28 March 2025

taj bor

koji mi skreće pogled

s modrog prostranstva

that pine tree

which shifts my gaze

from the blue expanse

16th Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest 2024 - Selected Haiku/Odabrani haiku

21 March 2025

Prvi maj

opet me žica

za nešto sitniša

Labour Day

he asks me for some change

once again

YEAR OF THE SNAKE (New Year's Tan-ku, 2025)

20 March 2025

LINIJE ŽIVOTA / LIFE LINES / 生命線

RAZGOVORI & RECENZIJE / INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS

ISTRA 24 (razgovor/interview): https://www.istra24.hr/kultura/pulski-haiku-pjesnik-dejan-pavlinovic-nikada-necemo-biti-spremni-za-gubitak-roditelja-jer-tu-ne-igraju-teorija-i-racio-nego-emocija-i-srce

GLAS ISTRE (razgovor/interview): https://www.glasistre.hr/knjizevnost/2024/09/11/ususret-sutrasnjoj-promociji-zbirke-linije-zivota-razgovarali-smo-s-najpoznatijim-pulskim-haiku-pj-955437

GLAS ISTRE (osvrt na promociju/book launch): https://www.glasistre.hr/knjizevnost/2024/09/12/predstavljena-nova-haiku-zbirka-dejana-pavlinovica-955670

POETRY PEA PODCAST, S7E38 - Reading with Croatian Poet Dejan Pavlinović (razgovor/interview): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJAe9qEw-4o

HIA - Haiku International Association (haiku tsurezure - #42), Japan (razgovor/interview): https://www.haiku-hia.com/haiku_tsurezure_en/42.html

BLITHE SPIRIT 35.1 (Journal of the British Haiku Society) - Review by Maya Daneva (recenzija/review): https://smilingcricket.blogspot.com/2025/02/blithe-spirit-35.html

Graham Bates, KOKAKO haiku magazine, Novi Zeland (recenzija/review): https://kokako10.wordpress.com/blog/, https://kokako10.wordpress.com/current-issue/

Gabriel Rosenstock, Irska (recenzija/review): https://www.academia.edu/122720795/OUTSTANDING_HAIKU_FROM_CROATIA

Maxianne Berger, Haiku Canada Review, October 2024 (recenzija/review): http://www.haikucanada.org/publications/documents/archives/2024/Haiku%20Canada%20Review%20Oct%202024.pdf

Dimitar Anakiev, Bugarska (recenzija/review): https://gabriell-e-lit.com/izdatelstvo/za-linii-na-jivota-na-dejan-pavlinovic-dimitar-anakiev/spisanie-kartini-s-dumi-i-bagri/

Iain Maloney, Japan/UK (recenzija/review): https://iainmaloney.substack.com/p/august-reads-part-two

Pravat Kumar Padhy, Indija (recenzija/review): https://www.thewiseowl.art/life-lines

14 March 2025

kintsugi

tijek razgovora nakon

pomirbenog seksa

kintsugi

the flow of a conversation

after make up sex

YEAR OF THE SNAKE (New Year's Tan-ku, 2025)

07 March 2025

samorefleksija

čak me i ogledalo ne želi

pogledati

self-reflection

even the mirror refuses

to look at me

YEAR OF THE SNAKE (New Year's Tan-ku, 2025)

28 February 2025

zimska šetnja

i ovaj cvrkut izgubljen

u šumi

winter walk

this chirp also lost

in the woods

Blithe Spirit 35.1

(Journal of the British Haiku Society)

21 February 2025

Blithe Spirit 35.1 (Journal of the British Haiku Society) - Review by Maya Daneva (page 79-80), February 2025

Linije Života / Life Lines / 生命線 by Dejan Pavlinović, Udruga Tondak, 2024, paperback, 156 pages, ISBN: 9789334603116, €14+€3 p&p, available from dejan.pavlinovic@gmail.com

This trilingual book (Croatian, English, and Japanese) is the second solo collection by internationally acclaimed haiku poet Dejan Pavlinović. Elegantly crafted, the book features a textured cream-colored cover and a sleek, minimalist design that radiates a sense of peacefulness and draws the reader into a Zen atmosphere. Moreover, the addition of a bookmark in the same design is a thoughtful touch.

The 156 pages of this collection contain 100 haiku, thematically organized into four sections: Life Lines, Breath of Air, Coexistence, and Breaking Waves. In each section, some poems filled me with Zen-like calm, others brought a smile to my face, and still others provoked deeper reflection on the most important relationships in our lives.

Many of the poems explore the complexities of human emotions - love, joy, loss, and grief - reflecting not only our relationships with others but also with ourselves, especially the child we once were or still are. A few haiku and senryu contemplate the passage of time and the remnants of things that were once so close to our hearts. I was deeply moved by the following poems:

running / down the street / yesterday’s snowman

worn out cross / I spell my father’s name / once more

church bells / her monologue / takes a break

As someone who has profoundly explored haiku as a medium for expressing the complex emotional landscapes of death and grief – an avenue that helped me process the loss of my mother - many of these poems resonated with me on a deeply personal level. In particular, I identified with the poet's sentiments in these senryu:

mother's death.../ a butterfly settles / on my coffee cup

life lines / my aging hands / down father's ribs

I highly recommend this book to lovers of haiku and senryu. For anyone passionate about these forms, it offers excellent examples of both. The book is both a source of inspiration and a gentle reminder to slow down and reflect on some of the most important facets of life. It is truly a delight to experience!

