Letters to LYNX

From Francine Porad on 12/8/02: "Been thinking a lot about love this past week. Bernard, died in his sleep Saturday morning. If he could have written the perfect scenario of his final days, this would be it. Four of our grown kids came home with us late Monday night after a week in Mexico. (We have photos of him surf fishing and one of him with the good-sized fish he caught there the day before we left.) Tuesday was a "bad" day at the doctor's where he was forced to confront his mortality and a decision made to be on morphine around the clock.

BUT, once free from pain and surrounded by most of his children and grandchildren, we had a dinner party out on Wed night, the traditional Thanksgiving dinner here all-day on Thursday, and a Hanukah party Friday night at my sister's home with my sister & her husband & descendents, my brother & his wife & descendents, and our gang. Bernard was never able to express in words his love for me or any of our children, but Friday night he told each grand-child privately he loved them. Then home.

I've been surrounded by a loving family and many friends I consider family. This past week we held the funeral. Almost all my haiku 'family' was in attendance (Michael Welch, Ruth Yarrow, Connie Hutchison, Bob Major, Mary Fran Meer, Carole & Christopher Herold, etc. etc.) and I did go to the HSA 4th Annual Meeting yesterday afternoon. Don't know if or when I'll experience a 'meltdown.' Right now is the first time I've been alone.

Yukiko Northon sent the following message to members of the Yuki Teikei Society on Christmas night. "Hi . . . Give your moms an extra hug for me today. . . or remember them and smile. After 73 years of living, my mom passed away today while napping on the couch surrounded by her haiku books and letters from friends. Her book, Kiyoko's Sky, was published and distributed 3 weeks ago. She was able to visit her family and friends last month in Japan, and last week during the annual Yuki Teikei Haiku Society winter party, she did an impromptu haiku reading from her book. She had Alzheimer's and I think she decided that before she got really bad, she would leave us while we knew she remembered us. She lived life with no regrets, and that is an accomplishment. Anyway, on Dec 28th (her 74th birthday) have a cup of tea (pref. green but any kind will do) and remember your Moms or smile at them and toast mine for me, ok?? Thanks all!" Yukiko Northon

A poem from Kiyoko's Sky:

From Jon Jameson: "We wanted to let you know of our mother's passing. She died peacefully at home, cared for by her children and surrounded by all she loved - her books, music and dear little cat. She cherished all her friendships."

Lynx readers will remember Helen Jameson ,who published under the name of Ronan ,in over 500 publications in eight countries. Taken from her obituary in the Eugene, Oregon paper: "Helen Ronan Jameson of Eugene died Oct. 14 of complications from diabetes. She was 80. Jameson was born April 21, 1922 in Kalispell, Mont. to John and Josephine Raymond Ronan. She married Don Jameson in Chicago on September 18, 1948 and they divorced in 1960. She grew up in the Los Angeles area. During the World War II she served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps and played clarinet in the Women's USMC Band. She received a master's degree in education from the University of La Verne in California, and another master's degree in 1978 from California State University at Long Beach. She also had a Ph.B. from the University of Chicago. She organized and operated an adult education program in Ventura, California from 1972 - 1985. She was a self-employed music teacher and taught haiku and poetry after her retirement."

            Black-and-white Holsteins
            Crowd downfield at feeding time,
            Mingling their blotches.
            It is like ice breaking up
            In a dark, swollen river.

From Sanford Goldstein: "I did receive the GENJI last week and spent all my spare time reading it. It is a tour de force, an exciting work, and certainly deserving of praise. I found your notes excellent, though often I wanted more information. You seem to want to make us readers work hard in figuring out some of the connections even as you point the way.

Several things occurred to me. One was that by giving short summaries and emphasizing the poems, you make us focus on the poems themselves. I do not think that the poems in the novel itself get that much attention because when one is reading a novel, one wants to know the "what-happens-next." We don't want to take the time out to analyze the meanings of the poems. By doing what you've done, you have made us concentrate on these remarkable poems. And that is very much a plus.

On the other hand, by telescoping the events and focusing on the poems, our interpretation of Genji changes. Liaisons often make him seem more like an overly sexed person. [I'm now reading Keane's book on Emperor Meiji, and I discovered Meiji had 15 children through five wives.] Of course in Heian, that was what the aristocrat did. But it also occurred to me that the younger Genji is more like a Don Juan, but as he proceeds, he becomes more and more sensitive. So this might have been Murasaki's plan.

From Newsweek on September 16, 2002 was this tanka on an ad for the new car, the Prius from Toyota:

"HYBRID FACT #2
In the race
for greener cars,
Prius is leading
by more than
800 million miles"

From Lorraine Ellis Harr a Christmas card with greetings to all and the news: "I made it to 90! this year." Her birthday is on Halloween .

In an e-mail from Owen Bullock:
"In the October Lynx, I really appreciated David Bachelor's "in today's mail". It's the kind of piece you would like to have written yourself, but never quite managed. Angela Leuck's "this scented candle" has a similar effect on me. It's a direct, almost abrupt, way of asserting the importance of the everyday, and something many of us would have wondered about in relation to those treat-ish things. "For the first time" by Coman Sonia Cristina was also a highlight - an intimate moment of a kind."

An e-mail from Annie Gustin:
Hello, again. Thank you for answering my submission questions a few days ago. Actually, I'm glad that Lynx has a preference for tanka, because there are much fewer tanka journals than there are haiku journals. I am, therefore, enclosing a selection of my tanka (instead of haiku) for your consideration. I realize this e-mail address is different from the one you sent me, but the submission guidelines ask that poetry be sent here--I hope you can read the poetry I have enclosed.

When I say "enclosed," I am using the word loosely. Since you prefer e-mail submissions, I have prepared my tanka to send you through e-mail. My tanka sequence was published for the first time this past August. Colorado's The Arts Paper released a special memorial issue about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and four of my tanka were included in that special issue. I have written many tanka about the dropping of the atomic bomb; perhaps, one day, I will be able to publish a collection. My haiku has appeared in the Asahi Haikuist Network (4x), the Mainichi Daily News, the 13th Itoen Winners' Anthology (2002), and I was one of the five international winners of this year's Suruga Baika Literary Festival. Additional poetry (lyric, narrative) has been published in numerous journals, among them, The Lyric, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, The International Quarterly, Samba, and Torre de Papel (University of Iowa). I was born in Brazil, but have lived in the United States since I was a child. Professionally, I am a language teacher--I have taught both Portuguese and English as a Second Language for many years. I enjoy your website because it showcases so many different forms of poetry. I have been to visit the site several times lately, and I am still not finished reading!

paul conneally writes:
"Happy New Year! Here is the first piece from a new series of 'rens' - working with newspaper/magazine stories - found prose/poetry and poems evoked/invoked in me/from me - here the terrible actions in the story bring a peaceful and loving moment back to me."

