HAIKU DIALOGUE – Ekphrasti-ku… Hell Courtesan
Ekphrasti-ku with Guest Editor Pippa Phillips
Once upon a time, under the dubious influence of Nietzsche, I grew despairing of the undeniable fact that I wasn’t a cool Dionysian at all, but a nerdy and visually fixated Apollinian. Once I got over myself, I leaned into it. There’s nothing I like more than taking a sketchbook to a museum on one of its free days. This time, I’d like to take you with me, to visit some of my favorite paintings, and the stories behind them, on a kind of digital ginko walk. These paintings are rich with detail and all are open to metatextual rumination. I look forward to seeing how they inspire you.
next week’s theme: “Misguided Little Unforgivable Hierarchies”
The link to “Misguided Little Unforgivable Hierarchies,” from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which houses Wangechi Mutu’s painting, is here.
Of her work, Wangechi Mutu notes that a common motif in her work are splotches that could pass for either blood or blossoms. It is this quality – the sublimation of the grotesque into the beautiful, the artificial into a monstrous divine – that drew me to “Misguided Little Unforgivable Hierarchies” as a source of inspiration.
Mutu created the collage as a response to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. I was an undergrad at the time, and I remember how the country changed overnight, how easily people’s anger over 9/11 was manipulated into an impetus for a misguided war whose miscarriage led only to more terror. People forget that millions of Americans protested the war before its inception. I went to every protest I could and ended up losing my job over it, as well as a great deal of my faith in my country. The piece speaks to a number of illegitimate hierarchies – the U.S. over the rest of the world, the government over its people, white America over non-white America, men over women, rich over poor, the religious over the secular.
Another common theme to Mutu’s work is the boundary between the animal and the human – humans think of themselves as fundamentally other than animal – but the notion that we are not our biology, that we are not simply another kind of animal is, I think, a fiction.
I find political haiku particularly difficult to write – it can so easily become a slogan better suited to a cardboard sign at a rally. The political is so often of the moment, yet there is an eternal aspect to it, the cyclicity of history. I hope this piece inspires you to turn blood into blossoms.
I highly recommend reading this interview with the artist, which you can find here.
Wangechi Mutu also worked with the musician Santigold to create an animated art piece, which you can find here.
The deadline is midnight Central Time, Saturday January 22, 2022.
Please use the Haiku Dialogue submission form below to enter one or two original unpublished haiku inspired by the week’s theme, and then press Submit to send your entry. (The Submit button will not be available until the Name, Email, and Place of Residence fields are filled in.) With your poem, please include any special formatting requirements & your name as you would like it to appear in the column. A few haiku will be selected for commentary each week. Please note that by submitting, you agree that your work may appear in the column – neither acknowledgment nor acceptance emails will be sent. All communication about the poems that are posted in the column will be added as blog comments.
below is Pippa’s commentary for Hell Courtesan:
scent of pine trees
a monk sweeping
his shadow and the snowAnna Yin
Ontario, Canada
I wrote this poem into my little “all-time favorite haiku” notebook when I read it. It’s so striking – you see it immediately – the smell transports you viscerally to the scene, and there’s the parallel image of the needles that compose the trees’ foliage and the bristles that compose the broom, which supports the parallel objects in the final line. A perfect poem.
window sill cat
all seven lucky gods
knocked offKristen Lindquist
Camden, ME, USA
I crowed in delight when I received this poem. It is a perfect senryu, cutting the gods down to the size of figurines so the poet – and the cat – can toy with them. A delightful example of karumi, or the lightness of haiku – with the additional punnery of “knocked off,” which can be read literally, or in the sense of being an illegitimate copy.
tainted moon
why is it that only
my sin countsRavi Kiran
India
The combination of a coined kigo word paired with a plaintive cry is striking, creating an emotional gong of a poem. This is the sentiment of the black sheep, the woman, the queer, the outsider – all those who society unfairly penalizes – all those who challenge and define the society that rejects them.
the line between this world and that shoji screen
Marcie Wessels
San Diego, CA, USA
An aesthetic that governs much of Japanese art is ma (間), or the aesthetic use of the space between things. That space is directly referenced here, creating a metatextual space – and the alternate parsings of the poem work almost like a shoji screen does. There is a space between this world and that, between worlds and a shoji screen, between a world over here and a screen over there.
