HAIKU DIALOGUE – Surrealism II – “Self-Portrait” (Inn of the Dawn Horse) – commentary

Surrealism II with Guest Editor Lafcadio

For the next few weeks I would like to be your docent again in The Haiku Foundation Art museum. We will continue our tour of the Surrealist gallery. I know we were there last year, but now I’d like to show you a few of the works of the female Surrealist painters. First, let’s have a quick review about surrealism to make sure we are all on the same page, or in the same room. Surrealism is an artistic movement that began in the early 20th century. Surrealistic painters created dreamlike and often inexplicable images. One of the major characteristics of this kind of painting is the comparison of unrelated entities and components. This creates a surprise for the viewer and hopefully carries them into a world of fantasy and symbolism. This technique of painting not only challenged traditional painting, but was also a representation of the social and political upheavals of society after the trauma and disillusionment of World War I. Still, surrealistic paintings are used today to transcend the boundaries of the ordinary and deliver us in the realm of the extraordinary.

In 1924 Andre Breton, known as the father of Surrealism, wrote his first Surrealist Manifesto. He stated that 19 painters had created art that was absolute Surrealism. None of these painters were female. These painters felt women were useful to them as muses and inspiration but not as artists in their own right. However, by 1985 it was determined that no other art movement had such a large number of women participants. As Surrealist art grew into a larger and more diverse group of men, women became interested in expressing themselves through this art movement. Most of the first women who entered the Surrealistic movement were lovers of male Surrealists.

As with the previous male painters we have viewed, there is so much abstraction and symbolism in the drawings and paintings that you will be able to create surrealistic haiku and senryu that reflect the emotions in these works of art. Let’s begin…

Below is Lafcadio’s commentary for “Self-Portrait” (Inn of the Dawn Horse):

painted hyena
a black-and-white dream
freezes

Dorna Hainds
Michigan, USA

This poem about a dream captures the eerie, dream-like quality of Carrington’s painting. It also creates a powerful image for readers. In Dorna’s poem we see first the ‘painted hyena’ from the painting. Hyenas are wild and unpredictable animals. They are often associated with our unconscious and the grotesque. Carrington includes them in a number of her paintings. In addition to being a painter, Carrington authored surreal short stories. Some of them include hyenas as well. One story is about a human girl who bribes the hyena to attend her debutante ball in her place. The girl can’t be bothered with societal pressures and norms. The hyena agrees to go because of the food that will be offered. Together they construct an elaborate disguise that involves the death of the girl’s maid so the hyena can borrow the face of the maid to cover her own. Everything goes well until the hyena tires of the evening’s events and returns to the innate behaviors of a wild beast…and chaos ensues. The painting, the story and Dorna’s poem all confirm Carrington’s defiant nature against traditional femininity and wisdom. In L2, ‘a black-and-white dream’ suggests an old photograph or a monochrome dreamscape. Carrington’s painting is also like a surreal moment from a symbolic dream. The poem ends abruptly with stillness in L3 which helps us connect to the detached and strange quality of the painting.

in my heart
Coyote binds time
with tinsel

Victor Ortiz
Bellingham, WA

Victor has given us a surreal vision in this poem. It contains the energy of Carrington’s painting. This person feels this energy in their heart, indicating a self-portrait that comes from feelings and emotions. Carrington also uses symbols to represent her own feelings. She often refused to explain her paintings because she experienced them so deeply that she could not put them into words, only symbols in her stories and paintings. The Coyote figure is often seen in Native American mythologies. In their history the Coyote is a shapeshifter and a trickster. This indicates that he exists between worlds, like Carrington does. They both navigate between the real world and the unconscious. In L2, the coyote, also, becomes the force behind a disturbance in the perception of time. He has the ability to bind time into something that is physical and pliable. This binding is similar to Carrington removing linear story lines and logic from her painting. The past and present have become one in a surreal moment. Finally, in L3 we find that time has been bound ‘with tinsel,’ which is glittery, fleeting and artificial. This contrasts with time and other forces (memory, history, fate) that are heavier and more real. But with surrealism even these serious forces can be manipulated with an illusion or a piece of whimsy. Carrington’s vision is like that in the painting with symbolic elements (hyena, rocking horse, open window). In this way the boundaries between inner self and the outer world are removed. Victor’s poem, like the painting, is layered with meaning by making time unstable and symbols come to life creating magic.

