| Site designed and maintained by Liam Wilkinson |
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| About 3LIGHTS |
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EDITOR & CURATOR: Liam Wilkinson CO-EDITOR: Diane Sturch 3LIGHTS is an online gallery of haiku, senryu, tanka and related short-form poetry. Based in the North of England, 3LIGHTS presents poetry in the form of a visual art gallery, with exhibitions of submitted and invited work. Every season, 3LIGHTS hosts an open-submission exhibition with a running theme, as well as a series of solo shows from more established writers of haiku, senryu and tanka. Recent open-submission exhibitions include ‘A Pile of Leaves : Haiku in the City’ and ‘Tankafall : Tanka for Autumn’. Recent soloists include George Swede and M. Kei. It is the aim of the 3LIGHTS Gallery to promote the work of new and established writers of modern English haiku, senryu, tanka and related forms, with emphasis on the images that each poem offers. Whilst there exists a wide selection of magazines, journals, websites, books and blogs that promote the many philosophies of and approaches to writing these forms of poetry, it is the sole intention of 3LIGHTS to celebrate and encourage the enjoyment of the poems themselves. Here, briefly, is our own philosophy for the sake of those who are new to these short forms of poetry that have their roots in Japan but are being written, today, right across the globe: HAIKU A breath of poetry that expresses an image, usually in three lines though not always. Traditional Japanese haiku were written using 17 syllables, with 5-7-5 scheme. Modern haiku, however, do not rely so heavily on syllable count, and usually consist of fewer than 17. A haiku is normally concerned with nature and the seasons. SENRYU These are much the same as haiku, but do not usually refer to nature and the seasons (though they sometimes do). Instead, human nature and, often, its failings are explored in the image. TANKA Tanka derives from the Japanese ‘waka’, a love song of image and emotion. Today, tanka are versatile little poems that usually express both image and human emotion. Traditional Japanese tanka usually consisted of 31 syllables. Modern tanka typically consist of 31 or fewer syllables. Although we offer these brief outlines of what we believe to be the essence of haiku, senryu and tanka, we do not discriminate: if the image works, then we usually include the poem in our exhibitions. For example, the writer need not specify whether they have submitted haiku or senryu - our poems sit happily together and are shown on the site without need for categorisation. The best writers of haiku, senryu and tanka are those who have best control over the image and their keen understanding and articulation of it. All poems that feature in our exhibitions remain the property of the author. Any writer who wishes to remove their poem/s from the site following their appearance in an exhibition has every right to do so. Poems that feature in our exhibitions may be used elsewhere on the site once they have been included. Unfortunately, we cannot offer payment for use of poems at 3LIGHTS. We do, however, hope that by exhibiting poems, we are helping to promote both the poem itself and the work of the writer. At 3LIGHTS, we put a lot of emphasis on the inclusion of haiku, senryu and tanka in serious modern literature. Each is a diverse, exciting and enjoyable form of poetry. |
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| 3LIGHTS is an online gallery of haiku, tanka and related forms. It was founded in 2006 by British poet, Liam Wilkinson. For more information, click here. |