Tony Beyer writes:
"But really this is more an excuse to comment on some ideas you raise about tanka. There seems to be a lot of concern, for or against, about the role of narrative in sequences or individual poems. I like the idea of an implied or even suppressed narrative. This sequence, like others I'm working on, deliberately avoids narrative, treating a different kind of unsentimental beauty in what I thought of at first as a series of frames, though they are also quite cinematic. What does seem important is to remind ourselves that originality and risk are not out of place in modern tanka, in English or Japanese. I'm sincerely grateful for the support and encouragement your acceptance of the sequence for Lynx represents."

In response to another letter from Owen Bullock, Werner wrote:
Dear Owen, At the end of your letter you said: "I have tried to write a tanka sequence but without success so far." Well, do you want me to find an answer to this remark? I rather restrain myself in letters if it comes to look deeper into the matter of contemporary poetry. For good reasons, because we all experienced how easily words can be misunderstood. But saying this I feel free to add something that basically can be seen only as a positive statement. To make a long story short and I would wish not to surprise you too much I don’t hesitate to write to you that at least the first five if not all six of your tanka can be read as a sequence. What’s a sequence? Right, what’s a contemporary sequence? That’s a true question, and something on that we may disagree, naturally. So what is it I really can say what I think myself about a sequence? What unites five, six or more verses, what makes them fit together in the eyes of the educated reader? I agree it’s a weakness of mine to express myself disturbingly short, and the following statement will be no exception. So I simply say, it is the spirit of the poet that unites the verses of a sequence. It’s not the subject, not the subject matter, basically not what we call a ‘theme’, even though those things can play a role. Sure, there are tricks to link one verse to another, and if one doesn’t want to use the old ones one certainly can invent new ones. (for me, composing a sequence means not lining up verse after verse written in one day or so but searching through very many of my tanka or other material to find out which ones fit together under aspects not used by anybody else.) But my point is, that a sequence is held together by a certain spirit. It’s up to the poet in you to recognize those spirits and find out what kind of ‘leaps’ belong together, make sense in a higher sense. And here it comes: it is the unexpected link, the link not ever used before, the fascinating leap and what can be read between the lines. Seen from this point of view your tanka are okay, with an adoption here or there, in case you want to, verse 4 could follow verse 2, and then ‘in strong sunlight…’ can be read as a sequence. It’s your way of composing a sequence, period. Others may not see it this way. But what the hell does that mean to you as long as you yourself are convinced that exactly reading those ‘leaps’ produce what you wanted to express, or are indeed that for what you as a writer feel you are the medium for? People didn’t understand what T.S. Elliot put together for The Waste Land, what Mallarme did or why James Joyce had to act the way he did. At a certain time in history new poetical techniques have been tried out to present the so far unknown. Well, it is certainly only up to you what to do with your tanka. Please let me know –"

Brendan Duffin wrote: I'm grateful for publication and would like the sequence to be titled "Ulsterville Nights." I'm painfully conscious of how precious this may sound but as someone who has much more experience in this genre than me do you believe these tanka fail as individual offerings? I'm a novice trying to find my own style of expression and being part of no workshop no-one else has seen these verses.

Werner wrote: "Your question if the tanka you sent fail as individual offerings is not easily to answer. I would say, some could stay by themselves, some probably not. In each case one can argue for this or that decision. But my point was basically that all five of your tanka are in a special, in a very special and striking way related to each other and therefore are really building a sequence. And appearing to the reader as a sequence, they fulfill the requirements of a poem. That's what we're working for with Lynx. Brendan, you're a poet. It almost surprises me that indeed you wrote that well and didn't recognize it fully. Sure, like for any other genre there are theories ' how to write a tanka'. Examples of single tanka and of tanka sequences you will find in our Lynx issues under Ahapoetry.com, first feature is the magazine. Are you ready to look at a short definition of tanka (and forget it right away??) A tanka is a method of juxtaposition of separate objects, not a run-on sentence. It needs to have a syntactical branch, dividing the verse in 2 parts or events so as to take a new matrix or constellation of meaning. Switch between voice, tone, person, place, or facets of relationships. The third line is mostly seen as the ' pivot line'. There is a book on the market I can highly recommend: The Modern Poetry Sequence, The Genius of Modern Poetry, by M.L. Rosenhthal and Sally M. Gall. Oxford University Press, 1983. It says everything about sequences, even though it does not mention tanka. Jane’s book, Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-on Guide by Kodansha International will be available in February and in addition to writing about haiku, she also addresses the subject of renga, haibun and tanka with an emphasis on sequences. You can order it now at Amazon.com for 30% off."

Richard Gilbert, author of the article that changed the way we think of Japanese sound units in poetry writes: "I now have a new email address and also new website address. "

Kat wrote: "I still wish you had a print copy of Lynx. I like something I can hold in my hands, show my family and keep for posterity. lol"

Answer from Jane: "You can have a print copy of Lynx. All you have to do is hit the print button on your browser and there it is! If you wish to save paper and even make your very own personal version of Lynx, you can highlight parts you like, love and want to save, copy them (control + c, on most machines) and paste them (control + v) into a page of a new document. This you can save on disk or print it out. You can play editor and create the Lynx of your dreams by including only the work you want! Especially anyone wanting to do the Participation Renga should try the "printing out the whole file" process to get the renga on sheets on which to write your new links. This is a lot more fun than opening up an envelope that has cost both of us $1.42 or more to send out. Do have fun with Lynx and think of the online version as only a beginning. If you are into saving the issues of Lynx on a bookshelf, get a notebook binder. Punch holes in your printed-out sheets and there you have better bound issues of the magazine than I can give you. Nothing is lost and so much money and postage is saved. Best of all, we are letting another tree go on living as we want to do."

Bob Flannery wrote: "Jim Wilson (aka Tundra Wind of participation renga fame) is up and about after a surgery. I talked with him at Border's Books in Santa Rosa."

