Submissions invited for the Summer 2017 Showcase.

As always, I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have not been published here at the zen space before. But equally I’m happy to hear from familiar ‘names’, though I would ask you to wait patiently for one or showcases to go by before submitting more material for consideration.

I have some suggestions for potential contributors this time.

• Tanka. As you know, the core of the zen space is haiku, but it’s not the be-all-and-end-all. I am always looking for short, in-the-moment use of words, no matter what form they fall into. Recently tanka has come into my mind, thanks to the review I recently posted here. Why not compose some for me?
• Words inspired by art. Or, not so much an exercise in ekphrasis, more an expression of the momentary experience of a work of art. What I don’t want to see, however, is the work of art itself. I don’t even necessarily need to know what the work of art is. Convey the moment you stood before it. (Just to be entirely contradictory, I’ve included here a detail from a painting that struck me recently.)
• It is currently midsummer here in Scotland. In the Antipodes it’s midwinter. In many other parts of the world such seasons are not even recognised or recognisable. Can you write me something that expresses a moment of standing in one season or climate and being struck but its opposite? A parched throat in a rainy season? A shiver in heat? A colour in a colourless landscape?

Deadline is the day before publication, which is July 1st. I love last-moment work!

MM.

The Winter 2017 Showcase is now published!

A final word on 2016 is below, thanks to Autumn Noelle Hall.

Meanwhile, 2017 has arrived at last, and with it a new Showcase of haiku and other short bursts of poetry. To visit, either over your pointer over the ‘Experience’ tab and scroll down to the bottom, or click here.

Best wishes to all readers and writers.

Marie Marshall
editor
the zen space

Big news! For the Autumn Showcase…

… we have Ray Sharp as Guest Editor. Ray is one of the good guys of poetry. He’s from Michigan, from the shores of Lake Superior in fact, which he calls “a land of long snowy winters and brief glorious summers”.

Any submissions coming in in the next month or so will be forwarded to Ray. One of his tasks, as guest editor, will be to seek out new names, new talent for the zen space, so he will be making enquiries of his own.

We still have the suggested theme of ‘mountain’, but we also have a fine reservoir of poems outside that theme. Ray has all but insisted that I submit something myself. I’m toying with the idea, even though it would break my unwritten policy of not making the zen space a self-centred farrago. What do you think?

Anyhow, stay tuned, keep that dial locked to WTZS, Stanton, Michigan…

The Summer 2016 Showcase is now published!

It’s the first day of July, and here in Scotland it does not really start to get dark until after 10pm  – to us it seems like the evening is a time for doing things, walking round our garden, studying the sky, going for a drive. But I’m sure you’ll find time to read the Summer 2016 Showcase. It is full of energy thanks to the visual offerings by KANIHA and the words of the many fine poets and haijin who have contributed this time.

To visit the Showcase, please hover your pointer over ‘Experience’ and scroll down, or click here…

… and ENJOY!

We’re looking for new contributors

the zen space is looking for writers, poets, and haijin whose work we have not featured before. Our next ‘Showcase’ is due to be published on the 1st of July, and I would like to have some contributions from you. There is no particular theme; for many Northern Hemisphere writers it is summer, but it’s winter to the South, and many areas of the world do not even recognise the seasons in this way, so there is no need to make your submissions season-themed. Haiku, of course, is always welcome; but imagist poetry, and any short, in-the-moment bursts of words will find a place on a Showcase.

I am also looking for photography and artwork to accompany the poetry.

Please pass this on to friends and colleague-poets. Submissions should be made as requested under the ‘Submission‘ tab, and not as a comment below.

Thank you,

MM
editor

The Spring 2016 Showcase is now published!

Please go visit – tell your friends! You can visit by clicking here, or clicking the image to the right, or by hovering your cursor over the ‘Experience’ tab and scrolling down.

More crows! More Crows!

The deadline is 31st December. The subject is the crow, or crows…

Crows, notoriously random, one moment aerobatic, the next as untidy as a gale-blown paper bag. They stride purposefully across a road, but hop sideways when a car passes. They scatter, musical notation morphing, on a wet, stubbled field.

They are clerks, old priests, undertakers, schoolmasters, dusty disposal operatives.

They are not only crows, but ravens, choughs, jackdaws, magpies, rooks, jays, an entire race. They are metaphorical, or surreal, or deadly realistic. Some have a misplaced white feather here. Or here. Or even here. On a tree, and against the winter sky, they can appear as gaunt as the naked tree they perch on, or they can seem sleek and fat on God-knows-what in contrast with the tortured branches.

They are (perhaps) the National Bird of Scotland, their accent being a throatful of Buckfast after a takeaway kebab.

They are here for you to plunder, to rob, or to dignify your shoulder as you carry them into the room on a haiku, a senryu, a short burst of poetry.

Or you could ignore the crow totally, write about what’s there when a crow is not, write about the most un-crow thing that occurs to you. It’s entirely up to you. Go to the ‘Submission’ tab and use the email address there.

Just remember that the deadline is 31st December…