Poetry Friday--Haiku Routine (and Rant)

[Please note: much of today's post has been stated here before, so if you're tired of a crazy, librarian-poet's ranting, you may want to skip this.]

In the morning, after feeding the cat and making coffee, I sit down and check the daily haiku posted at Mann Library's Daily Haiku hosted by Cornell University, Haiku in English hosted by The Mainichi, Japan's National Daily newspaper, and The Haiku Foundation (the daily haiku appears at the top of the page as part of the banner).

The Mainichi's haiku editor is Dhugal Lindsay, and he has selected the "Best of 2017" haiku that appeared throughout the year. The best are collected, with comments, in 68 pages, and presented as a PDF that you can download and read at your leisure. Lindsay has written the introduction. If you think haiku is just a three-line poem where syllable count is its most important feature, you need to read it.

Nowhere in the introduction does it mention three lines of 5-7-5.

Read through the haiku and you'd be hard-pressed to find one close to 17 syllables total. There are no in-your-face lessons taught by the haiku. No rhymes. No one tells you what conclusions to draw (except, on occasion, in the editor's commentary).

It is my hope that one day soon, a children's book editor comes across this "Best of 2017" introduction and takes it to heart. I would happily support any number of recent children's books that are subtitled, "Haiku about..., if only the subtitles were rewritten as, "Short poems about..." Right now, I read these books, gather what information the poet is trying to tell me about the world of naked mole rats or some other curriculum-related topic, and then shake my head at lost opportunities for a young reader to appreciate haiku.

Okay, rant over! I can't end without a haiku, now can I? Here's an ekphrastic one:

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. "Sleeping Cat" by Jacques-Émile Blanche.

Text:

a closer look...
the old cat's chest
slowly rises

Elizabeth Steinglass is hosting this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up. Liz is one of those people who understands haiku, and, she is now an award-winning haiku poet! Click here. Congratulations, Liz!

Poetry Friday--Flea Market Find

Back in April, my daughter became engaged and started planning a wedding for August.

In May, I went to a local flea market. I have a love/hate relationship with flea markets. I love finding cool stuff, but I hate bringing my finds into an already cluttered home. I went to the flea market that day with a specific mission in mind--to seek out rhinestone brooches or buttons so that my daughter could make a brooch bouquet. (If you haven't come across the brooch bouquet, do a Google image search!)

I had planned on looking at nothing else, but, I went with a friend who spotted a box of Haikubes, which looked to be brand new (in fact, upon inspection, two-thirds of the cubes were still sealed in plastic).

"You have to get it," she said. "You're probably the only person here who writes haiku, or even knows what haiku is. It's only two dollars..." That was it. I purchased the Haikubes and brought them home, where they have sat, untouched, until this week.

I finally decided to take a look at the game. There are 63 six-sided cubes. Most cubes have five sides containing different words; the sixth side is blank. After looking through the cubes, I had my doubts about their usefulness for writing haiku. Some of the words were downright odd, "wicked," "yelled," "dilemma," or "#@&*#!!." A couple of the cubes are "thematic" and are used to give the player a goal in creating a haiku, for example, "a desire for" or "my family."

Haikubes were created as a game, and as such, would probably be fun with a few people trying to create poems in the 5-7-5 syllable format as required by the instructions. However, there are several reasons why the game is not suited to writing "real" haiku: 1. The whole 5-7-5 thing! 2. Many of the words are in the past tense, whereas haiku should take place in the here-and-now. 3. Nature or seasonal words are definitely lacking. 4. If you subscribe to a definition of haiku as "the essence of a moment keenly perceived," then it's going to be difficult to find that moment in the choice of words found on the cubes.

Since my parlor game days are few and far between, I decided to use the cubes as prompts to writing haiku. Since 63 cubes are too many to roll, I grabbed ten at a time to see what I could come up with. Here is the result of my first roll (any blank sides were rolled a second time):

charm
swell
etc.
tangle
swimming
screwed
she
happy
left
my

Wow, not much haiku material here. I picked out three words and came up with:

late August swim
my foot in a tangle
of tourist trash

I dropped the "ing" from swimming, but, since I'm making up the rules as I go along, it's allowed!

I next used one of the words, and ideas implied by some of the other words, to come up with this senryu (a senryu is like a haiku, but about human nature, instead of Nature):

in a speedo
...her prince has lost
his charm

Attempt #3 is a non-Japanese style poem, again with a Prince Not-So-Charming bent, and, a lot of punning:

Visual Learner

She screwed up
her courage to ask
him to go to the shore.

But the growing
swell precluded any
thoughts of swimming safely.

Better to be left
on shore than to tangle
with the waterfront's charms.

This relatively long poem used seven out of ten words.

I was challenged, I had fun, and I certainly got my $2.00 worth from a flea market find!

For the Poetry Friday Round-Up this week, head over to No Water River, where's there's plenty of poetry, but without water, not much swimming!

Poems © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Yet Another Haiku Miss

I have a Google Alert set up for the term "haiku," and as a result I get many interesting or odd links in my inbox. Some have to do with the Maui town of Haiku in Hawaii--everything from obituaries to announcements of Unified Field Theory seminars. Others have to do with the Haiku operating system for computers. Some lucky days I get links for haiku poetry!

