“Halloween Masque” (Montage #34) features haiku by Clement Hoyt, Tomas Tranströmer, and Ann K. Schwader.
A Hallowe'en mask,
floating face up in the ditch,
slowly shakes its head.
— Clement Hoyt
A corrosive wind
blasts through the house in the night—
the name of demons.
— Tomas Tranströmer
razored through to the void raven — Ann K. Schwader
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I agree with your responses, Dave. Genres are elastic and difficult to define. That’s part of what makes them powerful and compelling. Just try to define not only “poetry”, “the novel”, “music”, “painting”, usw, but “art” itself.
Christopher asks: “How can [editors] begin to assess whether a submission of haiku is good AS HAIKU?”
I would say they can only do so the same way as everyone else, through the hard work of becoming fluent in haiku and its traditions.
I found one difference between haiku and other art forms . . .
Most people assume that music, poetry, and other forms of art cannot be simply defined. But if you suggest the same thing about haiku, people often get cross.
Christopher,
I agree that it can be tricky for editors to judge a haiku as a haiku, but isn’t it just a tricky to determine whether a free verse poem is in fact a poem and not lineated prose? Or whether a canvas of squiggles is art? Or a collection of random noise is music? I don’t think we can save ourselves or anyone else from the good work of determining whether something is worthy of consideration as a haiku.
I think simple definitions of haiku are about as useful as simple definitions of music or painting or any other art. I think definitions are important, but only as a starting point and an occasional point of reference . . . or departure.
Hello Allan,
wow, the third time I’m addressing you in a single day! On a different topic this time though.
Yes, I understand what you are saying. Indeed, I do already conceptualise haiku in the way you suggested.
“Sometimes very interesting and striking haiku defy norms and tendencies in artful ways”
- I absolutely agree.
“I have mixed feelings about some of the Tranströmer haiku”
- I feel the same about this too.
“It’s just at such junctures that we become more aware of our own self-imposed limitations and how we might successfully transcend them”
- Again, I thoroughly agree. And I also agree that the Transtomer haiku are worth pondering for the reasons you suggest.
But I am probing for more, and not without reason. What I wonder is if part of the reason for haiku struggling to find their way into broader poetic acceptance is that there is so much uncertainty about what one is. Even we, who cherish haiku and spend hours discussing and reading them, cannot be completely sure of what a haiku is, or so it might seem. So, how are all those poor poetry magazine editors meant to understand? How can they begin to assess whether a submission of haiku is good AS HAIKU? We must make their lives very tricky! (Unless they simply ignore the issue altogether – probably the more common solution).
Cherie, I agree – seems we’ve had this discussion before regarding a damsel fly? Thanks Allan for that Spiess quote.
And turning to the search engines on the internet open so many doors for me. Many thanks.
Fascinating analysis of the Mainone haiku, Cherie. I’m glad you posted it. I think this is certainly a direction our haiku could explore more–i.e., alluding to scientific theories and models of knowledge. It’s a very modern way of creating a “vertical axis”. I can imagine some might object on grounds that they feel haiku should be more intuitive than intellectual–but I think there are ways of balancing the two tendencies, as Mainone has done.
As for specificity, there’s a fascinating essay titled “Specific Objects in Haiku” published by Robert Spiess way back in American Haiku 5.1 (1967). He argues that “Intuitive suggestion cannot be evoked by vagueness; it can only be triggered by particularity and individualization” and points out that “Perceptive haiku poets and readers figuratively find night and day differences between a birch and an oak or between a maple and a spruce, and between the color, size, and flight characteristics of a swallowtail and those of a sulphur.”
Science nerds unite! I was on the other coast in Cambridge, MA. …a lifetime ago.
What delights me so much about this haiku is it combines two of my passions—science and art.
It also raises the question of specificity, a topic that has been debated in haiku for a number of years. If the writer is too specific, he/she runs the risk of losing the reader, of frustrating the audience with non-relevant details. If the writer is too generic the reader will get bored and not care. It’s a fine line. I err on the side of specificity. It’s okay to call that butterfly a mourningcloak. It has richer connotations.
Strange coincidence Cherie, my sister worked with c. elegans in Cynthia Kenyon’s lab. I’ve written a haiku (not published) inspired by that particular worm. Haven’t received MH yet, so this is a sneak preview. I didn’t at first get the reference to the primordial soup, thanks. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with readers scratching their heads and then maybe, if they’re sufficiently curious, visiting the library to do extra reading. I’ve read poems I haven’t “gotten” until years later.
In the most recent issue of Modern Haiku there is a haiku that caught me by complete surprise.
my haplogroup
shows the sponge gene—
distant lightning
Robert Mainone [Modern Haiku 40:3(2009) 62]
I read it and then I read it again. For several years I worked at the lab bench mapping genes in C. elegans—one of the first organisms to have its entire genome mapped. Haplotyping is at the cutting edge of molecular evolution and genetic genealogy. DNA/RNA is used as a “molecular clock” to study species divergence. Robert Mainone’s third line goes even further back to the beginning of life—the theory that lightning discharged into the primordial soup of chemicals recombined them and formed the building blocks of the first one-celled organisms. This reference for me was like lightning striking again. Eight words and I’m looking into that stormy sea for signs of life. There is a molecular record of every divergence and convergence balled up in the nucleus of each cell. WOW!
As much as I enjoy this haiku and applaud Charlie Trumbull for publishing it, how many readers will be left scratching their heads?
Hi, again, Christopher. I certainly don’t have definitive answers to your questions, but I’ll try to point toward a way of conceptualizing the issues. Maybe instead of thinking in terms of “rules” and “definitions” and “should/shouldn’t” it’s better to think in the relative terms of “norms” and “tendencies”, objective presentation and implicit meaning (“showing”) being among these. Sometimes very interesting and striking haiku defy norms and tendencies in artful ways. I have mixed feelings about some of the Tranströmer haiku, but I think all, including the one you’ve cited, are certainly interesting and worth pondering, esp. for the ways they diverge from our common practices. It’s just at such junctures that we become more aware of our own self-imposed limitations and how we might successfully transcend them.
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