 The Heron's Nest 816 Taft Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368, USA ISSN 1538-7747 $1.50 [Canada, US$1.75; RoW $2] Subscription: 12 issues $19 [Canada US$21; RoW US$23] Checks (US funds only) payable to "Christopher Herold" Note: We understand that from 2005, the magazine will be published quarterly on the net and annually in print. email The Heron's Nest visit The Heron's Nest's website read a review of Valentines Awards Vol. V Before commenting on this review please read the FAQ page Home page Notes for publishers Want to be a reviewer? Anthologies. Books. Audio. Magazines. Software. Video. Artefacts. Web design by Gerald England This page last updated: 5th November 2004. |
The Heron's Nest Vol.V #5 | |
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The Heron's Nest is a monthly journal of haiku presented on the web. Hard copy is available to subscribers. A5, stapled, 16 page booklet. Nicely produced, nicely edited, nice paper. As with each issue, 53 poems are featured. The opening pages give the Heron's Nest Award poem and commentary. The rest of the pages are devoted to haiku. All the poems in this issue are of a respectable standard. This one by Emily Romano is a favourite: twilit path a tarantula lifts a legand so is this by Kirsty Karkow: spring scents my dog and I walk through different worldsI also liked this one by Timothy Hawkes very much: sunset . . . the shimmer of dragonfly wingsThis publication is a delight to read and one to keep and dip into. | ||
| reviewer: Doreen King. | ||
| The Heron's Nest Vol.V #6 | ||
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This is the companion hard copy to the website haiku magazine of the same name, and it is of a very consistent makeup. There is a large variety of poems, but all are haiku as opposed to senryu and other related short poems. This issue, like most issues, contains 53 poems from 50 writers, and starts off with the winners of The Heron's Nest Award: First prize, Carolyn Hall slave cemetery the tug of the current on willow frondsRunner-up, Kuniharu Shimizu stone garden — this morning the islands float on snowRunner-up, Robert Gilliland wood sorrel a bumblebee works the last patch of sunThere is a two-page commentary on the winning poems from Paul MacNeil, one of the editors. The rest of the issue is filled with poems, many of which have a seasonal reference, predominantly Spring. There is a good range in tone and even overall content, but no experimentation with form. Although the poems are written in free form, they are all in three lines and often with a very obvious cutting word. In this issue, several of the haiku did not work for me because they are just observations which lack any real epiphany. Having said that, however, there are plenty of haiku that do appeal to me: bedtime story my grandfather's fingers touching the Braille John W. Wisdom full moon — a shadow under the curl of each wave Adelaide Shaw from childhood the firefly jar — light hair in it vincent tripi meditation hour the rain changing rhythm Ion Codrescu | ||
| reviewer: Giovanni Malito. | ||
| The Heron's Nest Vol.VI #1 | ||
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Each issue of the magazine features 53 haiku; one poem is selected by the editors to receive The Heron's Nest Award, and a (naturally laudatory) commentary is written on it. There are a good many effective poems here, with succinct and striking images and juxtaposition, as shown in the following two examples by J.C. Herring and H.F. Noyes: a stiffness in the joints shrunken tomatoes piled in the turnrow night winds rake the pond leaves— wobbly moonThat taut expressiveness that the best haiku have is also shown in work by Raffael deGruttola and Vanessa Proctor: without his wife— throwing old bread to the sparrows first snow a drift of cattle against the fenceline | ||
| reviewer: Alan Hardy. |