John Crook (b. December 8, 1945), first became interested in haiku at Teacher's College in the late 1960's and taught haiku in primary schools for a number of years before his career turned in a different direction, finally towards lecturing in mathematics. During all that time John studied photography. He was influenced by Raymond Moore whose photography reflected a Taoist influence. His work also focused on the 'Sense of Place' of Paul Nash. John rediscovered haiku when going 'on-line' in the last two years whilst homebound, recovering from an operation for cancer and chemotherapy. He had not realised the existence of a haiku 'scene', either on or off line and was astonished at the opportunities which exist for the haiku writer, John, with the assistance of his wife Celia, wrote his spotlight article, humour in haiku, from his hospice bed. Please spend some time reading it. John Crook passed away on April 16, 2001. His spirit, a true haiku spirit, touched all of us at haijinx. We miss you, John. John has also placed in a number of competitions, including: Snapshots Calendar 1999, Snapshots Calendar 2000 (5), World Haiku Festival 2000 (2nd), NZ Poetry Society 2000 (3rd). He has received Editor's Choice awards from The Heron's Nest and featured in their Valentine's Day Awards. John has had haiku selected for The Art of Haiku 2000, two BHS anthologies, a recent HSA anthology, and A Glimpse of Red, the 2000 Red Moon Anthology. Previous credits include: Blithe Spirit, Frogpond, Presence, Modern Haiku, RAW NerVZ, Snapshots, Acorn, still, Haiku: the Journal of Croatian Haiku Poets, temps libre/free times, the Japanese newspapers Yomiuri Shimbun and Mainichi Daily News, and others. article: "humour in haiku" - previously unpublished
biography
contests & awards
chapbooks, books, collections, & anthologies
newspaper, magazine, & journal appearances
haiku: "spring downpour" - Presence No 11 (2000)
haiku: "lunch break" - previously unpublished
haiku: "the sunny park" - previously unpublished
haiku: "falling leaves" - Blithe Spirit Vol IX, No 4 (December, 1999)
haiku: "hill walk" - Blithe Spirit Vol X, No 3 (September, 2000)
haiku: "summer solstice" - 2nd place, WHF 2000 Competition and London/Gunma Anthology
haibun: "Kukai Party" - previously unpublished
haiku: "morning light" - previously unpublished
haiku: "frosty walk" - previously unpublished
haiku: "hospice visiting time" - previously unpublished
haiku (in haiga): "a calm night" - Presence No 12 (2000)
haiku: "lost in the stars" - previously unpublished
the links below were all live through 2003. some have been disabled in this archive here about haijinx | subscribe to haijinx | submit your work | haijinx products now john crook award 2002 results | haijinx weekly wire | editor's blog | status then I:1 | I:2 | memorial | II:1 | contributor index there haikai.info | haikai.org | other links Originally Published: 2001-2003 The copyrights of individual poems, articles, translations, and images belong to their individual authors. The editors do not necessarily endorse the opinions of authors, nor do they assume responsibility for factual errors, infringements of copyrights, or omissions in acknowledgements. Comments or Questions? info-at-haijinx-dot-org
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Revised Archive: March, 2010