Maya Daneva

14 February 2025

godišnjica braka

i dalje je u pravu

kad je u krivu

wedding anniversary

she is still right

when she's wrong

Poetry Pea Podcast - S8E6 Poetry of Love

08 February 2025

zimska šuma

obrisi čovjeka

iz magle

winter forest

contours of a human

out of the fog

YEAR OF THE SNAKE (New Year's Tan-ku, 2025)

17 January 2025

crkvena zvona

njezin monolog

uzima predah

church bells

her monologue

takes a break

Haiku zbornik Ludbreg 2024

BIOGRAPHY

DEJAN PAVLINOVIĆ was born in 1968 in Pula, Croatia, but spent part of his childhood in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Today he is an English and German teacher, part-time tour guide and member of the indie band The Chweger from Pula. He serves on the Iris haiku magazine editorial staff, and he is the founding editor of the Haiku HR Facebook page. He runs the Pula Gymnasium Haiku Club in his school and conducts haiku workshops for students and adults. He judges haiku competitions for both children and adults. He has been writing haiku since 2007. His work is featured in two Croatian haiku anthologies. His poems have been published in Croatia and abroad, awarded and commended on Croatian and international haiku competitions (Kusamakura Haiku Competition, ITOEN, Vladimir Devide Award, The Betty Drevniok Award, Mainichi Haiku Contest, Vancouver Cherry Blossom, Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum Haiku Contest, R.H. Blyth Award, Santoka Haiga Contest, Ukiah Haiku Festival, Sōka Matsubara International Haiku Contest...). Likewise, his poems have been published in various national and international haiku magazines, newspapers, websites and anthologies (Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Blithe Spirit, Presence, IRIS haiku magazine, The Haiku Foundation, Chrysanthemum, Seashores, Senryu To, World Haiku Review, NHK TV Haiku Masters, Poetry Pea Podcast, A Hundred Gourds, The Asahi Shimbun, Haikuniverse, Under the Basho, The Mamba Journal, Failed Haiku, Ephemerae, Cattails, Wales Haiku Journal, Blo͞o Outlier Journal, Autumn Moon Haiku Journal, My Haiku Pond, World Haiku, Scarlet Dragonfly, Sketchbook...). Pavlinović’s haiku was featured on the Mann Library Daily Haiku page of Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) during the month of April 2023. He publishes his haiku both in English and Croatian on his Smiling Cricket Haiku blog. In 2016 he published his first book, ''MLIJEČNOM STAZOM - DOWN THE MILKY WAY'', a collection of haiku poetry written in both Croatian and English (foreword and afterword by Jane Reichhold and Djurdja Vukelic Rozic, and blurbs by George Swede and Chen-ou Liu). In 2021 he published ''NEXUS HAIKU'', a co-authored and co-created bilingual collection of haiku, senryu, haiku sequences and rengay, where all poems were composed equally and collaboratively during a period of three years by Michael Dudley, Tomislav Maretić and Dejan Pavlinović. Pavlinović publishes his second solo book ''LINIJE ŽIVOTA / LIFE LINES / 生命線'' in 2024, a collection of haiku poetry written in Croatian, English and Japanese (foreword by Nina Kovačić, and blurbs by Michael Dudley and Ikuyo Yoshimura).

''MLIJEČNOM STAZOM - DOWN THE MILKY WAY'' is Pavlinović's first haiku collection and it contains 100 of his haiku poems from a period of 2007-2016, including those published, awarded and commended ones on various competitions. The book is entirely bilingual (Croatian and English) since he writes and publishes in both languages. The foreword was written by the eminent American author and theorist of haiku poetry and other short Japanese forms, Jane Reichhold. The afterword was written by Djurdja Vukelic Rozic, one of the leading poets and promoters of haiku poetry in Croatia and its wider region. Respectable and awarded authors George Swede and Chen-ou Liu contributed with their short blurbs. The book received excellent reviews, among others also in notable haiku magazines, such as BLITHE SPIRIT (the official journal of the British Haiku Society), FROGPOND (the official journal of the Haiku Society of America) and the Japanese haiku magazine SENRYU TO.

''NEXUS HAIKU'' is a co-authored and co-created bilingual (English and Croatian) collection of haiku, senryu, haiku sequences and rengay. All poems were composed equally and collaboratively during a period of three years by Michael Dudley, Tomislav Maretić and Dejan Pavlinović. Working co-operatively together on the poems created an ebb-and-flow process that allowed continual opportunities for organic expressions of complementary energies; complexities of ideas; shifts of perspectives; and juxtapositions of personal and cultural experiences, perceptions, and memories. The 120 pages of the book have been enriched with Sanela Pliško's foreword and Nina Šestanović's illustrations, as well as blurbs written by Gilles Fabre and Đurđa Vukelić Rožić. The authors of NEXUS haiku are established haiku poets whose haiku poems have been awarded and commended in many Canadian, Croatian and international competitions, and have been published in numerous national and international haiku magazines, newspapers, websites and anthologies. NEXUS haiku is the winner of the 2021 Borivoj Bukva Award for best haiku collection published in Croatia, presented by the Croatian Literary Society.

''LINIJE ŽIVOTA / LIFE LINES / 生命線'' is Pavlinović's third (second solo) collection of haiku poetry comprising 100 haiku poems, including those published, awarded, and commended in various domestic and international competitions. The book has 156 pages, and is trilingual (Croatian, English, and Japanese), with the English translations of the poems done by the author himself, as he writes and publishes in both Croatian and English, while the Japanese translations are the work of Japanese poet Ikuyo Yoshimura. The foreword was written by the distinguished Croatian haiku poet Nina Kovačić, and the book features short reviews by renowned Canadian poet Michael Dudley and translator and poet Ikuyo Yoshimura. Additional contributors include Sanela Pliško (co-editor), Matko Plovanić (cover, layout, and design), and Thierry Dubois (illustrations). The book is published by TONDAK in 2024.