Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

They say that things happen in threes, and my journey in haiku certainly started out in this manner. Firstly, towards the end of 1995, I came across an insert in a poetry magazine advertising a haiku competition. I thought it seemed interesting. Secondly, I took out a subscription to the poetry magazine IRON; one edition had an insert in it advertising their poetry books one of which was the Haiku 100. I bought a copy, and shortly thereafter started to write what I thought was haiku. I wrote about everything from St. Francis to the man in the moon! My third bit of luck was the address of the BHS in the Haiku 100.1 joined the BHS in 1996, and a haiku group shortly thereafter. And slowly came to the realisation that haiku are based on experience arising from emotion - not from the man in the moon!

I bought all available back issues of Blithe Spirit and read them avidly. The first haiku that impressed me was the inaugural winner of the Hackett Haiku Award 1991 by Brian Wells:-

Almost unnoticed
the dying bee on the path
scatters its pollen.

What a glorious compression of what seems on the surface to be a trivial incident! How splendid to isolate a moment that most people wouldn’t even notice. For me this poem not only has the ah! factor, but tugs at the heart strings. This is how I wanted to write! However, there is no magic formula for writing - just guidelines - and be an fervent reader of other people’s work. I see haiku like a game of squash the ball doesn’t just go in one direction, but in many, always within the confines of the court - and within this court there’s a lot of latitude for experimentation.

Over the years, I’ve read all my Blithe Spirit magazines many times. At first I didn’t see any progression. However, now the early magazines seem light years away from what’s been produced over the last few years. One can definitely see a learning curve for the English speaking haiku community: which is how it should be. In comparison, poems now are more clipped, pithy and seem to focus on the spaces between, rather than merely being just a record of an event. I still find writing a challenge and while others do too, then Blithe Spirit has a purpose. Who knows what the next ten years will bring? It’s the unknown that makes it exciting.