longevity—
the lingering A
of tuning forksIngrid Baluchi
North Macedonia
The poet undermines her premise with the conclusion of her poem – a soundwave doesn’t last forever. It forces the reader to re-evaluate the word – although we tend to see the word as implying endurance, it can simply serve to measure. Moreover, the plurality of tuning forks suggests that one way to endure is to continue hitting notes.
she left her story
rewilding her life
in inkAdele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut
There is something so compelling about the idea of leaving one’s story – there is an ambiguity here between starting one’s life over, and rewriting one’s past – “rewilding” is an interesting connection to the natural, suggesting that even nature is subject to the human hand. An incredible power is thus ascribed to the protagonist of this poem.
& here are the rest of the selections:
sleepwalking all my skeletons out of the closet
Susan Burch
Hagerstown, MD, USA
ginko walk
scent of lotus lingers
on her robeJohn Zheng
Itta Bena, Mississippi
asking why
with a swirl of her skirt
power playPeggy Hale Bilbro
Alabama
full moon
I wear the truth
on my sleeveMarianne Sahlin
Sweden
heaven and hell
beneath her kimono
this floating worldMark Meyer
Mercer Island WA USA
our sins
on full display
social mediaJenn Ryan-Jauregui
Tucson, Arizona USA
passing clouds
the hell courtesan
chooses heavenCynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, California
her parted lips
a pause before
their final journeyMark Gilbert
UK
plucking a lotus
off her robe, I give in…
silk on silkBaisali Chatterjee Dutt
Kolkata, India
courtesan’s robe
collecting
all the godsjubah selir
mengumpulkan
semua dewaChristopher Calvin
Kota Mojokerto, Indonesia
patchwork robe
she wears the streets
insideMariel Herbert
California, USA
lotus blooms
on silk
the Buddha smilesSusan Farner
United States
winter storm the upside down nuthatch quests with both claws
John S Green
Bellingham, WA USA
Hell Courtesan
shelling rainbows
in the painter’s bristleRobert Kingston
Chelmsford, United Kingdom
taste of temptation
first mango
of the seasonMargaret Mahoney
Australia
vespers
the clownfish hides
behind its anemoneCristina Monica Moldoveanu
Romania
always on our heels day of reckoning
Bona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA
clouds blinking
with the wind
passing onC.X. Turner
United Kingdom
enlightenment…
the wild daisies
on her pathMadhuri Pillai
Australia
im(mortal) gods of lost civilizations
Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA
a moth
to your flame
the allure of sinJackie Chou
United States
fading in emptiness
at the end of the day
even shadowsMelanie Vance
USA
impermanence –
her photoshopped figure
on my bedroom wallMilan Rajkumar
India
juxtaposition
coral extends
to other livesKathleen Mazurowski
Chicago, IL
D-Day …
her robes
speak her heartDevoshruti Mandal
India
folding screen
hiding
from the pastNancy Brady
Huron, Ohio, USA
layers and folds
the courtesan’s
inner lifePat Davis
NH, USA
that made-up portrait
with fetishes on fetish
she snaps her fingersClysta Seney
California, USA
it makes
a heaven of hell!
