Category Archives: haibun

Writing and Rewriting

12 Replies

My first activity of the day, if you exclude getting both legs in my trousers and eating breakfast, which are both serious pursuits for a newly retired man, was to call up my folder of moribund haibun. These are the ones that I like, but which seem to lack the final touch. Or the ones that have been rejected several times, but which I still have faith in. Or, to be blunt – the ones that are one press of the button away from the file marked “Storage”, but which could equally be called “Elephant’s Graveyard”. I have dropped a few in there recently and am looking for more.

The one in question was, according to my cunning filing system, started in 2022. The 24th October, to be precise – I can say that with confidence because I just remembered how to find that information – perhaps I am at last becoming computer literate. It has been submitted three times, rejected three times, and left alone for quite a while, as, to be fair to the rejecting editors, it wasn’t very interesting. It is one of those poems that, once the initial attraction wore off, became dull and stale.

Winter trees at Little Gidding

Well, the good news is that I have cut the word count by 25% and replaced or reordered a substantial number of the remaining 75%. I’m actually quite keen to send it out again, and I think I know who it’s going to. He has always rejected my haibun, so it will be a good test.

This poem recycling is going quite well. Earlier in the week, whilst clearing out, I found a few line which had petered out, and realised that some of them would fit in with another poem that was parked in poetic purgatory. That one traces its origins back to  a poem I managed to lose on my last computer. so I don’t know the full history. I know that I mentioned Fotheringhay in 2017, and again in 2021. From the second post I know that I must have started the poem in April or May 2012. It’s been out four times and has not yet been accepted.

Edit: That should read “I must have started the poem in April or May 2021.” 

Once again rewritten, and with a couple of lines dropped in from a poem that never really got going, it’s looking a lot better. It probably needs looking at again, but I am confident it still has some life in it.

Remains of Fotheringhay castle

Sixteen Swimming Swans

11 Replies

 

Mute Swan – Rufford Abbey

This morning I thought of several poems whilst I was on the way back from dropping Julia off. This is the same time frame where I used to have all my best ideas. My brain is awake but the task of driving on a fairly clear road is not too demanding. At that point thoughts come into my head. I actually had my first idea before we left home, had a second as I dropped her off and had several more on the way home. No pad, no voice recorder, just me repeating things to myself.

When I reached home I noted the ideas down and wrote the prose sections for five haibun. That’s more than I did in the last months – the ones I’ve submitted have all been written for ages and I have merely worked my way through them without originating anything. They have had a few tweaks, and have needed a haiku or a tanka here and there, but generally all my recent acceptances have been written for months. That, of course, is how it is supposed to be. People who know these things advise leaving work to mature.

Mute Swan at Clumber Park

I just looked back and realise that I have had three months this year when I have submitted nothing and that everything I have had accepted since March has been, and been rejected, at least once.

Since this morning I have had two more ideas, though I have not settled to write them yet. Even poets have to wash up and drink tea. One of the ideas is actually about drinking tea.

Swan at National Arboretum

If you’ve ever followed my creative process you will have noticed that things change and I’m more of an artisan than an artist. I don’t really have a creative process, despite what I just wrote. In three months it’s quite likely that the reflections on drinking tea will have become a poem about eating sandwiches. That’s how it goes. That’s how my poem about two swans flying by became a poem about sixteen swans swimming, and was eventually accepted and published as a poem about a cormorant.

If a poet’s studio is a serene place of beauty where words flow and great thoughts are written in flowing calligraphy, mine is more like a backstreet workshop where power tools scream and where things are bolted together roughly and beaten into shape with hammers.

Eventually I will rewrite the one about the two swans flying by.  I liiked it and it contained an idea that didn’t work with cormorants.

Guess what the theme of today’s photos is . . .

 

A Brief Outline of the Day to Come

11 Replies

It feels like a poetry day today. I have been building up to it and as I only have 17 days until the end of the month, I really need to get a move on.

