Tag: haiku

Unwritten Fragment of Basho’s Second Death Poem (“Last Words” Series)

Posted on by Stewart

Not much in the way of commentary this week, since (1) I think the genesis of this one should be fairly obvious and (2) do you really want to see me talk about haiku for 500 words?

Unwritten Fragment of Basho’s Second Death Poem, Pulled Half-Finished from His Mind and Brought Forward in Time to the Twenty-Third Century at the Moment of His Last Breath

by Stewart C Baker

No more journeying
I rest—

I said no commentary, but I guess you really have to know what Basho’s last recorded poem was for this to make sense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsuo_Bash%C5%8D#Last_years

On a semi-related note, I’m pondering writing a short story (and/or a piece of interactive fiction!) about a sort of magicianly warrior group who uses spoken haiku sort of like spells to create literal changes in the fabric of reality.

It sounds weird, and probably would be, but it also makes an odd kind of sense. Haiku’s all about juxtaposition. And the idea of a haiku “cutting” to create worlds is sort-of almost canonical! As I explored in a previous story.

On an unrelated note, don’t forget to guess which title in Writers of the Future is mine! You could win a signed copy of this year’s anthology.

My quantum physics haiku (yes, really) made the EQUS competition shortlist

Posted on by Stewart

I recently entered one of the mini-contests for the Quantum Shorts competition (where my story “How to Configure Your Quantum Disambiguator” is still in the flash fiction contest and eagerly awaiting your vote, if I haven’t said that five billion times already) with a haiku that was supposed to “describe the wonder of quantum physics in 17 syllables through haiku.”

Most people would probably look at that and say: Whaaaat?

For me, the reaction was closer to: YEEESSSSSSSS, ALL THE QUANTUM PHYSICS HAIKU

It’s like they sat down and tried to decide on a contest that would appeal as much to me as possible. Haiku? Check. Nerdy quantum physics references? Check.

So I gave it a go with the following three haiku (accompanied here by notes on the quantum stuff):

Haiku 1

tunneling effect—
dad finally understands
her situation

The quantum tunneling effect describes a “phenomenon where a particle tunnels through a barrier that it classically could not surmount.” (Quoth Wikipedia.)

This illustration by Jean-Christophe Benoist, which shows electrons “tunneling” through a solid barrier, serves as a good way of seeing what this actually means:
An electron wavepacket directed at a potential barrier. By Jean-Christophe Benoist.

Haiku 2

superposition . . .
the cat chases/does not chase
the tangle of string

This one is a nod to the famous Shcroedinger’s Cat thought experiment, which deals with quantum superposition (put simply, the way multiple contradictory quantum states all theoretically exist until someone observes them). The word “tangle” is a pun on entanglement, the word used to describe this state of superposition.

Haiku 3

wave function collapse—
the last cherry blossom lands
as she says I do

Wave function collapse is what happens when something in superposition “appears to reduce to a single eigenstate” when observed. Basically, to return to Schroedinger’s Cat, it’s what happens when you open the box and see that the cat is either alive or dead.

Yesterday they announced the winner, and while it isn’t me, haiku #3 above (“wave function collapse”) did land me on the “highly commended” shortlist.

I’m especially happy that this was the haiku they chose for it, since it was my favourite of the bunch.

New Resonance 9 haiku anthology now available for order

Posted on by Stewart

As I mentioned in a post last year, I was fortunate enough to be selected for inclusion in the latest volume of A New Resonance, the award-winning haiku anthology of new poets put out every year by Red Moon Press.

Fast-forward a few months, and I’ve now received my copies of the anthology. The poems are, as expected, wonderful and varied, making it easy to see why the New Resonance series is so well-received by poets.

20150610_185648
Copies of New Resonance 9 ready to go.

In addition to myself, the anthology features: Brad Bennett, Claire Everett, Kate S. Godsey, Cara Holman, P M F Johnson, Gregory Longenecker, Jonathan McKeown, Ben Moeller-Gaa, Beverly Acuff Momoi, Polona Oblak, Thomas Powell, Brendan Slater, William Sorlien, Michelle Tennison, Scott Terrill, and Julie Warther.

20150610_185705
My place in the anthology—alphabetical order strikes again!

I received about 25 copies of the anthology as part of publication, and still have several available to order.

Price is $16 ($1 less than list price), and I’ll throw in free shipping to anywhere in the US, as well as a copy of the chapbook I created just for this occasion, titled Stray Cats. Shipping seems to take between a few days and a week, depending on where you are in the country. (It’s cost-prohibitive to ship books overseas, but if you live somewhere other than the US, e-mail me with your address and I can give you a quote for shipping costs.)

20150611_145611
Hot off the presses—er, printer.

I will also happily sign the chapbook to you, and include an original poem on a topic of your choice.

Here’s the order form if you’d like to get a copy:

Order New Resonance 9


Inscribe To:
Custom Poem Topic



Thanks for your support!

