Haiku: the art and its related forms
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a 4-week course led by
Claudia Radmore
TUESDAYS - April 8, 15, 22, 29, 2025
6:00 to 8:00 p.m. weekly
Pre-registration required via Tickets Please
Early bird rate (March 1-15) $100.00 per registration
Regular rate $120.00 per registration
Almonte Readers & Writers is pleased to present the April series of Art of Writing workshops and courses exploring aspects of creative and technical skills development in literary arts, offered as part of the 2025 Lanark Lit Festival of Writing.
Overview
Haiku as we know it outside of Japan is best understood and approached through knowing what came before; in other words, haiku’s ancestors: tanka, renku, tan renga, and haibun. Each week we will enrich our understanding of haiku by writing these forms which, in some ways, are easier, and more fun to write, than haiku.
Participants will be introduced to forms like senryu, and how it differs from haiku; to the idea of link-and-shift, the renku ‘party’, the formal beginnings of haiku, using prose in haibun, and how these elements lead to and enhance haiku. Participants will enjoy hearing about the historical background for the development of these forms.
What will we do in the series?
There is, to be honest, a lot of fun involved in Japanese form poetry, and a subtle expression of emotion. We will ‘feel’ with women when their men are dragged off to war, learn of the role of emperors and the role of Samurai in the development of haiku. And we will play with verses the way Basho did in renku parties, hear about Basho’s travelogue as he goes on pilgrimage to an island of temples which gave us the haibun form, be introduced to some of Hiroshige’s fifty-three woodcut prints from a journey from Tokyo to Kyoto. Participants will be introduced to famous poems written by men and women from two thousand years of Japanese poetry.
Who is this course for?
Though the course may look intimidating, it’s really for anyone who is interested. Young people are often the most uninhibited when learning these forms and ten-year-olds write some astonishing poems. As indicated, there are stories and parties involved. So if you simply want to enjoy new ways to write poetry, please join us. We will have fun learning together.
About the instructor:
Claudia Coutu Radmore is the former President of Haiku Canada. She has been publishing lyric poetry and Japanese-form poetry for thirty years. the business of isness and fish spine picked clean were her latest collections of haiku and tanka.
In 2024 she collaborated with Grant D. Savage of Ottawa for heron still there, a book-length collection of a thousand linked verses, which was published by Éditions des petits nuages.
The 2025 Lanark Lit Festival of Writing is presented by Almonte Readers & Writers thanks to the generous funding support of Lanark County, the Municipality of Mississippi Mills, the Perth & District Community Foundation, and the Elizabeth Kelly Library Foundation, with community partnership from the Mississippi Mills Public Library, the Perth & District Public Library, Mill Street Books, Almonte Writers Guild, and with the community support of Equator Coffee, OVC Almonte, Jazzy’s Brewhaus and other local partners