swallow skimming
the reflective pond surface ̶
koi ascending

Alan Harvey
Tacoma, WA

I love the meditative quality of Alan’s poem. The swallow gently skimming the surface for food and the koi rising upwards in languid motion. In some ways this poem does not contain elements of surrealism like some of the others. However, I can see the surrealism in the symbolic. The ‘swallow skimming’ suggests grace and speed. Much like a fleeting moment of consciousness where we are aware of everything around us. We experience the world as it is, and our imagination is defined and inspired by it. Swallows, especially to sailors, were known as representing homecoming. The swallow often returns to the same nest year after year. Therefore the bird became an emblem of loyalty, family and coming home. In Carrington’s painting, as is common with many surrealist artists, in addition to the visual, concrete images of everyday life there is also the fascination with the unconscious and transformation. As the swallow glides over the ‘reflective pond surface,’ the water, like a mirror, becomes a door between the two viewpoints. The final line of ‘koi ascending’ makes us move inward and upward. Koi are associated with perseverance and transformation in Eastern mythology. Their ascent could be a spiritual or psychological awakening. In this poem the ascending koi become a counterpoint to the white horse which for Carrington symbolized freedom, escape and wild femininity. Alan’s poem is leading us through a metaphoric crossing over from the real to the surreal and from surface to depth. In its peaceful image we can slip from everyday events to the mythic realm of the unconscious.

I play slow jazz now
on a harmonica made
from the moon’s sigh

Dan Campbell
Virginia

I have to admit this poem has stayed with me ever since I first read it. I read it to my family and heard a whisper when I watched the moon each night. From the very first line Dan has brought us into a personal moment. Jazz is known for the improvisational and melancholic atmosphere it creates. Then the mood of the music connects us with the otherworldly and dreamy feel of Carrington’s painting. This enchanted music is performed ‘on a harmonica’ that can lead us into a surreal space. Even though a harmonica is an earthly object this poem has transformed it into something ephemeral. Finally there is the evocative line of ‘from the moon’s sigh.’ A sigh is a breath and a release of feeling. Though, by nature of a sigh, the breath is barely there. In Dan’s poem emotion and spirit are made into material objects. The moon has always been a symbol of intuition, femininity and mystery. This should strengthen the connection to Carrington’s figurative vision in the painting. Being involved in the occult, Carrington created her own set of Tarot cards and many of those symbols are presented in her paintings, including the moon. Dan has created the feeling of music drawn from the sorrow or longing of celestial bodies. It fits in well with the magic that Carrington included in her art. Dan’s poem and the painting could help us reevaluate our relationship with the earth, the universe and where we fit in.

reflections
on a shard of glass
green dragon scales

Deborah Karl-Brandt
Germany

Deborah has introduced us to dramatic fantasy in her poem. In the first line, Deborah has set the reflective tone. The word makes us think of mirrors, light, self-examination and possibly a fragmented identity. These same ideas are seen in Carrington’s painting and many other surrealistic works of art. The self is fluid and converted into a surreal being through the lens of myth, memory and fantasy. These themes are central to surrealism. Carrington’s own life as an artist navigating gender, exile and the unconscious is seen in her self-portrait. L2 lets us know it’s not a mirror but only a shard. The brokenness can make us think of fragility and danger. It suggests that a self, or reality, may be seen only in fragments, not a whole, possibly due to a wounded or splintered self. Broken glass, in the occult, is thought of as a portal to a deeper perception like magic or telling the future. Carrington struggled with her identity and sense of self due to her psychotic break after her lover, Max Ernst, was arrested because others felt his art was depraved. She spent years in a mental institution in Spain. She was tortured by doctors there by being given experimental drugs and other inhumane treatment. L3 gives us the final image of ‘green dragon scales.’ The dragon is a symbol of fantasy and power. Carrington places herself in the painting in a domestic wilderness with a hyena and a horse. They are symbols of freedom and wild femininity. In Deborah’s poem the green scales of the fantastical dragon could symbolize growth or even camouflage. Both in the painting and the poem the lines are distorted between woman and beast, or maybe symbolically between reality and imagination.

