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Alan Summers Poet Hotel shot taken in Amsterdam 2015Alan 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.
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juniper the tether end of larksong

Lake District, Cumbria, England, U.K. September 2015
Poetry & Place anthology issue 1 ed. Ashley Capes and Brooke (Close-Up Books, April 2016)
ISBN-10: 0994528922 ISBN-13: 978-0994528926

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the mountain ash birdsong lichens

Lake District, Cumbria, England, U.K.
Blithe Spirit 26.1 (March 2016)

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colour book the cat becomes marmalade

Right Hand Pointing  issue 95 h a i k u edition (February 2016) edited by Eric Burke

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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)

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moonlighting crows in other colors

Frogpond (39:1) Winter Issue 2016

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the rain in our fingers return journey

Blithe Spirit  26.2 (May 2016)

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my father's war
a story of the dark
collecting its own

Presence issue #55 2016

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honeymoon hotel
I peel away the seasons
of a red rose

Heart Breaths: Book of Contemporary Haiku (Cyberwit March 5, 2016) ed. Jean LeBlanc

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Easter Sunday
a For Sale sign leans
into birdsong

tinywords ISSUE 16.1 | 25 MARCH 2016

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shadows that don't daffodils belong

otata 4 (April, 2016) An e-zine of haiku and short poems, Otata ed. John Martone

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sun off stubble a train in its landscape

otata 4 (April, 2016) An e-zine of haiku and short poems, Otata ed. John Martone

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changing seasons
I make a stick friend
out of potatoes

Anthology: EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration 2016 Foodcrop Haiku

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pink bullets
an armadillo ricochets
off the blossom

Ohanami: One Hundred and One Cherry Blossom Haiku
Annual Ohanami Festival, Sofia, Bulgaria April 2016

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secret garden
a clue to everything
lies with the crows


Mainichi Shimbun (Japan) July 2016

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limned clouds
the beat of regular rain
on moon-gentians

Yanty's Butterfly: Haiku Nook Anthology
ed. Jacob Salzer and the Nook Editorial Staff (March 4, 2016)
ISBN-10: 1329915410 ISBN-13: 978-1329915411

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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)
 
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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)
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crowded train a dozen yellows crackle
 
Does Fish-God Know (Yet To Be Named Free Press 2012)
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city of glass the immobilised man small stone counting
 
Blithe Spirit 23.3 (August 2013)
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a little curve

when the buffalo bellow

dying moon
 
Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts Vol.1, No.2 August 2013
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night-tide

the rook takes back

its moon
 
Acorn #31 2013
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kingfisher summer
the weight of sunshine
on water
 
Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum, 2013
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intermittent rain I shed another crow
 
Frogpond autumn 2013 issue (36:3)
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the blue note I turn to wind-spun snow
 
Blithe Spirit 23.4 (November 2013)
Runner-up, The Haiku Calendar Competition 2014
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the drum of the rain ghosting bare hands
 
Under the Basho Vol 1.1 Autumn 2013
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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
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all this drifting snow
I wonder how I became
yet another shape
 
Best of Mainichi 2014
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Night clouds
a spider shows me
the harvest moon
 
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK (Japan, October 2013)
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breaking up –
the winter landscape
of sunlit horses
 
Best of Mainichi 2013 (Japan, 2014)
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hotel room drawer . . .
one of Issa’s insects takes
charge of the reading
 
Presence #50 (2014)
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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)
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twilight on snow shadows deepen the grip of stars
 
Frogpond 37:2 (2014)
big data The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2014
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northern lights
a boy makes a ladder
out of his telescope
 
Blithe Spirit 24.3 (2014)
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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)
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hard frost –
the snail-hammerings
of a song thrush
 
Muttering Thunder vol. 1, 2014
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after rain midnight dreams a hedgehog
 
brass bell: a haiku journal (September  2014)
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splitting the sky
a kingfisher lifts a branch
off the breeze
 
Best of Mainichi 2014 (Japan)
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hunter's moon
the runes of mice
in its wake
 
Best of Mainichi 2014 (Japan)
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old tales
moon-bright leaves
jostle the breeze
 
Wild Plum 1:1 (Spring & Summer 2015)
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wind-spun flakes . . .
a child’s world escapes
the snow globe
 
Joint Winner, Tinywords photo prompt ISSUE 15.1 (2015)
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dark news
the comfort
of crows

tinywords 15.1 (2015)
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the low slant
of winter light
cathedrals
 
Semi-Finalist, Shambhala Times First Annual Midwinter Haiku Contest 2014
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her sweet tooth –
Dear John letters
stuffed in a box
 
Haibun, Blithe Spirit Vol. 25 issue 2 (2015)
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beyond the wardrobe . . .
the last streetlamp of Narnia
becomes a tree
 