Jim Wilson (aka Tundra Wind) wrote on the19th of Nov.:
"I have started my new job in Sebastopol. It's nice to start a bookstore from the ground up. It's a lot of work, but it feels like creative work, rather than just make-do work. Just wanted to let you know that things are somewhat better."

dear folks, a little hobbled the past couple days with a gimpy knee--better today, so hiked up the winding marble steps to the next village, katavati, taking photographs including 2 of busts of sifnian poets--cleanthis triandyfyllos and aristemis proveleggios--and a few of a windmill, maybe a still-working windmill since the rigging was still there tho not the sails; it was working the first time i came here, in 1992. most of the windmills are either ancient and in ruin or converted into apartments. yep, apartments. expensive ones. one of the other interesting features of sifnos are her ancient towers--to go along with the ancient walls that seem to be everywhere, defining the terraces on pretty much all the hillsides and down in many of the lower areas too. I saw some men repairing one section of wall last week--so we're talking continuity of labor and use going back at least 2,500 years. very cool. of course the soil that's worked is a great deal older, so

deeper older continuity there. . . . in ruin, the towers are easily confused with ancient windmills, but a few are marked as towers and there's a book on them--expensive; i once owned it but will pass this time around. one tower i took a photograph of several days ago dates to 450 b. c. so . . . old. very. there are several dozen towers through the island, built to signal the approach of pirate ships. fires would be built on top of them so that folks everywhere in the ten or so villages and other localities could get ready--hide possessions, hide food, store water, hide women and children, and otherwise prepare for battle and/or siege.

Olwen Williams writes: "I have just completed a web site for Graeme Matthews who produces photography books. His most interesting book is a book of Haiku illustrated with New Zealand photographs, but he has published several other books. One of New Zealand photographs available in several languages is featured on his site. The site and the Haiku book page is well worth a visit.

From the owner of the Haiku Hut: It is time to celebrate POETRY MONTH, and our site: is just the place. We specialize in Haiku, Senryu, Tanka, and other 'short forms' of poetry. We have poetry by some of the best poets on the net: Beki Reese, Craig Kirchner, Deborah Russell, Gary Blankenship, Glenda Samford-Martinez, Irene Koronas, Joyce Chelmo, Kevin Ryan, Linda Vee Huston, Michael Rehling, Paul Kren, Robert D. McManes, Thomas Fortenberry, Tony Schofield, Wendy Howe. We also have some stunning PHOTO HAIKU, featuring this month the work of DEBORAH RUSSELL! Irene Koronas, and Joyce Chelmo share Visual Images of their Art! And links to some of the finest sites for Haiku on the Web. We have MUCH more planned, so please BOOKMARK the site and return often. We have a fresh new face, and more than enough constantly changing content to be a key resource for your poetry thirst this month, and every month thereafter. And don't forget to visit our sister site.

From Jenifer Lawrence: There is an outstanding Writer's conference in the northwest each July, it's the Centrum Writer's Workshop, in Port Townsend at the Fort Worden Conference Grounds. The poet Sam Hamill puts this together every year. It runs from July 11 to July 21 this year, and room, board, workshops, readings and lectures runs about $800. This year (2002), the faculty include D. Yusef Komunyakaa, Arthur Sze, Chase Twichell and Dorianne Laux, among others. Arthur Sze, a poet and translator, author of The Red-Shifting Web, and Silk Dragon, has 2 openings in his workshop (limited to 16, very cozy). So here's a link to check out Centrum. I'm confident that you'd find this worth your while.

From Janine Beichman, "I'm wondering if I can enlist you in some publicity for three books that I've published this year. Two are reprints, and one is new. The new book (published in June, by University of Hawai'i Press) Embracing the Firebird: Yosano Akiko and the Birth of the Female Voice in Modern Japanese Poetry.

This tells the story of Akiko's life from her birth in 1878 until the publication of Midaregami (Tangled Hair) in 1901. It shows in detail how Midaregami, one of the greatest works of modern Japanese poetry, came into being, and at the same time how Akiko herself came to be a poet. It also has three long chapters about Midaregami itself as a work of art, analyzing its themes, settings, voices, structure, and significance in Japanese poetry. And it includes over two hundred translations of tanka by Akiko herself as well as others with whom she was associated.

Most of the poems have not been translated before, but even where they have, I have made new translations. The introduction discusses various issues in translation and the notes tell their own story, of my detailed readings of all previous commentators on the poems, with reasons why, in a number of cases, the interpretations on which my translations are based differ from those of previous commentators. This book is the product of a decade of research and writing and I hope to follow it with a second and perhaps a third volume in order to tell the whole story of the most important woman poet of 20th century Japan. It is available through the website of University of Hawai'i Press and also from Amazon.com

This literary biography of Shiki was originally published, as you know, in 1982, by Twayne, then republished in 1986 by Kodansha. Both publishers let it go out of print and now Cheng and Tsui, in Boston, has picked it up. In the new edition, I have added a number of striking photographs of Shiki (the earlier editions had none), and a short bibliographical update. Also, we added a sub-title to avoid confusion with Burton Watson's book of translations of Shiki's poetry. It can be ordered from Cheng and Tsui's website.

Poems for All Seasons/ Oriori no Uta: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry from Ancient Times to the Present

This was originally published a few years back, by Kodansha International, but the same publisher has now reissued it in a slightly changed format: we've added a sub-title to make clear that it's not just a smorgasbord of various poems, but, albeit not arranged chronologically, still a good introduction to Japanese poetry in all forms; and the selection is slightly (very slightly) different. Also--and this is I must say I'm really pleased with--they have given it a really pretty cover, which, unlike the earlier edition, looks quite poetic. It can be ordered in the United States through Sasuga Books , as a special order. Or, I am told, found at Kinokuniya and Maruzen and other branches of Japanese bookstores in the United States.

Joan Payne Kincaid writes of her new book: TALK SHOW by Pudding House Publications, 60 North Main Street, Johnstown, Ohio 43031 or the web site. Also copies are available from author.

From Laura Maffei, editor of American Tanka, come these contributions: I wanted to recommend to you the four-page theme collection of haiku and tanka, regularly put out by Mohammed H. Siddiqui. The recent one was on "Wind" and he sent me many copies. It's nicely printed, on one large folded sheet of heavy paper. If people want a copy, they can send me a large manila SASE with extra postage. Mr. Siddiqui can be reached at: Mohammed H. Siddiqui, 8339 Kendale Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21234-5013 e-mail: sidbaba@hotmail.com.

