New Zealand Poetry Society Te Hunga Tito Ruri o Aotearoa
Windrift: February meeting report
WINDRIFT
George Swede & Anita Krumins
We were delighted to have Canadian frogpond editor, George Swede and Assistant Editor Anita Krumins at our February meeting. Windrift felt honoured to be included in the NZ Haiku Tour and grateful for the opportunity to discuss haiku with two such experienced writers and editors.
George comes with an impressive array of distinctions - academic, literary and editorial. He's also a co-founder of Haiku Canada (in 1977 with Betty Drevniok and Eric Amann). Anita is the author of stories for children, and, until recently, a university teacher of communications. Anita's focused comments were a lively addition to George's lead.
Our guests joined the discussion of haiku from our ritual bowl. Does deep heat suggest 'sweltering summer' or 'stiff muscles'? What's this 'dangling participle'? An ellipsis maybe - ? Is this an aphorism? Could this 2 haiku sequence be a poem with a title? Ah, scope for a tanka.
The key teaching: Focus on the particular moment. Experience plus craft. Anita said, "Fiction can be stranger than reality".
Our visitors' main aim in visiting NZ was to see the haiku scene, acquaint us with what's happening in Canada / US, and give information about Frogpond. Alas, their books, carefully packaged in Canada some time previously, just hadn't arrived. George quoted Richard von Sturmer: "You clearly didn't realise this is the end of the world".
George gave a reading based on his haiku. (See: www.terebess.hu/english/usa/swede) His work embraced a range of copies, at the senryu end of the haiku / senryu continuum (if continuum it be). He's a matter-of-fact reader - this is how it is - with a wry humour.
Airport lounge:
a Muslim man prays toward
the emergency exit
Working late
I meet my loneliness
in the long hallway
An editor influences the nature of a publication - of course. George has a very open approach you'll be pleased to hear - given our departure from traditional forms. He reads all submissions and also writes them down to get a sense of their immediacy. He selects, then gives his list to Anita. She selects, they compare: a team effort. "A 'Mom & Pop' operation", says George.
Clearly, there's much more to being the editor than the selection process. Layout and design are major time-consumers. The last issue (c. 100 pp) was proof-read six times. Then there's the mailing of copies and back issues, plus playing the role of the archivist.
frogpond, founded in 1978, is an organ of the 800-member Haiku Society of America. Members get three issues of the journal each year plus three newsletters. The editor, elected every year, is autonomous. But you don't have to be a member of HSA to receive frogpond. The journal is international, open to all writers.
It's George's second year as Editor, and he says that Ernie Berry is the only NZer to pass his way. Now, there's a challenge and an invitation.
You may submit once only for an issue, but one submission can include up to 10 haiku, 3 haibun, 3 rengay, one renku, one essay and one book review. Work is acknowledged at the end of the submission period.
Criteria? The Editors are very open. That includes openness to NZ words. (Ah!) They like those haiku moments to be located in a particular area: change a location word, and the haiku is different. (Tramping may see the northern hemisphere yet.)
You want the specifics. Here are what George Swede calls the "five ultimate rules of good haiku":
1. haiku must be brief: one breath long
2. haiku must express a sense of awe or insight
3. haiku must involve some aspect of nature other than human nature
4. haiku must possess sense images, not generalizations
5. haiku must present an event as happening presently, not past or future
Moreover, the Editors find it exciting to get different line arrangements and fonts - even visual / concrete haiku.They look for poetry in the submission. They like to be innovative. George sees The Heron's Nest as more conservative; eg only 3 lined haiku are accepted. He also noted RawNervz, a Canadian magazine, and the Roadrunner website at the radical / zappai end. "It's good to have a sense of place for each writer."
Standards are high and you may have to try more than once. George referred to the persistent triers: "20 years of trying and no luck"; "I'm 93 and still hoping". See: www.hsa-haiku.org/frogpond
Nevertheless, plenty of encouragement! George called us "quite an astute group", and was generous in his praise of Windrift's the taste of nashi.
Windrift also warmly thanks Kerry Popplewell and Karen Butterworth for providing accommodation for the visitors. They felt richly rewarded. Indeed, we all did.