Neverland never the right Alice

susan burch
Hagerstown, MD

There is nothing like a monoku that is compact but also has layers. This poem by Susan has layered surrealism in just five well-placed words. It draws from Peter Pan’s realm of eternal childhood and rebellion against adult interference. Then she juxtaposes ‘Neverland’ with another nonsensical journey from Alice in Wonderland by bringing in the phrase, ‘never the right Alice.’ Sometimes Alice did not always fit into Wonderland. She was small when she should’ve been tall and vice versa. The queen wanted her head, and she had conversations with the caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat about identity and purpose. In surrealistic artwork Carrington expressed her feelings about herself through painting and writing. In the poem, ‘never the right Alice’ may indicate the feeling of being a misfit or being dislocated. Carrington was defiant and refused the roles traditionally assigned to women. Like Alice she never fit in the form that others tried to force on her by cultural limitations. Even male painters tried to ignore female artists who wanted to express themselves as surrealists. In Mexico she was able to express herself and even helped other women by starting the women’s liberation movement there. Alice’s conundrum echoes Carrington’s defiant individuality. She is not passive or demure. She bravely sits with a hyena and a white rocking horse, embracing their personal and symbolic meaning. This monoku reflects the fierce and untamed spirit of those who stand up for their individualism. The person in the poem does not belong to Neverland or Wonderland, but with their unique viewpoint has found a place entirely their own. You may have noticed a smudged spot on the floor in the lower left corner of the painting. Art historians have determined that Carrington had once painted a pair of dolls there but then scrubbed them out. They feel she left it smudged instead of repainting it to express her defiance against gender-influenced restrictions.

casting my rod
across hot desert sand
fish out of water

Margaret Tau
New Bern, NC

We have discussed Carrington’s unease with traditional female expectations. Margaret has written a poem with the surreal anomaly of fishing in the desert. This is a wonderful idiomatic expression for someone feeling out of place. In Carrington’s painting wild symbolism is placed in a domestic background reflecting this same idea of psychic fragmentation. In the poem the fishing is moved to an arid, unfriendly location. We may feel out of place in a particular setting to such an extent that our self is split into parts leaving us feeling confused and disoriented. Often this may be due to trauma or overwhelming emotions that we may have tried to repress. Carrington had years of trauma in the mental institution and a great deal of suffering over events in her life. Fragmentation can cause long-lasting problems with identity and regulating emotions. Margaret’s poem opens with action. The person in this poem states they are ‘casting my rod.’ Carrington threw herself into a world that insisted on domesticity and created in an art world that was for a long time ruled by only male painters. By casting herself into that world she was searching for her own place to communicate her voice. In L2 the scene shifts from the usual place to fish to ‘across hot desert sand.’ We go from the expected to a hostile environment. It is isolated, barren and dry. This is much like the empty space in which Carrington places herself in the painting. She must have felt these feelings as she left her home in Europe to avoid the war and after Max Ernst’s arrest. She finally made it to Mexico where she could start learning to be true to her own convictions, probably feeling like a ‘fish out of water,’ as she made her path into surrealism. L3 speaks of this displacement. In surrealism, objects, beings and place are moved deliberately out of context. This mirrors Carrington’s life, and it gives us hope. Even though she felt out of place she was able to achieve success and freedom (a fish) despite her surroundings and difficulties. Survival of the human spirit is what this poem says to me.