Five reprints now available on Quarter Reads

Posted on by Stewart

Do you like stories? Do you like quarters? Do you like reading? Do you like reprints? Do you like five?! (Fnord)

Wait, wait, wait. Where was I going with this…?

Ah, right. I have five new reprints (does that even make sense?) available over on Quarter Reads as of right now. Here are links to each, and where they first appeared:

If any of those sound like they’d be up your alley, go give them a browse!

Original Essay: “Fishing for Bashos: Interpretive Communities and Haiku in English” at Modern Haiku

Posted on by Stewart

I’m very excited to announce the publication of this scholarly essay, which is based on a presentation I gave at Haiku North America last year.

In short, the essay tackles translation, Stanley Fish’s idea of Interpretive Communities, and

I had a blast doing the presentation and writing the essay. Who knew literary criticism could be so fun?! (Okay, maybe I’m just a nerd.)

What makes it doubly exciting is that the whole essay is available to read for free(!) on the Modern Haiku website as a PDF: Fishing for Bashos: Interpretive Communities and Haiku in English.

Give it a read, and I’d love to hear what anyone thinks about it, either here in the comments or via e-mail.

Original Poetry: “Night Shift” at Lakeside Circus

Posted on by Stewart

I have a poem up today (actually, last Friday) at Lakeside Circus.

It’s about cockroaches, metaphor, synochdoche, and other strangenesses, and is at least partly inspired by all the time I spent eating at Denny’s and other late-night diners when I used to hang out at the local game store until way too late in high school and college.

Go give it a read and a comment here: http://lakesidecircus.com/2015/03/stewart-c-baker-presents-night-shift/

Now Available for Pre-order: New Resonance 9 (and a chapbook!)

Posted on by Stewart

If you’re an avid reader of haiku, you may already be familiar with the “New Resonance” series of anthologies from Red Moon Press. If not, they’re well worth exploring: They’ve won at least seven Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Awards, and the poets featured in their pages often go on to do great things in the haiku community.

New Resonance 8
(a previous year’s edition of the anthology)

I’m very proud to have been selected for inclusion in the ninth edition of the anthology along with sixteen other poets.

As part of the publication process, I receive 25 copies of the anthology in return for paying part of the publication costs (yes, fiction friends, Yog’s Law(!!!)—but haiku works a bit differently in this particular case).

I’ve taken the pre-order form down for now (thanks to my early buyers for your support!), but will place an order form up again when I receive my copies in June.

In other news, I’ve created a chapbook of my haiku and tanka, called Stray Cats, which isn’t available anywhere else. You can still order a copy of that (if you so desire) using the form below).

Thanks!

“Stray Cats” Chapbook




Now on QuarterReads

Posted on by Stewart

Ever had a quarter and wished you could buy a short story or a poem with it? Well, now you can!

QuarterReads is a newly-launched site which lets you load money into their system and then buy original and reprinted fiction and poetry at a quarter a pop.

If it sounds interesting, I have a few reprints and one original poem up over there right now.

Here’s the opening few lines of Mare Serrulatus, which may well be the only sci-fi poem about cherry blossoms on the moon (if it’s not, please give me a name for the others!)

Mare Serrulatus

by Stewart C Baker

after lift-off
fighting gravity’s pull
a sea of cherries
shades the lunar surface
beneath us
in the artificial winds
of the clear domes
the first settlers built them
a fragile beauty
passed down from mother to son
father to daughter
for over a hundred years
……

Intrigued? Head on over to QuarterReads and you can read the rest!

Original Fiction: The Robotic Poet Reads Bashō

Posted on by Stewart

I’m pleased to announce that Beyond Borderlands, a hybrid academic/creative arts magazine, has just published “The Robotic Poet Reads Bashō,” a story of haiku criticism, parallel worlds, Thoreau, and the nature of reality. (I wrote the thing. In case that wasn’t clear.)

Here’s a brief teaser:

The robotic poet (who refers to herself in the third person, for reasons which may become clear) has been reading translations of Bashō, and has discovered two things in his work:

First, that our understanding of reality is largely a consensus agreement.

Second, and more importantly, that poetry can serve as a gateway to an infinite number of realities.

It may be tempting to attribute these little epiphanies to the vagaries of translation—to differences in interpretation and idiosyncratic syntax choices. (The robotic poet’s children were of the opinion that we all saw a single reality, but children have not lived. Not fully. The robotic poet herself remains convinced there is more going on.)

Intrigued? Confused? You don’t even?

You can read the rest of the story at Beyond Borderlands here: “The Robotic Poet Reads Bashō”.

Now Available at Grievous Angel: two short speculative poems

Posted on by Stewart

I mentioned last week that I’d sold a haiku and a tanka to Grievous Angel, a new e-zine by Charles Christian of Urban Fantasist.

Well, they’re now live!

Go check it out for yourself at http://www.urbanfantasist.com/article/new-poetry–haiku—tanka-5071

If you’re of the poetic or flash-fictional persuasion yourself, I’d also add that I received a prompt turn-around time on my submission and—just as importantly—was paid promptly upon publication.