Over the past two weeks I found several mentions of a new book by Emily Dickinson aficionado and poet, Everett Decker, called haiku Emily! An article about Decker's book mentions that it is an introduction to 125 of Dickinson's poems accompanied by "haiku-style interpretations of the poems based on his own interest in haiku and Japanese philosophy and the similarities he sees between haiku and what he calls the 'hymnal lyric style' of Dickinson's work."

Now, before I go any further, let me say that I have not seen the book, so, I shouldn't really be making a judgment on it on the basis of one or two articles, but, I do have some strong opinions about the way haiku is being promoted to the general public as a way to make cute and clever commentary* without regard for its long and revered history as a poetic form in Japan and elsewhere in the world--it's just not right!

The writer of the haiku Emily! article tells us that Decker, in the preface to his book, says, "I may have had to make her less reverent to make her more relevant..." The article's only sample of a Decker interpretive "haiku" is the following, written about the poem known as "267 Did we disobey Him?":

okay
there was the whole Eden thing -
get over it

Emily probably wouldn't have minded the irreverence, and I don't mind it either, but PLEASE, don't call the vehicle for it haiku! Rant officially over!

haiku Emily! did get me thinking about using Dickinson as a starting point for writing haiku. Her poetry is saturated with images of nature--both natural and human. So, here are a few Dickinson-inspired haiku, and the stanzas from which they came:

DICKINSON

A Drop fell on the Apple Tree--
Another--on the roof--
A Half a Dozen kissed the Eaves--
And made the Gables laugh--

HAIKU

a drop of rain--
an eruption of giggles
under the eaves


DICKINSON

I heard a Fly buzz--when I died--
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air--
Between the Heaves of Storm--

HAIKU

summer wake
the buzzing of a fly
between sobs


DICKINSON

The Brain--is wider than the Sky--
For--put them side by side--
The one the other will contain
With ease--and You--beside--

HAIKU

cloudless sky
the blue goes on forever--
my thoughts of you

Haiku © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

The Poetry Friday Round-Up this week is being held at A Teaching Life.

*Examples of what I'm talking about when I say "cute and clever commentary" are the haiku computer error messages that circulate periodically via email, SPAM-ku, or any of the various haiku contests held online--click here, here, or here for examples.

Poetry Friday--Separating the Haiku from the Haiku

As I grow older, I grow crankier. But, I've also learned to let things go. I'm no longer going to be bothered when anything and everything in 3 lines of 5-7-5 syllables is labeled a haiku. I give up. It's not worth getting my underwear in a knot when all around me are:

numerous online "haiku" contests such as "Write a haiku--in 5-7-5 form-- about..." the "Twilight" series, techie subjects, Lord of the Rings Online, food and drink in Portland (OR), pets, or the British summer (this last contest has Yoko Ono as a judge, and the entries appear in London tube stations!)

books, wines, ballgames, and just about anything else, tersely reviewed/summarized in 5-7-5

lists of computer error message haiku, or cat haiku (they've shown up in my inbox at least once a year since 1998)

Although I'd like to call most the above-mentioned stuff, Fake-Ku, I wouldn't dare suggest that anyone is creating fake poetry, and, I wouldn't want you to think that it isn't enjoyable. It has provided me with quite a few laughs over the years, but I don't consider these poems haiku. Therefore, I'd like to propose that English language haiku in which the 5-7-5 form is not the defining feature of the poem, be called something else. We need to come up with something that separates the two types of work. What shall we call our poems? I don't speak Japanese and so have no suggestions for another Japanese term. If we're talking about English language haiku then shouldn't the word be English?

Using "essence of a moment keenly perceived," as a guide, and after consulting my handy-dandy thesaurus, I'd like to suggest quiddity. It's slightly exotic, relatively unknown, and it means, "the essential nature of a thing." A great name for a haiku!

Perhaps we should come up with something completely different like Andrew Clements did in his book, Frindle. His character, Nick Allen, a fifth grader, decides to rename a pen. He comes up with frindle and begins using a frindle instead of a pen. (If you don't know it, it's a fun story.) So let's see, what's a good made-up word...sketern? lilnym?

What do you think? Please use the comments feature to contribute a term of your own. Let me know that I'm not alone in my obsessive pursuit of informing the public about contemporary English language haiku. (Or maybe I am?)

According to the definition of insanity provided by Rita Mae Brown (but usually attributed to Ben Franklin or Albert Einstein), "doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results," you may think I'm insane, but, I promise, this will be my last rant about faux haiku...

Here's a quiddity of my own to end this rant:

cat
complains loudly
--May rain

I'd also like to pass along this link to the Haiku Foundation's digital library, in case you're not familiar with contemporary English Language haiku.

The Poetry Friday Round-Up for this week is being hosted by Irene Latham at Live. Love. Explore!

Poetry Friday--What Is Haiku? And Who Decides on the Definition?

