New Website Feature – Yuki Teikei Poets Pages

pgforwp — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:30:16 +0000

For this new feature of the website, each member of the Society can provide up to ten haiku for presentation. The presence of the poems on the website will allow viewers to understand the tenor and range of Yuki Teikei poetry. Each member is invited to submit, by email or snail mail, poems for posting on the website under the poet’s name. Poets may choose from their whole corpus, poems they like that they would be happy to share with Yuki Teikei poets and web viewers. Send them to the web-minder, Patrick Gallagher, at wpgallagher.home(at)gmail.com or 818 Van Ness Ave Apt 705, San Francisco, CA 94109.

News and Announcements

pgforwp — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 19:00:31 +0000

The Society’s 2012 retreat at Asilomar Seashore will be combined with the Fifth Haiku Pacific Rim Conference. Dates of the Conference are September 5-9. Exciting news about that conference is available here. In 2011 the Retreat the featured presenter was the noted haiku writer, editor, and teacher Christopher Herold. A report of the Retreat is available here.

The details of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society’s annual Kiyoshi & Kiyoko Tokutomi Memorial Haiku Contest for 2012 have been announced. Prizes of $100, $50, and $25 will be award for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place respectively. The rules of the contest are based on the teachings of the Tokutomis, founders of Yuki Teikei, on the proper form and content of haiku in English. Haiku in English of 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern are required, and each haiku must use one and only one kigo (season word). For the contest, the kigo used must be taken from the list supplied. The in-hand deadline for contest entries is May 31, 2012. See details for the kigo list and submission information.

Yuki Teikei Haiku Society poets were featured in a broadcast from KUSP, Santa Cruz. The poets read one haiku by each author in Wild Violets, the Society’s 2011 members’ anthology. They also described many projects of the Society, including the Geppo newsletter, the monthly meetings, the annual retreat at Asilomar, the annual Tokutomi haiku contest, and on-going intensive studies of haiku season words and haiku form. You can listen to the podcast of the broadcast here.

The results of the 2011 Kiyoshi and Kiyoko Tokutomi Contest were announced at the annual autumn Yuki Teikei Haiku Retreat at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California. First prize and $100 went to Billie Dee of San Diego, California. Second prize and $50 went to J. Zimmerman of Pacific Grove, California, and Third prize ($25) was a tie between Elaine Whitman of Pacific Grove, California and Billie Dee of San Diego, California. Winning poems and contest details are available here.

Wild Violets, the Society’s 2011 poetry, haibun, and essay anthology has been published and is available using information available here. The volume has been exceptionally well-received and popular, and a second printing has been authorized. Edited and introduced by Jerry Ball and J. Zimmerman, the anthology’s poems and text are enhanced by Ann Bendixen’s powerful, elegant art. Judith Morrison Schallberger designed the anthology and Harry Lafnear designed the striking cover. Wild Violets is 70 pages plus folding inserts; 6″ x 9″. Glossy art covers; perfect bound. ISBN 978-0-9745404-9-8. The editors’ introduction can be read here. $12.00

One of the tenets of haiku esthetics that the Yuki Teikei Society honors, is the importance of the use kigo, or season words in English language haiku. Robert Wilson, a prominent editor and critic of haiku and allied forms has recently published a treatise strongly supporting the use of season words in all haiku. See it the on-line journal, Simply Haiku, at this link. (See our publication that elaborates on San Francsico Bay area season words below.)

The Yuki Teikei Haiku Society provided a one-day workshop on tanka on 6 November 2011 by Joan Zimmerman and Patricia Machmiller. The Tanka Workshop focused on gaining skill and insight into how to write effective English-language tanka, a five line short dramatic form of Japanese poetry. The workshop provided time for walks and writing sessions both in the morning and the afternoon.The event was fully subscribed and participants expressed appreciation for the effective form and content of the presentations and exercises.

The Yuki Teikei events calendar for 2012 is available. It shows our monthly meetings which include observances of Tanabata, moon viewing, and year-end holidays, as well as other special events.

Thanks to all the YTHS members whose creativity, hard work, and donations culminated in the YTHS Haiku Booth at the day-long open-air Japanese Cultural Festival in SantaCruz County on 18 June 2011. Read more about it here.The Society is proud to present three recent publications. The San Francisco Bay Area Nature Guide and Saijiki is authored by Anne Homan, Patricia Machmiller, and Patrick Gallagher. It presents 100 Bay Area season words, together with descriptions, photographs, and poems illustrating the use of the season words. An ebook version of the Saijiki is available from lulu.com The second book is The Diary of Kiyoshi Tokutomi, translated by Tei Matsushita Scott , with an introduction and annotations by Patricia Machmiller, provides insights into the manifold activities and thoughts of this generous, kind, and inventive man, one of the co-founders of the Society. The price of this book is $10. Also the prize-winning book Autumn Loneliness: The Letters of Kiyoshi and Kiyoko Tokutomi, July-December, 1967 translated by Tei Scott Matsushita and Patricia J. Machmiller, is available. A listing of all publications of YTHS and ordering information is shown here.