Alan Summers
Born 1956 in London, UK
Living in Chippenham, Wiltshire, UK
Alan Summers is a Japan Times award-winning writer. Yomiuri Shimbun (14 million readers in Japan) said on his birthday in 2002: "...as dry as vintage champagne." He runs With Words, which organises haiku based projects. His latest book Writing Poetry: The Haiku Way is due out early 2017.
the mountain ash birdsong lichens
Lake District, Cumbria, England, U.K.
Blithe Spirit 26.1 (March 2016)
house clearance
room by room by room
my mother disappears
Blithe Spirit 26.1 (March 2016)
Shortlisted for Museum of Haiku Literature Blithe Spirit 26.2 (May 2016)
moonlighting crows in other colors
Frogpond (39:1) Winter Issue 2016
the rain in our fingers return journey
Blithe Spirit 26.2 (May 2016)
my father's war
a story of the dark
collecting its own
Presence issue #55 2016
drifting rain
my hundred autumn rooms
to be alone
Best of Mainichi 2012 (Japan 2013)
A Vast Sky, An Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku
ed Bruce Ross; Koko Kato; Dietmar Taucher; Patricia Prime (Tancho Press 2015)
The Night Train
of paper rock scissors
you sleep into me
c.2.2. Anthology of short-verse ed. Brendan Slater & Alan Summers (Yet To Be Named Free Press 2013)
crowded train a dozen yellows crackle
Does Fish-God Know (Yet To Be Named Free Press 2012)
city of glass the immobilised man small stone counting
Blithe Spirit 23.3 (August 2013)
a little curve
when the buffalo bellow
dying moon
Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts Vol.1, No.2 August 2013
night-tide
the rook takes back
its moon
Acorn #31 2013
kingfisher summer
the weight of sunshine
on water
Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum, 2013
intermittent rain I shed another crow
Frogpond autumn 2013 issue (36:3)
the blue note I turn to wind-spun snow
Blithe Spirit 23.4 (November 2013)
Runner-up, The Haiku Calendar Competition 2014
the drum of the rain ghosting bare hands
Under the Basho Vol 1.1 Autumn 2013
watery sunlight –
the flower’s fidelity
with a bumblebee
Under the Basho Vol 1.1 Autumn 2013
Under the Basho - Autumn 2013 [Kindle Edition]
Don Baird (Editor), Hansha Teki (Editor) ASIN: B00F52Z9JU
all this drifting snow
I wonder how I became
yet another shape
Best of Mainichi 2014
Night clouds
a spider shows me
the harvest moon
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK (Japan, October 2013)
breaking up –
the winter landscape
of sunlit horses
Best of Mainichi 2013 (Japan, 2014)
hotel room drawer . . .
one of Issa’s insects takes
charge of the reading
Presence #50 (2014)
night of small colour
a part of the underworld
becomes one heron
Modern Haiku Vol. 45.2 Summer 2014
Haiku 2015 (Modern Haiku Press, 2015)
twilight on snow shadows deepen the grip of stars
Frogpond 37:2 (2014)
big data The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2014
northern lights
a boy makes a ladder
out of his telescope
Blithe Spirit 24.3 (2014)
heat lightning
the rain on the grass
reflects each strike
1st Prize The Liverpool Virtual Book Fair Twitter Haiku Contest 2014
(part of the city's International Festival of Business)
hard frost –
the snail-hammerings
of a song thrush
Muttering Thunder vol. 1, 2014
after rain midnight dreams a hedgehog
brass bell: a haiku journal (September 2014)
splitting the sky
a kingfisher lifts a branch
off the breeze
Best of Mainichi 2014 (Japan)
hunter's moon
the runes of mice
in its wake
Best of Mainichi 2014 (Japan)
old tales
moon-bright leaves
jostle the breeze
Wild Plum 1:1 (Spring & Summer 2015)
wind-spun flakes . . .
a child’s world escapes
the snow globe
Joint Winner, Tinywords photo prompt ISSUE 15.1 (2015)
dark news
the comfort
of crows
tinywords 15.1 (2015)
the low slant
of winter light
cathedrals
Semi-Finalist, Shambhala Times First Annual Midwinter Haiku Contest 2014
her sweet tooth –
Dear John letters
stuffed in a box
Haibun, Blithe Spirit Vol. 25 issue 2 (2015)
beyond the wardrobe . . .
