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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.

 

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

 

the mountain ash birdsong lichens

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

 

colour book the cat becomes marmalade

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

 

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

 

honeymoon hotel
I peel away the seasons
of a red rose

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

 

Easter Sunday
a For Sale sign leans
into birdsong

tinywords ISSUE 16.1 | 25 MARCH 2016

 

shadows that don't daffodils belong

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

 

sun off stubble a train in its landscape

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

 

changing seasons
I make a stick friend
out of potatoes

Anthology: EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration 2016 Foodcrop Haiku

 

pink bullets
an armadillo ricochets
off the blossom

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

 

secret garden
a clue to everything
lies with the crows


Mainichi Shimbun (Japan) July 2016

 

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

 

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)

 

lullaby of rain
another pinch of saffron
in the pumpkin soup

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

 

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)

 

all those red apples amongst the blue tit

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