courtesan’s kimonoBill Waters
Pennington, NY USA
skeleton crew-
never enough to
feed my desiresLafcadio
USA
Hell Courtesan
your flowing jet hair
poisons the moonLev Hart
Calgary, Canada
after the last
note of koto
the silence of silkSusan Rogers
Los Angeles, California
enso
now she can
finally seeSherry Grant
Auckland, New Zealand
silkworm
the shared thread
between fairy talesJonathan Roman
Yonkers, New York
skeleton eyes
her old lovers
appraise her new manGreer Woodward
Waimea, HI
beggar’s cup —
the heavens offer
snowJames Lindley
USA
divine comedy
the rustle of silk
falls silentArvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India
threads of gold
nothing broken
to mendTia Haynes
Lakewood, Ohio
spring breeze –
the mannequin in the window
awaits the new collectionDaniela Lăcrămioara Capotă
Romania
the temptation of outer appearances frost tracery
Eva Limbach
Deutschland
background screening
all my past transgressions
on displaySari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA
in the folds
of her kimono
all my sinsBryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois USA
forever clinking
the afterlife filled
with bones and jewelsRichard Matta
San Diego, California
household solution–
what grandfather wrote
in his bibleHelga Stania
Switzerland
winter pleasure
all the layers
of her kimonoJames Gaskin
Fukushima, Japan
faraway lover
she turns to the god
on her sleeveRehn Kovacic
Mesa, Arizona
dew grasping the hem on the hand of Zen master Ikkyū
裾握る 一休禅師に 蓮の露
Yoshika Miyakono
Japan
memento mori –
remembering
to turn the lights offPaul Millar
Bedford, United Kingdom
he tells me in a thousand ways
the same thing
liveIan Ruitenberg
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory
in the mirror her femininity translucent
Richa Sharma
India
parallel universe–
the lives I led
or didn’t leadMona Bedi
Delhi, India
the path to enlightenment skeleton-strewn
Neena Singh
Chandigarh, India
Hell Courtesan—
each fold of her obi
unfolds sufferingsHifsa Ashraf
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
adding color
to her wrath
snowwomanTeiichi Suzuki
Japan
fried neckbones …
sharing a dance
by a fire pot(“Fried Neck Bones and Some Homefries” – lyrics by Santana)
Daniela Misso
Italia
debt hell…
slowly approaching
the devil on tiptoeKeiko Izawa
Yokohama, Japan
gibbous moon
draped in hell’s coral
is it Benzaiten?Firdaus Parvez
India
night lily
each little death
a little deathKeith Evetts
Thames Ditton UK
night whore
breastfeeding first
before workNani Mariani
Melbourne, Australia
courtesan
only her eyes
are silentDeborah Beachboard
Adna WA United States
enlightenment –
gathering one more coin
on my wayAna Drobot
Romania
the kimono
wrapped loosely around
my memories of herM. R. Defibaugh
Chesterfield, VA
abandoned well echoes from the depths
Roberta Beach Jacobson
Indianola, Iowa, USA
hanging
a girl wearing hell
on her sleeveAlan Peat
Biddulph, United Kingdom
peeling off
the layers of silk
NirvanaTeji Sethi
India
tripping
on cobblestones –
red light districtDan Campbell
Virginia
streetwalker
her lips smacking
a half-eaten appleR. Suresh Babu
India
her wish to rest
at the feet of the Buddha…
white lotusDeborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn, Germany
lucky moon
hell’s courtesan catches
a comet’s tailAnnette Chaney
Harrison, Arkansas
blue tone glass
how the bones play GoAlan Summers
England
the rustle
of her robes night blooming
jasmineKris Lindbeck
United States
looking back-
the path
paved with good intentionsRam Chandran
India
courtesan girl
the temptation of
her naked toesSue Courtney
Orewa, New Zealand
a pipe in one pocket
matches from another
kimonosimonj
UK
courtesan’s patrons
who are they to count
her sinsVandana Parashar
India
long life
man’s pursuit
lifelong寿如松鹤长
人生自古谁无求
怎奈如愿难shou ru song he chang
ren sheng zi gu shui wu qiu
zen nai ru yuan nanXiaoou Chen
Kunming, China
in a lull
in the storm..
sound of a feather fallingNeera Kashyap
India
splinters
on the grass of my lawn
come closeLuciana Moretto
Treviso, Italy
not the first
to find nirvana
within a woman’s robeTracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK
left over right…
making the Hell Courtesan
a life modelLaurie Greer
Washington, D.C.
her origami robes
fold hell
into paradiseVicki Vogt
Watertown, MA United States
imaginary sins under kimono’s folds
Mirela Brăilean
Romania
fasting day
a ripe mango
in the crow’s beakManoj Sharma
Kathmandu
Hell Courtesan
saving the last dance
for my bonesMinal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India
Guest Editor Pippa Phillips is a recovering academic who hails from Cape Cod. Her micropoetry has been published in a variety of publications, including Cold Moon Journal, Frogpond, Failed Haiku, Modern Haiku, and The Asahi Shimbun. She also writes long and short-form fiction. She is interested in the intersection of ethics and aesthetics and walking the line between the populist and the experimental. You can find her on Twitter @IpsaHerself and Instagram @pheaganesque.
Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. A novice haiku poet, she lives in New York City.
Managing Editor Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada, and her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019). Find her at: kjmunro1560.wordpress.com.
The Haiku Foundation reminds you that participation in our offerings assumes respectful and appropriate behavior from all parties. Please see our Code of Conduct policy.
