NEXT, HAY(NA)KU TRAVELS TO NEW ZEALAND!

This weekend I received an email that contained:

I'm writing to you from New Zealand where I'm putting together a Primary School text book  with creative poem prompts for 8 - 11 year olds.  

I'm writing because I'd love to include Hay(na)ku in this book. 

I'd love to explain the form in the book, give my own examples and encourage students to write their own... What I'd love to do is include some information about how you came up with the form as the book will encourage the young people to come up with their own form and rules as well, in a further section....

Amazing how that hay(na)ku just continues to travel!  Anyway, I directed the emailer to HERE, the hay(na)ku site!  When the form was launched in the first hay(na)ku anthology, the form was swiftly picked up for a "Poetry for the People" course at U.C. Berkeley. I also discussed the form in a presentation on "Children's Literature" at the recent Fil-Am International Book Fest.  It is indeed a teachable form -- do consider it!

Hay(na)Ku Drawing by Glynda "Q-TRACER" Velasco