Last Friday, on The Write Sisters' blog, I wrote "A Curmudgeon's Review" of Michael Rosen's new book The Cuckoo's Haiku and Other Birding Poems. I got an email from Michael. He told me he had tried to post a comment, but it did not work, so he sent the comment to me. Before reading it, you may want to read the original post. Michael's comment:

Dear Diane and friends of The Write Sisters,

I appreciate your care in reviewing my book, as well as your confidence to be "a dog with a bone" about your beliefs in haiku and children's books. I share your passion, while I suppose I have different bones. (It's true, as a dog person, I know about bones...and more haiku, in what you'll find as the same disappointing spirit, is forthcoming from Candlewick in 2011. Twenty-four breeds of dogs featured similarly in this form.)

As a poet who writes in a variety of forms for both adults and children, I use form, meter, rhyme, "sentence sounds" (the adhesive properties of repeating vowels and consonants within a given line that Frost utilized). Form, in particular provides the pressure. Provides the generative source of ideas and options, forces me to consider and reconsider each word and phrase.

Like many folks who practice haiku (indeed, practice is the right word), I opt for the 5/7/5 syllable convention. We all know the original Japanese form does not pertain to 17 syllables broken into three horizontal lines but rather, to 17 units of sound arranged in one vertical line. Furthermore, what sounds like two 'syllables' to an English speaker's ear, may not possess two units of sound. For instance, the Japanese word haibun is often used as an example. It possesses one elongated vowel, as well as an "n" at the end of syllable, which counts as another sound. It's pronounced ha-i-bu-n: four sound counts.

In other words, like any kind of translation, the job is to find an equivalency between languages, not making a precise match. And translation is a constantly renewable art because language dates, language exists in time and place.

In this book, I applied the idea of haiku to a range of commonly seen birds: THAT is hardly a traditional theme for haiku. Birds, yes, but not a suite of different species. So there began the adaptation. I did attempt to use a seasonal cue for each poem. I did use metaphors and similes, partly as a means of enlarging the scope of the observation, partly as a means of layering common phenomenon with nuance or novelty that would allow the reader to dwell on the page. Partly to appeal to younger readers as well.

The temptation, which we all have to resist, is to read quickly: I mean, you can zip through a hundred haiku in the time it might take to read a dozen pages of a novel. Haiku, as I appreciate it or use it, needs to possess a centripetal or centrifugal force rather than a forceful gust. It's a churning and a spinning into associations, and not a rolling out of a maxim or a homily.

Did I practice haiku in this book in a manner that's vetted by the HSA? Would the very nature of this book adhere to their guidelines? I wouldn't know; while I read volumes of haiku, I find them as varied as I find authors of picture books or composers of sonatas or choreographers of ballet. But, as most artists approach their canvas, camera, dancers, piano, I hoped to exploit the power of tradition and the potential of inspiration or innovation.

So, to me, the real questions are: is the book as a whole a success (the mix of field notes, paintings, and poems)? Are the poems enjoyable, insightful, evocative? I don't believe the reader—especially a kid—would ask are these really and truly haiku?

We are in complete agreement on your second point: the font that's used for the notes on the page is less than ideal. I tried...I tried...to have it changed.

Again, thank you for giving this book such serious attention, and for permitting me to raise my hackles as well. Wag, wag...

I want to thank Michael for taking the time to write such a considered response. Before I comment, I want to quote from Jane Reichhold's AHA Poetry site:

I am bothered by the several times it is asked, "Is this a haiku?" I think the better question is, "Do I want to accept this poem as an example of haiku for myself?" With this way of stating the question, perhaps one can avoid painful discourses. I am totally for discussion, but when anyone assumes the authority to say "what haiku is(or isn't)", I feel the discussion has ended and turned into something quite different.

So, to cut to the chase, I'm simply going to state that FOR ME, the poems in Michael's book are not haiku. FOR ME, what's important in haiku is the presentation of "the essence of a moment keenly perceived," not the form. (See NOTE below.)

Here's one of my favorite haiku from The Haiku Anthology: Haiku and Senryu in English edited by Cor van den Heuvel (W.W. Norton, 1999), if only because it is pure essence:

snow
all's
new

~ Raymond Roseliep


For those who are confused about haiku in English, I'd recommend spending some time with The Haiku Anthology. It doesn't provide instruction--it provides a wide range of examples. If you'd like instruction, check out Patricia Donegan's Haiku: Asian Arts and Crafts for Creative Kids (Tuttle, 2003), or Jane Reichhold's Writing and Enjoying Haiku (Kodansha, 2003).

I congratulate Michael on the success of The Cuckoo's Haiku and welcome all views on haiku! I'd love to have others weigh in on haiku, too, so please leave your comments and take part in a discussion.

This week's Poetry Friday Round-Up is hosted by Anastasia Suen at Picture Book of the Day.


NOTE: The Haiku Society of America's definition of haiku:"An unrhymed Japanese poem recording the essence of a moment keenly perceived, in which Nature is linked to human nature." The definition was updated in 2004 and now reads, "A haiku is a short poem that uses imagistic language to convey the essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition." Unfortunately, I think the old definition is clearer than the new one, which sent me running to a dictionary of literary terms to understand what was meant by imagistic!