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

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…

prompt: “Self-Portrait” (Inn of the Dawn Horse)

Leonora Carrington is another transplant from Europe to Mexico. She was half-Irish, born in England and a naturalized citizen of Mexico. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and founded the women’s liberation movement there. Her interest in Surrealistic painting began at age 10 when she saw a painting in a museum. She received little encouragement from her family to have an art career, but she defended her desire and finally ended up in art school in Europe. There she met the German Surrealist, Max Ernst. They fell in love, and he left his wife to be with her. Ernst was arrested many times because his work was considered to be degenerate. He finally escaped to America. Carrington had a psychotic break and was hospitalized in an asylum. She finally found her way to Mexico where she married a Mexican ambassador in order to be able to stay there. They divorced soon after and she became close friends with Remedios Varo and other female Surrealists living in Mexico.

To get an idea of who she was let’s look at her “Self-Portrait” (Inn of the Dawn Horse). It is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can see a closer view here. She painted herself with horses and hair like a horse’s mane. To her, horses represented the freedom she wanted for herself. The lactating hyena symbolizes her wild spirit captured in a domestic space. This displayed her desire of never wanting to be trapped in an aristocratic life. Her white jodhpurs match the white of both horses with her green jacket corresponding to the forest. Her gaze is direct and stern.

What symbols would you use in a surrealistic haiku or senryu about yourself?

The deadline is midnight Eastern Daylight Time, Saturday July 12, 2025

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.) In the Poem box, with your poem(s), please include any special formatting requirements & your name & residence as you would like it to appear in the column. 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.

Join us next week for Lafcadio’s selection of poems on the topic of “Self-Portrait” (Inn of the Dawn Horse)…

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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Photo Credit:

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.