Regretfully, we have not received enough submissions of sufficient quality;
unfortuantely this project has been put into an 'indefinite hold' for publication,
as of August, 2014.
For the forthcoming anthology,
The Natural Night Haiku Anthology
(The Natural Night - A haiku-oriented anthology; book-proposal accepted by Red Moon Press, Winchester, VA.)
Please send your haiku, haibun and short-form poetry to:
Please include your name as you would like it to appear, and permission to publish. Previously published works are welcomed. If previously published, you must include a citation to the original publication. There is no limit to the number of submissions (reply email will be sent for accepted works only). The deadline for submissions is the Solstice, June 21, 2014. Publication is planned for later in the year.
Please send your images, photographs, graphic designs, etc.
Our publication plan includes ebook publication (pdf, epub, mobi), in both color and b&w versions. If your image(s) is too large to send by email send a link to the file at a storage site of your choice, or webpage, where it can be downloaded.
Topical content
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Submissions of poetry (including prose poems) relating to:
Stars, night sky, myth, mytheme, stellar-solar history, archeo-astronomy, "red-shift," relativity, mathematics (cosmic principles), a sense of relationship between the stellarium and the sacred/divine, etc. All that might draw our contemplations and imaginations to and of the sky -- which we miss -- from most of our homes, every night.
If you have any suggestions to improve the book, and are able to publicize the submission request (by email, posting this url to FB, posting to an online journal, blog, etc.), please freely do so: research.gendaihaiku.com/natural-night
Detailed book prospectus
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The Natural Night (an anthology of haiku, haibun and short-form poetry)
First, take a read here:
No More Night? The Meaning of the Loss of Darkness
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/bogard-end-of-night
See the book, by journalist Paul Bogard: The End of Night: Searching for Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light
http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/paul-bogard/the-end-of-night/9780316182904
Note the image, from Flagstaff, AZ: Milky Way over Lake Mary.
Flagstaff was the first International Dark Sky City, reflecting the city's work to curb light pollution. (The glow on the horizon is from Phoenix, AZ)
The Dark Sky Society
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Dark-Sky_Association
Also see:
http://www.darksky.org/about-ida
＾nce a source of wonder--and one half of the entire planet’s natural environment—the star-filled nights of just a few years ago are vanishing in a yellow haze. Human-produced light pollution not only mars our view of the stars; poor lighting threatens astronomy, disrupts ecosystems, affects human circadian rhythms, and wastes energy to the tune of $2.2 billion per year in the U.S. alone."
List of Int'l Dark Sky Places:
http://www.darksky.org/night-sky-conservation/142-idsplaces
And the book will contain, if possible, beautiful color images (NASA images may be copyright free, there is Wikimedia Commons), and images from dark sky places sre welcomed from photographer-authors.
As poets, I think this is a hidden issue, for the human psyche.
Skies recalled by the editor: the night sky on Yakushima Island, Japan; in oceans, sailed; mountains of Colorado (around Allenspark, where I used to live.)
Certified International Dark Sky Communities (only 4):
Location Year Established
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Flagstaff, Arizona USA 2001
Borrego Springs, California USA 2009
Isle of Sark, Channel Islands, UK 2011
Homer Glenn, Illinois USA 2011
There are not many parks, due to reflected light on the horizon (artificial light and skyglow), from other places:
The proposed book will include some of these statistics, by way of information.
As a note, with awareness and some political will, there are lighting solutions that are not expensive and readily available:
Outdoor lighting
http://www.darksky.org/outdoorlighting
Education
http://www.darksky.org/education
Initiatives
http://www.darksky.org/night-sky-conservation
Those in the arts might be especially attuned to this topic. And,at a guess, most don't know about the problem (as a point of clear conscious awareness), and that there are initiatives and solutions.
Thank you,
Richard Gilbert
Kumamoto University, November, 2013
