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Radio New Zealand’s Culture 101 sat down with SCP Editor Evan Mantyk to talk about the SCP’s Haiku Competition, the SCP, and the history of the haiku. Listen here:
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Original Haiku Featured in the Interview:
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The cold lake shimmers
Softly lapping on the shore
Fifty years and more
—Evan Mantyk
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I really loved your closing haiku that you wrote regarding the 50th anniversary of your in-laws in New Zealand with the subtle alliteration. What a great tribute and sentiment of “more.”
Evan, great interview—and your haiku really captures the place and meaning of your in-laws’ fiftieth anniversary. I like your use of consonance and restraint. I also noticed the rhyme which reminded me of Kenneth Yasuda. He was a Japanese-American poet who believed that English haiku could use rhyme and still stay true to the spirit of the form. I think he’d have appreciated the way your poem blends tradition with personal feeling. Great job!
Evan, thanks once again for doing this interview. I can tell you, from reading entries in our haiku competition, that Culture 101 with your instruction and the interviewer’s encouragement, has brought in a number of haiku clearly representing New Zealand!