Issue 5 is now online! This one is jammed full of senryu, haiga, haibun, a sequence or two, and a few kyoka. This one was particularly fun to edit since the work took some unusual turns in a few places. As always, there is something for everybody. Check out the link at:

http://www.haikuhut.com/FailedHaikuIssue5.pdf

Also, don’t forget that as a PDF file all issues of Failed Haiku can be loaded into your Kindle device or on you PC/Mac with their free software download. Then you can ‘search’ each issue for particular poems, and read it offline in any location.

Enjoy this issue, and look for an announcement soon about a new Senryu Contest coming in May!

Peace

Mike

As most of you know who have submitted your work here, I LOVE reading your senryu, your haibun, haiga, and anything else related to senryu. It is a wonderful trick that I have played on you all to get poets to send their work to me! I love reading your poetry, and this is no work at all for me. What a great job I have!

That said, I want to serve you the best that I can, and for that to happen I need to have a system so that your work gets to me. Since I receive hundreds of personal emails a day, I set up EDITOR@FAILEDHAIKU.COM for ALL submissions. All emails sent there go directly into a special ‘Reading Folder’ that I use to make selections for the next issue. I do this in ‘order’ of receipt, hence generating the ‘Cast List, in order of appearance‘ for the next issue. The first poet listed is first to submit for that issue!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE submit only to the correct email address. I absolutely hate leaving someone out due only to a clerical error such as sending to my personal email, where I don’t see the work, and it does not go into the Reading Folder. I am not being stuffy or procedural, but I sincerely don’t want to miss seeing your work. The contributors are our lifeblood, and I don’t want to disappoint any of you.

When I submit my own work to other journals I always go to their Submissions page, each and every time, and review and comply with their submissions guidelines. Having ‘played’ the role of Editor myself many times now I know that these ‘systems’ are setup to organize submissions so that nothing is lost or missed in the process. I would ask you before submitting to just take a minute and go to the Submissions Guides link of FailedHaiku.com and read it again.

I am committed to being the kind of Editor that I have admired over the years, and missing a truly worthy submission is something I want to avoid at all costs. Disappointing a poet is not on my agenda, and petty ‘rules’ always were off putting to me, but I assure you I WANT to see your work, and I will treat it, and the poet who wrote it, with respect.

Thanks to all the poets who have made Failed Haiku a success!

Peace

Mike