HAIKU DIALOGUE – Surrealistic Art – “Landscape” – commentary

Surrealistic Art with Guest Editor Lafcadio

For the next few weeks I would like to be your docent in The Haiku Foundation museum. We will only have time to visit the surrealism gallery, which I’m sure will have enough inspiration for getting in touch with our subconscious mind and release its creative potential through the power of the irrational juxtaposition in these drawings and paintings.

First, we can discuss surrealism some 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 painting is used today to transcend the boundaries of the ordinary and deliver us in the realm of extraordinary.

I can’t remember which came first for me…surrealistic poetry or surrealistic paintings. Either way I am firmly entrenched in surrealism and would love to see your responses to some of the surrealistic artwork. There is so much abstraction and symbolism in the drawings and paintings, I think there will be ample material to use in writing haiku and senryu.

Below is Lafcadio’s commentary for “Landscape”:

neverlandscape

Ravi Kiran
India

Many of us may be familiar with one of the most recognized one-word haiku, “tundra” by Cor van den Heuvel. He introduced a seasonal word juxtaposed with the vast whiteness of the page. There has been much controversy and conversation over this poem. Even Cor van den Heuvel expressed some regret about it and began to question if it was haiku. Ravi has created a one-word haiku by combining two words into a meaningful poem. In my opinion there are several ways to interpret ‘neverlandscape.’ First, the poem can be divided into ‘never/landscape.’ My first thought was that our prompt picture is a surrealistic setting that will ‘never’ be found in the natural world. But then if we parse this poem in another way, we see a different juxtaposition: ‘neverland/scape.’ This created for me a connection with Peter Pan. Neverland is the fictional setting Peter Pan, and the other lost boys, inhabited. This painting “landscape” is also a fictional locality that the surrealists that drew it visited in their subconscious. There are fantastical images here just as Peter’s Neverland contains ticking crocodiles, flying children, and dangerous pirates. Maybe some of you can find other interpretations to this well-constructed poem.

wood pipes
of a cowskin diving suit
gooseberry tea

(Click here to see an image of the oldest surviving diving suit.)

Jerome Berglund
Minneapolis, Minnesota

This is surreal! There is no doubt at all. Jerome must have dived (see what I did there) into his subconscious and brought up this intriguing image. Though the poem may be symbolic or fantasy it still creates a picture in my mind. As poets it may help us to leave conscious thought and some haiku rules behind and just let the words flow. But that didn’t happen here. It is still a three-line poem with less than 17 syllables with a juxtaposition between a fragment and a phrase. But with the irrationality of surrealism. Great poem!

old map
the inside
inside myself

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, WA

When Breton wrote his Manifesto of Surrealism (1924), he believed that he and other artists could explore the unconscious mind to free themselves from the restrictions of modern society. He felt by doing so they could get in touch with their individuality that had been repressed by societal practicalities and, therefore, experience greater creativity in their art. Stephen seems to be referring to this understanding of who we are through self-thought. Without the restraints of society we can follow a path back to our childhood or wherever we need to go to arrive at a freedom to be our true selves. Also, the repetition of the word ‘inside’ is an appropriate literary device that creates an emphasis on where our journey will eventually lead us. Surrealists found different routes to connect to their unconscious thoughts.

leapfrogging
out of the
Victorian era

petro c. k.
Seattle, Washington

Many poems submitted referred to the figure in the upper left that appears to be leaping over someone or something. Leapfrog is a game I recall from childhood. Inevitably at least one child would get hurt when they got hit in the head by jumping feet. Interesting that this poem mentions the Victorian era. It gives us a bit of history. The Victorian Era (1837-1900) was, of course, a big leap before the surrealists . Most of the art (painting and literary) was about social change and copying the grand masters of the past. There was one group that wanted to revolutionize the paintings of that period. They were called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. They also painted from their dreams. The difference from the surrealists though was they only painted the beautiful and the good. No leapfrogging or mouths with missing teeth for them. Their style was scorned (especially in the U.S.) and did not catch on as much as surrealism did when it officially began 23 years later. Thank you petro for bringing us into the 20th century.

twilight vision
the screech of tyres
before the crossing

Carol Jones
UK

Carol has brought sound into our poems. What is being crossed? Why are the tyres screeching? We usually think of the street and looking both ways and with the dimming light of twilight it becomes more difficult. But this haiku made me think of the artists (and poets) crossing over into their unconscious minds. Because these are repressed feelings it may not always feel safe. But revealing those feelings will help us understand ourselves and behaviors in a clearer light.

