Advanced Studies in Poetry: Global Haiku Tradition
IN203 Humanities Honors Seminar - Spring 2014
Dr. Randy Brooks

<http://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/MillikinHaiku/haiku/courses/globalSpring2014/assignments.html>

ALL ASSIGNMENTS are to be submitted by email.
Send them to: rbrooks@millikin.edu

Classroom: Mac Lab (Staley Library 029)

Informal Reader Response Writing & Haiku Writing = 35%
Contemporary Haiku Study (due April 10) = 20%
Kasen Renga = 05%
Haiku Project = 10%
Haiku Collection (paper & by email) = 20%
Haiku Collection Poetics Preface on Art of Writing Haiku = 05%
 Final Reading & Submission = 05%

Final Exam: Thursday May 15 @ 2-4pm
Pilling Chapel

Haiku Society of America • http://www.hsa-haiku.org/
American Haiku Archives • http://www.americanhaikuarchives.org/
Haiku Chronicles • http://www.haikuchronicles.com/
The Haiku Foundation • http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/
Simply Haiku • http://www.simplyhaiku.com
Heron's Nest • http://www.theheronsnest.com/
Modern Haiku • http://www.modernhaiku.org/
A Hundred Gourds • http://ahundredgourds.com
World Kigo Database • http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/
Haibun Today • http://haibuntoday.com/

Extra Credit Opportunities:

(1) Japan House Tea Ceremonies

Japan House is delighted to announce that tea ceremonies will now be offered to the public on the third Saturday of each month at 3:00 p.m. Tea ceremonies will continue to be offered every Thursday at 2:00 and 3:00 but due to many requests we are adding these monthly Saturday teas on the third Saturday of each month to accommodate those that aren't able to attend during the week. Please join us and find a moment of peace as you experience the Way of Tea.

(2) Haiku & Poetry Reading

Bronze Man Books is hosting a "Broken Hearts" poetry reading on Valentine's Day, February 13, Thursday at the SPEC at 7pm. If you go & participate (you can write up your experience in an email to me for extra credit).

(3) Undergraduate Haiku Award Competition - deadline April 15, 2013

The Myong Cha Son Haiku Award welcomes unpublished, original haiku for consideration in the competition. We ask that applicants adhere to the following guidelines. The annual competition is open to all undergraduate poets who are enrolled in a college/university in the United States. The submission should consist of a cover letter and up to three poems. Please put only the title of the poem at the top of the manuscript. The author's name, address, e-mail address, and telephone number should be placed on a separate sheet. There is a $10 entry fee for submission of up to three poems. Make payment to: WCU Foundation. All submissions must be postmarked no later than March 15, 2015. Submitted poems will not be returned. For notification of contest results please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.Manuscripts should be sent to:

Iris N. Spencer Undergraduate Poetry Awards
Poetry House
West Chester University
West Chester, PA 19383

The winner will receive a $1500 award and the runner-up will receive $500.

(4) Night of Poetry Reading

Bronze Man Books and the Decatur Area Arts Council are co-hosting a communitiy poetry reading in April 10, 2014 from 6:30 - 9:00pm.

(5) Haiku Cut Competition

Celebrations of Scholarship - 3-4pm - Pilling Chapel, April 25, 2014

Bring your best haiku on a sheet of paper or on cards. This is a slam-style competition in public tournament style. To become Grand Champion, your team will have up to at least 25 winning haiku, so bring plenty of haiku to the competition. Here are possible slam round topics: certain Japanese aesthetics such as sabi, wabi, aware, karumi, and yugen. There will also be American aesthetics rounds such as first date, graduation, awkwardness, spring break, grooviness, April fool's, peace, love, old jeans, summer vacation and angst.

Extra credit for competing or attending. Write an email response to the event after the fact.

