Virals is a section in which one person choses a haiku by another person and comments on that haiku. Then the author of that haiku is invited to select a haiku by someone else and comment on that poem, and so on. For an introduction to this section, see Virals.
Viral 5.5
The Light in the Darkness
by Ruth Yarrow
toll booth lit for Christmas—
from my hand to hers
warm change
— Michael Dylan Welch
I find this poem full of contrasts and of hope. The contrasts include the lighted booth in the early dark of a December evening, the coins warmed by his hand reaching out into cold Christmas weather, and the warmth of the connection in what is a very impersonal fleeting monetary exchange. The hope I feel in this poem comes from the light in the darkness, the hope of the season, the reach across what may be class and race as well as gender lines, including the smile and thanks I assume are there. And that last line has so many reverberations. We are all humans, giving us the potential to connect with warmth. We have the potential to change the global messes we are in if we make those connections. I admit this is laying a lot on a short poem—maybe far too much. But the feelings of connection, warmth and hope are all in that moment, and after all, emotions are what makes any poem poetry. Thanks, Michael.
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“toll booth” was first published in Frogpond XVIII: 4
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As featured poet, Michael Dylan Welch will select a poem
and provide commentary on it for Viral 5.6.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
• Viral 5.1 (Metz ➾ Lyles)
• Viral 5.2 (Lyles ➾ Chang)
• Viral 5.3 (Chang ➾ Stevenson)
• Viral 5.4 (Stevenson ➾ Yarrow)
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William Carlos Williams –
(from “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”)
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
“Poetry makes nothing happen.”–Auden
“Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”–Shelley
A lot depends on perspective.
Are haiku important? Not by a long shot. Not when there is hunger in the world, and poverty. Not when there is suffering, or hatred. Not when illness and disease and homelessness and a hundred other issues still persist around the world. But I am also reminded of the song “Bread and Roses” (I like the version by Judy Collins best). In it, she sings that “Hearts starve as well as bodies — give us bread but give us roses.” The story behind this lyric is compelling to me, and reminds me why art is important in life (you can read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_Roses).
If haiku are not important in the face of human suffering, the obvious question might be to ask if haiku should try to alleviate suffering in some way — by promoting world peace or by employing some other agenda. Hell no. Please! Haiku with an agenda such as this makes the aesthetic ideal subservient to the political or activist agenda — and thus, in my opinion, nearly always destroys the art. Yes, art can be political, and some good art does have an agenda, but my feeling is that, most of the time, haiku is better off without it.
Haiku has a sort of importance — as with other arts, it’s something we live FOR. We seek to overcome the suffering in life so that we can enjoy the magnificent pleasures of being human. But haiku should not, in my opinion, ever have an agenda — other than an aesthetic one. Haiku will be what it is, and I don’t see how it matters whether it has “importance” or not.
Michael
John, I feel that continuum comes from the “importance” (for want of a better word) from individual to individual. It’s like the theory of light that is particle/wave. What sparks one and one and one … ultimately because of that essential “suchness” experienced. Everyone has the opportunity to be any kind of artist they want to be. Even in the most repressive regimes in the world, there are great artists. I feel that it is the human connection…that passes on from one person to another an encompassing understanding of our humanity and the universality in which the human being exists.
Bill, I think you I and all concerned can contribute to making this blog a welcome place, for celebration and challenge, for exploration, information, questions, introductions, roots, wings and dillos (both arma and pecca). Yes, and
thanks for your post.
lampfish
John,
In response to your thoughts:
I believe haiku in Western languages has at least the potential to become something analogous to what it is in Japanese literature–a kind of democratic, communal “folk” poetry practiced by many many hands and also, at least a small percentage of it, a permanent part of our literature.
Whether this scenario comes to pass or not, I think the most important thing we can do is simply to take care of haiku, i.e., to write it and nurture as best we can. Whether the larger culture, the academic establishment, and so on take note or not of our endeavors is beyond our control–and as I recently said to Jim, cultural memory is at best haphazard anyway.
I, personally, believe emphatically in the value and potential of our haiku. I think it it the most interesting and probably the most unprecedented development in our literature over the last forty-plus years, and that’s a big part of why I’m here, as an observer, a conservator, and a contributor.
I would definitely say it “is potentially high art” and “deserves to be taken seriously.” I’ve felt that way ever since I read Nick Virgilio’s “lily” and “bass” haiku, which hit me like revelations, and much of my life since then has been about learning everything possible about haiku and making my own small contribution to it. Its “importance”, as you put it, to many of us is simply immeasurable.
To begin to do justice to the ins and outs of this topic would take far, far more time than I have now. For now, I simply wanted to state something like a declaration of faith, a credo.
“Yes.”–Molly Bloom
Bill,
Thank you very much for your generous and big-hearted words. I’m very happy to put this episode behind us.
I’ve had very little contact with you, Bill, but on the basis of what you write, I’m sure we have much in common. I always look forward to seeing your haiku in the journals, and I hope we’ll have plenty of positive interactions in the future.
All the best,
Allan
I mis-spelled Allan’s name in my last post.
Sorry about that, Allan.
Bill C
I care more about people than I do about the cause of haiku.
If my words gave offence to Alan and Peter, then I should want to withdraw them and ask Peter and Alan for their forgiveness.
I have only the highest regard for their work, and my sense has always been that they are both fair and honorable men, and even more importantly, that they both have good hearts.
Bill C
Yes, and break a leg.
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