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Creatrix Haiku Section

Next deadline - Midnight 31st July for the September issue.

Email your submission to deanmeredith@bigpond.com

The selectors, editors and administrators for Haiku are Maureen Sexton, Rose Van Son and Dean Meredith.


To avoid disappointment, please follow the submission guidelines.


Submission Guidelines

  • Please send between 2 and 10 haiku for each issue submission.
  • Email your submission to deanmeredith@bigpond.com with ‘haiku submission and your surname ’ in the subject line, with all haiku in the body of the email only (ie no attachments).
  • At this stage, publication is for WA Poets Inc member poets only. You don't have to live in WA to become a member.
  • Brevity is the key element in haiku. Around 12 syllables or less is ideal, but we will accept up to 17 syllables.
  • In 1, 2, 3 or possibly 4 lines. Three lines is the most common setting out in English language haiku.
  • That preferably does not use poetic tools, such as simile, metaphor, rhyming, punctuation (except perhaps a dash to mark a grammatical break), capital letters (except Proper nouns), titles, personification, abstract images and language.
  • Haiku capture a moment in time, therefore need to be written in present tense.
  • That preferably infers an awe or a reverence of nature and uses a nature reference, however, we will also accept modern haiku that doesn’t necessarily refer to nature.
  • That relates to the senses.
  • Juxtaposition of two images is preferable, but we will accept single image haiku as well.
  • We are looking for the 'aha' factor.
  • We will also accept senryu, which is similar to haiku, but emphasises humour and human foibles instead of seasons.

For more information on how to write haiku and what the editors are looking for, go to the Haiku Information section by clicking here.

Founding members of Creatrix Online Haiku Journal:
Maureen Sexton, John Bird, Nicholas Barwell

Mari Warabiny Haiku Group

Closing dates:

2010 –

31st July for the September issue

31st October for the December issue

Haiku Information

Many people write haiku in three lines, although traditionally Japanese haiku were often written in a single line, and modern haiku writers often write haiku in one, two or three lines.

In Japan, haiku were written in seventeen on or onji. The word on in Japanese means sound, and onji means sound symbol. Because of the difference in languages, the use of seventeen syllables in English forms a longer haiku than it would in Japanese language. In keeping with one of the most important rules of haiku - brevity, and to try to approximate Japanese language more closely, it is preferable to write English haiku in approximately twelve syllables, or as few syllables as possible.

Haiku in Japan usually contains a season word or words and a kigo is used to decide which words relate to which seasons. However, in Australia, because our seasons are different, many don’t use a kigo and try instead to use Australian season references, depending on who their intended audience is. See Australian Haiku Dreaming - http://users.mullum.com.au/jbird/dreaming/ozku.html for more on Australian season references.

Haiku usually has a distinct grammatical break, or kireji. Sometimes a dash is used to highlight the kireji, again depending on the intended audience. It also depends on whether a single image haiku is being written or a haiku using juxtaposition. It is preferable to use one or two clear, contrasting images.

Senryu is similar, except it emphasizes humor and human foibles instead of seasons, and may not use kigo or kireji.

For haiku definitions go to: http://www.haikuoz.org/haiku_definitions/.


From the Haiku Socity of America -
HAIKU
Definition:  A haiku is a short poem that uses imagistic language to convey the essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition.
Notes:  Most haiku in English consist of three unrhymed lines of seventeen or fewer syllables, with the middle line longest, though today's poets use a variety of line lengths and arrangements. In Japanese a typical haiku has seventeen "sounds" (on) arranged five, seven, and five. (Some translators of Japanese poetry have noted that about twelve syllables in English approximates the duration of seventeen Japanese on.) Traditional Japanese haiku include a "season word" (kigo), a word or phrase that helps identify the season of the experience recorded in the poem, and a "cutting word" (kireji), a sort of spoken punctuation that marks a pause or gives emphasis to one part of the poem. In English, season words are sometimes omitted, but the original focus on experience captured in clear images continues. The most common technique is juxtaposing two images or ideas (Japanese rensô). Punctuation, space, a line-break, or a grammatical break may substitute for a cutting word. Most haiku have no titles, and metaphors and similes are commonly avoided. (Haiku do sometimes have brief prefatory notes, usually specifying the setting or similar facts; metaphors and similes in the simple sense of these terms do sometimes occur, but not frequently. A discussion of what might be called "deep metaphor" or symbolism in haiku is beyond the range of a definition. Various kinds of "pseudohaiku" have also arisen in recent years; see the Notes to "senryu", below, for a brief discussion.
http://www.hsa-haiku.org/archives/HSA_Definitions_2004.html