 

for 1/23 - no class this Thursday. just send me your first responses & haiku attempts

reading: Mayfly magazine sample

writing response: send me an email copy of your in-class response to a favorite haiku in MAYFLY 48 and select 2 favorite haiku (from MAYFLY or Peggy Lyles) and briefly write your imagined, felt response to them.

haiku writing: write your first 3-5 haiku attempts on transition times—lulls of dawn, of dusk, change in relationships, shifts in states of consciousness, new semesters). (email your 3 responses & 3-5 haiku by midnight Wednesday, 1/22)

for 1/28 - haiku of the day --> Dr. Brooks

reading: To Hear the Rain, pages 1-64, introductions, prose (and the interview in the back of the book)

writing response: find 3 favorite Lyles haiku—write your imagined felt responses to them (one paragraph each)

writing extended memory & memory haiku: then go into more depth with a fourth haiku that especially triggered memories from your childhood or past (about a one page memoir) describing a memory from your own life. THEN write 3-5 haiku which capture different moments or feelings from within that longer memory from your experience. You may want to especially explore a childhood memory as well as more recent memories.

haiku write: 5-10 haiku on the coldness (not ABOUT the cold but about a moment of encountering the cold—cold wind, cold walk, cold hands, the flu, cold car, chill).

(email your 3 short responses & one 1-page sensory memory writing & 7-10 new haiku by midnight Sunday, 1/26)

for 1/30 - haiku of the day --> Jeremy

reading: To Hear the Rain, pages 65-end (read the interview at the back)

haiku reading responses: write a response to 1 favorite haiku from Kukai 1

haiku reading responses: select 3 more favorite haiku by Peggy Lyles and briefly write your imagined, felt response to them. be ready to discuss why you like them.

REMEMBER to cite each haiku fully (do not add capital letters or punctuation) like this:

cucumbers
soaked in vinegar—
the heat

          Lyles, THTR, 48

haiku write: 4-5 haiku on perceptions of snow, ice, frost or cold-hearted people.

(email your 4 responses & 5 haiku by midnight Wednesday, 1/29)

for 2/4 - haiku of the day --> Dillon

reading: handout of haiku from Almost Unseen by George Swede (available from Moodle)

writing response 1: find two favorite haiku from the handout and write a short response paragraph to one of them AND write a longer memory response with 3-5 new haiku to a third favorite haiku by George Swede. (email your 1 response paragraph and 1 memory response with 3-5 new haiku to me by midnight, Sunday, 2/2)

reading response 2: find an interesting "matched pair" of haiku (one from George Swede and one from Peggy Lyles or a Mayfly author) to read side by side. write a short analysis of the writing strategies and techniquse used in these haiku. (not reader response but analysis of writing techniques such as line break, word choice, arrangement, rhythm, sounds, emphasis, break, voice, tone, attitude, etc.). one page maximum for your analysis (half a page is fine).

reading response 3: haiku to edit 1 alternatives

haiku write: 4-5 haiku on the nitty gritty side of college life and the angst of being human — like some of George's haiku. Due by email Sunday, February 2.

IN CLASS - bring your extended memory writing from George Swede & be ready for an editing workshop.

editing haiku: read each other's memory writing & resulting haiku. select your favorite one by the team member and offer a couple of edits or variations of another couple haiku.

for 2/6 - haiku of the day --> Kort

reading: Haiku Handbook Chapter 2 (handout from Moodle)

response writing 1: find 1 favorite Japanese haiku & match it to 1 favorite English language haiku—write your short imagination responses to them (one short paragraph each), then write a short comparison of differences and similarities you notice in the Japanese haiku and English-langauge haiku

reading response 2: compare the genesis of discourse for your two authors (George Swede and Peggy Lyles). why do they choose to write haiku about these moments? what is the source of significance worth turning into a literary artwork for them? (Short, informal writing, no more than 1 page.)

haiku writing: 5-6 new haiku on any topic of your choice

for 2/11 - haiku of the day -->

reading: Love Haiku by Masajo Suzuki, Introduction and haiku from pages 1-64

reading response 1: find three favorite haiku by Masajo and write a short response paragraph to them. (email your 3 response paragraphs to me by midnight Sunday Feb. 9)

kukai responses 2: write about a favorite match or pair of haiku that came up in the Matching Contest 1 or Matching Contest 2

writing love haiku or senryu: write 8-10 love or anti-love Valentine's Day haiku. Not necessarily all lovey-dovey cliches, but love, lust, crushes, unrequited love, good friends, bitterness about love, winter dance, sock hop, blind date, romance, vampire love, and so on . . . Send your Valentine's Day haiku to Dr. Brooks by midnight, Sunday Feb. 9.