corkscrewing a dream open on Freud’s couch

Shloka Shankar
India

Isn’t this a grand poem? I absolutely love Shloka using corkscrew as a verb. It made me notice the way the leapfrogging figure’s arms are spiraling around his bottle body like a corkscrew. But not for a bottle of wine, instead a dream and what a perfect place to examine a dream. Surrealism is closely related to Freud and the couch is a symbol for his psychoanalysis. Many poems submitted here mentioned Freud, his couch, psychoanalysis, therapist, dreams, etc. Freud had introduced his theory of the unconscious containing primal desires and conflicts being related to real experiences of living. He believed the unconscious could be revealed through dreams. The artists felt they could show this inner tension to those who saw their art. They engaged in some of Freud’s psychoanalytic methods to reach their unconscious thoughts such as: hypnosis, dream sequences, nightmares, automatic writing, word games and intuitive walking. This poem made me look at the painting in a whole new way.

hoarding
exclamation points
to wear on my head

Kathabela Wilson
USA

This playful poem creates an image of both enthusiasm and physical decoration. Maybe hoarding (a compulsive need) exclamation points expresses the excitement of reaching our unconscious thoughts and showing others this happiness by wearing them. Showing them is a whimsical symbol of joy, an exuberance. I think Kathabela is showing the communication and self-expression that the surrealist artists may have felt in creating their art. Don’t we have this feeling when we write a haiku that just really clicks and fosters the need to show it to others?

Sir Real asked me out of my mind

Sheila Sondik
Bellingham, WA

In a Disney movie it would be a Prince Charming fellow asking a princess out. Of course, she says yes. In Sheila’s poem she poses the scenario that in the surreal world we are asked to step out of reality and our conscious thoughts to connect with unconscious feelings. Our brains are programmed to support survival, whether physical, mental or emotional. Painful feelings, events or thoughts are pushed to the unconscious, or mentally repressed. This protects you from things you can’t deal with at a certain point. The surrealists felt it important to make peace with these in order to be in harmony with yourself. They dealt with bringing up the unconscious with painting or drawing. We can also write poetry that helps rid us of paralyzing beliefs that prevent us from living fully. Ok, it might not be that simple, but Sheila’s poem suggests getting out of our conscious mind sometimes to find our real selves.

tendrils trail
from her body in dark swirls
dream shards

Colette Kern
Southold, NY

I like seeing the floating, sleepy woman’s body described as swirly tendrils in Colette’s haiku. In the poems submitted the woman was identified as a genie, smoke, mermaid and various other spirits. The creativity describing her was awe-inspiring. The word “tendril” can represent a tender plant wrapping around a support or a spiral ringlet of hair. Those both match the peacefulness of the woman’s face. But she is not a plant, or hair. According to the poem she is made of ‘dream shards.’ A shard is a broken fragment. Isn’t that the way dreams are remembered sometimes, just fragments that dissolve when we wake up? The fact that she is floating from her shoe, of course, challenges reality by depicting her in a bizarre, irrational universe filled with surprises. Hidden there is the meaning and symbolism of the artist’s unconscious.

cannabis field –
she sleeps lolling in the
blue grass of my eyes

Dan C. Iulian
Romania

This may be a stretch, but my first thought when reading Dan’s poem was from The Wizard of Oz. There is a scene where Dorothy and her friends fall asleep in the poppy field. The poppy field represented opium which is derived from poppy seeds. And of course the grass was green not blue. Oz, another surreal location where horses changed colors, animals talked, and monkeys could fly. It may not come as a surprise that many surrealist artists used psychoactive substances like mescaline and peyote to enhance their creativity. They felt the drugs were a direct route to their unconscious and, therefore, allowed them to depict their hallucinatory visions in their paintings. By the way, I love the verb ‘lolling.’ Excellent poem!

night’s high tide
of wine-dark dreams
my untethered mind

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

A lovely ekphrastic poem that describes the dreams, and the state of mind symbolized in this work of art. ‘Untethered’ is a perfect term for this experience. Ekphrastic poetry is a poem about a work of art. However in ancient Greece ekphrasis was applied to the skill of describing a thing with vivid detail. Homer’s poem, “The Iliad,” is one of the earliest examples of this kind of ekphrasis. He used 150 lines of poetry to describe the shield of Achilles. He also used the word ‘wine-dark’ both in “The Iliad” and in “The Odyssey” to describe the sea. So Annie has given us a fine haiku with double ekphrasis.

chalk lines—
h(a)unting the wild things
of childhood

Jonathan English
Washington, DC

Jonathan’s poem connects surrealism with childhood experiences. I like the beginning fragment of ‘chalk lines.’ The prompt “landscape” is partly drawn with chalk and children used to use chalk in school. I think chalk has been replaced by white boards and markers. But is still used for sidewalk drawing and hopscotch. In our search for the unconscious we may be hunting for the freedom and imagination we had as children. Or we may be haunted by repression of events that were not idyllic and we have not faced yet. Either way surrealistic artists often sought to connect with childhood creativity. Surrealists believed children’s imagination was not yet restricted by reason. Through contact with their unconscious mind they felt they could return to childlike imaginings when creating their art.

Join us next week for our next prompt…

Guest 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 Threads @lafcadio2.0

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.

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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.