Is the Clock Ticking on Haiku?

[Don Baird]

The death of haiku:  is it imminent due to lack of kigo and new words?  

"The end is near.  There are almost no new variations left to write haiku.  Of three lines, one is given to the kigo and only two lines are left to bring about added interest to the image and seal the deal.  1/3 of the haiku is a given ... words the traditionalists look up in the saijiki and use again and again."  (a paraphrase of what I've heard recently)

the moon
etc.
etc.

How many haiku have we seen with the moon (the famous autumn kigo).  Thousands of poems world wide have used the same first (or last) line in their haiku.  With only two lines to go, how many different ways can we finish this haiku?  We must stay within the boundaries of 5/7/5 (thinking in Japanese) (or S/L/S in English) which gives us just 12 "on" left to write the haiku.  Are there enough words  left in any language to finish this poem in a brand new way ... that would fit in the space left in the haiku?  

The theory is (not mine, but as I've heard it) that when clinging to a set such as kigo, even though the list grows, it is always and forever growing as a result of new word use by the poets.  What I'm saying is the kigo comes first and then its inclusion in the saijiki comes next.  Therefore, there never is anything new for Japanese haijin to use from the saijiki up front.  By the time anyone sees it in the saijiki, it has already been used and everyone else that uses it, is doing so after the fact.

Next, in this "moon haiku" we can throw in some wind, a frog, a howling, a reflection, a few clouds, the smell of a fireplace and so forth.  However, there are three clubs in Japan with over 10,000 members each and they are dedicated to writing haiku everyday.  Well, today's the day.  It starts out "the moon", an autumn kigo.  Out of 30,000 poems, how many do you think will match exactly?  How few variations of words do we really have to finish our poems?  And, how long will it be before every variation has already been written and "game is over"?  If we begin right here and now, how long will it be before some of the 30,000 poets will not be able to finish the poem because all of the options have been taken?

Is there an end in sight as a result of this?  Do we need more than kigo such as keywords, season reference and more to keep haiku alive and well for future generations?  Do we need to open the door to creative thought to let haiku grow and change as an art form?  Or do we let it run its natural course which will conclude with its own demise by not having the word power to sustain it (without some serious incidental plagerism).

How many of you have already written a haiku that matches one that already exists or close to it? (that you've found out about later on through someone etc).  It's happened to me several times.  I hear of it happening on a frequent basis.  "This ones too close to that one" and so forth.  Are we already facing a problem and, if so, is it going to get worse?  

What is the answer?

This is me "just thinking out loud".  What are your thoughts?

all my best,

Don
ps.  Don't take me wrongly.  I love including kigo, season words and references to nature ... I also like using keywords and writing urban haiku and haiku of street grit that use the same, identical principles as haiku but without the kigo reference.  Shiki wrote several hundred without kigo reference.  So have other Japanese masters throughout the ages. Are we running out of words to create new and interesting haiku?  

[Gabi Greve]

Good one, Don !

My Japanese haiku sensei would say:

Take the kigo and add an angle that has not been explored yet (at least not in any saijiki, nowadays we have to check online with so many personal BLOGs about haiku ...  ;D )

With so many moons already viewed ... my moon tonight is still the special MY moon and I will try and squeeze it into another haiku for you ... come tonight ... come tonight ...  :)

Gabi
sitting in snow in the afternoon, maybe not able to view the moon tonight, but that has also already been explored in many haiku ... when we can NOT see the moon, it is still up there in the sky ...

.

[Don Baird]

Hey Gabi...

Who would guess we would run out of words cuz haiku is so small?  LOL  Ok, I'm awaiting a new moon haiku from you after tonight!

I like this: "take the kigo and add an angle that has not been explored yet" ... sounds like a sharp sensei!  

snowing
the moon I cannot see
still there

:)

[Gabi Greve]

Who would guess we would run out of words cuz haiku is so small?

For my Japanese haiku friends, I guess, they will never run out of words, or angles to see things through kigo  in a fresh way ... after all, that is the essence of Japanese haiku !

For ELH ... let others speak.