for 2/13 - haiku of the day -->

Love Fest Kukai for Valentine's Day. You can invite guests to class.

reading: Love Haiku by Masajo Suzuki, haiku from pages 64-128

reading responses: find two favorite haiku by Masajo and write a short response paragraph to both of them. (email your 2 response paragraphs to me by midnight Wednesday Feb. 13)

valentine haiku gift exchange: bring 15 copies of one of your favorite Love Haiku (can be by you or by someone else or a new haiku you just wrote or edited) and sign the 15 copies for a Valentine's Day gift exchange. Have fun with this!

Extra Credit Opportunity: Bronze Man Books is hosting a "Broken Hearts" poetry reading on Valentine's Day, February 13, Thursday at the SPEC at 7pm. If you go & participate (you can write up your experience in an email to me for extra credit).

for 2/18 - haiku of the day --> Jenna

reading: The Millikin University Haiku Anthology, pages 1-90

reader response: write response paragraphs for three favorite haiku from the MU Haiku Anthology email your responses by midnight, 2/16

write new haiku: write 5-10 haiku in response to MU Haiku anthology favorites or open topics. email your responses by midnight, 2/16

IN CLASS TEAM group dialogue: what are the essential elements of the very best haiku? What makes some haiku better than others? How would you define or describe the characteristics of the best haiku? What must a highest-quality haiku do (for? with?) for readers to be effective?

genre n 1: a kind of literary or artistic work 2: a style of expressing yourself in writing [syn: writing style, literary genre] 3: a class of artistic endeavor having a characteristic form or technique. (dictionary.com)

literary genre n : a style of expressing yourself in writing [syn: writing style, genre] (dictionary.com)

genre (zhän`r?), in art-history terminology, a type of painting dealing with unidealized scenes and subjects of everyday life. Although practiced in ancient art, as shown by Pompeiian frescoes, and in the Middle Ages, genre was not recognized as worthy and independent subject matter until the 16th cent. in Flanders. There it was popularized by Pieter Bruegel, the elder. It flourished in Holland in the 17th cent. in the works of Ter Borch, Brouwer, Metsu, De Hooch, Vermeer, and many others, and extended to France and England, where in the 18th and 19th cent., its major practitioners were Watteau, Chardin, Greuze, Morland, and Wilkie. In Italy genre elements were present in Carpaccio's and Caravaggio's paintings, but not until the 18th cent. did genre become the specialty of an Italian artist, Pietro Longhi. The French impressionists often painted genre subjects as did members of the American ashcan school. (Columbia encyclopedia)

see Wikipedia for an introductory discussion of genre at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_genre

Definitions of genres, especially literary genres, usually includes some expectations of form or structure, so our next question is to consider the formal elements of haiku. But genres also include certain expectation of content and aesthetic experience.

TEAM presentation due Thursday February 20:

Compare the Art of Haiku to [your team's comparison choice]. Email your written team/partner presentation overview comparison idea (by Tuesday midnight 2/18):

for 2/20

reading: The Millikin University Haiku Anthology, pages 91-192

reader response: write response paragraphs for three favoriate haiku from the MU Haiku Anthology email your responses by midnight, 2/19

email your written team/partner report plans: one person write your team's statement of the essential elements, techniques, characteristics of the best, well-crafted, well-written haiku . . . what are characteristics of your favorite, most effective haiku (use at least 3-5 examples from readings so far). This is the first half of a genre study of haiku. Also, let me know what your group is planning to compare the art of haiku to. Email the group statement on high quality haiku in the genre by midnight, Wednesday, Feb. 19.

team comparison presentations:

French & Japanese cuisine & haiku - Aaron, Austin, Lexi, Jackie

Photography & haiku - Debbie, Alex, Heather

Dancing & haiku - Kort, Jeremy, Dillon, Blaine

Cooking & haiku - Jenna, Adam, TJ

writing haiku: 5-10 haiku related to elements (things, reality, settings, contexts) often associated with your comparison genre. Send me your new haiku by midnight, Wednesday, Feb. 19.

for 2/25

reading: The Haiku Anthology, pages 1-60 including the introductions

reader response: select 3 favorites and write a paragraph response to 3 favorite haiku. send your response writing to me by email by midnight Sunday, Feb. 23.

