Advanced Studies in Poetry: Global Haiku Tradition
EN 340 PACE
September-October 2015

All writing assignments are to be submitted by email attachment by midnight on Thursday before each class period. Please save your files as RTF "Rich Text Format" or DOC format documents and include your initials or name with each file sent.

Send them to: rbrooks@millikin.edu

General Weekly Course Structure & Procedures

1. Sharing and discussing favorite haiku from the reading assignments
    (emailed responses are due midnight the day before the class).

2. Collaborative haiku writing (various linked verse haikai traditions).

3. Critical reading discussion on history of haiku and haiku poetics.

4. Haiku editing workshop. E-mail attempts due midnight Thursday (three days before class each week).

5. Kukai selection of favorites by each other.

NOTE: The Millikin Moodle course will provide electronic resources and updates of your grades for the course, and provides a backup of these assignments. This web page provides the most up-to-date current information on assignments.

The course schedule is merely a guideline. The professor reserves the right to alter course content, class assignments/activities, and/or dates, as deemed necessary. The professor will announce assignments and due dates in class, via email, or course web site. The student is responsible for attending class to know what assignments will be required and when. Announcements in class or via email will take precedence over the written schedule.

Required Books Week One (in class reading - these books will be brought to class by Dr. Brooks)

The Silence Between Us by Wally Swist, 2005 Brooks Books

Millikin University Haiku Anthology, 2008 Bronze Man Books

Mayfly magazine gift (from Brooks Books)

Handout of haiku by Peggy Lyles (handout copy available on Moodle)

Required Books Week Two to bring to class:

The Haiku Anthology by Cor Van Den Heuvel, 2000

Handout of haiku by Peggy Lyles from To Hear the Rain

Millikin University Haiku Anthology, 2008 Bronze Man Books

Handout of haiku by George Swede (handout copy available on Moodle)

Required Books Week Three:

Handout of "Guidelines for Beginning Writers of Haiku" Gail Sher (handout copy available on Moodle)

Matsuo Basho by Makoto Ueda (handout copy available on Moodle)

Handout essay on Introduction to Japanese haiku (handout copy available on Moodle)

Required Books Week Four:

The Wordless Poem by Eric Amann. (handout copy available on Moodle)

Love Haiku: A Lifetime of Love by Masajo Suzuki (translated by Lee Gurga & Emiko Miyashita), 2000 Brooks Books; ISBN: 0929820003

Matsuo Basho by Makoto Ueda. (1983) Kodansha International; ISBN: 0870115537

Required Books Week Five:

Millikin University Haiku Anthology, 2008 Bronze Man Books

Week One

1. Sharing and discussing haiku from Mayfly, Swist's Silence Between Us & Lyles' To Hear the Rain handout.

2. Haiku writing and editing workshop.

in class reading: Lyles' To Hear the Rain handout

in class response writing: response writing to favorite haiku by Peggy Lyles & Wally Swist

in class haiku writing (with Dr. Brooks' help): go into more depth describing a memory from your own life (one page) and write 2-3 haiku which captures some moments from within that memory

assignments for week two:

(1) email your in class response writing: we wrote 1 paragraph response to a Lyles & Swist haiku. send it to me

(2) email your in class haiku writing where you went into more depth describing a memory from your own life (one page) and wrote 2-3 haiku which captures some moments from within that memory. send it to me

(3) haiku writing for next week: write 10 additional haiku based on memories rising up in your mind from reading haiku. send me at least 10 new haiku.

reading for next week: The Haiku Anthology and prose introductions from Peggy Lyles and the Millikin University Haiku Anthology writers and read the handout sample of haiku by George Swede.

(4) response writing for next week: write imagined response paragraphs for 3 favorite haiku from The Haiku Anthology and 2 favorites from George Swede and 2 favorites from the Millikin University Haiku Anthology.

EMAIL your response paragraphs & haiku by midnight Thursday to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

Class Two

1. Sharing and discussing favorite haiku from The Haiku Anthology & Millikin University Haiku Anthology.

2. Critical reading discussion on haiku poetics from The Haiku Anthology, MU Haiku, Swede & Lyles.

poetics statement: characteristics of best, most effective haiku "things found" in the best, most effective haiku. Characteristics the students in that group like, with a couple of haiku for examples.

