Great Canadian Haiku Project

Home County’s special interactive project this year is the Great Canadian Haiku Contest. In April 2011 we held a national contest asking for haiku entries about a great Canadian person place or thing.  The winning 17 haiku are being treated as song lyrics that are being set to music by festival artists Hawksley Workman, Royal Wood, Emm Gryner and festival artistic director Catherine McInnes. The result will be 17 ‘little gems’ or ‘little magical moments’ – not necessarily full blown songs with a typical song structure. The poets and musicians  jointly own the copyright for future use. The songs will be performed in an 80 minute workshop, 3 pm Saturday July 16 on a workshop stage at the festival. The project is sponsored by a new London radio station, 98.1 free FM. It will be streamed live and recorded for archival purposes by 94.9 CHRW, London’s Independent Radio Station.

Why haiku ?

In the age of Twitter, a form of communication that limits the writer to 140 characters to express a thought, haiku is a beautiful form with similar limitations, forcing the writer to express the essence of what they’re writing about in a simple, elegant, evocative and compelling way.

Strengths of the project:

• it’s artistically driven and it connects artists to the public through the creative process
• it’s not a popularity contest – haiku lyrics were chosen by a team of professional writers
• it’s all about celebrating Canadian identity and culture

We received entries from across the country, including Slave Lake, Alberta, Kelowna, B.C. Quebec townships, Parry Sound, Kingston, Ottawa, as well as many London and region entries.  Submissions were judged by a team of local writers and finalists were chosen by London’s Poet Laureate Penn Kemp. To be as inclusive as possible, an anthology was created. In several cases, two or three different poets’ work was combined to create one haiku lyric.

All four musicians are setting independent versions of this overall winning haiku:

haiku lyrics by: Helen Baker, Terry Ann Carter, Trevor Malone

music by Hawksley Workman, Emm Gryner, Royal Wood & Catherine McInnes

edited by Penn Kemp & Catherine McInnes

Lightfoot hit me hard

Sundown burned into my brain

never been the same

Emily’s vision –

from this deep coastal forest

comes a raven’s caw

Leonard Cohen sings

Hallelujah ! crocuses

On Parliament Hill

Terry Fox’s things –

a lone sock, the heel worn through

miles still left to go

Click here to download an anthology of the 17 winners and the Poet Laureate’s haiku.

Find out more about anthologist Penn Kemp:

Poet Laureate – Penn Kemp

Penn Letters