Bring your DVD book, THE ART OF THE SHORT POEM to class next Tuesday!

writing haiku: group matching contests or kukai (these are due Wednesday, February 26 (for groups to use Thursday, February 27. TEAM ASSIGNENTS:

French & Japanese cuisine & haiku - Aaron, Austin, Lexi, Jackie

--> take a photo of a favorite meal & write some haiku about that meal (2-3 attempts)

Photography & haiku - Debbie, Alex, Heather

--> take a photograph or do a drawing and write haiku to go with it (2 attempts)

Dancing & haiku - Kort, Jeremy, Dillon, Blaine

--> write haiku about a favorite activity associated with a certain season
      then as a team choose one to choreograph into an expressive, interpretative dance

Cooking & haiku - Jenna, Adam, TJ

--> write haiku (2 or 3) about a favorite food & find a haiku about a favorite food

for 3/4

reading: The Haiku Anthology, pages 60-120

reader response: select 3 favorites and write a paragraph response to 3 favorite haiku write haiku variations in response to 3 haiku.

haiku writing: 3-5 haiku on jazz, Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day, or Mardi Gras

finish special topic awards & contest actvities

send your response writings & new haiku to me by email by midnight Sunday, March 2.

for 3/6

reading: The Haiku Anthology, pages 120-203

reader response: select 3 favorites and write a paragraph response to 3 favorite haiku.

haiku writing: 5-10 haiku on Ash Wednesday, meditation, yoga, or Lent

send your response writing and new haiku to me by email by midnight Wednesday, March 5.

Author or Haiku topic Study:

Think about what or who you'd like to write about for your contemporary haiku reader response essay. You may want to browse the Registry of haiku poets at The Haiku Foundation <http://www.thehaikufoundation.org>. These essays are due April 8, about 3 weeks after Spring break. In order to loan you books from the Decatur Haiku Collection, I need to know your intended topic or author by Wednesday at midnight, March 19. 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 include at least one matching comparison to a haiku by another author (or more)
o may include email or phone 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.

for 3/18 - Spring Break!

Two assignments for Spring break:

(1) Take a break and enjoy being with friends, family and quiet time with yourself.

(2) haiku writing: write 10-20 haiku or a haiku sequence over Spring Break about your life's reality during spring break or about special locations and places of significance to you in your home town or travel. Don't write a bunch of cliches or stereotypical spring break stuff. Write from the reality of YOUR actual spring break.

email your spring break haiku by Sunday midnight, March 16. for our kukai!
Yes, spring break kukai will be Tuesday!

for 3/20 - kukai & author study plans

Author or Haiku topic Study:

Think about what or who you'd like to write about for your contemporary haiku reader response essay. You may want to browse the Registry of haiku poets at The Haiku Foundation <http://www.thehaikufoundation.org>. These essays are due April 8, about 3 weeks after Spring break. In order to loan you books from the Decatur Haiku Collection, I need to know your intended topic or author by Wednesday at midnight, March 19. Here's guidelines for this assignment:

Aaron Fleming - George Swede
Adam Falasz - haiku & memory
Alex Brase - Garry Gay
Austing Evans - Dee Evetts
Blaine Buente -
Debbie Vogel -
Dillon Damarin - Robert Spiess
Heather Nigh - Penny Harter
Jackie Dumitrescu - Peggy Lyles & nature
Jenna Farquhar - baseball haiku
Jeremy Maxwell - Scifaiku (Tom Brinck)
Kort Branscome -
Lexi DeSollar - Sonja Sanchez
TJ Holmes - Bob Boldman

kukai responses 2: write a response paragraph about a favorite haiku from the Spring Break Kukai 5

reading: Chapter 4 "Haiku Prose" from The Haiku Handbook by William J. Higginson (handout in class or available on Moodle). Also read the following creative nonfiction haibun:

