I am realising how valuable it is to slow down and take time to absorb all that another's haiku offers, reading again and again thoughtfully before jumping in with comments. My mind tends to work at speed, but slowing down, with practise I am hoping this will make my comments more in tune and relevant to the authors intentions, and the spin off is that I learn more about haiku in the process.
Yes, Gael.
I totally agree.
A good haiku reveals itself layer by layer, and that cannot happen in one reading.
cat
This may sound a little silly, but I'm glad to find out haiku are MEANT to be re-read to get their meaning more fully. When I can't grasp a haiku's meaning easily, I tend to assume I'm not picking up on some set of obscure ideas and move on to one that's more clear.
Looks like I'll be re-reading a lot of haiku with a different mind-set!
I so love this forum!
Hi,
Sometimes certain poems "pop" and their content almost instantly absorbed. Sometimes the layers are like petals on a bud slowly blooming into a blossom.
May I ask what makes some poems easier to "get" than others?
Is it possible to layer the process in reading and re-reading a poem, that is to say, on first read is one impression, then on second read there is another impression. Then, do you feel there is a separation and in essence they have become two different poems?
In some reading of short poems it is traditional to read aloud the poem twice, what do you suppose is the reason for this practice?
I actually think it is very valuable to get a lot of feedback from others on a haiku. Even if they just glance at it and comment, I know now what they saw and then can maybe clarify the poem.
Re-reading haiku is not only crucial for readers and writers of all levels, but a downright joy.
After judging the With Words haiku competitions, and re-reading many of the haiku several hundred times before announcing the final results, I still get a kick out of the fantastic winning haiku.
Winning haiku plus judge's commentary:
http://www.withwords.org.uk/results.html
Alan
thank you for sharing your thoughts everyone
cat your reply prompts a question, can we consciously engineer layers when composing the haiku or do they happen as a by product while we create and play with the concept ?
Bea, hugs, not silly at all - me too.
Chibi, I imagine our response to any haiku to be very individual, depending on our temperament, mood, abilities, and experience.
Laura, yes getting lots of feedback us very helpful, giving feedback is too, I find it's possible to learn a lot while doing so.
Alan, thank you for the link, and the insight into the judging process, your passion for haiku is infectious. :)
A very interesting thread. :)
"cat your reply prompts a question, can we consciously engineer layers when composing the haiku or do they happen as a by product while we create and play with the concept ?" gael
I don't think it's possibe to predict every layer of our own poems. If we write them well and allow room for resonance, readers are going to gather their "ah-haas" in different ways and often based on their own experiences in life. Personally, I wouldn't want to write a haiku that is completely controlled at every level, if I thought I could (and I don't think so). It is important to include the layers you have in mind though that builds depth and character in your haiku. Just my two cents. :)
There is a mystery in this little gem, haiku, and that is in the way it becomes so personal with each and every reader. We don't all walk away with the identical thoughts and that's as it should be; at least, I believe so.
fun stuff,
Don
Hello Gael,
I had the very interesting exercise once of explaining one of my haiku (in writing) to someone who wanted to know what it was about - it took me a little while to formulate the answer and, as I wrote it, I found links and comparisons in it that hadn't occurred to me when I wrote the haiku!
standing naked
in moonlight -
the taste of nashi
- published The Heron's Nest, 2004; A New Resonance 5 (Red Moon Press) 2007; the taste of nashi (Third New Zealand Haiku Anthology, Windrift 2008).
I do think that a good haiku will reward close examination - although sometimes I find it's not possible to explain my reponse as adequately as I would like, sometimes it's at an instinctive level.
My friend and early mentor Catherine Mair came up with a great description of haiku as part of a project we were working on for the Katikati Haiku Pathway:
words which sing * words which paint pictures * small stories * images which seduce the imagination * that transform your visit * which expand each location * pictures which don't explain * images which invite you to make up your own stories * thoughts that have never been to your house before * small verses which adapt to weather, seasons, time of day, tides * haiku which never sacrifice spirit for syllable count * haiku which are the direct experience of a moment * images which evoke sights, sounds, touch, smell and hearing * tiny poems which are wonderfully large
Read about the pathway project here:
http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/279
Quote from: sandra on December 18, 2010, 09:32:19 PM
Hello Gael,
I had the very interesting exercise once of explaining one of my haiku (in writing) to someone who wanted to know what it was about - it took me a little while to formulate the answer and, as I wrote it, I found links and comparisons in it that hadn't occurred to me when I wrote the haiku!
standing naked
in moonlight -
the taste of nashi
- published The Heron's Nest, 2004; A New Resonance 5 (Red Moon Press) 2007; the taste of nashi (Third New Zealand Haiku Anthology, Windrift 2008).
I do think that a good haiku will reward close examination - although sometimes I find it's not possible to explain my reponse as adequately as I would like, sometimes it's at an instinctive level.
My friend and early mentor Catherine Mair came up with a great description of haiku as part of a project we were working on for the Katikati Haiku Pathway:
words which sing * words which paint pictures * small stories * images which seduce the imagination * that transform your visit * which expand each location * pictures which don't explain * images which invite you to make up your own stories * thoughts that have never been to your house before * small verses which adapt to weather, seasons, time of day, tides * haiku which never sacrifice spirit for syllable count * haiku which are the direct experience of a moment * images which evoke sights, sounds, touch, smell and hearing * tiny poems which are wonderfully large
Read about the pathway project here:
http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/279
I like what you've said about your mentor.
My frist sensei, Akegarasu, said as part of one of the first lessons from him I paraphrase: "the best haiku enters the empty heart" (it was translated in broken English/Japanese/gestures). Sometimes I find my heart-mind so cluttered with words as to what something is or is not I have to stop and let it empty.
Thanks for the link, too. The serious Burns unit... ::) now REALLY!!
ciao
Sandra, your mentors comments impressive and pretty comprehensive.
your ku had me stumped at first, we rarely see them here I has to google nashi, maize/corn and asian pear came up then your ku opened up to me bearing out what dennis said about each reaction being highly individual. and my comment here
QuoteI imagine our response to any haiku to be very individual, depending on our temperament, mood, abilities, and experience.
:)
Chibi on reading your mentors advice my thought flowed something like this...
empty ...vacant...? open or closed like a hollow ball ....closed....impenetrable
open...cup...empty...wait...5 senses... alert....recieve....heart....gift....empty....recycle
and because we have five senses perhaps six are we ever completely empty? So flow is relevant to keeping the cycle going... sort of flowing in tune with our universe enables those moments - being in the now,something to aspire to and practise not easy to achieve in our modern life though a bit like breathing in and out and we manage to keep that flow without thinking too much about it
Gael, thanks for this thoughtful thread.
Like many people I'm in a haiku group. I wonder what would happen if, instead of jumping right into workshop mode, we started off the evening my reading some haiku aloud, without comment? We would go on to do the workshop; this would just be an initial encounter of a different kind.
Hello Dave, why not ask to give it a try? Another idea give the participants only one haiku, each person to read aloud without comment in turn, silently noting their impressions and what they discover or not in the haiku - then share impressions. It might be quite illuminating to hear what surfaces from the depths of one haiku.....