Random Haiku…..

A reader just raised the issue of why these haiku below seemed to be rather bitten with surrealism.  That was a great question!  There is a commonality between surrealists and haiku in many ways:  both (or should or do) delve beneath the surface of a thought, sentiment, etc…trying to get to a deeper level of explanation or reveal.  I believe it’s this concept of ‘yugen’ so prevalent in Japanese literature, especially poetry:  of course it depends upon context, but yugen means to me a distance, a deeper concept, something not proclaimed but hidden.  So many ways to go about this.  Pulling out something different and new and startling perhaps in your haiku.  I also think it is an ‘off-handed’ way of expression, and that can become difficult, but I believe it makes for better haiku.

But I think it also depends upon the measure and duration of study of Japanese culture and literature.  I’ve only done some serious study of this for the past 8 years, and this doesn’t do much more than scratch the surface.  I believe to really get comfortable with these forms, you have to study and immerse yourself for a lifetime.  And that is a great pleasure! 

But anyone who reads Basho/Issa/Buson will immediately see each poet’s ‘place’ in their work.  And the Buddhist influence is strong in their writings:  Nature is transitory, contingent and of course, suffers.  (we are part of that nature).The pure mysteriousness of Life!

I have (as of a week ago) finished “Song of the Nightingale” and Nick Nicholson will be formatting this book in late June for publication.  This question of surrealism comes up again and again in this new book in the form of ‘moon babies’, Tengus, etc.  There is much of surrealism  and magic in this book.  Sometimes we forget the deep influences in what we write and it takes a good question like this reader (in the comments of these poems) to draw you back to where you have been.

Lady Nyo….and thank you, Staviolatte!

One of my favorite poems of Issa  that seems to  be a bit surreal:

“The snow is melting

and the village is flooded

with children.”

—Issa

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I’ve written very few haiku.  I find the form harder than tanka, though shorter. Of course there are ‘rules’ concerning haiku, as there are with tanka, but modern poets tend to ignore or dismiss these rules.  They are not short free verse, but I think in the beginning without study, most of us fall to this. 

There are haiku writers who have set standards centuries ago:  Basho, Issa, Bucan, to note some masters of the form.  My dear friend, Steve Isaak in California, does a good job on this form.

This spring I intend to do some study of these masters, and hopefully get my head around this poetry form correctly.

Lady Nyo

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Sultry air disturbs

The sleep of husband and wife.

They pant without lust.

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Dogwoods are blooming
The crucifixion appears
White moths in the night.

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(Dogwoods are a Southern tree here in the South.  White blooms
having the form of the Christian Cross, with nail heads.  They bloom in the spring  right before Easter. They are a symbol of Christianity in Nature.)

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Under the dark moon

I awaited your return

Only shadows came.

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The moon, a ghostly

Sliver, sails on a jet sea

Wild dogs howl beneath.

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A pale half moon drifts

Across a wintry sky.

Trees become monsters.

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Fall’s crispness compels

Apples to tumble from trees.

Worms make the journey.

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Ice blocks the rivers.

Look! A duck is frozen there.

Nature, no mercy.

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Skeleton-trees wave

While the wind whips dead leaves

Wood smoke scents the air.

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The moon, a ghostly

Sliver, sails on a jet sea

While dogs howl beneath.

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A swirl of blossoms

Caught in the water’s current

Begins the season.

–

Jane Kohut-Bartels

Copyrighted, 2015

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Tags: "Song of the Nightingale" surrealism and magic, Basho, Bucan, how are haiku formed?, Issa, poetry, Random Haiku, Steve Isaak, surrealism, Yugen