3. Kukai 1 selection of favorites by each other.

4. Haiku editing workshop from attempts. (email due midnight two days before class)

5. Brief introduction to tan-renga and rengay.

assignments for week three:

reading for next week: Matsuo Basho handout (chapters 1-2 and the Renga sample) and handout essay by Gail Sher - Beginner's Guide to Writing Haiku (handouts available from Moodle only)

(4) response writing: briefly compare Gail Sher's approach to Peggy Lyle's preface. (you may use bullet points)

(5) response writing for next week: select 3 favorite haiku by Basho (from Ueda's book) and write your imagined response to each of those 3.

(6) response writing: select 2 favorite haiku from the "Introducation to Japanese Haiku" handout and write your imagined response to each.

(7) response writing: write a short response to the renga from the Basho book. write short paragraph responses to 1 of the most interesting links from the renga

(8) response writing: write short response paragraphs to two of your favorite haiku from Kukai 1

(10) haiku to edit: send me 2 alternative versions for at least 3 haiku from Haiku to Edit 1

(11) haiku writing for next class: write 10 or more seasonal based haiku (deliberately include nature or an image that places us in a seasonal context). write about the Thanksgiving, coming winter, late autumn, hay rides, bare branches, etc. try some from childhood memories and some from now.

EMAIL your writings to me by midnight Thursday at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

1. Sharing and discussing favorite haiku from "Introduction to Japanese Haiku" handout

2. Sharing and discussing favorite haiku from Matsuo Bashô.

3. Download and read: How to Rengay (handout).

ninjô verses—people or emotion verses (self, other or both) (I, you, us, he or she, they perspectives)

ninjô -nashi—non-people or place verses

We will look at a 36 link kasen renga (mixing ninjô and ninjô-nashi verses with no more than three links being ninjô and ninjô-nashi verses in a row):

(1) hokku—sets tone, greets all, establishes season, quiets guests to join in
(2) wakiku—builds on unstated elements of the hokku and maintains season. ends in a noun
(3) daisanku—ends with open-ended image (often transitive verb ING)
(5) usually moon shows up here for the first time
(6) concludes the first page (jo) often written by the official scribe
(7)-(29) heats up the links and leaping (intensification)
(13) moon appears again
(17) blossoms usually show up here
(29) moon’s third and final appearance
(30)-(36) kyû—the slow down finale (quiets back down into calmness)
(35) cherry blossoms always here
(36) end with openness and reverberation

4. Kukai selection of favorites by each other.

assignments for week four:

(9) tan-renga writing: writing a capping verse to 2 favorite haiku from a previous kukai or matching contest. (add 2 lines to make a new 5 line poem)

reading: Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory handout, and the Poetry of Basho (handout chapters 1 & 4 from Moodle) and the book of translations, Love Haiku: A Lifetime of Love by Masajo Suzuki

(12) response writing for week four: select 3 favorite haiku by Masajo Suzuki and write your imagined, felt response to these three.

(13) response writing: write short response paragraphs to two of your favorite haiku (1 from Matching Contest 1 and 1 from Matching Contest 2)

(14) Kukai 2 response writing: write a reader's response to 1 favorite from Kukai 2

(15) response writing: find an example of a favorite haiku in English by fellow student or from anthologies that demonstrate each of the following three types of linking:

(1) find 1 haiku demonstrating word links--puns, objects
(2) find 1 haiku demonstrating content links--narrative, scene, progression
(3) find 1 haiku demonstrating scent links--emotion, atmosphere, social status, intuitive tone

(examples highlight linking or movement between the two images of the haiku)

In one paragraph for each, explain how that haiku is an example of that type of linking.

(16) rengay writing for week four: write 2 rengay (one with family or friends) and (one with an email partner from this class or previous haiku students) follow the principle of no more than three links being ninjo or ninjo-nashi verses in a row.

(17) haiku writing for week four: 10-15 haiku attempts writing about things that are better because they are not perfect, are somewhat worn out, are broken but still valued, etc. (the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi). Haiku on other topics are welcome as well.

(18) haiku writing for week four: 10-15 haiku on any topic. OPEN!

(19) email me your plan for the contemporary haiku reader response essay. I will bring books for your to borrow if possible next week, if you send me your plans or idea for this study.

EMAIL your writings to me by midnight Thursday at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

1. Sharing and discussing favorite haiku from Love Haiku

2. Critical reading discussion on history of haiku from Basho & Shirane.

3. Favorite rengay & matching contest kukai selection of favorites by each other.

4. Send/give me the name of the author you are studying for your contemporary author study, unless your name and author are listed below:

assignments for week five:

reading: reading and response on your author for your essay

(20) response writing: write short response paragraphs to one of your favorite haiku from Kukai 3and one favorite from Matching Contest 3

(21) reader response writing: email me a note about your favorite haiku from my book, School's Out. You may write a reader response to one if you would like to, but the assignment is just to send me which one is your favorite.