Journeys 2015, An Anthology of International Haibun (Ed. Angelee Deodhar ISBN 978-1515359876)
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my inevitable death mayflies
 
i.m. Terry Pratchett OBE (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015)
Bones 6 (March 15, 2015)
 
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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)
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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)
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wildflowers adding a little evening to the daylight
 
Presence #52 (2015)
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mistfall
the swansongs
of orb spiders
 
Scope (FAWQ magazine vol. 61 no. 6, 2015)
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flickering
into the small hours
my nervous tic
 
First Prize, Financial Times Competition (2015)
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family home
the grain of the wood
enters his hands
 
Prune Juice, Issue Sixteen (2015)
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700,000 olive trees remember the butterfly
 
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
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I once was this stone home for another
 
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
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dragonfly army I slip off the skins of men in pain
 
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
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conjugating verbs
across a battlefield
matins moon
 
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
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a child looms large
in collerateral damages
hunkered moon
 
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
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cobweb moon
a man’s opening lines
fill with mortar
 
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
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cullingmoonmanycolorsuniform
 
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
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we learn to adjust
the clocks of our hands
borrowed moon
 
Bones - journal for contemporary haiku no. 7 (2015)
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train station
the heat of the platform
in my blood
 
NHK World - Europe and Japan (September 2015)
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sunlit brick
each house passes
along the train
 
Frozen Butterfly issue 3 (2015)
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war moon
the flickering of humans
at birdsong
 
 
Asahi Shimbun (Japan 2015) - the blood moon issue, Oct 2 for the eclipse of 9/28
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a touch of snow
the last gift wrap
goes as kindling
 
Frogpond 38:3 (2015)
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the warmth
of mismatched gloves
first snowfall
 
The Heron's Nest  Volume XVII, No. 3 (2015)
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there are times
when we are graced
snowlight
 
The Heron's Nest  Volume XVII, No. 3 (2015)
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seed moon
the other side
of the wind
 
Frozen Butterfly  issue 3 (2015)
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far off Helvellyn snow the nouns of verbs 
 
Blithe Spirit 25.4 (2015)
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old seed packets
the summer names
of war
 
Blithe Spirit 25.4 (2015)
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passing cars
the gleam off bare wood
on Good Friday

Blithe Spirit 25.4 (2015)
From the haibun The Beat Is Back
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lost childhood cars moonlight a rookery

Blithe Spirit 25.4 (2015)
From the haibun The Beat Is Back
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rainy season
one of the paper towns
gains a wrinkle
 
Blithe Spirit 25.4 (2015)
From the haibun The Beat Is Back
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snowline
the topography
of tears
 
Edge - BHS Anthology 2015
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spider silk . . .
to catch a river
moon shifting
 
hedgerow: a journal of small poems #53 (2015)
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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
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the smaller hours
when others sleep deeply
the dots I join
 
Moongarlic MG5 (2015)
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book of birdsong
the compartments
in my body
 
Brass Bell - Morning Haiku (2015)
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Invisible crow
the lebanon tree utters
a call of three caws
 
Honourable Mention, Only One Kagoshima Tree Haiku Contest (Japan 2015)
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mulled wine
my mother's voices
move within me
 
Asahi Shimbun (Japan) 1st January 2016
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white sails . . .
a wind has also shaped
the tree

Azami #2 (Japan 1994)

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woodfire
flickering in the silence
corralled horses

Modern Haiku vol. xxvi no. 3 (1995)

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curling up at dusk
the park bench sleeper
turns over a new page

1st Prize - Fellowship Australian Writers, Queensland, International Haiku Contest (1996)

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      cool morning
birdsong
light on a distant cloud

Modern Haiku (1999)

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powdered snow –
a crow's eyes above
the no parking sign

Joint Winner, Haiku International Association 10th Anniversary Haiku Contest (1999)

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ill all day . . .
a crime novel
in both rooms

Blithe Spirit vol. 17 no. 1 (2007)

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Oxford Street
the sweet chestnut vendor's
blackened fingers

Snapshot Press Calendar 2011
Runner-up, Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar 2010

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snowing
through the blizzard
particles of me

Winner - The Haiku Calendar Competition (Snapshot Press)

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lullaby of rain
another pinch of saffron
in the pumpkin soup

Editors' Choices - Heron's Nest (Volume XIV, Number 4: Dec. 2012)

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the moon is broken
Battersea Power Station
from a train window

1st Prize - World Monuments Fund 2012 Haiku Contest

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rain on the river the jesus star shifting

Janice M Bostok Haiku Prize 2012 Anthology Evening Breeze

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train whistle
a blackbird hops
along its notes

Presence #47 (2012): THF Per Diem (September 2012): The Elements

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chestnut moon shifting in my memory ghost floors

Roadrunner 12.3 (December 2012)

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Hirst's butterflies disturbing the exhibits people

Roadrunner 12.3 (December 2012)

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all those red apples amongst the blue tit

Bones - a journal for contemporary haiku, Issue 0.1 (2012)