Some new haiku for a Friday

Anyone eager for new haiku, or articles about haiku, is in luck.  The new issue of Chrysanthemum is out, with over 100 pages of haiku, haibun, haiga, and articles.  There are plenty of gems in this massive issue.  Look for good poems by Gabriel Bates, Gavin Austin, Elin Bell, and many others.

For a deep dive into the inner workings of haiku, head over to Alan Summers' blog for his post, The Art of Implication over Explication.  You'll find some good insight into haiku, as well as many poems scattered throughout.

To top it off, check out Dan Curtis' haiku posted Wednesday on tinywords.  Dan uses eight small words to create a complete picture -- one that will stick with you long after you read it.

Awesome Haiku

I know it's been forever since I posted -- life has been busy.  If you want to read an excellent haiku, and laugh at the same time, check out today's haiku at tinywords:

http://tinywords.com/2013/11/20/15416/

This poem by Annette Makino is the perfect example of how to use humor in haiku.

Illya's Honey Poetry Contest, tinywords

The Dallas Poets Community and Illya's Honey poetry journal are sponsoring the 2013 Open Poetry Competition.  There are three hefty prizes -- $300, $100, and $50 -- and an entry fee of $10 for one to three poems ($5 for each poem after that).  All submissions must be made by snail mail, and the postmark deadline is June 15th.

tinywords is open for submissions again, and the editors just extended the deadline to June 1st.  This is an open submission period, with no themes or restrictions.

Deadlines

If you were planning to submit haiku or other short poems to tinywords, today is the last day to do it until their next reading period opens up.

For anyone wanting to enter the 2013 Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition, submissions must be postmarked (or emailed) by the end of the month.

Mu also closes to submissions on the 31st.

If you have haiku that you can't get in to Mu or tinywords in time, you can submit to Acorn through the end of February.

Upcoming deadlines

It's almost 2013, and to start the year off with some good publishing opportunities, here are a couple of upcoming haiku deadlines:

- Mu, An International Haiku Journal, is open to submissions for its fifth issue until January 31st, 2013.  There is no payment for accepted poems, other than the joy of publication.  No simultaneous submissions or previously published poems.

- tinywords is open to submissions of short poems for its next issue (unthemed).  Previously published poems will be considered, but simultaneous submissions won't.  The submission deadline is January 20th, 2013. There is no payment for accepted poems.

- The North Carolina Poetry Society is sponsoring a bunch of poetry contests, including the Griffin-Farlow Haiku Award.  There are three prizes -- $25, $15, and $10 -- and everyone can submit one entry.  There is a $3 entry fee per poem if you're not an NCPS member.  The deadline for submissions is January 12th, 2013.  (Thanks to Haiku Reality for posting this contest notice.)

Two open markets, a haiku

Ideomancer is open for submissions again, through the end of January. They pay 3 cents per word, or $6 per poem, and respond in a month or less.

Abyss & Apex (which now has a new website) has also started a new reading period, but only for the month of December and only for poetry submissions. Up to 3 poems can be submitted at a time, and payment is $5 per poem.

Here is a really good haiku by Alexander B. Joy, posted at tinywords today.

Two open markets

The web journal tinywords is open to haiku and micropoetry submissions until June 15th. You can submit right from the web page, and the editor is looking for poems 150 characters or less with a summer theme. (Artwork is being accepted too.)

Neo-Opsis, a Canadian science fiction and fantasy print magazine, is reading fiction, nonfiction, and poetry submissions through August 31st. They don't want simultaneous submissions or previously published pieces, and payment for accepted works is 2.5¢CA per word (up to $125) plus a contributor's copy or two.

With summer pretty much in full force already, here's a Jim Benz poem from DailyHaiku to bring a little bit of winter back.

tinywords, indood, deals & coupons

tinywords is back with a new online issue, 10.1. The issue started May 17th, so if you haven't checked it out yet, there are a few poems to browse through (including a nice one by James Westbrooks).

There's a little online webzine called indood that I stumbled across last week. I'm mentioning this not because I think it's a good magazine, but just because I thought their guidelines were amusing:

Currently I am publishing primarily prose, short fiction, and poetry. However I’m open to rants, ingredient lists (if you can make them interesting), and just about anything other than haiku. By all means feel free to submit your haiku, but take note that almost no one writes good haiku. This means you. If I publish your haiku then you’ve really accomplished something.

So if you want to really accomplish something, go ahead and send in some haiku. (indood isn't a paying market.)