Watching Out

     by Brian Blankenship

Over the summer as a kid, and lately, over Thanksgiving, my family and I would make a trip to visit my grandparents. Without access to a swimming pool, there wasn’t too much to do during the summer in Maubury, Alabama. With the combination of the heat, the insects, and the snakes, my grandparents’ property became a regular cesspool for disease and dehydration. But during the fall, things would cool down outside enough so that it was too cold for the snakes and bugs, but just habitable enough for us Chicagoans to enter these untamed, Alabamian outdoors.

My brothers and I found our way to the pine thicket just beside the house. In the summer months, a bed of needles or an overturned branch could be home to a giant banana spider or an aggravated copperhead, but during the cool weather, we could wander the brush without worry of toxins entering our bloodstreams and, with the closest hospital being a good hour and a half drive away, killing us any time soon. Over the years, Josh, Ben, and I had become adept at spotting which saplings were on the verge of crashing down to the dry, forest floor. We would fly through the woods, knowing the exact point of contact and the perfect amount of force at which to kick the trunks of these lifeless conifers, causing them to fall to the ground as we stood tall, one hand clenched heroically in a fist at our hip, the other, cupped at our mouth, echoing our “Timber!” across the entirety of the eighty-eight acre plot. Often times, a tree would split at the point of impact, the top half toppling down to earth in our direction. We would escape by diving from the path of the careening pine branches, shielding our eyes from the projectile splinters of kindling.

All the while, my grandfather (whom we have always referred to as JB – my dad, my uncle, my grandmother, I’m convinced his own father never called him by anything other than the initials to his birth name) would sit idly by on the patio – his grey slacks hiked up far higher than designed to, exposing a few inches of ankle flesh, permanently tanned to a crisp from the years of farm work he had been subjected to as a child and the Indian blood that runs through his veins – and he would watch the road. The far side of the gravel was completely wooded and had been fenced in long ago to maintain three goats he had purchased at the flee market in a buyer’s frenzy, which my grandmother made him return shortly after. Just shy of the natural-made gutter that ran the length of Yarbough Road (a road that was just recently dubbed worthy of a street sign), was JB’s simple garden – just a small cornucopia of a few beans, squash, and pumpkins that Grandma and he would harvest annually – almost a scaled version of those their parents had built and tended to years ago.

He would wake at the crack of dawn, and after breakfast, make himself comfortable as the remainder of the morning dew droplets evaporated into the humid November air. And there he would stay until dusk, until the placid-blue Alabama night had covered his home and made it too difficult for him to make out the yellow clay road any longer. All day long he’d watch that road, turning to have a conversation or start a fire from time to time, but always returning back to his road.

I never knew what exactly JB was looking for. The mailman would drive by on occasion, sticking an open hand out from his van as drove off down the dusty hill. But other than that, nobody came, and JB still watched. Were he a whittler, I’m sure JB would have whittled as he passed the time. A musician: played his harmonica. But since he’s not, he doesn’t. And if you go to Maubury, Alabama today, and take a walk down Yarbough Road, underneath his fig tree, beside his garden, next to his pine thicket where his grandsons play, you’ll find JB. Just sitting. Just waiting.

grandfather waits
for a better yesterday
the fallen sapling

• • •

Troll

     by Aubrie Cox

Life under a bridge is renowned to be that of a troll, and that it is. Floods on occasion make the home a bit wet, but a little mold and algae never hurt anything. Fresh fish daily, a billy goat if lucky; however, this is not prime real-estate—it's just beneath the price of a cardboard box. Stones wedged together with natural mortar arch overhead and shade the muddy water so that one can barely see the fish going by. They come up to the surface, their fishy mouths gaping, gasping for air; their glazed eyes never see warted hands, or fishing rods coming for them. (I hate fishing rods, by the way.) Trash is littered everywhere—lost treasures from passerbys. Rain matters little when every spring the neighborhood gets carried downstream.
wagon over head

rubble plops
in
the cracked teacup

• • •

Write 1 haibun - One on a memory of a lived experience (capture the sense of being there—the sensory experience as well as the overall atmosphere or mood). 1 page max. OR one can be a fictional imagined piece (you may want to start off from a favorite haiku you've read), and let your imagination go into it to make it seem like you are there, living the moment. (Include at least one haiku per haibun -- you may want to write 3-4 and select only the best 1-2).

