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WELCOMEINTRODUCTIONHOW TO JOIN RULES
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previous seasons
-------spring --------------summer ------------ autumn ----------- winter -----

2006 2007 2008 2009 2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

succeeding season
Autumn 2009 @ our new website The Four Seasons of Haiku

Friday, April 24, 2009

Rules

The blog is open to all haiku poets. Please submit your family-friendly haiku, senryu, tanka, haiga, or haibun, which may include artwork, photographs or drawings.

If using images which are not your original work, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have permission to do so.

ALL POSTS WILL BE BOLD AND DARK. If you decide to use another colour, please make sure that your text is visible on this background. As we have an Author Archive -instead of labels, YOUR NAME MUST BE ADDED TO LABELS/TAGS, on every posting, which will ensure readers can see all your work together.

The only requirement for posting is that there should be a Summer theme.

Postings per day: 3 maximum

Spammers or comment abusers will be removed.

To join the blog as a contributor please read How to Join.

How to Join

The Summer blog closed on the 31st August  2009, for our new permanent website see http://4seasonshaiku.com  - or contact info@4seasonshaiku.com

To be invited to this blog, send:

* YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
* YOUR NOM DE PLUME
* A LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE OR BLOG


to: leatherdykeuk@gmail.com

Introduction to haiku

by Patrick Trombly

Haiku is brief – deceitfully so to the casual reader. While most good poetry is efficient, Haiku is denser, even more compact than almost any other form. Its 17 syllables are meant to call forth deep and/or prolonged reflection.

Haiku is a traditional Japanese form of poetry. Japanese masters of the form included Matsuo Basho (1644-94), Taneguchi Buson (1715-83), Kobayshi Issa (1763-1827) and Masoaka Shiki (1866-1902).

Originally, it contained three meters, comprising a total of 17 on (or morae), which are nearly but not exactly equivalent, respectively, to lines and syllables in English. Because of the language differences, the 5-7-5 format is no longer universally seen as required in Western haiku. What is more important are the elements of the form that follow the poem’s function.

The function of Haiku is to make an observation in simple language, concerning the natural world – an observation that also serves as a pause, to allow our minds to make a leap to more profound reflection about ourselves, our consciousness and our relationship to the natural world that is the initial subject of the poem.

Form follows function here. The initial subject is transitory but full of meaning, building to what is referred to as satori or the “aha” moment. Typically, the poem includes a “cutting word” or “pivot word” that turns the movement of the poem in some way – on paper, generally the grammar shifts on this word; the meaning also shifts: typically the “aha moment” is introduced. Haiku also traditionally includes a seasonal word, or kigo, or at least a seasonal reference (i.e., the poem may describe a natural event that clearly evokes a particular season, e.g., snowfall or snowmelt).

As you can see, just in form alone there is much more than a 17-syllable nature poem!

Style is also important. In addition to compactness in structure, the style is also concrete. Language is simple and direct, not overtly ambiguous. According to Robert Haas, author of The Essential Haiku, the poem does not simply describe a natural event; it conveys a sense of having experienced it.

The most famous Haiku is by Basho. It has been translated countless times – our example was translated by Donald Keene:

ancient pond
a frog leaps in
the sound of water

The form is invitingly simple. We can all imagine ourselves sitting before a small pond, admiring its smooth surface, meditating in the silence of a summer afternoon. Then a single, natural act of a small animal, a frog, breaks the silence, breaks our meditation, flooding our thoughts. As D.T. Suzuki explained “not only was the totality of the environment absorbed in the sound and vanished into it, but Basho himself was altogether effaced from his consciousness.”

Beginning with Basho, Haiku is deeply influenced by Zen philosophy, particularly the notion of temporary enlightenment recognized in all things, including the small things, around us. Tranquility, peace of mind, must be first achieved so that one might glean meaning from these sources. In keeping with this Zen outlook, Haiku differs from other poetic forms in that every word conveys an experience, a meaning. Each word or phrase is its own natural formation, its own boulder on a mountain path, rather than a brick in a wall as is the case in a sonnet.

I would therefore invite participants to use the comment section more than has been the case in prior seasonal haiku blogs in this series, to explore the meaning(s) of the poem itself. I invite participants to consider themes ancient, modern and timeless.

For example, the following is influenced by Basho’s pond poem:

garden window
tree-swallow perched on bare branch –
birdsong

As a 17th century Japanese Buddhist might walk deep into the woods to sit by an old pond, a 21st century Bostonian might sit in a window overlooking the garden. This may take place in late Winter or early Spring – the garden is still silent and the viewer contemplates its simplicity. But this is also a reflection on the changes to our relationship with nature since Basho’s time. We often experience it in such a suburban setting that we possess and control; this is conveyed not only by the window but the garden itself.

Suddenly a tree-swallow, one of the first migratory birds to return (seasonal reference, as is the bare branch), enters. Though we have designed and built our controlled version of nature, and framed it in our window, the immediate feature is a natural one that pre-dates our involvement – the seasonal return of a migratory bird. The silence is broken and the “aha” lesson resonates: nature is all around us, not contained by us, and transcends us. And that message is beautiful to us.

It can also be a reminder for our relationships: how much more do we appreciate the free tree-swallow that leaves us but returns to herald Spring than we might appreciate a captive in a cage?

Welcome to Summer Haiku 2009

Carrying on with the tradition of the seasonal haiku blog, first started in the spring of 2006 and managed with the help and inspiration of a number of talented poets, each one bringing his particular gift to the season's chapter, we would like to thank all previous administrators: Alison, Matt, Isabel, Ashi, Mandy, Sangeet, Paul, Alan Steve and Beatrice, the many contributing poets -by far too numerous to name them all, and last but not least, our readers. A warm welcome to the poets and readers who will help make this summer a colourful season.

This blog is open to all haiku poets. Please submit your family-friendly, haiku, senryu, tanka, haiga, or haibun.