re:Virals 488

Welcome to re:Virals, The Haiku Foundation’s weekly commentary feature on some of your favorites among the best contemporary haiku and senryu written in English. This week’s poem, chosen by Rupa Anand, was:

Earth Hour
I am 
moonlit
—Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta
 haikuKATHA, Issue 39, January 2025

Introducing this poem, Rupa writes:

A poem that triggered my heart strings, in the context of Earth Hour, the poet appears to be rejoicing in participating in an event that unifies us all wherever we may be on the planet, in a ‘giving back to earth’ moment, dissolving our little selves in view of a much larger purpose. The brevity of these five words, to me, has wabi, and an imagery and immediacy that pulls you into the scene with the poet.The poem has sabi, a sense of aloneness in ‘I am’, and not ‘we are’. I can almost imagine myself standing right there, on earth, in total darkness, under a full moon. Waiting to read the comments from poets all over the world.

Opening comment:

An initial reading of this haiku put me in several minds.  First, of world-weariness, perhaps accentuated by reading so many verses that had dulled sensibilities  through repetition, or alienated them through patent devices, or through assertion of the poet’s ego or thought.  Next, examination of what was written: Earth hour, its fashions, its drivers, how effective it is;  and moonlight, to which many/most of us are exposed irrespective of Earth Hour unless perhaps we live wholly in a bright city.  And lastly, to the fundamentals.

Bound to the discipline of re:Virals, I often find that with having to think about a haiku for several days, and to write about it, the verse grows on me during the week.  So it is, reflecting upon this one.  Whether or not you are disposed to take a Zen view, Alan Watts noted that a good haiku was “a pebble thrown into the pool of the listener’s mind, evoking associations out of the richness of his own memory.” A moment “when we were aware of being alive in an unusually vivid way….the reader is invited to share in the mood which the poet implies…and the poem is successful to the degree that the reader shares the same poetic experience, which however is never explicitly stated. Well, I often look at the few brighter stars that can still be seen despite the loom of Greater London’s lights, and long to see again the myriad other stars and the Milky Way that are extinguished by them. And I have often contemplated moonlight’s effects on colours and shadows, and on water. I have skinny-dipped in moonlight. I sympathise with bats and moles. So these very simple, economic lines work as such a pebble for me. Haiku is many things, not just one.

Leena Anandhi:

No kidding. Moon indeed can light us on a dark night and do a damn good job at that. It just needs a dark dark foil- what better than the earth hour if only it is followed absolutely!

Lakshmi Iyer:

From the internet —Earth Hour is a global movement that encourages people to turn off non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness about climate change and environmental issues.  This explains the poem when the poet says he is moonlit!  I believe the poet must be going through a tough time with the gadgets and screen time increasing every minute of the day and he must be wanting to cherish this Earth hour…

We hardly have time to think ..’No time to stand and stare’ —this says it all!   A revelation once in a blue moon when there is a wonder from above to be moonlit,  and the realisation that yes, there are so many other things than just staring at the computer screen for hours.  And like this there are many other moments which we just forgo and forget.  Walking for hours on the beach, holding shells in your hand, forest bathing barefoot, etc….

Alan Harvey:

Earth Hour is a time to reflect on and take action for the Earth’s climate – started with a campaign to switch off electrical lights for one hour. But instead of plunging us into darkness, the reflected light from the moon illuminates. What better use of haiku than to feature a moonlit night shining on a pond?

The source of this moonlight isn’t the sun though. The “I” in L2 is the source of light which is what Earth Hour is all about. Every participant gives one hour over to the Earth, by turning off their electrical lights or through some other service to our planet. This gives humankind a chance to shine. What a beautiful thought in service to our planet and haiku.

Thank you, Sankara, for writing such a thoughtful wish for our Earth. The personal irony for me is that I am temporarily in Las Vegas, a city that seemingly worships neon illumination above all else. Maybe together we can collectively outshine the neon lights of Vegas.

Lakshman Bulusu:

Earth Hour prepares the earth for a clean and green earth. Electric lights, energy-based vehicles and the like do not operate in the time of the hour – a sixty minute period – that is allocated to observe this (shall I say) ritual.

This haiku is so beautifully crafted that the haikuist thrills from deriving light from the moon (in the absence of artificial lights. It is a celebration that on a moonlit night the poet observes it like a ritual – the moonlit rays attracts the silver rain by the presence of the poet.

The kigo is ‘moon’ and the cut after ‘I am’ flows like the light from the moon dousing the poet in its shine.

A well crafted haiku by Sankara, it resonates with the natural and heavenly intermingling for a well-observed cause.

Harrison Lightwater—something more for enlightenment?:

The days of the year are now filled with celebrations and proclamations of various kinds, among them Earth Day (April 22, to show support for environmental protection). Now we begin to celebrate hours. Earth Hour is promoted by the World Wildlife Fund to give an hour of conscious appreciation to our planet and in particular to reduce light pollution for a while. Energy consumption is reduced, those of us who live in bright illuminated areas may be able to see more of the heavens, and it is good for nocturnal creatures sensitive to light. These initiatives are positive.