Please note that all poems & images appearing in Haiku Dialogue may not be used elsewhere without express permission – copyright is retained by the creators. Please see our Copyright Policies.
This Post Has 22 Comments
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Thank you, Pippa, for choosing such immersive art and artists. I’ve loved the mini museum trip each week.
Also, last year Dee Evetts wrote an essay series on politics/the political in haiku. The first link is below (if allowed), for anyone who is interested.
https://tsuridoro.org/politics-and-the-political-in-haiku
Delighted to have one of my poems selected. Thank you Pippa. The art works you have selected are so deep … so thought provoking …
I love the karumi in Kristen’s senryu! Thanks, Pippa, for including my poem with this week’s selections.
I love the karumi in Kristen’s senryu! Thanks, Pippa, for including my poem with this week’s selections. Ekphrasti-ku is not new to me, but this is the first successful one I’ve written.
Congratulations to all the poets here and thank you for including my haiku! Very unique prompts. I enjoy all the interpretations of the theme.
One of the thing this poem reminds me of is Lewis’s conception of modal realism, in which there is a possible world for every truth, even those truths inconsistent with the world we live in…
Thank you Pippa for including my attempt to capture the tone of Kyosai’s image. Again I feel all of these selections work together very well. There’s a sad undertone. I particularly liked Eva Limbach’s
the temptation of outer appearances frost tracery
and Richard Matta’s
forever clinking
the afterlife filled
with bones and jewels
Yes, I adore Limbach’s poem; I love it when haiku incorporate the natural in novel phrases, and the juxtaposition of this poem just sings. And I enjoyed Matta’s description of the afterlife.
Thank you Pippa for commenting on my haiku. So touching! I enjoy all the selections. A wonderful read. Congratulations to a all poets.
Very happy to include your poem, it really is striking and I wish I could speak more articulately to its virtues…
Thank you Pippa for including my haiku. This weeks poems were a wonderful read. Congratulations to a all poets.
Another wonderful collection. Congratulations to all! Thank you Pippa, KJ and Lori for collating and posting a great response.
parallel universe–
the lives I led
or didn’t lead
/
Mona Bedi
Delhi, India
/
The existence of parallel universes is a topic often portrayed in science fiction movies and books. This haiku nicely brings to mind whether or not life would be better or worse in such a universe.
Thank you, Pippa, for commenting on my poem; I like the way you have interpreted it. I had other ideas based on looking at the translated word ‘longevity’ depicted on her robe, purely from the shape of the topmost character. Your ‘endurance’ brings far more depth . . . sigh . . .
Among several others, this gave pause for thought:
courtesan’s patrons
who are they to count
her sins
Vandana Parashar
India
So true, and so sad.
Yes, there is a plaintive tone to this poem reminiscent of Ravi Kiran’s poem above, I enjoyed this one as well!
Thank you for commenting on my cat ku, Pippa! Love the thread of eroticism that runs through many of this week’s offerings. As always, I really appreciate, too, the diversity of responses to the same image–it’s very inspiring and encourages me to keep pushing the envelope.
I almost want a second round of poems– reading the poems each week makes me re-evaluate the piece, and often inspires me to write a couple of ku, I’d love to see ku inspired by the ku that comes up each week…
I often find myself continuing to write haiku on the topic after the deadline …..
Good points Mark and Pippa. I rewrite mine many times after the deadline. Continuous improvement I hope. Thank you Pippa for your provocative prompts.
Such evocative haiku this week. Some remind me that like love/hate, heaven and hell live nearly side by side, and that we should remember to live as Ian Ruitenberg says. Alan Summers has the color blue like so many he mentioned in his comments last week. Kristen Lindquist’s haiku about the cat knocking off the statues, so appropriate as I have never known a cat who didn’t understand physics (gravity) or the joy of batting an object to the ground. Great use of parentheses seen on Valentina’s haiku of morality/immorality, too. Tia Haynes’ haiku speaks to me as an example that original sin should be ignored/not worth considering. Just a few I noticed with a quick reading before heading to do PT exercises (which may be their own hell).
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Congrats to all the poets. I am thrilled to have one included…thanks Pippa.
Nancy, thank-you for the complement.
Thank-you Pippa for publishing mine. Thank-you Kathy and Lori for your efforts. Congrats to my fellow Ohioans Nancy Brady and Tia Haynes.