Gabi

[John McManus]

Hi Don I see your point, but I feel Gabi's sensei has hit the nail on the head when he said his students should try to do something unexpected with the kigo/fragment or whatever anyone wants to call it.

So often you see haiku that let's the phrasal part of the poem be dictated to by the fragment but it is possible if you ponder on it long enough for you to come up with a phrase that changes the original meaning of the fragment thus allowing people to see yet another angle.     

John :)

[Don Baird]

I agree, John.  I was studying the math of it and pondering the possibility of the limitation... it's an interesting argument ... but in the end, I agree that there remain so many variables that endless possibilities yet remain.  It would be interesting to know the exact math however.  :)

Haiku are indeed another wonder of the world.  I'll die with them on my mind!

Thanks for coming by to comment. 

Don

[AlanSummers]

For someone who does something consistently original with moon verses try out Mirrormoon:
http://prunejuice.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/book-review-2/

Also highly recommended for bring consistency to original haiku:
http://area17.blogspot.com/2010/06/water-on-moon-haiku-collection-by-helen.html

I had the privilege of being the consulting editor behind the scenes for Helen's Water on the Moon.  Anyone interested in keeping their haiku fresh and vital should get Water on the Moon, and consider getting Mirrormoon as a companion book.

Gabi Greve has some very good points to say about kigo, and she has had five years or more intensive research behind her comments.

John says:
So often you see haiku that let's the phrasal part of the poem be dictated to by the fragment but it is possible if you ponder on it long enough for you to come up with a phrase that changes the original meaning of the fragment thus allowing people to see yet another angle.

I think most haiku should do this anyway, so good point John. It's the point of juxtaposition in haiku, and also I believe in the disjunction technique.

Don raises some good points about kigo.  Also I believe some kigo subjects occur in one season but are designated a later season because they've become kigo. Gabi can help here. ;-)

I remember a kigo subject in late July being an Autumn/Fall kigo! ;-)

If you read the really good creators of fresh haiku you'll see that the formula is able to throw up new twists and turns but avoiding being gimmicky. 

But I think a haiku club with thousands of members expected to churn out haiku will do just that, mechanically conveyor belt out similar haiku just to get the dirty deed done.

I think the West and other non-Japanese countries have done really well with haiku in such a short time.  There are quite a few Japanese haiku writers who utilise our aspects of haiku.

Don't forget, anyone Japanese using Shiki's methods are automatically incorporating Western art and writing techniques. ;-)

Alan

[Adam Traynor]

I can't remember who said it, and I'm paraphrasing, but: if you are alive to your experience, your haiku will be alive. If you are not alive to it (if for example, you are casting about for a haiku) your haiku will not be alive. Doesn't matter the subject.

Why write a "moon" or "first snow" or "Indian summer" haiku if your experience is not fresh, if it has not overtaken you?

Tray (Adam Traynor)
Portland ME

[cat]

OMG, a fellow Maine-iac!  Hi, Tray!

Coming at this discussion from fiction once again . . .

It's said there are what, twelve basic plots?  Would one not think that every story had been told so many times there is nothing new to say?  And yet excellent and original short stories and novels appear every year.

I participate in three kukai -- the Shiki Kukai has well over 100 entries each month, the Caribbean Kigo Kukai in the twenties, and the Sketchbook Kukai somewhere in between.  Since we all write on one kigo (or in the Shiki, one kigo and one free-format keyword), one would think the poems would be pretty much the same -- and yet, each month when I get my ballots, there are haiku that blow me away because they are so striking, so different, so evocative, so well-put, so fresh.  In the Shiki, I have never seen more than three related haiku/mirrored haiku in any month. 

The only way haiku will run out of steam is if we run out of steam -- if we stop mining the moments of our experience for a fresh take and fresh language.  It's the same as not stepping into the same river twice -- that moon is up there, but every night, if you give your attention to it and look for the details, you can see that it is a different moon, and everything else in the night is different, too, last night's nightengale, tonight's skunk, the light on the water or the wind in the trees.

cat

[chibi575]

.
full moon ...
our planet is never
on the darkside

Don, as kigo expands from Earth's seasons to other solar system planets' seasons, I suspect that we will have a Sagan Saijiki... millions and millons of seasons.  Then, when a "Don" then comes to your conclusion, a "chibi" then might quip, we need a Spock Saijiki... infinite diversity in infinite combinations.

