I would like to thank all of the contributors for sending into this great kyoka issue of Failed Haiku. There is something for everyone in this issue. Hemapriya will be back next month to edit with an updated set of submission requirements so come back soon for those details. Until then, enjoy reading these 5 line gems!

-Bryan

Please READ the contest rules thoroughly!!! CONTEST RULES HERE

Gene was a friend and one hell of a poet. I don’t want him to be forgotten by the haiku community. Steve Hodge, the editor at the time of Prune Juice Journal wanted to come up with a way to remember him, and we created this contest as a joint effort by PJ and FH.

Gene was a curmudgeon, and his faults were often a part of his poetry. But, he was a lover of nature, a friend to animals, and a person who loved, albeit sometimes imperfectly, many in the haiku community. Please take a moment to read the PDF below that he put together as he was dying and asked me to make sure it got widely distributed. He passed soon after and I make sure it is available to anyone who wants it annually and on the site.

Gene loved Ferris Gilli and The Heron’s Nest, and much of his work was published there over the years. Gene also was addicted to Rengay, and was a huge fan of Garry Gay and Michael Dylan Welsh. If you search the web you will find more of his work.

Although it is NOT a requirement of this contest, work that riffs or uses some of Gene’s techniques is certainly welcome. Below is a copy of BIDING TIME the collection he put together:

Please send me your best work, and feel free to experiment. All avenues of Senryu are open in this contest. ONE NOTE: All the winners AND all of the Honorable Mentions will be read and placed in a video on our YouTube site. The quality of work submitted in the past tells me that we will have at least two dozen or more HMs to recognize.

Mike Rehling – The Old Failed Editor of Failed Haiku!

Please read the guidelines carefully, and ONLY submit during the period indicated, and check out examples of past winners so you have a good grounding of the genre and what we might be looking for.

Mike Rehling, Judge for the 2023 Contest