The other is a book I listed in a recent issue of American Tanka: One Hundred Tanka by Young Students of Today, published by Toyo University. They just sent me the 2002 one, and it's wonderful. The tanka have the slight language awkwardness of translations, but they are surprising in their quality and depth, especially coming mostly from teenagers. This may be because the 100 tanka are culled from over 69,000 entries. Examples:

Gazing
at the wavering flame
of the experiment,
I can vaguely see
my future. (Shinichiro Morimoto, age 15)

Like a mirror
reflecting the recession,
my father's back
looks smaller
than before. (Sachiko Okabe, age 16)

Correspondence: Public Relations Office, Toyo University, 5-28-20 Hakusan, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8606 JAPAN (fax: 81-3-3945-7574)

Laura Maffei also asked me to post this message from her: "Dear Subscribers, Readers, Contributors, and all who are interested in tanka: Announcing Changes to American Tanka. It has been a joy to edit and publish American Tanka semiannually from Fall 1996 through Spring 2002. Due to time constraints and severe financial difficulties, the next issue, Issue 13, will appear in the spring of 2003 and American Tanka will continue annually thereafter. The journal will continue to present the best of contemporary English-language tanka in a one-poem-per-page format and in a glossy, perfect-bound volume, in order to provide readers with the aesthetic pleasure American Tanka has become known for. Subscribers, please be assured that you will receive the number of issues for which you originally paid. We thank everyone for their patience in awaiting Issue 13, and we apologize to those whose letters and e-mails have not been answered since early May. We will be responding to everyone in the next several weeks. The cost of the journal will remain the same for now, at $12 (shipping & handling included) for a copy of the current issue, and $20 for a two-issue subscription. There is currently a special offer on back issues: 3 for $20 until December 31, 2002. Please take advantage of this; it will help our budget and also help circulate American Tanka. Consider buying some back issues to distribute to friends or to your local library. Complimentary contributor copies, unfortunately, must be discontinued, but we will offer contributors the opportunity to order a copy of the issue in which their poem will appear, in advance (by March 21), for a discounted rate of $8. Our new submission period is September 15 - February 15 each year. The submission policy will remain up to 5 original, unpublished single tanka, once per submission period. Again, thanks to all of you for your patience. If you have not subscribed or ordered copies, please consider supporting the only U.S. literary journal exclusively devoted to the stirring and powerful tanka form."

Lenard D. Moore writes: My poem "The Park In Union Square" is featured in the "Sunday Reader" (January 5, 2003) in the Sunday Journal Section of the Raleigh News & Observer, on the following website.

The winners of the 2002 Tanka Splendor Contest were: Pamela A. Babusci, John Barlow, Tony Beyer, Marianne Bluger, Jeanne M. Breden, Margaret Chula, Kathy Lippard Cobb, paul conneally, Melissa Dixon, M.A. Fielden, Suzanne Finnegan, Laura Maffei, Thelma Mariano x 2, Sean McGlinchey, Dorothy McLaughlin x 2, Keith McMahen ,Sue Mill, Joanne Morcom x 2, Matt Morden, K. Ramesh, Edward J. Rielly x 2, Bruce Ross, David Steele, Linda Jeannette Ward x 2, Michael Dylan Welch x 2, Alison Williams, Jane E. Wilson x 3. You can read the winning poems online.
Congratulations to everyone who took part in this contest!

And contest winners from John Barlow in England:
SNAPSHOT PRESS is proud to announce that the winner of The Snapshot Press Haiku Collection Competition 2002 is A Handful of Pebbles by Mark Brooks. Further details are available on the Snapshot Press website. A Handful of Pebbles will be published by Snapshot Press in the summer of 2003 as a 8 1/2" x 5 1/4" perfect bound book. Further details will be circulated when available. Details of The Snapshot Press Tanka Collection Competition 2003 and The Snapshot Press Haiku Collection Competition 2004 are available online.

Beverley George, Editor of Yellow Moon, PO Box 37, Pearl Beach NSW 2256 Australia writes that her journal Yellow Moon does have a web-site. Information about the contest Seed Pearls, a competition for haiku, haibun, tanka and renga is open internationally and entry forms can be downloaded from the web site. The winning haiku entries from Yellow Moon #12 are now posted under 'Current Activities' on the Haiku-Oz web-site. The second place winner in haiku and first place winner in tanka was US poet Pamela Babusci. Read all about it at this site.

In an e-mail (along with a beautiful card) Dr. Angelee Deodhar sends information about the 2003 INTERNATIONAL HAIKU CONTEST Sponsored by The Palomar Branch National League of American Pen Women. All proceeds generated from this contest provide a scholarship for a deserving student entering college. Adjudication: Timothy Russell. Contest open to the public. Prizes: $100, $40, $20, Honorable Mentions. Winners will be notified by mail and their poems published in a chapbook. All rights revert to authors after publication. Deadline: March 1, 2003. Haiku must be unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere. Mail two copies, typed or printed in English on one side of 8.5 x 11 paper. Name, address, phone number or email on ONE copy only. Any number of haiku may be entered. Entry Fee: 2 haiku for $5.00. Checks/money orders (US funds only) payable to NLAPW. For list of winners, send a business sized SASE or SAE with an IRC. Mail to: Helen J Sherry, 11929 Caminito Corriente, San Diego, CA 92128, USA. Or get online Information.

Hatsue Kawamura announces: In conjunction with the Fourth International Tanka Convention to be held on November 16, 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand there will be an international tanka contest. The deadline for the contest entries is June 30, 2003. There is no entry fee. However if you wish a copy of the resulting booklet of the winning works it costs US$10.00 sent as cash or IRC (no checks) to Nihon Kajin Club, Shuei Bldg. 2F, 1-12-5 Higashi-gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0022 JAPAN. Winners will be announced at the convention in November.


