International Haiku Festival in Ghent, Belgium 13th to 19th September 2010 Zilvervisje glimt Langs ’t onzeekre watervlak En hapt er een ster August Vermeylen (1927) silver fry flicker along the shifting waters and snaffle a star Trans. David Cobb (2010) The festival haiku by Vermeylen is one of the oldest haiku written in Dutch but also a natural choice given that Ghent is a city of rivers and waterways that weave through and around its gothic buildings and cobbled streets. And the theme of water was more intimately introduced to the delegation of assembled haiku poets after dinner on Monday and Tuesday evenings with candle-lit ‘ginko’ in hand-made and man powered, long-oared, wooden boats. With blankets over our knees and notebooks in hand we were steered silently along the dark water, under low stone bridges, with the lights and stepped gable roofs of the city above us. someone singing from an open window the boat drifts Lynne Rees ...
An evocative haiku that speaks volumes; worthy of the place it received in the ‘With Words Haiku competition’…
ReplyDeleteThank you, Frank.
ReplyDeleteCongrats! I love the idea that it is me who decides whether the sea or the lyrical I is speaking to her.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes
Ralf
Yes! That's absolutely what I wanted the reader to experience. Thanks so much for posting, Ralf.
ReplyDeleteLovely comments on a superb haiku. I still get a kick out of reading Lynne's poem, even now, after many re-reads as judge.
ReplyDeleteA cheque will be on its way, with a haiku journal notebook, soon! ;-)
Alan
Area 17
With Words Online Haiku Competition Results
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All life on earth originated from the sea. We talk of mother earth, but I wonder if it should be mother ocean? Your link between the sound of the sea and your communication with your mother - on her birthday - has all sorts of resonances, for me. And it's a lovely haiku. Thank you and congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Leigh.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the win Lynne, Matt
ReplyDeleteThanks, Matt : )
ReplyDelete