EMAIL these three assignments to me by midnight Saturday at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

1. Sharing and discussing favorite haiku from comparisons of Japanese and American authors (emailed responses due midnight the day before the class).

2. Sharing final collections and essays.

assignments due:

for week five--haiku projects due for class presentations

EMAIL COPIES of your Author Study, Haiku Project, Haiku Collection (including preface), and Submission Ready Haiku by noon Wednesday, October 26.

(22) haiku author study: an essay on a particular contemporary author, discussing their approach to writing haiku, including response-discussion of 6-10 examples. this can focus on one book by the author in the form of a book review essay.

Here's guidelines for this assignment:

haiku author or topic study: A formal essay introducing a particular contemporary author, topic or technical approach to contemporary haiku readers. This is a reader-response essay, so the primary source for your essay will be your own readings and analyses of 6-10 haiku. If you are doing an author focus, discuss your author's approach to writing haiku. You may choose to write about a haiku topic instead of an author, with reader responses to 6-10 haiku related to that topic. Matching comparisons with haiku by other authors are always valued in all approaches to this essay. This can focus on one book by the author in the form of a book review essay or on a particular theme or technical approach to haiku by the author.

o focus on a point of insight or question about that author’s unique contribution
o include response discussions of 6-10 haiku by the author
o optional to include at a matching comparison to a haiku by another author (or more)
o may include email or in-person interview questions to help address the haiku writer's poetics

Length? 5-10 pages single-spaced. Citations? Full citation of each source within text first time mentioned (followed by haiku citation convention of author, publication title abbreviated, page number) for subsequent mentions. Yes, do include a works-cited page.

Class haiku handout: bring 20 copies on a single page (front and back is fine if needed) providing your audience with copies of all haiku discussed in the essay. One page maximum.

(23) haiku writing for next week: Ginko or haiku project--a haiku walk by a group of friends in which everyone just enjoys the walk together, stopping to notice things and to write haiku from shared experience. write at least 10 on-the-spot Ginko walk haiku by you and your friends. (It can take the form of rengay if you'd like.)

Questions about the haiku project? The haiku project can be a series or sequence or rengay of haiku on a single topic (snow, divorce, marriage, school, civil war, etc.). OR you may do a Ginko (haiku walk with friends where you write haiku that come from perceptions and feelings from the walk). OR you may write 2 more rengay or a Kasen-no-renga with friends or classmates or family.

The purpose of the haiku project is to apply haiku arts to something that means a lot to yout. Bring your passion to this project and connect it to haiku (photography & haiku) (music & haiku) (history and haiku) (psychology & senryu) (a kasen renga) (baseball haiku) (a collage of haiku) (haiku web site) (anthology of love haiku) . . . have fun with this. make it your dream assignment.

You can see sample previous haiku projects at:

http://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/MillikinHaiku/haiku/studentprojects.html

(24) haiku collection: your best haiku and renga from the course, collected with a preface about your understanding or approach to writing haiku.

Guidelines on final collections:

Select and organize your best haiku & senryu & haibun & renga into a collection (with your reading partner's help). You may want to write them in a little booklet, or print them in a binder.

Give your collection a title and a © 2015 page. (often signature haiku are connected to the title)

Include a dedication if you would like to.

Be sure to write an author's introduction to your collection which explains your title and expresses your approach or why these are the ones you have included in your collection (your poetics preface).

OPTIONAL - ask a reading partner to write a short introduction to your collection, maybe pointing out one or two favorites—or their observation about something unique about your haiku (the reader's introduction). The reader's introduction should help strangers appreciate and value your collection.

Don't forget to e-mail a copy of the preface and haiku in the collection to Dr. Brooks!

(25) signature haiku gift: (usually a bookmark, signed, with one of your best haiku) please bring a copy for each fellow student and the teacher (20 copies)

(26) submission ready haiku: five of your best haiku typed on a page with your name & address in upper left-hand corner, folded and inserted in a number 10 envelope, with another number ten envelope folded in third inside, two first class stamps included loose in the envelope

• • •

NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE that you need toEMAIL COPIES of your Author Study, Haiku Project, Haiku Collection (including preface), and Submission Ready Haiku by midnight, Sunday, October 25.

BRING your physical booklet, your essay, ANY BOOKS YOU BORROWED FOR YOUR ESSAY, your haiku project, your signature bookmarks for exchange, and your submission ready haiku. Books won in kukai are yours to keep!

Return books I loaned you for your haiku author study!