the last streetlamp of Narnia
becomes a tree
Journeys 2015, An Anthology of International Haibun (Ed. Angelee Deodhar ISBN 978-1515359876)
my inevitable death mayflies
i.m. Terry Pratchett OBE (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015)
Bones 6 (March 15, 2015)
the snow-spinning wind
I dream of only big trees
in my prison yard
Runner Up, The IAFOR Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award 2015
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR)
corn moon
the jackdaw shifts
its iris
Asahi Shimbun (International Haiku Day April 17th 2015);
EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration 2015, The Year of Light (The Haiku Foundation)
wildflowers adding a little evening to the daylight
Presence #52 (2015)
mistfall
the swansongs
of orb spiders
Scope (FAWQ magazine vol. 61 no. 6, 2015)
flickering
into the small hours
my nervous tic
First Prize, Financial Times Competition (2015)
family home
the grain of the wood
enters his hands
Prune Juice, Issue Sixteen (2015)
700,000 olive trees remember the butterfly
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
I once was this stone home for another
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
dragonfly army I slip off the skins of men in pain
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
conjugating verbs
across a battlefield
matins moon
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
a child looms large
in collerateral damages
hunkered moon
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
cobweb moon
a man’s opening lines
fill with mortar
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
cullingmoonmanycolorsuniform
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
we learn to adjust
the clocks of our hands
borrowed moon
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
train station
the heat of the platform
in my blood
NHK World - Europe and Japan (September 2015)
sunlit brick
each house passes
along the train
Frozen Butterfly issue 3 (2015)
war moon
the flickering of humans
at birdsong
Asahi Shimbun (Japan 2015) - the blood moon issue, Oct 2 for the eclipse of 9/28
a touch of snow
the last gift wrap
goes as kindling
Frogpond 38:3 (2015)
the warmth
of mismatched gloves
first snowfall
The Heron's Nest Volume XVII, No. 3 (2015)
there are times
when we are graced
snowlight
The Heron's Nest Volume XVII, No. 3 (2015)
seed moon
the other side
of the wind
Frozen Butterfly issue 3 (2015)
far off Helvellyn snow the nouns of verbs
Blithe Spirit 25.4 (2015)
old seed packets
the summer names
of war
Blithe Spirit 25.4 (2015)
passing cars
the gleam off bare wood
on Good Friday
Blithe Spirit 25.4 (2015)
From the haibun The Beat Is Back
lost childhood cars moonlight a rookery
Blithe Spirit 25.4 (2015)
From the haibun The Beat Is Back
rainy season
one of the paper towns
gains a wrinkle
Blithe Spirit 25.4 (2015)
From the haibun The Beat Is Back
snowline
the topography
of tears
Edge - BHS Anthology 2015
spider silk . . .
to catch a river
moon shifting
hedgerow: a journal of small poems #53 (2015)
horses in the dusk . . .
half-remembered dreams
of a rail journey
European Haiku Society journal Makoto, A New Haiku Perpective issue 1:1 January 2, 2016
the smaller hours
when others sleep deeply
the dots I join
Moongarlic MG5 (2015)
book of birdsong
the compartments
in my body
Brass Bell - Morning Haiku (2015)
Invisible crow
the lebanon tree utters
a call of three caws
Honourable Mention, Only One Kagoshima Tree Haiku Contest (Japan 2015)
mulled wine
my mother's voices
move within me
Asahi Shimbun (Japan) 1st January 2016
white sails . . .
a wind has also shaped
the tree
Azami #2 (Japan 1994)
woodfire
flickering in the silence
corralled horses
Modern Haiku vol. xxvi no. 3 (1995)
curling up at dusk
the park bench sleeper
turns over a new page
1st Prize - Fellowship Australian Writers, Queensland, International Haiku Contest (1996)
cool morning
birdsong
light on a distant cloud
Modern Haiku (1999)
powdered snow –
a crow's eyes above
the no parking sign
Joint Winner, Haiku International Association 10th Anniversary Haiku Contest (1999)
ill all day . . .
a crime novel
in both rooms
Blithe Spirit vol. 17 no. 1 (2007)
Oxford Street
the sweet chestnut vendor's
blackened fingers
Snapshot Press Calendar 2011
Runner-up, Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar 2010
snowing
through the blizzard
particles of me
Winner - The Haiku Calendar Competition (Snapshot Press)
the moon is broken
Battersea Power Station
from a train window
1st Prize - World Monuments Fund 2012 Haiku Contest
rain on the river the jesus star shifting
Janice M Bostok Haiku Prize 2012 Anthology Evening Breeze
train whistle
a blackbird hops
along its notes
Presence #47 (2012): THF Per Diem (September 2012): The Elements
chestnut moon shifting in my memory ghost floors
Roadrunner 12.3 (December 2012)
Hirst's butterflies disturbing the exhibits people
Roadrunner 12.3 (December 2012)