Earlier in the month I mentioned the Stephen King DVD Collector Set, which was selling for $29.98 at Amazon. If you thought it sounded cool but didn't want to spend thirty bucks on it, Amazon has kindly dropped the price down to $16.49.

While you're at Amazon, check out Bitter Steel, a collection of epic fantasy poetry and fiction from Charles Gramlich (author of Cold in the Light). It was just released, and it's selling for only $14.99.

It's a good time of the year for coupons. You can currently get 20% off your order at Lulu with the coupon code ROADTRIP305. (But shop quickly, because that code expires today.) At Barnes & Noble, you can get 30% off of one item (bought online) by using the code Y3V4U3X. Or if you'd rather buy something from Borders, you can use the code BGA7757M to get 33% off today and tomorrow (Wednesday and Thursday).

ThinkGeek.com has a new energy drink called Zombie Blood. It comes in an IV bag and looks pretty nasty. A single bag is $4.99, or you can get a 4-pack for $15.99. If you're gonna order some stuff from ThinkGeek, use the coupon code NOTDEAD for $10 off a $30 order (through May 28th).

Acorn, Vicious Verses, tinywords

I haven't had much time to read lately, but I have managed to skim through two things -- the current issue of Acorn, and Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes, the book of zombie poems from Coscom Entertainment.

Acorn #23 is, of course, filled with good haiku. There is a very poignant poem by C. William Hinderliter, and a nice pairing of two unrelated haiku by Peggy Willis Lyles and Jennifer Gomoll Popolis. Robert Epstein has a three-word haiku that takes the form's brevity to heart.

There are many more poems in this issue, including two good ones by Timothy Hawkes, and some of the other contributors include Gary Hotham, Chuck Brickley, Ferris Gilli, and John Elsberg.

Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head doesn't have as many haiku as Acorn (though surprisingly it does have a few, including two of mine) but it does contain a lot of good zombie poems. This collection is a follow-up to Bits of the Dead, an anthology of zombie flash fiction.

Not every poem in the book is a winner, but there is definitely something for everyone (well, everyone who likes zombie poems). There are limericks, a couplet, and even a "Zombie Love Sonnet." Humorous poems occupy a lot of pages, including some good ones by W. Bill Czolgosz, J.H. Hobson, and Zed Zefram. Charles Gramlich has a haunting poetic tale of Gettysburg, and Michael Kriesel's haiku sequence "Last Year" is excellent. "Reanimation" by Casey Quinn is one of the best poems of the book, short and sweet with an eerily nursery-rhyme-like rhythm. Albert Melear's "Say Cheese" is another good one, with graphic description and a good use of line breaks.

Some other notable poems include Rich Ristow's parody of Dylan Thomas, "Rage, Rage in the Dying of Twilight," Paul A. Freeman's long poem "Payback Time," and Lester Smith's "Git Along, You Zombies," which offers a unique way to make zombies useful to society. Vicious Verses has over 135 pages of zombie poems -- plenty for any horror fan to chew and digest.

Ed Markowski passed along some good information today -- tinywords is making a comeback, and it's currently open to submissions. In its new incarnation, it will include all forms of micropoetry (not just haiku) as well as artwork. Read the complete submissions guidelines here.

some markets & stuff to read

Ghostlight, the journal of the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers, opens for its next reading period on December 1st. This is a good market for writers of horror or dark fiction -- response time is only one month, and they accept reprints. Payment rates are $5/story or $4/poem. There is also an Editor's Choice award given for each issue, which comes with $10 and a year's membership to the GLAHW. Stories should be 500-6000 words.

Emerald Tales is a fiction and poetry journal out of Florida. The editors will accept both snail mail and email submissions, and they pay $40/story or $20/poem. Each issue has a theme; the "Winter Solstice" issue has a deadline of November 1st, and the "Carnivale" issue is open until January 1st.

For Horror Writers Association members, writer and publisher J. Bruce Fuller had a well-written and intriguing article in the September issue of the HWA newsletter (available in the newsletter archives) on "Imagination and Persona in Horror Poetry." I had the unfortunate luck to follow him with my article in the October newsletter, "Trick or Treat: Haiku and Its Place in Dark Poetry." (Marge Simon came up with the title -- thanks Marge!)

Here are a couple of good haiku, courtesy of tinywords (which is hopefully making a comeback) -- one by Ed Markwoski and one by Helga Härle.

Scifaiku

For a quick break in the day, check out Patricia Kelly's speculative haiku in today's Tinywords:

http://tinywords.com/haiku/2008/02/29