TABLE OF CONTENTS XVIII:1 February, 2003		LYNX A Journal for Linking Poets



	LETTERS from: Francine Porad with the news of the passing of her husband, Bernard, Yukiko Northon reporting on the death of her mother, Kiyoko Tokutomi, founder of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Jon Jameson with news of the passing of his mother, Helen Jameson known as Ronan, Bob Gibson, Sanford Goldstein, from NEWSWEEK 9/16/02, Lorraine Ellis Harr, Owen Bullock, Annie Gustin, paul conneally, Tony Beyer, Werner Reichhold, Brendan Duffin, Richard Gilbert, Kat, Jane, Bob Flannery, Jim Wilson, Karma Tenzing Wangchuk ANNOUNCEMENTS from: Olwen Williams, The owner of the Haiku Hut, Jenifer Lawrence, Lisa Janice Cohen, Deborah P. Kolodji, Janine Beichman, Joan Payne Kincain, Laura Maffei, Lenard D. Moore CONTEST NEWS: *2002 Tanka Splendor* Contest, Winners from John Barlow's Snapshot Press Haiku Collection Competition 2002, Beverley George*, announces the haiku winners Yellow Moon #12.* NEW CONTEST! INTERNATIONAL HAIKU CONTEST 2003 Sponsored by The Palomar Branch National League of American Pen Women, 4th International Tanka Convention Contest. Hatsue Kawamura announces the tanka contest in conjunction with the Fourth International Tanka Convention to be held in Bangkok, Thailand.	LETTERS to LYNX From Francine Porad on 12/8/02: "Been thinking a lot about love this past week. Bernard, died in his sleep Saturday morning. If he could have written the perfect scenario of his final days, this would be it. Four of our grown kids came home with us late Monday night after a week in Mexico. (We have photos of him surf fishing and one of him with the good-sized fish he caught there the day before we left.) Tuesday was a "bad" day at the doctor's where he was forced to confront his mortality and a decision made to be on morphine around the clock. BUT, once free from pain and surrounded by most of his children and grandchildren, we had a dinner party out on Wed night, the traditional Thanksgiving dinner here all-day on Thursday, and a Hanukah party Friday night at my sister's home with my sister & her husband & descendents, my brother & his wife & descendents, and our gang. Bernard was never able to express in words his love for me or any of our children, but Friday night he told each grand-child privately he loved them. Then home. I've been surrounded by a loving family and many friends I consider family. This past week we held the funeral. Almost all my haiku 'family' was in attendance (Michael Welch, Ruth Yarrow, Connie Hutchison, Bob Major, Mary Fran Meer, Carole & Christopher Herold, etc. etc.) and I did go to the HSA 4th Annual Meeting yesterday afternoon. Don't know if or when I'll experience a 'meltdown.' Right now is the first time I've been alone. trying to get past the trying years to the good memories " Yukiko Northon sent the following message to members of the Yuki Teikei Society on Christmas night. "Hi . . . Give your moms an extra hug for me today. . . or remember them and smile. After 73 years of living, my mom passed away today while napping on the couch surrounded by her haiku books and letters from friends. Her book, Kiyoko's Sky, was published and distributed 3 weeks ago. She was able to visit her family and friends last month in Japan, and last week during the annual Yuki Teikei Haiku Society winter party, she did an impromptu haiku reading from her book. She had Alzheimer's and I think she decided that before she got really bad, she would leave us while we knew she remembered us. She lived life with no regrets, and that is an accomplishment. Anyway, on Dec 28th (her 74th birthday) have a cup of tea (pref. green but any kind will do) and remember your Moms or smile at them and toast mine for me, ok?? Thanks all!" Yukiko Northon A poem from Kiyoko's Sky: Withering blast! Mother you ran so fast to that other country . . . From Jon Jameson: "We wanted to let you know of our mother's passing. She died peacefully at home, cared for by her children and surrounded by all she loved - her books, music and dear little cat. She cherished all her friendships." Lynx readers will remember Helen Jameson ,who published under the name of Ronan ,in over 500 publications in eight countries. Taken from her obituary in the Eugene, Oregon paper: "Helen Ronan Jameson of Eugene died Oct. 14 of complications from diabetes. She was 80. Jameson was born April 21, 1922 in Kalispell, Mont. to John and Josephine Raymond Ronan. She married Don Jameson in Chicago on September 18, 1948 and they divorced in 1960. She grew up in the Los Angeles area. During the World War II she served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps and played clarinet in the Women's USMC Band. She received a master's degree in education from the University of La Verne in California, and another master's degree in 1978 from California State University at Long Beach. She also had a Ph.B. from the University of Chicago. She organized and operated an adult education program in Ventura, California from 1972 - 1985. She was a self-employed music teacher and taught haiku and poetry after her retirement." Bob Gibson sent this: TANKA Black-and-white Holsteins Crowd downfield at feeding time, Mingling their blotches. It is like ice breaking up In a dark, swollen river. --Richard Wilbur "I found this in this week’s New Yorker Magazine." From Sanford Goldstein: "I did receive the GENJI last week and spent all my spare time reading it. It is a tour de force, an exciting work, and certainly deserving of praise. I found your notes excellent, though often I wanted more information. You seem to want to make us readers work hard in figuring out some of the connections even as you point the way. Several things occurred to me. One was that by giving short summaries and emphasizing the poems, you make us focus on the poems themselves. I do not think that the poems in the novel itself get that much attention because when one is reading a novel, one wants to know the "what-happens-next." We don't want to take the time out to analyze the meanings of the poems. By doing what you've done, you have made us concentrate on these remarkable poems. And that is very much a plus. On the other hand, by telescoping the events and focusing on the poems, our interpretation of Genji changes. Liaisons often make him seem more like an overly sexed person. [I'm now reading Keane's book on Emperor Meiji, and I discovered Meiji had 15 children through five wives.] Of course in Heian, that was what the aristocrat did. But it also occurred to me that the younger Genji is more like a Don Juan, but as he proceeds, he becomes more and more sensitive. So this might have been Murasaki's plan. As I said, the work's excites me, and I feel like going back to my Seidensticker, which I bought in the l970's. You create all the intrigue and sensitivity and sophistication of the age. Sometimes, though, by your leaving off the subject, as in Japanese, I sometimes get into a grammatical tangle. At other times, I find I do have to work to see the meaning of a poem, even with the note--and that perhaps shows as well the difficulty of Murasaki and perhaps the inadequacy of my own attachment to nature. But it's in these poems that I think tanka does make really effective use of nature." From Newsweek on September 16, 2002 was this tanka on an ad for the new car, the Prius from Toyota: "HYBRID FACT #2 In the race for greener cars, Prius is leading by more than 800 million miles" From Lorraine Ellis Harr a Christmas card with greetings to all and the news: "I made it to 90! this year." Her birthday is on Halloween . In an e-mail from Owen Bullock: "In the October Lynx, I really appreciated David Bachelor's "in today's mail". It's the kind of piece you would like to have written yourself, but never quite managed. Angela Leuck's "this scented candle" has a similar effect on me. It's a direct, almost abrupt, way of asserting the importance of the everyday, and something many of us would have wondered about in relation to those treat-ish things. "For the first time" by Coman Sonia Cristina was also a highlight - an intimate moment of a kind." An e-mail from Annie Gustin: Hello, again. Thank