Links to Haiku sites:

 

Haiku Oz: The Australian Haiku Association - http://www.haikuoz.org

 

Australian Haiku Dreaming - http://users.mullum.com.au/jbird/dreaming/ozku.html

 

Wollumbin Haiku Workshop - http://www.wollumbin-haiku.com

Walleah Press, Famous Reporter, biannual magazine publishing poetry and with substantial haiku section, haiku submissions to: Lyn Reeves 44 Bayside Drive, Lauderdale, Tasmania 7021, Australia- http://walleahpress.com.au/index.htm, http://www.wallwahpress.com.au/haiku.html 

 

Stylus Poetry Journal an Australian site, based in Brisbane - http://www.styluspoetryjournal.com/main/master.asp?id=75

 

Paper Wasp Journal, quarterly; haiku and related forms. Enquiries/submissions to: 14 Fig Tree Pocket Road, Chapel Hill, Qld 4069, Australia. Or to - ksamuelowicz@optusnet.com.au  - http://members.optusnet.com.au/paperwasp/

 

Haiku XpresSions publishes haiku from around the world in the magazine FreeXpresSion. Send up to ten unpublished haiku at a time, not on offer elsewhere, to the Haiku Editor, Cynthia Rowe (cynthia.rowe@ozemail.com.au), including your postal address. Any writer whose work is published receives a complimentary copy of FreeXpresSion magazine.

 

Notes From the Gean: Haiku, Tanka and Haiga Journal - http://geantree.webs.com/

Rooku - www.movinggalleries.org/rooku/, and www.melbourne.org.au/406.0

 

Pardalote Press - www.pardalote.com.au/authors/watersmeet/, and www.pardalote.com.au/titles/spinifex/

Great article about haiku: http://raysweb.net/haiku/pages/haiku-definition.html

Haiku and photography website: http://raysweb.net/haiku/

 

The Heron's Nest, USA - http://www.theheronsnest.com/

 

A training exercise to writing haiku: http://shachihoko.homestead.com/1exercise.html

 

Shamrock Haiku Journal: http://www.shamrockhaiku.webs.com/currentissue.htm 

 

How to write haiku/Wisteria Press: http://www.wisteriapress.com/haikureport.pdf

 

In the Moonlight a Worm … http://www.haiku.insouthsea.co.uk/index.htm

 

Haiku Society of America:  http://www.hsa-haiku.org/

 

Millikin University Haiku the Website:   http://www.millikin.edu/haiku/ 

 

Haiku World - http://www.haikuworld.org/ 

 

World Haiku Association - http://www.worldhaiku.net/ 

 

HIA International Haiku Association - http://www.haiku-hia.com/index_en.html 

 

Writer’s Digest/Poetic Asides: http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/

 

Haiku site - http://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/japan/studact2.htm

 

Haiku Talk: A general discussion list for writers and others interested in haiku and related genres. A forum for news and views. - http://geraldengland.co.uk/hk/

 

Haiku 2000: A series of webpages supporting and expanding on the material in The Art of Haiku 2000: a guide to haiku, senryu, tanka, haibun, sedoka, sijo and other related genres, published by New Hope International. - http://www.geraldengland.co.uk/nhi/hk2000.htm 

 

Wonder Haiku Worlds - a community portal for haiku and related forms:
http://www.wonderhaikuworlds.com/

 

chaba: an electronic haiku journal - http://www.users.interport.net/~jhudak/

 

World Haiku Review:  http://athenaeum-contents.blogspot.com/

Modern Haiku Magazine: http://www.modernhaiku.org/


Simply Haiku: http://simplyhaiku.com/

Tiny Words publishes one haiku per day: http://tinywords.com/about/

Roadrunner Haiku Journal: http://www.roadrunnerjournal.net/pages_all/aboutroadrunner.htm

Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America: http://www.hsa-haiku.org/frogpond/index.html