May,
Match 2:
Report by M J Haney |
 |
The
First WHC Global Haiku Tournament
Report on the Final Match, May 25, 2002
by M J Haney
The second round of the historic WHC Global
Haiku Tournament which took place on 25 May 2002, proved to be a very close
match. Fought on four fronts, sessions of two kigo haiku, one free haiku and one
renku cycle, the Pointed Radishes team finally emerged as victor over the
Tapping Woodpeckers team and will now move to the Final to be held on Saturday
29 June 2002, when they meet the winner of the first round, held in April, The
Seven Samurai Team.
The Tournament, the first of its kind, is
organised by the World Haiku Club and supported by the Japan Times, the largest
English-language newspaper of Japan. Its main aims include learning haiku in a
light-hearted and playful way, which is very much part of haiku writing but
which seems to have been somewhat neglected outside Japan, partly because haiku
is in a sense taken too seriously. As with the first match, the May event
required all team members on both sides to submit three haiku per person and
take part in composing a team renku. Judges provided kigo as well as the hokku
for renku prior to the match. The first session was on the kigo "summer
evening", with the second session being "free form" (i.e., no
kigo or condition was mandatory to the verses) and the third session on another
kigo, "thistles in bloom". The fourth and final session was renku.
Each session lasted forty-five minutes.
Knowing the competition would be fierce, each
poet submitted several verses for each category to their own team members for
final selection and polishing prior to the actual tournament in order to ensure
that only the highest quality poetry be presented for judgment. This team
activity provided a golden opportunity for members to discuss and learn haiku
and renku composition, as well as getting to know each other closely. In the
end, forty-two haiku in the three categories, and two 12-stanza renku were
stacked against each other to be judged by the panel of seven international
judges, determining the winning team.
It was a hard call for the judges, but in the
end, the Pointed Radishes ruled the day, taking three of the four sessions in
very close competition. The match was so close that, although the Tapping
Woodpeckers had accumulated the most points, they lost the match itself (by
losing three of the four rounds). The spirit of the tournament was lighthearted
and friendly with a touch of healthy competitive spirit. Spectators were also an
important part of the Tournament and actively participated in it by posting
well-wishes and comments on the action and afterwards, and also by taking part
in discussions on the finer aspects of haiku and renku. All in all, about 300
haiku poets across the world joined the tournament on the WHCtournament mailing
list, which was especially created for this purpose.
It is unprecedented that such a large number of
poets participated in a single mailing list activity simultaneously. Being a
pioneering event, there have been some teething problems and it is expected that
improvement will be made for future tournaments by learning from the lessons
this time round. Reports indicate that team members learned before, during and
after the Tournament as much about themselves as about haiku and renku, which is
an encouraging sign as "learning" is the mainstay of the World Haiku
Club.
Each WHC Global Haiku Tournament team consists
of seven poets. Poets for the two teams of the May match are:
[1] The Pointed Radishes, led by Gary Steinberg
as Captain. The members are Tenzing Karma Wangchuk (formerly, Dennis Dutton),
An'ya (Andja Petrovic), Carmen Sterba, Ito (Juanito Escareal), Hortensia
Anderson, and John Wisdom. Kris Kondo will be Tenzing's replacement and Chris
Patchel will be Hortensia Anderson's replacement in the final round.
Meet the Pointed Radishes at their homepage,
and read their poetry submissions (click hyperlink):
Pointed
Radishes Homepage
Pointed
Radishes Poetry Submissions
[2] The Tapping Woodpeckers, led by Gary Warner
as Captain, include Andrea Gradidge, Deborah P. Kolodji, Gillena Cox, Naia, Soji
(Gary Barnes), and Victor P. Gendrano.
Meet the Tapping Woodpeckers at their homepage,
and read their poetry submissions:
Tapping
Woodpeckers Homepage
Tapping
Woodpeckers Poetry Submissions
Poets of The Seven Samurai, who will meet The
Pointed Radishes in the Final, are: Linda Robeck (captain), Fay Aoyagi, Mark
Brooks, Devar Dahl, Alan J Summers and Billie Wilson.
Everyone is welcome to subscribe to the
tournament list, WHCtournament. Simply send a blank e-mail to: WHCtournament-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Schedule of Events and
Announcements:
http://www1.neweb.ne.jp/wa/inter-arts/
The
teams' homepages are accessible from:
http://www.netpro.ne.jp/~aminet/pages/whctournament2002.html
Meet the Seven Samurai at their homepage, and
read their poetry submissions:
The
Seven Samurai Homepage
The
Seven Samurai Poetry Submissions
Meet the Shichifukujin at their homepage, and
read their poetry submissions:
Shichifukujin
Homepage
Shichifukujin
Poetry Submissions
The international panel of judges consists of
Janice Bostok (Australia), George Swede (Canada) and Michael McClintock (U.S.),
Ferris Gilli (Chief Judge, U.S.), Yasuomi Koganei (Japan), Paul MacNeil (U.S.)
and Susumu Takiguchi (Japanese resident in the UK).
Prizes will be presented to winners by the
World Haiku Club and by the Japan Times. The Final Match took place online on 29
June from 12:00~16:00 at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WHCtournament/
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