black Stetson
talking to a magpie
about flying

Biswajit Mishra
Canada

I’m glad Biswajit included a ‘black Stetson’ in his surreal poem. With horses being such a powerful trope in Carrington’s paintings, we needed a cowboy to appear in this skillfully constructed poem. The person wearing the hat implies a figure in charge of their own independence, authority and rebellion. In older western movies the bad guys could be recognized by their black hats. They were also standard issue for the calvary who came to save the day for people in distress. More generally it can represent individuality, confidence and possibly rebellion. I like to think of Carrington wearing the hat as a symbol of her goal of making a name for herself in a male-dominated society and subverting domestic limits placed on her. Carrington never wanted children because as an artist she felt it would hold her back from her career too much. She did eventually have children but raised them on her own terms rather than caving to societal pressures. As Carrington has a hyena in her painting as a symbol of her wild spirit so the black-hatted stranger in the poem is accompanied by a kindred spirit. The figure is ‘talking to a magpie.’ Magpies have long been associated with cleverness and mischief. What is important in the poem is the topic of their conversation. They are talking ‘about flying.’ Flying can be both a literal and metaphorical escape. In Carrington’s painting the horse, which represents freedom, is the one flying. Both the poem and the painting use the symbolism of flying to remind us of the yearning to transcend circumstances in order to establish autonomy.

misted mirror
two tarnished trinkets
for my eyes

Patricia Hawkhead
UK

This poem by Patricia creates a mood of self-examination and separation. It is about obscured vision. The mirror in which we would usually see a clear reflection of ourselves has become a ‘misted mirror.’ Now that the image has been blurred, the features of the person standing in front of the mirror are concealed rather than revealed. This can be related to a distorted self-identity. Now they must look inward. We know Carrington struggled with identity issues. Not only is the mirror misted, but the person has ‘two tarnished trinkets.’ They are using the trinkets for eyes so their vision is obstructed. This indicates the eyes are not seeing reality clearly. No longer is there clarity in what they see but instead there is distortion and mystery. They are separated from the outer world. Like Carrington, maybe the person in the poem can only understand themselves through abstraction and imagination. Thus the symbols of surrealism are their true vision. Both the poem and the painting offer a complex vision instead of neat, mirror-like representations of women and identity. There is another way to look at ourselves and it is through a surreal lens. Carrington used eyes a lot in her paintings as symbols of a connection with her inner world. In her “Self-Portrait” her eyes are locked in a gaze that appears calm but is actually unreadable. She is letting her inner world of hyenas, horses and open windows speak for her. There is a connection and an intimacy in being able to see past the surface into how Carrington views herself.

medicine cabinet mirror all the grays of rain

John Pappas
USA

We have another poem about a mirror. The mirror in John’s monoku is a bit different than the previous one. Before, we discussed a mirror that is misty, and the image has deteriorated into abstract surrealism determined by the looker’s own concept of self or identity. In this poem we don’t see a distorted form. We don’t see a person at all, but we see ‘all the grays of rain.’ By using gray rain John has created an image with a muted palette of colors filled with melancholy and memories, an ethereal atmosphere reflecting the psyche. A psychological image is a broader concept than identity and includes the total mind, the conscious and the unconscious, the mental and emotional functions that contribute to an individual’s personality, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Also, gray is usually considered the hue of uncertainty. And rain blurs and softens the light reflected by the mirror. Important to the poem is the kind of mirror. It is a ‘medicine cabinet mirror.’ This mirror feels like a private, liminal space where one can confront their psyche in solitude, surrounded by substances perhaps inside the medicine cabinet that promise healing or escape. It’s an object in many homes yet it is also an entryway between inside, outside, seen and unseen. In comparing the poem to the painting, Carrington is in a surreal interior room. The medicine cabinet, not unlike Carrington’s room, is filled with both protection and peril. When Carrington was in the mental institution she was given the drug Cardizol (a drug to induce seizures) along with electric shock and other forms of abuse and mistreatment. She suffered through hallucinations, a feeling of impending death and a sense of being shackled and imprisoned. The experience left her with physical and psychological scars. Like rain creeping into a crack in a ceiling, Carrington’s experiences have crept into her paintings. In her life she avoided taking drugs for enlightenment or for creating alternate states of consciousness. In her art she dealt with issues of confinement, oppression, and the struggle for liberation that mirrors her real-life trauma. John’s poem is brief but rich with reflection.