Haiku writing: write 5-10 awkward moments haiku. Email your haiku and 1 haibun by midnight, Wednesday March 19th.

for 3/25

reading: Haiku Guy, pages 1-80

writing response 1: Practice the exercise of stop, look, and listen as described in the book. Find something, whether it be in your dorm, on campus, or somewhere where you can sit quietly without distraction and observe a particular thing, area, or person. Then, write about what you observed, describing what stuck out to you.

haiku writing: write 3 haiku from this stop, look & listen exercise.

Revise and edit your haibun attempt and send them to me for our haibun kukai (Or write a new one if you don't like your existing haibun). Tighten. Make the prose more immediate & sensory experience (less past tense reflection) and build a sense of scene (place, time, atmosphere, perspective). Let the haiku extend & link back to the prose. It is situated but new and creates a sense of un-ending.

Think about the source of your haiku. Where do your haiku originate? Why do you notice, observe, feel, reflect or focus on those things for immediate impact and lasting significance? Where do your very best haiku come from? What's your haiku muse? Your inspiration to write?

writing response 2: Compare the advice given to Buck-Teeth of poets Mido and Kuro. What do you think of each of their advice? Which appeals to you more? Explain why. Write 3 haiku following Kuro's advice, and 3 haiku from Mido's.

Extra credit: bring to class one haiku written following Shiro's advice.

Email your haiku, your edited haibun, your Mido/Kuro/Shiro advice response by Sunday midnight. March 23.

for 3/27

reading: Haiku Guy, pages 80-end

writing response: Give your reading of Issa's snail haiku.

Think about the source of your haiku. Where do your haiku originate? Why do you notice, observe, feel, reflect or focus on those things for immediate impact and lasting significance? Where do your very best haiku come from? What's your haiku muse? Your inspiration to write?

As you finish reading Haiku Guy, write a short story (or dialogue) about your own fictional character who writes haiku. Begin writing a short story in which the character encounters several problems. Try to include at least three episodes/scenes. Include at least 5-10 haiku in your haiku story scenes by characters in your story. Finish your haiku short story (a culminating scene) and of leave it open-ended with a haiku! You may use any haiku you have written this semester in your story (or base the story around some of your haiku). AND you may use haiku from classmates or authors we have read as long as you attribute them in your story.

Length of your short story or dialogue? (2 pages minimum and 15 pages maximum & 5 haiku miniimum and 10 haiku maximum) And yes, you do need a title.

for 4/1

reading: Chapters 1-2 of Matsuo Bashô by Ueda (pages 1-68). Select two favorite haiku from Bashô. Write a paragraph response to two haiku. email due midnight, March 30.

response writing: Find two matching English haiku to Bashô's haiku—one representing the aesthetic of sabi and one the aesthetic experience of karumi. Write a paragraph for each pair comparing these English haiku with those by Basho. One sabi haiku not by Basho compared to one sabi haiku by Basho. And one karumi haiku not by Basho compared to one karumi haiku by Basho. send your two comparison pairs to me by email by midnight, March 30.

kukai responses: write about a favorite match or pair of haiku that came up in the Matching Contest 5 or Matching Contest 6

haiku writing: write 3-5 April Fool's day haiku

for 4/3

reading: Bashô (Chapter 3 The Renku), pages 69-111 and email a ¶ me about one favorite link (a pair of links) in one of the renku examples. email by midnight Wed., April 2.

tan-renga capping: send me caps for at least 3 of the tan-renga hokku

matching contest favorites: write about your favorite matched pair from April Fool's Day Kukai 6. email to me by midnight, Wednesday April 2

for 4/8

in class - continue our Mad Verse Renga!

