sharpening the Green Pencil Internatiinal Haiku contest (2022), KM100NZ international haiku competition (2023) & The Haiku Poets of North California International Tanka contest (2023).
He currently resides in Biddulph, Staffordshire, United Kingdom
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Hypnic Jerk
I am running through Rousseau’s jungle; through three-storey flowers; through symmetrical foliage; through imagined birds of paradise. A tiger stops me briefly with his rictus grin. He tells me he has no choice but to stay that way; he fears if he stops, he’ll be nothing but a blur in an art journal photograph.
There’s a clarinettist playing somewhere among the Lotus flowers. I pay him scant attention though the snakes are clearly charmed. Leaves cut my skin as the greenery thickens; biting insects come and go in swarms.
Suddenly, a naked lady surprises me. She’s comfortably recumbent on a buttoned divan. I suspect she’s about to light a cigarette or start a symposium. I’m in the mood for neither so I rush off once more through a chorus of exotic birdsong.
The jungle is so lush, so dense, that I fail to see the cliff till I’m falling.
croissant moon —
a sugar in my tea
shakes the stars
HNA FILM FESTIVAL 2023 winner
Prompt:
Why do you think this haibun was chosen for the HNA Film Festival? What makes certain poems and certain image-laden writing suitable for filmmaking?
Think about this point.
Pay attention to the way Alan has brought rich narratives and unexpected characters into his haibun. Was this the reason the director thought he could make a good film out of it?
Your prompt this week is to give us a graphic haibun with a strong story running through it.
Try to draw out each scene, the way directors do. It seems Satyajit Ray used to follow this method — everything would be meticulously sketched in his book before he entered the studio.
I have never tried that, but maybe I should!
This thought just came to me as I began to search for a prompt!
Haibun outside this prompt can be posted as well.
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Important: Since we're swamped with submissions, and our editors are only human, mistakes can happen. Please, please, remember to put your name, followed by your country, below each poem, even after revisions. It helps our editors; they won't have to type it in, saving them from potential typos. Thanks a ton!
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PLEASE NOTE:
1. Only two haibun per poet per prompt. Please put your name and country of residence under your poem, it makes the editors' work easier. Thanks.
2. Share your best-polished pieces.
3. Please do not post something in a hurry or something you have just written.
Let it simmer for a while.
4. When poets give suggestions and if you agree to them - post your final edited version on top of your original version.
5. Don't forget to give feedback on others' poems.
We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in the haikuKATHA monthly journal.