Taking advantage of his “Katrina sabbatical” from teaching at Xavier U.
It’s a humorous look at the politics and rivalries in the world haiku community
(which are surely a lot lke the politics and rivalries in most literary and prof-
essional organizations and movements).
Lanoue says:
Haiku Wars is a light-hearted romp through the world of haiku
written by someone (me!) who knows the subject, the players,
and even where some of the skeletons lie buried. But the tone
is never mean, I hope. This novel is my love letter to haiku people
everywhere, even those I may seem to be making fun of (but again,
any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental)”.
the brand new edition of that online journal (Vol. 4:1, Spring 2006). Wilson
explains the storyline:
“An American professor in Louisiana with the help of a reincarnated
bodhisatva dwelling in the body of a pet ferret, put together a haiku
conference for the National Haiku Society. The haiku leaders that
assemble resemble, in many ways, luminaries who populate similar
conferences in real life.”
Wilson opines: “The book is a hoot to read and nearly impossible to put down.
It’s interspersed with haiku and senryu, some written by Issa, and others penned
by Lanoue. The storyline is nicely developed, the dialogue second to none, and I
was kept guessing throughout my reading of the book as to who is who or if there
is a who.”
Here are two poems by David Lanoue, from Haiku Wars:
war monument
the tower of cellos
collapses
silent night, holy night
three
at a bar
Readers of this website know that I’m a big fan of David Lanoue’s prior haiku
have universal appeal. Haiku Wars may be a little more “inside the haijin com-
munity,” but I’m betting it’s well worth the $15 price for the special, initial 100-
copy run (which includes shipping and an inscribed author’s signature). Click here
for details.
Learning about the genre’s wars, gave a whole new meaning to a link on my Referer/ 
The first result was to a travel page about the Hawaiian island of Haiku (no dangers
at f/k/a, where Jim discusses “the greatest dangers to writing good haiku.”
Other results refer to:
“the dangers of further tightening haiku’s already tight form ” (here)
“the dangers of “-ing” in haiku” (here) and
“One of the dangers with haiku is, as Shiki pointed out in his time
(turn of the century) that by its short form, the many haiku written,
and the limited allowed vocabulary, that no one will be able to write
a truly ‘new’ haiku.” (here)
I don’t know what the Google querist had in mind. After reading about Haiku
Wars, however, I’m starting to worry that intellectual and egoistical battles
over the philosophy and politics of haiku might indeed be dangerous to the
health and welfare of conference goers. (and see possible danger for
plagiarists and their enablers) Let’s hope cooler heads and hearts will
prevail, even while we nurture our passion for haiku and within haiku.
weblog, I’m confident that David Lanoue is feeling the first
stirrings of Spring and spring fever, now that he is back
in New Orleans. Here are a few poems with that feel:
this butterfly
has places to go
spring journey
busy little buggers
the flower-mad
butterflies
it’s good
to be a horse
the sweet mountain meadow
growing north, east
then south
mountain pine
in full battle make-up
she rollerblades
by
Intellectual property lawyer and lecturer Paul Rapp (of Albany, NY 
and Housatonic, Mass.) writes a column for the NY Capital Region’s
“alternative newspaper weekly,” Metroland. This week’s column
bination of data collection and trading by websites and companies
online and “unrstrained governmental snooping,” leaves us with
“Orwell on steriods.”
“Sort of like a virtual Nixon/J. Edgar Hoover tag-team
assault on your most fundamental civil liberties.”
Paul notes that “the world has changed so quickly that these incredible
events flew by while we weren’t looking.” He ends: “Maybe it’s time to
start paying attention.” He’s right, of course. Most of us weblog denizens
know all this stuff, but perhaps we take the invasion of privacy a bit to
much for granted. We need to start letting our desire for privacy known to
our legislators — loud and clear. And, we need to make sure that our less-
computer oriented and tech-savvy friends, clients, and acquaintances are
alerted to these problems and provoked into action.
and short works (like haiku or weblog blurbs). An avid crusader for the rights
of copyright holders, Jonathan nonetheless concludes (and I hope this is Fair
Use of his essay):
“Truth be told, there’s nothing wrong with fair use. If done right,
it benefits society and detracts very little, if any, from the copy-
right holder. In fact, it can even promote the original creator.
“Still, those who are uncomfortable with others reusing their work
need to take notice. Fair use applies to short works as well as long
ones. . . .
“For those wanting to reuse another’s work, just bear in mind that
context is king and that, so long as you take only what is necessary,
taking all of a shorter piece can be just as protected as taking only
a portion of a long one.”
Your input on his conclusions (based is large part on my own) would be much
appreciated.
“lanoueSelf”
Kobayashi Issa celebrated many kinds of