Work on your reader response haiku 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 include at least one matching comparison to a haiku by another author (or more)
o may include email or phone 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.

haiku writing: write 3-5 haiku related to your essay topic

for 4/10

Essays are due Midnight, April 9th, with presentations starting April 10th. For your presentation, bring a one-page handout (15 copies) with all of the haiku from your essay. Include at least 1 or your own haiku on the handout.

Here are the "mad-verse kasen" created in class with a round-robin style of spanteous linking and shifting between verses. These do not follow tight guidelines for kasen, but do capture the spirit of playful collaborative creation. Some work better than others in continually shifting.

Adam Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - Time is NOT the Enemy
Blaine Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - Nature's Wonders
Debbie Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - Homeless Dreams
Dillon Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - A Bad Hunting Trip
Heather Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - A Father's Journey
Jackie Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - Love Moments
Jenna Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - Illegal Love
Jeremy Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - Learning to Fly
Kort Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - Love and War: A Japanese Tragedy
Lexi Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - Leaving the Nest
Randy Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - Freedom Path
TJ Hokku Mad-verse Kasen - Too Much Work

for 4/15

type your Mad-verse Kasen renga completed in class with this: 10 point kasen renga template

(1) Read the student kasen renga by Bri Hill and students at: http://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/MillikinHaiku/haiku/studentrenga/Grasshoppers&Tobacco.html

(2) Plan a haiku writing gathering with classmates and/or friends (groups of 4-7). This can be any day with the resulting kasen-renga (36-links) due midnight, Wednesday, April 16.

Here is a DOC file you can use to print your kasen-renga: renga layout guide (doc).

This is a gathering for writing linked verse—if it's nice out you could gather in the park or at Rock Springs or at someone's place. Allow the spirit of the place where you gather to be a springboard for the haiku, but don't limit yourself to that place once you get into the linking. Let your links go out through time and seasons moving from person (ninjo) focused to non-person (ninjo-nashi) focus to avoid too much continuity of persons or scenes. Try to avoid more than three ninjo or ninjo-nashi links in a row. Remember, every two links make a new poem.

Using the following guide (derived largely from Shirane's book Traces of Dreams, try writing a kasen-no-renga.

(1) ninjô verses—people or emotion or human environment verses (self, other or both)
(2) ninjô-nashi—non-people or things or place or nature-only verses

Write a 36 link kasen-no-renga:

(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

Publication fold/design questions?
The paper is folded into 4 panels for each side (cathedral door style).
Panel 1 (outside cover) – title, date, place, copyright, (sometimes authors)
Panel 2 (first fold inside left panel) – first six links
Panel 3 (further inside far left panel) – next six links
Panel 4 (far left inside page panel) – next six links
Panel 5 (right center page panel) – next six links
Panel 6 (far right inside page panel) – next six links
Panel 7 (last fold inside right page panel) – next six links
Panel 8 (back outside cover) – acknowledgments & author links
optional obi (paper belt around the folded renga)

Adam Falasz, TJ Holmes & Caitlin Husted - The Circle of Life
xxxxx

email me your kasen-renga due Wednesday, Midnight April 16. and bring one copy to class (properly folded and belted) for sharing in class on April 17

for 4/22

(1) reading response writing: Share 10-20 of your best haiku with family and friends over Easter break (in person or by email), and see which ones they like the best. Write an email to me about favorites selected by your family and friends. Which ones did they like best and why? email due by midnight, Sunday April 20

(2) reading: School's Out by Randy Brooks

(3) writing response: write a reader response to 2 favorite haiku from School's Out due midnight, Sunday April 20

(4) writing haiku: write 5-10 haiku open topic (or in response to dr b's haiku) due by email, midnight, Sunday April 20

for 4/24

(1) haiku project proposal

The purpose of the haiku project is to apply haikai arts to something that means a lot to the student—usually something related to their major field of study. 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. email me a paragraph explaining your project plan by midnight April 23.

You can see sample previous haiku projects at:

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

Haiku projects are due May 6

4/25 - Extra credit Haiku Cut Competition!

