NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

Haiku Scotland 2 Elizabeth Gardens Stoneyburn West Lothian EH47 8BP UK ISSN 1744-7232 Ł1 cheques payable to "F. Henderson" email Haiku Scotland Web design by This page last updated: 11th December 2007.		Haiku Scotland #11
		HAIKU SCOTLAND, edited by F. Henderson, is an 8-page broadsheet that focuses on haiku, senryu, tanka, aphorism, epigram and all associated short poetry forms. This issue features a haibun by Ken Jones called CLINKER which is taken from his recent wonderful collection of haibun, THE PARSLEY BED, and Mark Rutter who has two shorter haibun: MAINE JOURNAL (vii) and MAINE JOURNAL (xxix). After years of publishing his haibun in BLITHE SPIRIT and elsewhere, and of being on the panel of editors and publishing his haibun articles in the online journal CONTEMPORARY HAIBUN ONLINE, Jones has published this collection of haibun about his childhood, adult life, war-scarred Europe and rural Wales. The haibun reproduced in HAIKU SCOTLAND is about Jones' childhood and the first haiku and following paragraph gives a taste of his writing: First light the riddling of clinker in an iron grate There is nothing so dead, so ugly, so misshapen as clinker. Dad would shovel it into the battered zinc bucket and I'd lug the stuff into the yard. Out there, the acrid smell of coal fires on the damp air. "Swan Vestas — The Smoker's Match" and the fire lit. I'd make it roar into life by holding up a newspaper against the fireplace surround, daring it to catch light. Mark Rutter's haibun are totally different in style from those of Ken Jones in that he uses no capital letters and minimum punctuation. They are what one might call stream of consciousness poems. This excerpt is the closing paragraph and last haiku of MAINE JOURNAL (vii): fanning its wings open, and then slowly closing them, the monarch butterfly gathers the last warmth of sunset in its dark decals. fireflies pulse in waves across the field. one of them has landed in your hair: it glows green and gold for a moment against your cheek, before you absentmindedly brush it away. abandoned farmhouse . . . as night falls fireflies light the windows What is interesting about this broadsheet is the fact that several poets are each represented by two or more haiku or poems. Seeing what a writer puts together and how the poems combine on the page is a good way of getting acquainted with style, capabilities and sensitivity. As an example Katrina has four haiku, two of which are as follows: wild abandonment wrapped around each other — orange nasturtiums unconditional love blossoms in the garden pink geraniums hai scott is represented by five haiku, a poem called ON POETS, and a section of hundred word reviews; Patricia Ace has two haiku and a short poem called RULES OF ENGAGEMENT; Phil Miller has the Star Poem — day moon — he blind man selling brooms a poem entitled DENTIST VISIT, and another haiku; Joan Wilson has three haiku and Duncan Gardiner has a poem, ONCE UPON A TIME, two tanka and a haiku. Gardiner takes a low-key approach to tanka, making his poems from special feelings that come from the heart in the middle of a normal day. In the section BY LEAVES WE LIVE, those poets who had attended the Scottish Poetry Library's celebration were asked to produce, for fun, a short poem or haiku on the theme of leaves (noun or word). The following tanka were written by Gardiner: Each year at first frost deciduous trees decide to stage colourful carnivals — then shed glad rags — dance naked in the wild woods. Conifers confer — shun such licence root and branch — with due puritan modesty face rain and snow dressed all in their Sunday best. Gardiner also won the award for best poem on leaves: Apple leaves — cupping hands Catching and holding the last Of the summer sun The most distinctive feature of Richard Stewart's poem IMAGES OF SPAIN is the way he has captured the landscape so succinctly. His images deal with perceptions which extend through the visible world into another dimension, as we can see from the stanza entitled FIGUERES: The day Dali died The clocks didn't stop chiming Just melted away. In three lines he explores the unseen world as it presses through the fabric of art. The whole broadsheet makes a stimulating collection. The miniature reviews range from books by Doreen King and Leonard McDermid to David Cobb. This is an unpretentious publication, which surprises with the ordinary as well as the extraordinary things of life.
		reviewer: Patricia Prime.

		Haiku Scotland #12
		Not, as the title of this pamphlet suggests, a venue for solely Scottish poets. The star poem in this issue has been won by David Cobb — and well won: at the church door a man on his own talking to a gargoyle The ramifications engendered by these seventeen syllables are endless. Mr Cobb - even when using 5/7/5, as he does here, achieves such a light touch. And in another poem, the fun he has with 'spring' is infectious: imminent spring — how the dots and commas fly about! There are many successful poems in this issue — although, not all, especially in 5/7/5, can match Mr Cobb's lightness of touch. Aine Connolly has written a poem that is delicately managed and makes a highly atmospheric image: silver runes snail's calligraphy catches the moon The contents of this small publication are varied. Leonard McDermid has two pages of experiments in print style and enjambment. His maritime sequence is particularly evocative: too long a voyage SEVEN LONG BLASTS last night the cook saw mermaids tonight we'll see the bar There are fine haibun from David Cobb and Mark Rutter. This from Mr Rutter's MAIN JOURNAL (XLI): aurora-borealis-harp playing along the horizon. search-light beams. picked and vibrating strings of spectrum. skaters of light gliding across a cloud ballroom. green flame curtain. water thread. Hanging silks. the light inside the snow disappearing disappearing This issue of Haiku Scotland is excellent value.
		reviewer: Michael Bangerter.

		Haiku Scotland #15
		HAIKU SCOTLAND focusses on haiku, senryu, aphorism, epigram and all associated short poetry forms. We are also told that the editor is taking a sabbatical and HS will be suspended after the December issue until October 2008. Four A4 sides covered with an interesting mix of poems (including a twelve-verse renga), reviews, and an article on haiku by Duncan Gardiner. Here are some excellent pieces from Barbara Taylor, Richard Stewart and Margaret Christie: her lover's return rushing to headlights in falling snow through the misted fields like spent workers trudging home grey and white ghosts move starting a relationship is hard like Mozart — every note exposed
		reviewer: Alan Hardy.