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About
Haiku Dreaming Australia
Background
Haiku Dreaming Australia (Dreaming) started in 2006 in response to some unwanted effects
of the globalisation of haiku. I saw the problem this way:
In seeking to join in world-haiku many Australians appear to write to satisfy overseas editors,
judges and readers. In doing so they risk losing some Australian identity – they write less
about the world they actually live in and the people they share it with, in favour of a
haikuland populated by worldpersons. To balance this trend
Haiku Dreaming Australia was formed to encourage haiku that are relevant
in Australia and to Australians. See
Homogenous Haiku.
Dreaming’s encouragement for Australians to write haiku from an authentic sense of
place has taken the form of The Dreaming Collection:
a web-published, perpetual, topical display of ‘the best of Australian haiku'.
Selection and scrutiny includes periodic peer reviews. In 2009, Dreaming ran an international
haiku competition and acquired the best submitted haiku for its collection.
A second role for Dreaming is that of a test bed for the discovery of aesthetics
and techniques that are or might be applicable to Australian haiku; see
Dreaming Discoveries
The initial focus is on finding a system, perhaps based on keywords, that might serve
Australian haiku in a similer way to which kigo enriches Japanese haiku. As a
starting point for this work see
Coming Clean on Kigo.
Dreaming offers itself as the locus for such long-term projects and has some exciting ones
under way. The Dreaming Collection is central to all such work.
Administration of The Dreaming Collection
The Dreaming Collection is a permanent but continuously updated display of haiku
relevant in and to Australia. I expect the Collection to settle with a content of
200 – 300 haiku. Its distinctive feature is that it is dynamic – it will remain
topical as it is perpetually revised, culled and infused with new haiku.
The Collection is not an anthology of haiku by Australians, in the lineage of
the First Australian Haiku Anthology; that is the purview of the AHS. Nor is it an
interpretation of Australia through haiku; it will not be comprehensive or be managed
to that end. Subject groupings will arise naturally to match the material received.
The Collection includes explanatory notes and images so everybody can appreciate
the haiku, and so poets are supported should they choose uncommon subjects. Haiku subjects
need not be exclusively Australian but they should at least be commonly experienced here.
Submissions from non-Australians are welcome.
Because The Dreaming Collection seeks to exemplify I have separated haiku from senryu.
At the margin the distinction may be arbitrary; I accept this in order to differentiate them
when they occur as markedly different poetry.
I treat as senryu any poem of haiku-like form which uses humour, irony, sarcasm or wit to remark
on human foibles. (The use of seasonal or nature elements in this process does not change the poem
into a haiku.) This distinction is based on content and intent, as disclosed by the haiku itself.
I will try to let an Australian style emerge, if in fact one is nascent. I will be
receptive to local idiom and to experiments with aesthetics, form, literary allusion,
poetry of place, keywords and the Aborigine nations. Periodic print editions of The Collection will be considered.
An archive is maintained and is available for research.
Dreaming is focused on haiku, rather than their authors.
Dreaming works closely with the Australian Haiku Society (AHS) which has endorsed the broad Dreaming endeavour and provides practical help and
publicity but all opinions expressed and decisions taken are my own. I will appoint my
successor(s) as editor(s).
Submission guidelines. I try to search all haiku publications for Dreaming material
but I welcome submissions and recommendations submitted by anybody, in English and preferably published, sent to me in the body of an email. My selection
criteria are: 1. quality; 2. relevance.
Copyright for every haiku and picture on this site is held by the author, photographer
or organisation shown, and may not be reproduced without the copyright holder's prior consent.
I thank all who have made their material, much of it copyright, available to Dreaming,
especially those named in the list of poets
John Bird
This article last updated: September, 2009
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