Welcome to a New Year and a new feature for One Stop Poetry. On One Stop Form, we seek to introduce you to the elements of poetic form. There are many styles that fit into form; style being like an individual signature. The form is the structure preceding the style. We all have our favorite form which we often adopt because it is what we feel comfortable with. We would love to encourage you to explore different poetry forms over the weeks and months to come. We will spend the first "session" describing the poetic form and the second week will be a time for the individual poet to do exercises with the form. Please have fun as we learn together!
I'm Moondustwriter ~we are going to look at Haiku today with the help of my very humble friend Shashidir. We are looking at what sets Haiku apart. What is the best way to learn a poetic form? You can sit in a lecture hall and have someone write out all the rules or you can learn by reading the work of others and hopefully be inspired by their work.
Join Shashi and One Stop Poetry as he looks with us at Haiku
Haiku – The essence of a poetic moment
Look at that warbler –
He’s wiping his muddy feet
All over plum blossom
- Issa 1762 – 1826
Now close your eyes and look at that warbler…
The above poem by Kobayashi Issa expresses an almost brutal comic contrast and describes a poetic moment so vividly that one could almost see it through Issa’s eyes even after centuries have passed.
In this feature, I would like take you on to a journey of exploring the world of Haiku and hope that it excites you enough to read, write and explore more of this form. No, I am not going to give you the rules, the traditional Haiku writing method or even tell you how to write Haiku. My dear friend Gerald in the previous post of “One stop Form” has so beautifully explained it all. But I am going to take you along with me on a journey…
My journey started with the two Haiku below in 80’s… the first one is, one of the most celebrated Haiku.
Old Pond
A frog jumps in.
The sound of water
- Basho (1644-94)
Suicide's Note
____________
The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss.
- Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
These two Haiku are still etched in my mind. It touched me so deeply that I started exploring more and more… from then onwards; it was a journey to know Haiku and in turn, to know my inner self. Haiku is something that distills my thoughts, puts that thought in visual perspective and leave it in my mind to contemplate later – consciously or sub-consciously.
The natural beauty forms much of the early Japanese poetry influenced by Shinto religion with its focus on spirituality as the essence of nature. Probably, below is the first of the poem by Prince Shiki, that lead to Haiku in present form.
Bracken sprouts
Above the stream that
Rushes over rocks.
Spring is here!
- Prince Shiki (668 – 716 CE)
There after, on to a tradition of personal expressions like this one below from a famously beautiful and proud 9th century woman poet Ono no Komachi
No one minded that
The flowers’ beauty faded.
And I saw myself in the world grow old
As the rain went on falling.
- Komachi
Its interesting to note how some of the images that are portrayed thousands of years ago, can almost be the same as some of the later poets portrayed
On the far side of our bed
Lies her wooden head-rest.
- Hitomaro (8th Centuary)
It pierces my heel
As I walk in the bedroom:
My late wife’s comb.
- Buson (1716 – 83)
The classical poems were known as Waka meaning ‘Japanese poem or song’ in the 9th century which were mainly of two types – a long form called Choka and a short form known as Tanka. This short form became Japan’s most popular and aristocratic form. Governing syllable length and subject matter, classical poetic conventions dictated the language of Tanka. Slowly the poets began to introduce common language like ordinary speech, Chinese, street talk, slang, Buddhist terminology and even obscenity into collectively written verses known as Renga. In this form, the separate stanzas in Renga were 31 syllable Tanka, the first and second parts of which comprised 17 and 14 syllable. A typical Renga session might last for hours with small group of men (usually men) gathered around an experienced poet and collectively write poems, some times hundred verses long. These separate verses were linked by a subject, emotions or imagery. Here is one such example of the start of Renga session, jointly composed by Basho and his disciples.
Have been smothered by a passing shower
Of early winter rain
- Kyorai
Ruffled by a gust of wind
Dead leaves come to rest again.
- Basho
… and so on
The opening 17 syllable stanza was known as Hokku which, later19th Century poet, Shiki gave the name as Haiku (which denotes a free standing autonomous Hokku poem).