you for answering my submission questions a few days ago. Actually, I'm glad that Lynx has a preference for tanka, because there are much fewer tanka journals than there are haiku journals. I am, therefore, enclosing a selection of my tanka (instead of haiku) for your consideration. I realize this e-mail address is different from the one you sent me, but the submission guidelines ask that poetry be sent here--I hope you can read the poetry I have enclosed. When I say "enclosed," I am using the word loosely. Since you prefer e-mail submissions, I have prepared my tanka to send you through e-mail. My tanka sequence was published for the first time this past August. Colorado's The Arts Paper released a special memorial issue about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and four of my tanka were included in that special issue. I have written many tanka about the dropping of the atomic bomb; perhaps, one day, I will be able to publish a collection. My haiku has appeared in the Asahi Haikuist Network (4x), the Mainichi Daily News, the 13th Itoen Winners' Anthology (2002), and I was one of the five international winners of this year's Suruga Baika Literary Festival. Additional poetry (lyric, narrative) has been published in numerous journals, among them, The Lyric, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, The International Quarterly, Samba, and Torre de Papel (University of Iowa). I was born in Brazil, but have lived in the United States since I was a child. Professionally, I am a language teacher--I have taught both Portuguese and English as a Second Language for many years. I enjoy your website because it showcases so many different forms of poetry. I have been to visit the site several times lately, and I am still not finished reading! paul conneally writes: "Happy New Year! Here is the first piece from a new series of 'rens' - working with newspaper/magazine stories - found prose/poetry and poems evoked/invoked in me/from me - here the terrible actions in the story bring a peaceful and loving moment back to me." Tony Beyer writes: "But really this is more an excuse to comment on some ideas you raise about tanka. There seems to be a lot of concern, for or against, about the role of narrative in sequences or individual poems. I like the idea of an implied or even suppressed narrative. This sequence, like others I'm working on, deliberately avoids narrative, treating a different kind of unsentimental beauty in what I thought of at first as a series of frames, though they are also quite cinematic. What does seem important is to remind ourselves that originality and risk are not out of place in modern tanka, in English or Japanese. I'm sincerely grateful for the support and encouragement your acceptance of the sequence for Lynx represents." In response to another letter from Owen Bullock, Werner wrote: Dear Owen, At the end of your letter you said: "I have tried to write a tanka sequence but without success so far." Well, do you want me to find an answer to this remark? I rather restrain myself in letters if it comes to look deeper into the matter of contemporary poetry. For good reasons, because we all experienced how easily words can be misunderstood. But saying this I feel free to add something that basically can be seen only as a positive statement. To make a long story short and I would wish not to surprise you too much I don’t hesitate to write to you that at least the first five if not all six of your tanka can be read as a sequence. What’s a sequence? Right, what’s a contemporary sequence? That’s a true question, and something on that we may disagree, naturally. So what is it I really can say what I think myself about a sequence? What unites five, six or more verses, what makes them fit together in the eyes of the educated reader? I agree it’s a weakness of mine to express myself disturbingly short, and the following statement will be no exception. So I simply say, it is the spirit of the poet that unites the verses of a sequence. It’s not the subject, not the subject matter, basically not what we call a ‘theme’, even though those things can play a role. Sure, there are tricks to link one verse to another, and if one doesn’t want to use the old ones one certainly can invent new ones. (for me, composing a sequence means not lining up verse after verse written in one day or so but searching through very many of my tanka or other material to find out which ones fit together under aspects not used by anybody else.) But my point is, that a sequence is held together by a certain spirit. It’s up to the poet in you to recognize those spirits and find out what kind of ‘leaps’ belong together, make sense in a higher sense. And here it comes: it is the unexpected link, the link not ever used before, the fascinating leap and what can be read between the lines. Seen from this point of view your tanka are okay, with an adoption here or there, in case you want to, verse 4 could follow verse 2, and then ‘in strong sunlight…’ can be read as a sequence. It’s your way of composing a sequence, period. Others may not see it this way. But what the hell does that mean to you as long as you yourself are convinced that exactly reading those ‘leaps’ produce what you wanted to express, or are indeed that for what you as a writer feel you are the medium for? People didn’t understand what T.S. Elliot put together for The Waste Land, what Mallarme did or why James Joyce had to act the way he did. At a certain time in history new poetical techniques have been tried out to present the so far unknown. Well, it is certainly only up to you what to do with your tanka. Please let me know –" Brendan Duffin wrote: I'm grateful for publication and would like the sequence to be titled "Ulsterville Nights." I'm painfully conscious of how precious this may sound but as someone who has much more experience in this genre than me do you believe these tanka fail as individual offerings? I'm a novice trying to find my own style of expression and being part of no workshop no-one else has seen these verses. Werner wrote: "Your question if the tanka you sent fail as individual offerings is not easily to answer. I would say, some could stay by themselves, some probably not. In each case one can argue for this or that decision. But my point was basically that all five of your tanka are in a special, in a very special and striking way related to each other and therefore are really building a sequence. And appearing to the reader as a sequence, they fulfill the requirements of a poem. That's what we're working for with Lynx. Brendan, you're a poet. It almost surprises me that indeed you wrote that well and didn't recognize it fully. Sure, like for any other genre there are theories ' how to write a tanka'. Examples of single tanka and of tanka sequences you will find in our Lynx issues under Ahapoetry.com, first feature is the magazine. Are you ready to look at a short definition of tanka (and forget it right away??) A tanka is a method of juxtaposition of separate objects, not a run-on sentence. It needs to have a syntactical branch, dividing the verse in 2 parts or events so as to take a new matrix or constellation of meaning. Switch between voice, tone, person, place, or facets of relationships. The third line is mostly seen as the ' pivot line'. There is a book on the market I can highly recommend: The Modern Poetry Sequence, The Genius of Modern Poetry, by M.L. Rosenhthal and Sally M. Gall. Oxford University Press, 1983. It says everything about sequences, even though it does not mention tanka. Jane’s book, Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-on Guide by Kodansha International will be available in February and in addition to writing about haiku, she also addresses the subject of renga, haibun and tanka with an emphasis on sequences. You can order it now at Amazon.com for 30% off." Richard Gilbert, author of the article that changed the way we think of Japanese sound units in poetry writes: "I now have a new email address and also new website address. " Kat wrote: "I still wish you had a print copy of Lynx. I like something I can hold in my hands, show my family and keep