Celebrations of Scholarship - 3-4pm - Pilling Chapel, April 25, 2013

Bring your best haiku on a sheet of paper or on cards. This is a slam-style competition in public tournament style. To become Grand Champion, your team will have up to at least 25 winning haiku, so bring plenty of haiku to the competition. Here are possible slam round topics: certain Japanese aesthetics such as sabi, wabi, aware, karumi, and yugen. There will also be American aesthetics rounds such as first date, graduation, awkwardness, spring break, grooviness, April fool's, peace, love, old jeans, summer vacation and angst.

Extra credit for competing or attending. Write an email response to the event after the fact.

for 4/29

(1) final kukai haiku submitted by midnight, Sunday, April 27 (revisions of any not born in kukai or matching contest)

(2) Write 5-10 haiku related to your project proposal due by email April 27.

for 5/1 - final kukai!

for 5/3 - meditation & haiku

(1) writing response: write a reader response to 1 favorite haiku from our Final Kukai due midnight, April 30

(2) Write 5-10 haiku open topic & 2-3 on quiet zone / meditation / quiet thinking place. Due Wednesday midnight, April 30.

for 5/6

haiku projects due (to be shared this last day of class). email the contents of your projects (the haiku at least and introduction & photographs or power point, etc) by Midnight May 5.

Aaron - fantasy haiku story or photography haiku
Adam & Jenna - chemistry haiku
Alex -
Austin - haiku songs for seasons
Blaine - golf renga
Debbie & Heather - accounting haiku dollars
Dillon - turkey hunting haiku
Jackie - ethnography & haiku from cultures (Romanian, etc.)
Jeremy - astronomy & scifaiku
Kort -
Lexi -
TJ -

for 5/8 - last day of class

Signature Gift Exchange & Sharing Haiku Collections & Projects

(1) Signature haiku gift exchange (digital photo sent to me) and haiku chapbook collections (email to me) are due Wednesday, May 7.

The signature haiku process—a haiku to give to others when they ask about haiku that can be used to teach them about haiku and to share some of your work with them. A haiku you want to be known for or known by—one that works with a lot of readers. A gift of a haiku insight . . . often presented as a gift of some sort such as a bookmark, a small haiku stone, etc.

BRING 15 copies to class!

(2) Haiku Collection Booklets due: Select and organize your best haiku & senryu & haibun & renga into a collection. Make a little booklet, or print them in a binder, or write them in a blank book.

Select and organize your best haiku & senryu & haibun & renga into a small booklet or collection. Give your collection a title and a © 2014 page. (Often signature haiku are connected to the title.) Include a dedication page 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). 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.

Bring your Haiku Collection to class!

Don't forget to e-mail a copy of the contents of your collection including your introduction to Dr. Brooks by midnight, Wednesday, May 7!

Don't forget to e-mail your short bio statement to Dr. Brooks by midnight, May 7. This bio statement will be used at our Global Haiku final exam Reading.

for 5/15 - final (a haiku reading!)

final exam reading --> Thursday May 15 @ 2-4pm @ Pilling Chapel

(1) The Spring Global Haiku Reading

I will bring your chapbook collections and return them to you at the final Global Haiku Reading.

Signature haiku book - xxxx is our host (welcoming everyone & inviting them to sign the signature book)
Refreshments - xxxxx (cookies), xxxxx (punch), xxxxx (napkins & cups)
Publicity - xxxxx (facebook event), xxxxx? (flyer)
Chalk the walk - xxxxx

Extra credit is available for bringing 2 or more guests to the reading, or for helping with one of our haiku reading tasks.

(2) Submissions to Haiku magazines Final. (one email submission copied to me & one snail mail submission brought to the final exam in envelopes)

Type a selection of 5 of your best haiku with your name and address on the upper left hand corner of the page. Also bring an envelope with your name and address in the upper left hand corner. Also include a self addressed envelope with your name and address in both the upper left hand corner and the addressee spot. Include one dollar or two stamps for postage in one of the envelopes. (Many will be submitted to magazines overseas, so please don't stick the stamps on the envelopes.)