The last few days have been research days and I am making progress towards (a) an article and (b) the talk for the Numismatic Society. It occurred to me last night that to finish the article I will need some photographs, so that can’t be finished until I next visit Suffolk (not sure when that will be). The talk, on the other hand needs a lot more work and I need to get a move on. Most of the work I did yesterday (plus some I must do today to complete it) went into researching what will end up as a couple of minutes in the talk. That needs photos too. He was a local man so this will include at least one picture of a house he lived in (maybe 2, but I think the rest have been demolished) and  his grave. Possibly the grave of his son-in-law too, depending on how far I spread the research.

That’s another place where I miss Julia. She wouldn’t let me spend hours sitting over a keyboard, she’s make me get up and do something, which is sometimes annoying, but also sometimes a good thing. Last night, after a day tapping away with bad posture, I felt like i was tied in knots.

When I finish this I’m going to have another cup of tea and sit in front of the TV

for a while as I revert to the old ways and make some poetry notes with a pad and a fountain pen.

My Orange Parker Pen

 

Poetry, Proverbs and Poppies

10 Replies

I’m feeling a bit like the proverbial full bookshelf. It’s the one where you force another book into it and something falls off the end . . .

I’ve been writing more about coins and medals recently – the three short articles for the Numismatic Society’s Facebook page are the thin end of the wedge, I’m preparing others too – and I seem to have stopped writing poetry, as if it just fell off the end of the shelf. One minute it was there, now it’s gone. I have three unopened poetry magazines and nothing in the pipeline.

 

This has coincided with doing more reading again (which is a bit like recharging my batteries after so much poetry writing), more research and more retirement planning.

Little Gidding

I’ve just had three poems published, while I’m on the subject. Not sure if I’ve posted the link before (my memory is getting worse). The magazine is Contemporary Haibun Online, which is always worth a read and I am here, here and here. Sorry, I suppose I could be more subtle or inventive with the links, but I’m not.

 

In themselves, they are a great indicator of time passing. Poetic time is very distorted. One poem actually started five or six years ago. It has changed substantially since I started it, and been rejected four times. Two others were written last autumn after I went to a couple of family funerals. One harks back to a time when I was 16. That is now 50 years ago. That thought is hard to grasp. I have let 50 years slip by and would be hard pressed to tell you anything I have done in that time.

Maybe that’s the theme for my next poem.

It’s poppy time again

The Promised Second Post of the Day

14 Replies

Several years ago I was a member of the Poetry Society. The poetry in The Poetry Review was a bit highbrow for me, and I’m not very sociable so the constant emails from the local group were a bit irritating. This was particularly so as they circulated my email address to every other member of the group, which resulted in some spam. It wasn’t a massive problem but I could have done without it.

Eventually, after disappearing without trace when I entered the National Competition (members got a second entry free), I sent some submissions to the magazine. Well, you have to try, don’t you? I was rejected. I didn’t mind that, I’ve been rejected plenty of times. I did slightly mind the tone of the rejection, though I’ve been rejected in a patronising manner more than once. I’m sure it will happen again, particularity in a field where many practitioners have two or three degrees.

What I did mind was the suggestion, contained in a link, that I might like to make use of the Poetry Society’s  editing service. I can’t remember how much it used to cost, but it wasn’t the cost that annoyed me – it was the inappropriate nature of rejecting poems and then trying to sell the services of the society.

Much the same thing happened today. A magazine that turned me down a few weeks ago has just written. I can, it seems, send them £3 and they will send me the title of the poem they were interested in. And next month, if I send another £12 they will tell me why it was better than my other poems, give me their thoughts on it and, possibly, advice on developing it. They left the £12 until the end.

It may well be that I need to take advice, but it’s the manner in which it’s offered. Plus, to be honest, I have had some good advice on haibun from various editors, who have done it all free of charge. Some of them are very successful and have multiple collections published, so it’s good advice.

And that’s what I want to moan about.

Sorry if it seems ungracious to editors, but after one from a haibun magazine spent several emails on suggesting improvements (two major and several smaller ones) the other one suggesting that I should pay £3 just to find out which was their preferred poem, followed by £12 more for a few thoughts, hit a raw nerve.

I know they have costs to cover. I’m in three societies, have subscriptions to five magazine regularly buy single issues of others and buy about half a dozen poetry books a year, so I’m trying to spread a little money around. However, I’m sure that haibun magazines have just the same costs as the ones trying to charge for advice.

My Orange Parker Pen

32?