for posterity. lol" Answer from Jane: "You can have a print copy of Lynx. All you have to do is hit the print button on your browser and there it is! If you wish to save paper and even make your very own personal version of Lynx, you can highlight parts you like, love and want to save, copy them (control + c, on most machines) and paste them (control + v) into a page of a new document. This you can save on disk or print it out. You can play editor and create the Lynx of your dreams by including only the work you want! Especially anyone wanting to do the Participation Renga should try the "printing out the whole file" process to get the renga on sheets on which to write your new links. This is a lot more fun than opening up an envelope that has cost both of us $1.42 or more to send out. Do have fun with Lynx and think of the online version as only a beginning. If you are into saving the issues of Lynx on a bookshelf, get a notebook binder. Punch holes in your printed-out sheets and there you have better bound issues of the magazine than I can give you. Nothing is lost and so much money and postage is saved. Best of all, we are letting another tree go on living as we want to do." Bob Flannery wrote: "Jim Wilson (aka Tundra Wind of participation renga fame) is up and about after a surgery. I talked with him at Border's Books in Santa Rosa." Jim Wilson (aka Tundra Wind) wrote on the19th of Nov.: "I have started my new job in Sebastopol. It's nice to start a bookstore from the ground up. It's a lot of work, but it feels like creative work, rather than just make-do work. Just wanted to let you know that things are somewhat better." From Karma Tenzing Wangchuk aka Dennis Dutton on the island of Sifnos in Greece: dear folks, a little hobbled the past couple days with a gimpy knee--better today, so hiked up the winding marble steps to the next village, katavati, taking photographs including 2 of busts of sifnian poets--cleanthis triandyfyllos and aristemis proveleggios--and a few of a windmill, maybe a still-working windmill since the rigging was still there tho not the sails; it was working the first time i came here, in 1992. most of the windmills are either ancient and in ruin or converted into apartments. yep, apartments. expensive ones. one of the other interesting features of sifnos are her ancient towers--to go along with the ancient walls that seem to be everywhere, defining the terraces on pretty much all the hillsides and down in many of the lower areas too. I saw some men repairing one section of wall last week--so we're talking continuity of labor and use going back at least 2,500 years. very cool. of course the soil that's worked is a great deal older, so deeper older continuity there. . . . in ruin, the towers are easily confused with ancient windmills, but a few are marked as towers and there's a book on them--expensive; i once owned it but will pass this time around. one tower i took a photograph of several days ago dates to 450 b. c. so . . . old. very. there are several dozen towers through the island, built to signal the approach of pirate ships. fires would be built on top of them so that folks everywhere in the ten or so villages and other localities could get ready--hide possessions, hide food, store water, hide women and children, and otherwise prepare for battle and/or siege. Those nights the towers blazed with signal fires-- how terrifying they must have been . . . and how beautiful! ANNOUNCEMENTS Olwen Williams writes: "I have just completed a web site for Graeme Matthews who produces photography books. His most interesting book is a book of Haiku illustrated with New Zealand photographs, but he has published several other books. One of New Zealand photographs available in several languages is featured on his site. The site and the Haiku book page is well worth a visit. From the owner of the Haiku Hut: It is time to celebrate POETRY MONTH, and our site: is just the place. We specialize in Haiku, Senryu, Tanka, and other 'short forms' of poetry. We have poetry by some of the best poets on the net: Beki Reese, Craig Kirchner, Deborah Russell, Gary Blankenship, Glenda Samford-Martinez, Irene Koronas, Joyce Chelmo, Kevin Ryan, Linda Vee Huston, Michael Rehling, Paul Kren, Robert D. McManes, Thomas Fortenberry, Tony Schofield, Wendy Howe. We also have some stunning PHOTO HAIKU, featuring this month the work of DEBORAH RUSSELL! Irene Koronas, and Joyce Chelmo share Visual Images of their Art! And links to some of the finest sites for Haiku on the Web. We have MUCH more planned, so please BOOKMARK the site and return often. We have a fresh new face, and more than enough constantly changing content to be a key resource for your poetry thirst this month, and every month thereafter. And don't forget to visit our sister site. From Jenifer Lawrence: There is an outstanding Writer's conference in the northwest each July, it's the Centrum Writer's Workshop, in Port Townsend at the Fort Worden Conference Grounds. The poet Sam Hamill puts this together every year. It runs from July 11 to July 21 this year, and room, board, workshops, readings and lectures runs about $800. This year (2002), the faculty include D. Yusef Komunyakaa, Arthur Sze, Chase Twichell and Dorianne Laux, among others. Arthur Sze, a poet and translator, author of The Red-Shifting Web, and Silk Dragon, has 2 openings in his workshop (limited to 16, very cozy). So here's a link to check out Centrum. I'm confident that you'd find this worth your while. Lisa Janice Cohen writes: "FYI, I am the new webmaster of Amaze with Denis Garrison's illness. Our new url for Amaze: The Cinquain Journal." And Deborah P. Kolodji writes: "I'm a native Californian who works in information technology to fund my poetry habit. I am currently the editor of Amaze: The Cinquain Journal. " From Janine Beichman, "I'm wondering if I can enlist you in some publicity for three books that I've published this year. Two are reprints, and one is new. The new book (published in June, by University of Hawai'i Press) Embracing the Firebird: Yosano Akiko and the Birth of the Female Voice in Modern Japanese Poetry. This tells the story of Akiko's life from her birth in 1878 until the publication of Midaregami (Tangled Hair) in 1901. It shows in detail how Midaregami, one of the greatest works of modern Japanese poetry, came into being, and at the same time how Akiko herself came to be a poet. It also has three long chapters about Midaregami itself as a work of art, analyzing its themes, settings, voices, structure, and significance in Japanese poetry. And it includes over two hundred translations of tanka by Akiko herself as well as others with whom she was associated. Most of the poems have not been translated before, but even where they have, I have made new translations. The introduction discusses various issues in translation and the notes tell their own story, of my detailed readings of all previous commentators on the poems, with reasons why, in a number of cases, the interpretations on which my translations are based differ from those of previous commentators. This book is the product of a decade of research and writing and I hope to follow it with a second and perhaps a third volume in order to tell the whole story of the most important woman poet of 20th century Japan. It is available through the website of University of Hawai'i Press and also from Amazon.com The reprints are: Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works This literary biography of Shiki was originally published, as you know, in 1982, by Twayne, then republished in 1986 by Kodansha. Both publishers let it go out of print and now Cheng and Tsui, in Boston, has picked it up. In the new edition, I have added a number of striking photographs of Shiki (the earlier editions had none), and a short bibliographical update. Also, we added a sub-title to avoid confusion with Burton Watson's book of translations of Shiki's poetry. It can be ordered from Cheng and Tsui's website. Poems for All Seasons/ Oriori no Uta: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry from Ancient Times to the Present This was originally published a few years back, by Kodansha