Live short and perspire... \\//

ciao

[Don Baird]

Great responses.  Thanks for joining in.

"I think the West and other non-Japanese countries have done really well with haiku in such a short time.  There are quite a few Japanese haiku writers who utilise our aspects of haiku. "  ~AS

Good thought, Alan.

"Spock Saijiki" ~ chibi

That's a good one chibi!  If you made a Spock Saijiki in the USA today, it would probably make you a billiionaire.  LOL  I enjoyed your response.  Thanks chibi!  Thanks, Gabi!

"The only way haiku will run out of steam is if we run out of steam " ~ cat

Another great responses, cat!  Thanks!  And yes, I like your idea of writing kigo challenges ... where everyone contributes a poem based on the kigo chosen.  I love that idea!  I'll look it over more and IM you back with my thoughts. 

full moon ...
the pages of my book
out of the dark

"Why write a "moon" or "first snow" or "Indian summer" haiku if your experience is not fresh, if it has not overtaken you? " ~ Tray

I couldn't agree more, Tray.  Well stated!  Thanks for joining in.

A very interesting thread.  The responses are great, enthusiastic and well thought out.

Don

[Lorin]

.

day moon
the dish rag
wearing thin                   

- Acorn #22, Fall 2009,  red moon anthology, where the wind turns, 2010

- Lorin

[sandra]

holding a moth
in your cupped hands
moonrise

HC, miniWORDS competition, UK, 2007

[AlanSummers]

re moon verses:

Helen Buckingham is perhaps one of the most original of moon verse writers. 

Here are a selection from her much praised collection Water on the Moon:



nil by mouth—
peeling and dicing
the moon


day moon
a child adjusts
   her tiara


glitterball moon...
the rain
still dancing


harvest moon:
the tortoise's mouth
painted red


graffiti
sharper
by moonlight


water on the moon...                                     
we're ready
with harpoons


wolf moon
waking
his fur on my tongue


   salt spray...
holding a Pringle
    to the moon


hunger moon
  the model returns
to her circle of chalk

Water on the Moon book details:
http://area17.blogspot.com/2010/06/water-on-moon-haiku-collection-by-helen.html

The companion book (also a standalone book) is mirrormoon for more, and exclusively original and fresh moon verses:
http://prunejuice.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/book-review-2/


I write a few, but they pale besides Helen's originality:

Moon haiku by Alan Summers


escape velocity
the moon pulls oceans
behind Apollo 11

Publications credits:
"Rocket Dreams" World Space Week commission 2007; Montage online july 2010


above the mountain
earth's shadow
blocks a moon

Note:  eclipse of the moon, Queensland, Australia, Friday 4th June 1993

Publications credits:
Frogpond (Summer 1994); Fellowship of Australian Writers, Queensland, Scope magazine (paid) feature (1994); Micropress Yates (1994); Haiku Friends (Umeda 2003)

low over the hill
a red moon waxes
  the empty road ahead

Publications credits:
HI #22 (1996); Moonlighting,  Intimations Pamphlet Series BHS Profile, (1996); Azami Special Edition, Japan, ed. Alan Summers (1997); sundog haiku journal: an australian year (sunfast press 1997 reprinted 1998); Ukku Spring Haiku Seasonal Blog (2006); 3Lights Gallery 'Nocturne' (2008)


night jasmine
trying to find it...
the yellow half moon

Publications credits:
Presence 14  (2001); Cornell University, Mann Library, U.S.A. "Daily Haiku" poet October 2001


waxing ice moon
through the alleys
a market sets up

Simply Haiku Vol. 1, No. 3 (2003)
*ice moon starts from 4 Dec. for about two weeks.


Alan

[John McManus]

A bit off topic here, but thanks Alan for all those Helen Buckingham haiku. I am a big fan of Helen's and always left in awe of her skill.