22 Replies

This morning I remembered that the dried fruit in the Easter Cake we had from a neighbour counts as one of the thirty. Had nothing extra at breakfast, but managed an apple and some sort of small citrus thing (probably a satsuma) for lunch. Fried rice for tea (wholegrain) so added that plus bean sprouts, sesame, peas, chilli and green beans to the total. That’s 30 already. It’s slightly harder as you get into the third day as we’ve already counted bran, berries, peppers and mushrooms in previous days. I used lemon juice and soy sauce too, so that might already be 32, now I come to think of it.

We have sweetcorn, baked beans and lentils in the cupboard and courgettes and aubergine in the fridge. This is all the sorts of stuff we normally eat, so thirty hasn’t been too hard. Strangely, five a day can be tricky at times.

Mint Tea

This evening I had an acceptance from one of the submissions I sent out on 31st, and a second email from an editor asking if I would be willing to make a couple of alterations. I’m nearly always happy to make alterations, as they generally improve things, so that’s good.

I woke at around 5.30 this morning (that’s the morning of the 2nd, even though I will be publishing on the 3rd) and couldn’t get back to sleep. I’m not sure how I’m going to cope with moving. However, worry never solves anything so I suppose I’d better do it by starting and carrying on until I’ve finished. It’s generally the best way.

Easter Buns

 

 

One in Three

18 Replies

Primrose Mencap Garden

To be honest, my latest break was just because I am lazy. Given the choice of sitting watching TV or working on writing, I took the easy way.

The current situation is both good and bad.

One, I have just had a selection of poems turned down. It’s the last but one batch that I sent out in January. No big deal. I often get turned down by traditional poetry magazines. There’s a lot of competition with ordinary poetry and this particular magazine had around a thousand poems submitted. I will have to up my game.

Two. The final set of January submissions are waiting for a decision. They are currently on the Long List. I’ve been there before and failed to make the cut so I am not building any false hopes. They had over 3,000 poems submitted. I am not sure whether the long list is a couple of thousand or a couple of hundred. Doesn’t really matter, as it’s nice to tke the extra step.

Three. Contemporary Haibun 19 is now out. It’s been  a long process from first being told by an editor that they had submitted me for this year’s edition back in the autumn. I didn’t say anything at the time because I’m always afraid that something will go wrong. In fact they didn’t select that piece, they selected another. That’s nice to know, because it means at least two editors think I’m worth nominating. It’s also nice because, as I think I wrote some time last year, after being in the book once, I felt under pressure to produce something good enough for inclusion this year. Now that I’ve put that one to rest I can relax. Even if I never get selected again, I can say I was selected twice and that tastes have changed. There are 113 poems and 32 haiga (pictures with haiku). As several people had multiple entries that puts  me in or about the top 100 writers of haibun and tanka prose (though that is a subjective judgement and a number of  better writers than me may have slipped through the net). It’s good to know I seem to be doing OK.

And with that thought, I’d better get on and submit some poetry.

Apple Blossom Mencap Garden

 

The Day Part 2

12 Replies

Sunset, Codnor, Notts

It has not been a wasted day. I have mustered my rejects from the last round of submissions and have improved several of them. I have identified my new list of targets, including one that has resisted me so far.

In non-poetry matters i have cleared a small patch of desk and finished the first draft of an article on medallions. It’s only for the Numismatic Society but it’s a start.

Julia is at the hairdresser so I am now going to make soup and something for the evening meal. This is a twofold win. First it saves her having to cook and second it means the house smells good when she walks in. With any luck I will remember to tell her that her hair looks nice. I have a terrible record of forgetting that.

All that work and it’s only just mid-day.

Sunset and chimney pots

I made soup (sweet potato and chilli) and a mixed vegetable hash (though it could have been stew or more soup). This raises an interesting point bout my cookery. Change a few ingredients and it becomes something else. For a moment I felt guilty at serving general purpose slop over the years, then I realised that Sunday Lunch, roast pork and sausages with roasted veg are all basically the same thing too – just roasted veg with dead animals. Yes, you need Yorkshire pudding for one, apple sauce for another and different flavours of gravy, but they are all pretty much the same too. Having sorted that out in my mind I no longer feel so bad.