International, but the same publisher has now reissued it in a slightly changed format: we've added a sub-title to make clear that it's not just a smorgasbord of various poems, but, albeit not arranged chronologically, still a good introduction to Japanese poetry in all forms; and the selection is slightly (very slightly) different. Also--and this is I must say I'm really pleased with--they have given it a really pretty cover, which, unlike the earlier edition, looks quite poetic. It can be ordered in the United States through Sasuga Books , as a special order. Or, I am told, found at Kinokuniya and Maruzen and other branches of Japanese bookstores in the United States. Joan Payne Kincaid writes of her new book: TALK SHOW by Pudding House Publications, 60 North Main Street, Johnstown, Ohio 43031 or the web site. Also copies are available from author. From Laura Maffei, editor of American Tanka, come these contributions: I wanted to recommend to you the four-page theme collection of haiku and tanka, regularly put out by Mohammed H. Siddiqui. The recent one was on "Wind" and he sent me many copies. It's nicely printed, on one large folded sheet of heavy paper. If people want a copy, they can send me a large manila SASE with extra postage. Mr. Siddiqui can be reached at: Mohammed H. Siddiqui, 8339 Kendale Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21234-5013 e-mail: sidbaba@hotmail.com. The other is a book I listed in a recent issue of American Tanka: One Hundred Tanka by Young Students of Today, published by Toyo University. They just sent me the 2002 one, and it's wonderful. The tanka have the slight language awkwardness of translations, but they are surprising in their quality and depth, especially coming mostly from teenagers. This may be because the 100 tanka are culled from over 69,000 entries. Examples: Gazing at the wavering flame of the experiment, I can vaguely see my future. (Shinichiro Morimoto, age 15) Like a mirror reflecting the recession, my father's back looks smaller than before. (Sachiko Okabe, age 16) Correspondence: Public Relations Office, Toyo University, 5-28-20 Hakusan, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8606 JAPAN (fax: 81-3-3945-7574) Laura Maffei also asked me to post this message from her: "Dear Subscribers, Readers, Contributors, and all who are interested in tanka: Announcing Changes to American Tanka. It has been a joy to edit and publish American Tanka semiannually from Fall 1996 through Spring 2002. Due to time constraints and severe financial difficulties, the next issue, Issue 13, will appear in the spring of 2003 and American Tanka will continue annually thereafter. The journal will continue to present the best of contemporary English-language tanka in a one-poem-per-page format and in a glossy, perfect-bound volume, in order to provide readers with the aesthetic pleasure American Tanka has become known for. Subscribers, please be assured that you will receive the number of issues for which you originally paid. We thank everyone for their patience in awaiting Issue 13, and we apologize to those whose letters and e-mails have not been answered since early May. We will be responding to everyone in the next several weeks. The cost of the journal will remain the same for now, at $12 (shipping & handling included) for a copy of the current issue, and $20 for a two-issue subscription. There is currently a special offer on back issues: 3 for $20 until December 31, 2002. Please take advantage of this; it will help our budget and also help circulate American Tanka. Consider buying some back issues to distribute to friends or to your local library. Complimentary contributor copies, unfortunately, must be discontinued, but we will offer contributors the opportunity to order a copy of the issue in which their poem will appear, in advance (by March 21), for a discounted rate of $8. Our new submission period is September 15 - February 15 each year. The submission policy will remain up to 5 original, unpublished single tanka, once per submission period. Again, thanks to all of you for your patience. If you have not subscribed or ordered copies, please consider supporting the only U.S. literary journal exclusively devoted to the stirring and powerful tanka form." Lenard D. Moore writes: My poem "The Park In Union Square" is featured in the "Sunday Reader" (January 5, 2003) in the Sunday Journal Section of the Raleigh News & Observer, on the following website. CONTEST NEWS *The winners of the 2002 Tanka Splendor* Contest were: Pamela A. Babusci, John Barlow, Tony Beyer, Marianne Bluger, Jeanne M. Breden, Margaret Chula, Kathy Lippard Cobb, paul conneally, Melissa Dixon, M.A. Fielden, Suzanne Finnegan, Laura Maffei, Thelma Mariano x 2, Sean McGlinchey, Dorothy McLaughlin x 2, Keith McMahen ,Sue Mill, Joanne Morcom x 2, Matt Morden, K. Ramesh, Edward J. Rielly x 2, Bruce Ross, David Steele, Linda Jeannette Ward x 2, Michael Dylan Welch x 2, Alison Williams, Jane E. Wilson x 3. You can read the winning poems online. Congratulations to everyone who took part in this contest! And contest winners from John Barlow** in England: SNAPSHOT PRESS is proud to announce that the winner of The Snapshot Press Haiku Collection Competition 2002 is A Handful of Pebbles by Mark Brooks. Further details are available on the Snapshot Press website. A Handful of Pebbles will be published by Snapshot Press in the summer of 2003 as a 8 1/2" x 5 1/4" perfect bound book. Further details will be circulated when available. Details of The Snapshot Press Tanka Collection Competition 2003 and The Snapshot Press Haiku Collection Competition 2004 are available online. Beverley George, Editor of Yellow Moon, PO Box 37, Pearl Beach NSW 2256 Australia writes that her journal Yellow Moon does have a web-site. Information about the contest Seed Pearls, a competition for haiku, haibun, tanka and renga is open internationally and entry forms can be downloaded from the web site. The winning haiku entries from Yellow Moon #12 are now posted under 'Current Activities' on the Haiku-Oz web-site. The second place winner in haiku and first place winner in tanka was US poet Pamela Babusci. Read all about it at this site. In an e-mail (along with a beautiful card) Dr. Angelee Deodhar sends information about the 2003 INTERNATIONAL HAIKU CONTEST Sponsored by The Palomar Branch National League of American Pen Women. All proceeds generated from this contest provide a scholarship for a deserving student entering college. Adjudication: Timothy Russell. Contest open to the public. Prizes: $100, $40, $20, Honorable Mentions. Winners will be notified by mail and their poems published in a chapbook. All rights revert to authors after publication. Deadline: March 1, 2003. Haiku must be unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere. Mail two copies, typed or printed in English on one side of 8.5 x 11 paper. Name, address, phone number or email on ONE copy only. Any number of haiku may be entered. Entry Fee: 2 haiku for $5.00. Checks/money orders (US funds only) payable to NLAPW. For list of winners, send a business sized SASE or SAE with an IRC. Mail to: Helen J Sherry, 11929 Caminito Corriente, San Diego, CA 92128, USA. Or get online Information. Hatsue Kawamura announces: In conjunction with the Fourth International Tanka Convention to be held on November 16, 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand there will be an international tanka contest. The deadline for the contest entries is June 30, 2003. There is no entry fee. However if you wish a copy of the resulting booklet of the winning works it costs US$10.00 sent as cash or IRC (no checks) to Nihon Kajin Club, Shuei Bldg. 2F, 1-12-5 Higashi-gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0022 JAPAN. Winners will be announced at the convention in November.



	How to submit Who we are Back issues: XVII:3 October, 2002 XVII:2 June, 2002 XVII:1 February, 2002 XVI:3 October, 2001 XVI:2 June, 2001 XVI:1 February, 2001 XV:3 October, 2000 XV:2 June, 2000	Copyright © by Designated Authors, 2003. Page Copyright © by Jane Reichhold 2003. Next Lynx is scheduled for June, 2003. Deadline is May 1, 2003.

LETTERS to LYNX