What do diamonds and haiku have in common? They are small and valuable. Did you know that you can win $5,000 for writing a three-line poem? Just think of the nice diamond you could wear for that price.
Haiku, with its 350-year history, is one of the great arts of Japan. Haiku poets in Japan can trace their lineage from Master to Master to Master back to Matsuo Basho who lived from 1644-1694.
The Arkansas Haiku Society (AHS), founded in 1997 in Hot Springs, will host the 23rd Annual Autumn Haiku Conference, Friday -Saturday, November 1-2, 9am-5pm, at the Hot Springs Convention Center. Lee Gurga of Illinois and Stanford Forrester of Connecticut will be the featured poets. Howard Lee Kilby, current president of the AHS, along with Dr. and Mrs. Paul Tucker, June Simmons, and others, founded the AHS.
Chiemi Shimizu, Japan Outreach Initiative Coordinator, Tom Murphy of Texas A&M, Judy Michaels, Johnye Strickland, Steve Sharp, Vic Fleming, John Zheng, Rodney Bloor, and other poets will be present. Perhaps, Dr. Roger Fox of National Park College will join them again. For more information, contact hkilby@hotmail.com or phone 501-767-6096.