It’s not “chicken liver parfait, with pear chutney, pickled cranberry ketchup, chicken skin & toasted sourdough” as offered by one of our local restaurants, but it ill do. Incidentally, if I could be bothered I would definitely book a meal here – even at £45 per person for three courses it looks good compared to ringing Just Eat and ordering second class food to be delivered lukewarm. I suspect that one of my faults over the years has been that I have settled for second best. I like fried chicken, burgers and generic curry but “pork tenderloin with sticky miso glazed cheek, apple & BBQ hispi cabbage” sounds so much nicer. Maybe I should have valued myself more highly.

(And yes, I did remember to mention that Julia’s hair looked nice.)

Sunset, Langley Mill by-pass

Ducks and Stuff

15 Replies

Mandarin Duck – Arnot Hill Park

I’ve just been tidying up my email box. Deleting 100 emails on top of the hundreds that I do as they come in, makes me realise how many I get and how much I have let things get out of hand. Recently I red how part of you can be contained in another person (the example in my case being that without Julia I would lose all memory of family addresses and dates. It’s a bit like that with emails. Much of my life is contained within the email system and if I lost access to that I would find aspects of my personality disappearing too.

But enough philosophical rambling . . .

I’m just about to start writing poetry again (having been derailed by my recent arthritis outbreak), and I was looking up an email from an editor. I wanted information about the next submission period but was hooked by his comments on rejecting my previous submission. I thought I had passed the point of being annoyed by rejection, but it appears I’m not. I don’t want to give too much information because it’s not fair to discuss editorial comments in public, but he editor in question said that the poem didn’t make sense on a literal basis.

Duck – Arnot Hill Park

If I was aiming for writing that made sense on a literal basis i would write travel guides or text books. I’d actually have a chance of making money if I did that. But I write poetry, which is supposed to be full of imagination, allusion and layers of meaning. I don’t recall ever reading that it had to make sense. It’s hard enough to write as it is, without needing it to make sense too.

That email is stored two spaces below another that complains the haiku in one of the haibun I submitted “isn’t a haiku at all”. When I look back at it, I see his point. It was written in haste as I struggled to make a deadline and I wasn’t as sharp at editing as I should have been. This comment I have no problem with, just in case you were thinking I was being unfair to editors. It is, after all, the job of the writer to write poetry of such stunning beauty that an editor cannot resist it.

And with that in mind, I am off to write a poem about ducks. I like ducks and they are fun to feed. They aren’t quite as multi-faceted as swans, but if you are writing limericks they are easier to rhyme.

Floating Feathers – Arnot Hill Park

More Ups and Downs

9 Replies

The rate of improvement in my hands has slowed down today – one is almost cured but the other is still hanging on. Tonight is my night for more anti-arthritis drugs so I’m hoping this will help. If not I may hve to ring the specialist next week and see if they can help.

On the poetry front I had another rejection today, but it was from someone I expected to reject it, so it wasn’t a surprise. I am going to mount a concentrated effort to wear him down over the next year.

The shop was quiet all morning, then picked up for the last hour. In the end it was a successful week, but it can be quite wearing on the nerves to wait until the last hour of the last day of the week to achieve this. Someone rang and made an appointment for next week, telling me that he’d avoided Saturday as we were probably too busy. I laughed.

Yes, I read a lot of low-brow books…

As a result of today’s refusal, I now have three more haibun to send out. I will prod them round a bit to (possibly) improve them and that means I don’t need to write anything else to make this month’s submissions.

I’m feeling a bit like our garden plum tree this month. If you don’t prune properly and thin out the fruit you end up with a tree that only fruits in alternate years, known as a biennial bearer. I’m much the same. I submitted so much last month that I don’t feel like writing at the moment. It’s a pattern I need to address. Part of it is down to my hands, but a lot of it is due to the amount I submitted last month.

This month’s submissions are now all taken care of and I need to start on the poems for March. It’s a reasonably light month, as is April so I’m hoping to relax a bit and build up a depth of material. At one time I was organised enough to send my submissions in the first few days of the month, instead of the last few. The disadvantage is that you wait longer for a reply, but the advantage is that you are generally more relaxed and make better quality submissions.

Soon we will have a new garden