**

By
正岡子規
Masaoka Shiki

赤蜻蛉筑波に雲もなかりけり
akatonbo tsukuba ni kumo mo nakari keri

a red dragonfly-
not even a cloud on Mount Tsukuba!

**

masaoka shiki is one of the contemporary haiku masters who advocated shasei style of writing.
shasei means 'still-life drawing': write what you see, as plainly as possible, no pun, no wordplay. as a picture paints a thousand words, a haiku conjures a full spectrum of colors and emotions.

mount tsukuba has long been a subject of poetic expressions. it was well known from the catch-phrase 'fuji in the west, tsukuba in the east', numbered among the 100 most scenic mountains in japan.

you can read more about mount tsukuba in this [link]

**

a call to all haijin!!

please dig into your treasury of handwritten haiku.
take a photo of any handwritten copy of your own haiku and post them under 'visual poetry'.

i would love to see raw entry that portrays that moment, your style and speaks out your emotions.

here are some samples:

haiku memo by ~siragiku
Haiku memo by ~moyanII
Placed Post-it Notes by *HaikuKitty

make this into a contest? why not! yes, i'll be giving out a gift art to the winner of this haiku memo visual poetry contest.
more prizes:
journal features by =Iscariot-Priest, and =Lit-Twitter
3 months' sub from *HaikuKitty
a hard copy of "snow in singapore" from ~KorpiHunaja

if you like to donate a prize, you are most welcome to drop me a note.
when there are more prizes we can open up more places in the contest for participants to win.
prizes, please come rolling in!

if you are taking part in this contest, please submit your photo to the visual poetry section and note me.

deadline: latest entry submitted to me in a dA note will be accepted before singapore standard time 00:00 july 1st, 2009. (UTC +8:00)

here's an additional incentive to participate:
~siragiku sensei is writing a haiku for every entry submitted in support of this contest!

the haiku are all in his journal entry here: [link]
(translations will be in the comment section, the first seven entries are already translated with brief comments.)

the panel of judges:



i hope more people will participate. please help me spread the word. thank you very much!

**

contest entries:

My geeky haiku notepad by =Iscariot-Priest
Haiku Notebooks by *Bogbrush
Haiku Stages by *Aqua-rat
Haiku Tuesday by ~RedDragonfly

~*~*~*~*~

haiku translation index

my default account where i post my visual art

my art projects:
project Resonance
project Rendevous
The Law for the Wolves
the 5th season
Journey
project KARUTA 2007
KARUTA cards available for sale
Ink Fragrance
Snow in Singapore