infinity pool
at the edge I find
the blue hippo

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

I love the image Adele’s poem creates. It feels happy, peaceful yet surprising. Imagine stumbling upon a borderless body of water, so wide it merges with the horizon. At the edge there is an unexpected presence, a ‘blue hippo.’ We can also see the quiet surrealism like what we find in Carrington’s paintings. There is a calm atmosphere, but we also see a break from the real world, a dream realm where the impossible waits. I feel the ‘infinity pool’ is a metaphor for a cerebral space, seemingly endless but also a region where reality and fantasy can meet. Certainly a place to examine our thoughts and feelings in the tranquility. At this point, ‘at the edge’, we are not disappointed that a mythic creature, the ‘blue hippo,’ appears. It is absurd for it to be there, much like Carrington’s lactating hyena doesn’t belong in her isolated room. But these animals are probably not there just for a touch of whimsy. They fit in the surreal surroundings and represent our exploration of the surreal where the sensible dissolves and we can embrace the irrational as true. They represent the spirit or soul of the artist. The hyena is symbolic of freedom, wildness, maybe even danger. The blue hippo may reflect a serenity, yet one that is imbued with massive strength and power. And, of course, blue is magical! Both the poem and the painting suggest a place where we can reach an understanding of ourselves, and transformation can happen.

a silent C#
slides onto the ring finger,
squeezes and squeezes

Alex Fyffe
Texas, USA

Alex’s poem begins with a paradox. ‘a silent C#’ is a musical note without sound. Music that is felt but not heard. This enters the surreal world where rationality disappears, and symbolism takes over. The note might be creativity muted, because of repression or some unspoken fear. The note ‘slides onto the ring finger.’ The ring finger is usually linked to marriage, commitment, and cultural expectation. But it’s not a ring, it’s a note. It can symbolize a binding that is forced like societal norms were forced on Carrington. After the note is placed on the ring finger it ‘squeezes and squeezes.’ The pressure to be what the world expects of us can be persistent. Whatever the C# represents in the poet’s life, it is not passive. It tightens and constrains. Last week Alex wrote a comment on the website about another poem in the long list that also presented the image of one note being played repeatedly on the piano. Remarkable that there were two. I would like you to read his comment because it says more coming from the poet than I could ever say. Here it is: “The other keys are right there–intellectually, it’s clear that there are other keys that could be pressed–, but something keeps me pressing this same one, justifying it as ‘minimalism’ but really just trying to conceal my fear of stepping up (let alone jumping an octave!). This key is safe. It’s my key. I know it inside and out. Those other keys might not harmonize with me, after all. I think I’ll stay here, here, here, here, here, here, here . . . .” Thank you, Alex, for ending this commentary on such a high note.

During the course of this prompt, I have become an admirer of Leonora Carrington. I’ve been looking at her other artwork and reading a lot about her. There are three books that I recommend if anyone else is interested.

Carrington, Leonora, et al. The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington. St. Louis, Dorothy Project, 2017. A collection of surreal short stories.

Carrington, Leonora. Down Below. New York, New York Review Books, 2017. A memoir of the time Carrington spent in the Spanish mental institution.

Moorhead, Joanna, and Leonora Carrington. The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington. London, Virago Press, 2017. Moorhead is the sister-in-law of Carrington.

Join us next week for our next prompt…

Bios:

Guest (& Assistant) Editor Lafcadio, a former teacher, now works from home writing, editing and proofreading study guides for nursing textbooks. She lives in Tennessee. She has written poetry for a long time but a couple of years ago fell in love with Japanese micropoetry and hasn’t looked back. Lafcadio has been published in a number of journals and anthologies. She writes under the nom de plume of Lafcadio because nom de plume is so fun to say. You can read her poems on Twitter (X) @lafcadiopoetry or BlueSky @lafcadiobsky.

Assistant Editor Vandana Parashar is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, I Am, was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019 and her second chapbook Alone, I Am Not, was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022.

Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. She lives in New York City and enjoys reading and writing haiku.

Managing Editor Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She served as Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada for ten years, and her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019). Find her at: kjmunro1560.wordpress.com.

Portrait by Laurel Parry

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Banner photo credit:  Lafcadio

Haiku Dialogue offers a triweekly prompt for practicing your haiku. Posts appear each Wednesday with a prompt or a selection of poems from a previous week.