Per Diem/Haiku of the Day for February 2022: Synaesthesia/Synesthesia

Per Diem/Haiku of the Day for February 2022 features Guest Editor Victor Oritz’s collection on the theme of Synesthesia. This is what Victor has to say by way of introduction to this theme:

Synaesthesia / Synesthesia may be regarded as a neurodivergent experience. It is not a disease or a disorder but an alternate way of perceiving reality. According to David Eagleman, Baylor College of Medicine, synesthesia is “a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.” That is, one may see a certain color simultaneously when one hears a particular sound. To a synesthete grilled chicken may taste of a shade of blue, musical notes may have color and shape, and letters and numbers may exhibit varying colors and even have different personalities. Used as a literary technique, synaesthesia broadens the experience of a reader / listener by amplifying more than one sense, offering the potential of fresh imagery, ambiguity, surprise, interpretive possibilities, and suggesting the depth of an experience. The appreciation of synesthesia is another way that haiku may become a more layered and complex emotional encounter. Try to listen to these poems from the perspective of one who uses at least two different senses at the same time to perceive the described event rather than to engage with the imagery only as metaphor or even personification. I hope you take the time to savor the colors, scents, sounds, and tactile sensations these wonderful poems evoke.

—Victor Ortiz

See also our Haiku of the Day Archive.