New to Haiku: Advice for Beginners-Marco Fraticelli

Today at New to Haiku, let’s welcome Marco Fraticelli.  Marco is a haiku poet, editor, scholar, and educator. He served as an executive member of Haiku Canada for 26 years, from 1988 to 2014. Marco has written eight books (and co-written a ninth) of haiku, haibun, and septenga. His Hexagram series of chapbooks, started in 1991 and published through 2012, presents exemplary haiku by 25 Canadian and international poets. Thank you for sharing your haiku journey with us, Marco!

In Advice for Beginners posts, we ask established haiku poets to share a bit about themselves so that you can meet them and learn more about their writing journeys. We, too, wanted to learn what advice they would give to beginning haiku poets. You can read posts from previous Advice for Beginners interviewees here.

Welcome to New to Haiku, Marco! How did you come to learn about haiku?

I learned about haiku in the 1970’s. This was before the internet was readily available and information about haiku was hard to find. Fortunately, somehow I heard about Haiku Canada and was fortunate to attend a meeting where I came into contact with a number of haiku masters such as George Swede, Betty Drevniok, and LeRoy Gorman. I learned so much from them and other Canadian haiku poets.

Did you have a haiku mentor?

Because I only was able to meet with these poets once or twice a year, I can’t say that I had a mentor as such. However, The Wordless Poem, a book by Eric Amann, another Haiku Canada member, greatly influenced my development as a haiku poet. I felt that everything that I needed to know about haiku was in that book. (Note from Julie: You can read The Wordless Poem for free in the THF digital library here.)

You were an executive member of Haiku Canada from 1988 to 2014. What would you like to share with new haiku poets about Haiku Canada?

I believe that anyone new to haiku should try to join an organization like Haiku Canada in their particular country. For a minimal membership fee, new poets have access not only to a new market for their work, but also a network of experienced haiku poets from whom they can learn.

Where do you most often write? Do you have a writing process?

For me, creating haiku is a two-step process. I have always believed that haiku are not so much meant to be written, as they are to be lived. The actual recording of the haiku is secondary to experiencing the haiku moment. I always carry a notebook with me to jot down my experiences, and only later do I concern myself with turning them into haiku on my computer.

What are your favorite haiku that you have written? Can you share a story behind one (or more) of them?

I think that many poets new to haiku are under the impression that because haiku contain so few words, they don’t require much editing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many experienced haiku poets will tell you that it is not unusual for them to rewrite a haiku 20 or 30 times. The haiku moment may be there from the start, but they haven’t yet found the exact words to best convey the experience to a reader.

Having said that, every now and then, a haiku does appear fully formed out of the blue. In my experience, this is very rare, but two of my own favourite haiku did come to me in that way.

watching the cat
watching the bird
watching the butterfly

I was on my deck when suddenly I spotted my cat stalking a bird, and at the same second realized that the bird was itself stalking a butterfly. The haiku came to me at that moment and I haven’t felt the need to edit it since.

Sometimes, as a haiku poet, you discover that you’ve written more than you intended. After reflection, I realized that this haiku wasn’t primarily about my cat or the bird, it was about me stalking them in search of a haiku moment. The real predator, in fact, was me.

I had a similar experience at the ocean one summer.

between each wave
my children
disappear

Once again, the haiku came to me exactly as you see it now. I haven’t felt the need to change it since. Also, like the previous haiku, I realized after the fact that the haiku was about more than I had originally thought. Although the image I was trying to capture was that of my children disappearing in the high waves, later that night, as I was writing it down, I realized that “wave” can have a secondary, and even more important meaning. Each time that a parent waves goodbye to a child (first day of school, first sleepover etc.), that child disappears and it is a different child who will return.

How do you approach giving readings of haiku?

It’s not easy to give a successful haiku reading. Because haiku are so short, there is a strong temptation for those new to reading their haiku to try to squeeze in as many haiku as possible in their allotted time. I have seen poets read as many as thirty or forty haiku in a ten-minute time slot. Those who are new to reading their haiku need to slow down, leave space between each haiku, and allow the listeners time to savor their words. To quote an old cliché, “less is best”. I always try to speak to my audience in between each haiku by sharing a little of the story behind the haiku I’ve just read or am about to read. As well, I sometimes use music, or some type of theatrical performance, to give space to each of my haiku. I rarely will read two haiku one right after the other. A haiku needs space to be properly absorbed by the listener.

In your children’s book, Dear Elsa, you use haiku to both further the story and teach how to write good haiku. What inspired you to write the book? Where can we find a copy?

Because I seem to be always complaining about the state of haiku today, Claudia Radmore, who at the time was president of Haiku Canada, challenged me to produce a series of YouTube videos explaining haiku to the uninitiated. The thought of creating videos didn’t really appeal to me, and so I decided instead to write a book for middle school children. Dear Elsa is available from Indigo Books, or anyone interested can visit my website (marcofraticelli.com).

What haiku-related project are you currently working on that brings you joy?

These days I seem to be focused primarily on writing haibun. The writing of haibun gives me pleasure because it challenges my writing of prose as well as haiku. Writing prose is an entirely different experience from haiku.

The book I’m currently working on consists of 100 haibun ostensibly written by me on my hundredth birthday. It is a memoir of sorts, but since I am not yet 100, I do have to take some liberties with the facts.

For those just starting out with haiku, what advice would you give?

Write for the experience and joy of writing, and not so much because you want to be published. Haiku is about discovery. Of course, having your work published is wonderful, but if you create haiku simply with a view to publication, I feel that the haiku might likely be disingenuous, and you’ll have missed the haiku experience.

Marco Fraticelli is a poet, musician, editor, publisher, and educator. He has contributed as an executive member of Haiku Canada (1988-2014), and as an editor and publisher of the literary magazine The Alchemist (1974-1987) and the Hexagram Series (1991-2012). His poetry has won awards in Canada, the United States, and Japan. Fraticelli has been invited to provide keynote addresses, read at community events and poetry conferences, facilitate workshops, and judge haiku contests. His most recent collections include haibun – a form that combines prose with haiku. He is currently working on a memoir (of sorts) inspired by Beatles lyrics.