NEXUS HAIKU
(Michael Dudley, Tomislav Maretić, Dejan Pavlinović)

From left to right: Dejan Pavlinović, Michael Dudley, Tomislav Maretić reading Nexus Haiku (Photo by Zdenko Vanjek)

  

On October 6th, 2019, at the 6th Annual Bučijada Haiku Meeting in Ivanić-Grad, Croatia, it was our pleasure to present six haiku and one senryu, each of which was composed co-operatively and equally by all three of us.

During a one year span we composed a total of 85 haiku and senryu that in each instance was written collaboratively either in pairs or as a group of three. We discovered that working together on each poem created an ebb-and-flow, push-and-pull process. Composing stand-alone collaborative haiku provided continual opportunities for the organic expressions of complementary energies;  complexities of ideas;  shifts of perspectives;  and juxtapositions of personal and cultural experiences, perceptions, and memories. Since this process represents intersection and unity, each poem is an example of nexus:  a central focal point of connection.  Consequently, we call our collaborative autonomous poems Nexus Haiku. 

Following, are the poems we read at the 6th Annual Bučijada Haiku Meeting:

cafe door hinges

singing all morning

off-beat in rain

kišno jutro -

vratne šarke kafića

pjevaju u off-beatu

bora wind begins

the fragrance of prosciutto

in waves

okrenulo na buru

zamirisao pršut

u refulima

approaching

her scent before her kiss

flower moon

njen miris

prije njenog poljupca

cvjetni mjesec

hibiscus tea

sip by sip among roses

and crickets

čaj od hibiskusa

guc po guc među ružama

i cvrčcima

angler

the new moon

casting a long light

ribič

mladi mjesec

baci dugo svjetlo

cigarette ash

still keeping its shape∼

shed skin of a snake

još drži oblik

pepeo cigarete∼

odbačena zmijska koža

Sunday brunch . . .

today's main course

of yesterday's discussion

nedjeljni ručak …

od jučerašnje rasprave

današnje glavno jelo

MICHAEL DUDLEY was born in Toronto, Canada, and has been a haiku poet for over 40 years. His writing has been internationally published in newspapers, magazines, journals, and anthologies.  He is a member of Haiku Canada and the Haiku Society of America.  More about Michael at  http://michaeljdudley.com

TOMISLAV MARETIĆ is from Zagreb, Croatia. He has been writing haiku for more than 40 years and his haiku have been published in many national and international magazines, anthologies, journals and on-line haiku magazines. He is a member of the Croatian Writers' Association. More about Tomislav at Tomislav Maretic - Living Haiku Anthology

DEJAN PAVLINOVIĆ is from Pula, Croatia, and has been writing haiku since 2007. His haiku poems have been published in various national and international haiku magazines, journals, newspapers, websites and anthologies. More about Dejan at https://smilingcricket.blogspot.com