Issue Seven of Failed Haiku is now up for viewing/downloading!

http://www.haikuhut.com/FailedHaikuIssue7.pdf

We have a lot to love in this issue:  Winners and write-ups for the H. Gene Murtha Senryu Contest are now posted in Failed Haiku and PruneJuice (that has a new issue up for your reading also), and we have 90 pages of senryu for your reading.

Enjoy, and pass the word!!!

Well, the Seventh Issue of Failed Haiku is now ‘in the can’! Murtha Senryu Contest winners will be announced, and you have a wonderful collection of poets in this issue:

Cast List
In order of appearance
(all work copyrighted by the authors)
Pris Campbell
Jesus Chameleon
Chris Lynch
Willie R. Bongcaron
Bre Roberts
Marshall Bood
Bruce Jewett
Valorie Broadhurst Woerdehoff
Joann Grisetti
Dave Read
Ian Willey
Rachel Sutcliffe
Pravat Kumar Padhy
Barbara Tate
Anthony Q. Rabang
Garry Eaton
Ramona Linke
Nicholas Klacsanzky
Olivier Schopfer
Eva Limbach
Paresh Tiwari
Jay Friedenberg
Adjei Agyei-Baah
Roman Lyakhovetsky
Gergana Yaninska And haiga with Maya
Lyubenova
Elmedin Kadric
Orrin PréJean
Simon Hanson
Robert Witmer
Julie Warther
Julie Warther and Phyllis Lee
Debbie Strange
Jacob S. Blumner
Christina Sng
Steven Woodall
Chen-ou Liu
Jill Lange
Anne Curran
Phyllis Lee
Peter Newton
Shloka Shankar
spiro miralis
Nina Kovačić
Pat Geyer
Barbara Kaufmann
Brad Bennett
Matthew Moffett
Keitha Keyes
Madhuri Pillai
Tim Graves
David J Kelly
Kalyana Hapsari
Elizabeth Alford
Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Myron Lysenko
Billy Antonio
nancy brady
Bill Kenney
Zoran Doderovic
Goran Gatalica
Helen Buckingham
Munia Khan
Ola Lindberg
Ken Sawitri
Ken Sawitri senryu/drawing Jimat Achmadi
Jade Pisani
Duncan Richardson
Mohammad Azim Khan
Marc Shane, pen name [ashamed of Mike]
Sondra Byrnes
Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian
Richard Stevenson
Chase Gagnon
Debbi Antebi

H. Gene Murtha Senryu Contest

2016 Winners

Judges:  Steve Hodge and Michael Rehling

The winning and honorable mention poems will be in the July 1 issues of BOTH Prunejuice and Failed Haiku

First Place Winner:

Bill Kenney

Second Place Winner:

Joe McKeon

Third Place Winner:

Debbi Antebi

Honorable Mentions (In no particular order):

Bob Lucky

Pat Tompkins

Rob Scott

Ian Willey

Mike Keville

G.R. LeBlanc

The Sixth issue is now up and available for viewing! Lots to get your eyes around for this issue, and some new and many old friends of FH are included. You can download or read the PDF file here:

http://www.haikuhut.com/FailedHaikuIssue6.pdf
Cast List
In order of appearance
(all work copyrighted by the authors)
Willie R. Bongcaron
Bruce Jewett
Igor Damnjanović
Pris Campbell
Jesus Chameleon
Garry Eaton
Dave Read
Tatjana Debeljacki
—Kashu
Juha Nikki
Rachel Sutcliffe
Eva Limbach
Christina Martin
Adjei Agyei-Baah
Barbara Tate
Ian Willey
S.M. Kozubek
Helen Buckingham
Olivier Schopfer
Nola Frawley
Tracy Davidson
Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Mohammad Azim Khan
Elmedin Kadric
Meik Blöttenberger
Christina Sng
Gergana Yaninska
Marshall Bood
Debbi Antebi
Melinda Hipple
Gabriel Sawicki
Thomas Tilton
G.R. LeBlanc
Shloka Shankar
Jo Balistreri
Julie Bloss Kelsey
Alegria Imperial
Chen-ou Liu
David J Kelly
Marietta Jane McGregor
Diarmuid Fitzgerald
Susan Burch
Mark Gilbert
Elizabeth Alford
Diana Petkova
Samantha Sirimanne Hyde & Marilyn Humbert
Madhuri Pillai
Barbara Kaufmann
Lynette Arden
Bob Lucky
Connie R Meester
Jill Lange
Bill Kenney
Myron Lysenko
Nina Kovačić
Steve Black
Zoran Doderovic
Ken Sawitri
Debbie Strange
David Oates
Janet Patton
Julie Warther
Kevin Valentine
Munia Khan
Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy
Chase Gagnon
Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian
Maeve O’Sullivan
S.M. Abeles
Sondra J. Byrnes

First Annual H. Gene Murtha Memorial Senryu Contest

Gene Murtha, has left us, too soon, but his humor, tenderness, and a superb gift of imagination remains in his many poems, most of which you can find by searching ‘The Heron’s Nest‘. Gene touched on subjects and emotions that ran the gamut of a life that is fully lived. He loved nature, family, and his fellow poets. Any flaws that he had, and he would admit to many, were overshadowed by his ability to express the most complex emotions simply and directly. A few of his poems may provide you inspiration:

spring mist –
a mallard paddles
through our stillborn’s ashes

fishing
where my brother stood –
twilight chill

Berlin Wall
a smooth stone
in my pocket

Contest Rules

1. Only TWO submissions per poet.
2. Previously published work is fine, as are poems that have been workshopped or appeared on social media, with the exception of work that has previously appeared in either of Prunejuice or Failed Haiku.
3. Short submission time of 10 days. Submissions begin on May 15th beginning at 12:01 AM EDT, and must be in our email box by midnight EDT on May 25. Any emails received either before or after will NOT be judged.
4. All email submissions MUST be sent to: MurthaSenryu@haikuhut.com, with CONTEST in the Subject field.
5. Winners will be notified by June 15th, and their poems will be published in BOTH Prunejuice and Failed Haiku in the July 1 issues, with a write up by either Steve Hodge and Michael Rehling.
6. PRIZES: 1st Place: $50.00, 2nd Place: $25.00, 3rd Place: $25.00. All three of the winners will also receive a book of poetry by one of the following senryu poets: Alexis Rotella, Roberta Beary, or Alan Pizzarelli.
7. Judges for this contest are the editors of Prunejuice and Failed Haiku: Steve Hodge and Michael Rehling respectively.
STEVE HODGE                                          MIKE REHLING
Editor: Prunejuice                                      Editor: Failed Haiku

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

I figured I had tapped into something with the response to the initial issue, but we now have almost 100 pages of senryu in Issue 4. Thanks to our poets, who have amazed me with their support we are growing. Don’t fear! I love doing this, and as big as it gets it gets. If I have to do Failed Haiku twice a month I will do it, I don’t want to make it too much of a chore for our readers, who also have been astounding. We are setting records every month for downloads. So our poet’s work is being READ! The new issue is here:

http://www.haikuhut.com/FailedHaikuIssue4.pdf

Feel free to share this link with others, post it on your blogs or Facebook pages, or Tweet it to your Followers as well. We want the word to get out. Be sure to follow our Twitter feed:@SenryuJournal, and our Facebook page as well.

Thanks to the poets and artists without whom we would have nothing!!!

Mike

Another large issue of Failed Haiku is shaping up for April 1! I will close reading for this issue on the 28th of March at Midnight EDT. So, if you have been waiting for the last minute, you know the deadline.

Mike