late afternoon
the crow laughing
as I wake
Colin Stewart Jones was born in Manchester and brought up in Edinburgh and the Isle of Lewis. His father is English and his mother a Gaelic speaking Scot. Colin now lives in Aberdeen, Scotland, where he writes in the Japanese short forms and works as Managing Editor for Notes from the Gean
an online magazine of Japanese form poetry; he, therefore, inhabits a strange place between three very different cultures.
Colin studied Gaelic language and literature at King’s College, the University of Aberdeen. He was given full marks for his MA final dissertation on points of contact between Gaelic poet Somhairle MacGill-Eain
http://www.sorleymaclean.org/english/index.htm
and the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard,
http://sorenkierkegaard.org/kierkegaard-commentary.html
though he was eventually penalized for it being late. Colin went on to study an MLitt in Irish and Scottish Studies under Professor Tom Devine at the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies.
Colin has published widely, in all the Japanese short forms, in many online and print journals. Colin placed joint first in the 2008 Haiku Poets of Northern California International Rengay Competition and he recently had a poem commended in the innovative and contemporary categories of The Haiku Foundation’s “Haiku Now! contest 2011. His work has also been anthologized in white lies: The Red Moon Anthology of English Language Haiku 2008; Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume Two (2009); contemporary haibun Vol 10 and 12; and he is one of the featured poets in New Resonance 7.
Colin is currently experimenting with graphics. His one-word haiga were published by The World Haiku Review, and his graphic haibun, can be seen in Simply Haiku and Haibun Today.
In his review of Colin’s first collection of haiku, A Seal Snorts out the Moon,
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seal-Snorts-Out-Moon/dp/0955496462
Published by Cauliay, Robert Wilson, managing editor of Simply Haiku, described his writing as a cross between Bukowski and Kerouac. Colin, however, still feels his education is ongoing and is privileged to be able to learn from his peers.
More of Colin’s thoughts on his work and all things haiku can be read at Curtis Dunlap’s Tobacco Road blog
http://tobaccoroadpoet.blogspot.com/2009/05/colin-stewart-jones-three-questions.html
and also in his interview with Robert Wilson in simply haiku