Haiku on an Indian Theme
Kala Ramesh is our editor for this month’s Per Diem. She offers a selection filtered through the concept of The Five Elements. Here’s what she writes:
“The Hindus and the Buddhists believe that all Creation— including human beings— is composed of five essential elements. When death occurs, everything is transposed into these elements of nature, thus balancing the cycle of evolution.
The elements and their associated sense perceptions are:
Ether — Akasha — space / sound
Wind — Vayu — sound & touch
Fire — Agni — sound, touch & form
Water — Jalam — sound, touch, form & flavour
Earth — Prithvi — sound, touch, form, flavour & smell
This classification is woven into the fabric of our day-to-day activities, and widely used in all our art forms, including poetry, literature, dance, music and painting. The haiku poems showcased here might not appear in the order I had originally arranged them, but you could use your ingenuity and guesswork to ‘sense’ how many of these elements are present in the haiku, when you read them.”
Enjoy, and as always we welcome your feedback.
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Hi Kala, I just discovered your Per Diem selection as I read a few on AHA, so it is wonderful to see them all here together – thank you!
The following poem by Fay Aoyagi, really struck me…
icy rain
at the bottom of the lake
a door to yesterday
This poem brought so many thoughts and memories flooding back…I instantly recalled a day when I was about nine and my father took my brothers and sisters and I on a drive to Slieve Gullion in County Armagh, a mountain in an area formed by volcanic activity. He recounted various legends of the lake and showed us a cave where the Cailleach Beara (a witch who transforms into a hare) was said to have lived. Fay’s poem instantly transported me to that particular lakeside again as it was also a cold, rainy day when we climbed the mountain to arrive at the lake.
The idea of a portal to the past is enchanting, but to find it at the bottom of a lake is haunting, suggesting you have to die first to get there. Geologically speaking, of course the bottom is made from rock that was formed many years ago.
The ‘icy rain’ in L1 sets the scene well, providing a cold, wet backdrop to the lake scene. Wonderfully chilling!
Thanks again, Kala. :]
marion
Thank you Kala,
It’s gratifying to see the whole series. I missed only a few, but as there isn’t an archive, it’s a real pleasure to revisted the daily haiku.
Alan
Just thought I could paste my entire selection here according to the 5 elements:
The Five Elements
The Hindus and the Buddhists believe that all Creation— including human beings— is composed of five essential elements. When death occurs, everything is transposed into these elements of nature, thus balancing the cycle of evolution.
The elements and their associated sense perceptions are:
Ether – Akasha – space / sound
Wind – Vayu – sound & touch
Fire – Agni – sound, touch & form
Water – Jalam – sound, touch, form & flavour
Earth – Prithvi – sound, touch, form, flavour & smell
This classification is woven into the fabric of our day-to-day activities, and widely used in all our art forms, including poetry, literature, dance, music and painting. The haiku poems showcased here might not appear in the order I had originally arranged them, but you could use your ingenuity and guesswork to ‘sense’ how many of these elements are present in the haiku, when you read them.
Have fun!
*
Ether – Akasha
left to itself a moon without subtitles
Marlene Mountain
almost autumn so many holes to another universe
Karen Cesar
a broken window
reflects half the moon,
half of me
Michael McClintock
mockingbird an octave shy of the moon
Billie Dee
train whistle
a blackbird hops
along its notes
Alan Summers
working late
i meet my loneliness
in the long hallway
George Swede
***
Wind – Vayu
a falcon dives
how completely
I surround my bones
Peter Yovu
morning birdsong requiring quotation marks
Lee Gurga
the wood breathes:
a leaf falling
into fallen leaves
Martin Lucas
rumble of thunder
a sunbird comes darting
through the wire fence
Johannes Manjrekar
between the sky
and the spin of the earth
this falling leaf
Laryalee Fraser
so few feathers left
it barely has a name
the melting snow
John Barlow
rumors of war
up into a darkening sky
– a child’s newsprint kite
Angelee Deodhar
***
Fire – Agni
campfire sparks —
someone outside the circle
starts another song
Billie Wilson
evening breeze —
hundreds of lamp flames
sway in the temple
K. Ramesh
***
Water – Jalam
winter morning—
scribbles on a scratch pad
get the ink flowing
John Stevenson
icy rain
at the bottom of the lake
a door to yesterday
Fay Aoyagi
solstice moon
breasts that filled
and emptied
Francine Banwarth
Basho’s frog. . .
four hundred years
of ripples
Al Fogel
summer storm
the windscreen wipers
slice our silence
Jo McInerney
***
Earth – Prithvi
coming home
flower
by
flower
Jane Reichhold
cardboard boxes
my son turns himself
into a robot
John McManus
aftershock
a tremor lingers
in the dog
Melissa Spurr
migrating geese —
the things we thought we needed
darken the garage
Chad Lee Robinson
New Year’s Day
the center of the chocolate
not what I expected
Carolyn Hall
birth certificate:
the name of the father
he never knew
Catherine J S Lee
spring afternoon
the schoolchildren return
to the dead squirrel
Bill Kenny
self-portrait some truth to the smudges
Jim Kacian
stone before stone buddha
Karma Tenzing Wangchuk
temple path
the dust i kick up
sticks to me
ed markowski
solstice moon
breasts that filled
and emptied
— Francine Banwarth
Another powerful one selected by Kala.
The simplicity powers the emotional weight of this verse.
Alan
Thanks Alan
Enjoyed reading your view of this poem.
And it’s so apt!
Thanks Ellen,
Yes, Jane’s haiku was the first poem that started off my ‘Earth – Prithvi’ set of poems.
Thank you so much for your response.
_k
Dear Kala, I enjoy following Per Diem and reading all the poems. Today’s lovely haiku by Jane Reichhold is one I remember and good to see here.
Best wishes and thanks, Ellen
Kala said:
I had it under — Earth – Prithvi – sound, touch, form, flavour & smell
Would you agree?
cardboard boxes
my son turns himself
into a robot
– John McManus
Cardboard boxes are very tactile, full of anticipation, whether we know the contents or not. Also it happens that many children apparently get more excited about the box than the contents when they are very young. Cardboard of course comes from trees that are very grounded in nature.
Cardboard boxes have sound, touch, form & smell, and a flavour of excitement, all that a child in their infancy need to explore the world in its early stages, and to development imagination that has formed humankind for better or for worse.
Alan
Thanks Alan for commenting about this poem:
cardboard boxes
my son turns himself
into a robot
– John McManus
I had it under — Earth – Prithvi – sound, touch, form, flavour & smell
Would you agree?
Another gem:
cardboard boxes
my son turns himself
into a robot
– John McManus
I’m lucky that I enjoy many styles of well-written haiku, and the simple ones about children, if the candy greeting card is set aside, are always rewarding, like this wonderful verse.
Today’s haiku is a six-word haiku where it’s like molecular photography, the item/poem doesn’t really finish where the naked eye expects it to end.
self-portrait some truth to the smudges
– Jim Kacian
Thanks Alan. I agree with you completely. I love Peter Yovu’s poem.
Hoping all the other poems are as resonant as this one.
Today’s per diem is your beautiful little poem:
train whistle
a blackbird hops
along its notes
Alan Summers
Lovely!
_kala
This is one of my favourites so far, although I’ve appreciated all the haiku:
a falcon dives
how completely
I surround my bones
— Peter Yovu
It’s thoughtful, thought-provoking, actiivity biased, and yet so more, so much more, than the sum of its parts.
Alan
Thanks a ton for posting this news feed, Jim.
Truly appreciate it 🙂
I would love to hear both from participating poets and readers about this theme and the poems chosen.
warmly,
_kala