This first-person, very minimalist haiku celebrates Earth Hour with the rather obvious observation that the poet is now lit by the moon rather than electric light. Although, only nonessential lighting is switched off, and street lighting, car lights and the like are left on. I admit I’m left wondering whether this haiku too is less than the full bill, and perhaps needs something more for enlightenment? The failure might be mine as a reader, who would have to invest more in reading the poem to make something of it, beyond giving my heart to the sentiments behind Earth Hour.

I am sorry if this is out of tune with the usual praise the reader community heaps on almost any verse, but it is honest feedback and I often wish there was more critical consideration of verses in this valuable feature.

Author Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta:

Before I say a few words about the haiku, I’ve to go on a diatribe to provide the context. I don’t know what tone readers find in this haiku, but when I wrote it, and everytime I write on this subject, it only comes from a place of pathos. I wrote this for light pollution prompt in HAIKUsutradhar in Triveni Haikai India, that should give away my feelings about a few things. I’m immensely fascinated by the cosmos. Knowing about the breadth of it has shaped my worldview and my personal philosophies in life in my teenage years. But along with it came the realization that we have robbed ourselves of the spectacle of the night sky in cities. It is one among many things that we did to ourselves that makes it easy for us to collectively lose perspective of things that are good for everyone.

With all of that existential thinking as a forever-baggage, I clearly remember a night when there was a power outage in the area I lived in and I decided to step out and walk around in the darkness for a bit. It hit me after walking for a while that it was not completely dark. I was maybe 28 or 29 at that time. I realized I was moonlit. I realized I have never in my life seen myself moonlit, at least my brain serves no such memory. The already melancholic thoughts about our relationship with the night sky only deepened & doubled-down. I took this scathing and sad fact from my life and put it alongside Earth Hour, because that irony was even more depressing. I worded it the way I did so that the initial reads are positive, focused on the rewarding moment of finding oneself moonlit and all the existential baggage I myself have is available for anyone who lives on the same frequency.

Thanks to all who sent commentaries. As the contributor of the commentary reckoned best this week, Harrison has chosen next week’s poem, which you’ll find below. We invite you to write a commentary to it. It may be short, or of moderate length, academic, your personal response, spontaneous, or idiosyncratic.  As long as it focuses on the verse presented, and with respect for the poet, all genuine reader reaction, criticism, and pertinent discussion is of value.   Out-takes are kept in the THF Archives.  Best of all, the chosen commentary’s author gets to pick the next poem.

Anyone can participate. Simply use the re:Virals commentary form below to enter your commentary on the new week’s poem (“Your text”) by the following Tuesday midnight, Eastern US Time Zone, and then press Submit to send your entry. The Submit button will not be available until Name, Email, and Place of Residence fields are filled in. We look forward to seeing your commentary and finding out about your favourite poems.

Poem for commentary:

     
fleeting autumn 
we eat the apples 
meant for a pie          
—Susan Yavaniski
 haikuKATHA #39, 22 January 2025

The Haiku Foundation reminds you that participation in our offerings assumes respectful and appropriate behavior from all parties. Please see our Code of Conduct policy.

Footnote:

Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta’s short bio:
Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta is a poet and an artist from Hyderabad, India. He finds reading and writing haikai forms to be a soothing and meditative practice. You can find him on various social media with the username @coffeeandhaiku.

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Harrison raised the question of critical comment.  A few points:

With few exceptions, one of which is when they are being didactic about what they think is haiku and what is not, the haiku community is endearingly open-minded, goodwilled and supportive.  However,  indiscriminate praise for verses is not going to advance haiku nor help poets.  In the very early days of re:Virals and its predecessor Virals, there was often more acute critical discussion than these days.  Commentators here are not obliged to praise everything and withhold criticism.  The invitation to comment includes:

“As long as it focuses on the verse presented, and with respect for the poet, all genuine reader reaction, criticism, and pertinent discussion is of value. ”

Constructive, non-assertive criticism or questioning should be among the reader reactions welcomed by an author alongside the customary shower of  hearts and roses.  All the more so, for its rarity.  An author has the possibility of commenting in reply below.

Among the joys and purposes of this column is finding out what poems readers like.  By dint of having written a good commentary,  the author of it who puts forward the next verse is evidently qualified to do so, whether or not your spirits rise or sink on reading it!   Further, poems chosen have already been selected by an editor or editors, and one would expect them to be of some quality.  Almost always, the interesting and varied reactions of different commentators justify the choice.

Some fifteen years or so ago, a number of distinguished figures in the world of English Language Haiku challenged the community, in different fora, on where it wanted to go.   Whether or not it’s what they had in mind, what you see selected by haikuists in the fifty or so contemporary verses that come before re:Virals in a year, is one indication of where the community as a whole wants to take things.  To try influencing them in a small way, join in.