Author: Lynette Arden

only the moon
privy to a possum’s
tightrope walk

– Madhuri Pillai

outer suburb
the length of a dog’s
weekday voice

– Jan Dobb

first spring day
birdsong unravels
my knitting

– Hazel Hall

The Editor’s commentary accompanying these three haiku can be accessed through the following link, as can the text for Marietta McGregor’s haibun ‘The Ten Millennium Tree’, winner of second prize in the UHTS haibun contest:

http://www.unitedhaikuandtankasociety.com/

In the meantime, however, Jo has again been given the chance – as the latest weekly winner – to choose a haiku to which other readers could respond: following on from her selection of Lorin Ford’s ‘cellophane’ one-liner, earlier in January, this time Jo has selected a further monostich from another Australian haiku poet, Janice M. Bostok –

envelope my thumb opens the seal of his tongue

For posting on Friday morning (Eastern US Time), responses to Janice’s one-liner would need to have been received online by midnight Tuesday (New York).

Guidelines for contributing through the THF’s Contact Box – using a subject header of ‘re: Virals’ – can be found through this link:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2016/01/22/revirals-19/

their wings like cellophane remember cellophane

— Lorin Ford, ‘Roadrunner’ IX:2 (2009)

Lorin’s monostich had been selected by another Australian haiku poet, Jo McInerney, as a result of Jo’s own response to a preceding haiku having been chosen by The Haiku Foundation as the weekly winner in its ‘re: Virals’ feature.

From five responses to Lorin’s one-liner selected – in turn – for inclusion on The Haiku Foundation website, two of those newly posted comments have been written by Australian haiku poets: Jo McInerney herself once again, accompanied by Cynthia Rowe.

Responses by Jo and Cynthia to Lorin Ford’s haiku can be read below, with all five comments about her ‘cellophane’ one-liner able to be accessed through the following link:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2016/01/15/revirals-18

Jo’s response to a haiku by English poet John McManus can be read below.

Looking ahead, however, it should be noted that Jo is not only the first Australian to have a piece of haiku commentary adjudged to be a winner of ‘re: Virals’ – with her choosing the following haiku by Lorin Ford for the next set of comments, it has also meant this is the first time that the work of an Australian haiku poet has been featured for comment:

their wings like cellophane remember cellophane

– Lorin Ford, ‘Road runner’, IX: 2 (2009)

The Haiku Foundation website strongly encourages readers to comment – guidelines are provided through this link:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2016/01/08/revirals-17/