The Haiku is generally divided into two parts standing in contrast or reversal to each other. A poem might start with a traditional image such as cherry blossom, full moon or dew and then re-focus to a lower perhaps clashing image. A seasonal word (Kigo) was another prescriptive component of Haiku. Other rules underlined the subtler aspects of Haiku. If classical correctness could be ‘lowered’ to let in descriptions of ordinary life, it was, said Basho, important to ‘correct’ the ordinary, imbuing it with poetic exaltation (Fuga). In turn Fuga has to be used to express important ideas: the spiritual wealth within modest and simple things (Wabi); beauty, mystery and elegance (Yugen) as in the example below
Stillness and solitude –
Sinking into stones,
The trill of cicadas
- Basho
And melancholy sadness and tranquility (Sabi and Shori)
On a withered branch
A crow has settled.
Nightfall in autumn.
- Basho
Or in the spirit of poetic madness (Fukyo)
Let me show you,
You market people,
This hat filled with snow.
- Basho
And sometimes in shockingly comic ‘lightness’ (Karumi)
A bush warbler
Leaves its droppings on the rice cake
At the edge of the veranda.
-Basho
After Basho, there have been many great poets who took Haiku to the greater heights …
Buson
The bite of my axe.
Sudden revelation –
There is life in this tree!
... Buson accepts his death quietly in this farewell poem
White plum blossoms,
Night turns to dawn –
The time has come
This mushroom is
Deadly. And, of course,
It’s also pretty
Masaoka Shiki
A river in summer
There’s a bridge here, but
My horse prefers water
Kaikyo
With useless authority
The great horned owl
Sits moon-eyed in daylight
Etsujin
I envy the tomcat:
How easily he lets go of
Love’s pain and longing
Ranran
The child cries at her breast.
And the mosquito also bites
The sleeping mother
Senna
With ink-stained lips,
The boy leaves his poem
For the cool outdoors
The Travelers on the Path…
In my long experience with the form I have come across many beautiful poets and it will be great to explore them but here I would like to give some examples from our friends here at One Stop Poetry…
The moon hears your words Breeze brushing against me
Speaking to my heart
- Leslie Moon
Clouds veil summer light
The sound of rain distant rise
Shadowed flames leaking.
-Chris Galford
Snowflakes tumble down
Dancing like girls in blue skirts
Frosted with wonder
- Claudia Schoenfeld
Tiger cloud eats light
Then races across the sky
Leaving sun behind
- Gay Cannon
Each one beautifully portraying a poetic moment as a complete thought, image or emotion. Basho - acknowledged as the supreme master of Haiku, said to his Zen Teacher “Haiku are description of what is happening at a particular ‘haiku moment’. Creating vivid images, each haiku paints a unique and dramatic scene that expresses emotions and some times, a philosophical thought to be contemplated upon, from the natural or social world. Basho also emphasized sincerity and seriousness – the poetic truth of words, pointing to higher reality.
I am not a Haiku expert or even claim to be a Haiku writer but I firmly believe that everything that comes from the heart in a flash of insight is Haiku. Holding on to that seed and then putting words around it in order to paint a picture; to make it a complete thought that makes readers to reflect upon it, is what I feel is ‘writing’ Haiku.
I hope this feature has given you an urge to explore more. Hold on to your thoughts and insight that gets manifested in your heart by nature, or moment in the present, or an emotional experience and then write few words around it and see if you can paint a picture with words.
I sign off with my words around the seed “From consciousness to supreme consciousness”
Under my feet
Am I the destination?
- Shashi
ॐ नमः शिवाय
Om Namah Shivaya
Thanks to my friend Shashi for a personal look at Haiku.
Our challenge to you is to create a Haiku in one or both forms. If you want to take a shot at the classic form be our guest. You may feel more comfortable writing in the more individual style. Where ever you are comfortable we want you to feel free to practice your haiku writing and share here through Mr. Linky. I'm going to take a shot at the more classic it's been decades since I tried.
Next Monday we will be striking out on another path of poetic form. Hope you have enjoyed the intro to Haiku.
For more information check out our Feature of Shashidhar Sharma and or go to his Blog you can also find him on twitter @verseeveryday
