Sails is a section of troutswirl that is devoted to presenting questions for discussion and debate on the nature and possibilities of haiku. Sails is overseen by Peter Yovu. For an introduction to this section, see Sails.
. . . 9th Sailing . . .
BY Peter Yovu
How do you feel about emotion in haiku?
I’m going to keep the intro to this Sailing brief, and simply invite a discussion about emotion in haiku. Are there limits to what the genre can encompass? Taboos? Things to avoid? What role might culture play in considerations about emotion in haiku? Do you write in order to discover what your feelings are about an experience, or simply to express them? Are you influenced in any way by a wish to connect with the reader?
Perhaps none of these suggestions will speak to you, and I trust you will find your own question, and hope you will articulate it. Beyond that, I think this is a good opportunity to gather a range of haiku which speak to the question. And so, I invite and challenge you to present haiku which you find embody emotion in significant ways. Do you know of one or more examples which in your opinion handle any of the following well: joy, anger, jealousy, compassion, envy, awe, confusion, bitterness, resignation, exultation . . .?
There are others of course, some hard to name, and one might argue that not all feelings are emotions. But as I said, I’m going to keep this brief.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
{ 38 comments }
← Previous Comments
I too appreciate Michael’s clarity and expositions here. I have never ceased to feel the “naive novices” each time I attempt to grapple with trying to find the words that can contain such things. I feel the haiku full blown in my mind, but that’s even before I’ve begun to try to determine the words, the context, etc. of how to reveal what my mind comprehends. In addition once I’ve brought the haiku to birth, I have found times when I realize that what I have written may be meaningless to others
and I am again faced with the impossible task of finding the way through that too. And yet, keeping it as simple as the instant of the awareness. I am indeed a naive novice.
Michael, I’ve enjoyed the clarity of these posts of yours. Some things do need to be said again and again, since there’s always the danger of losing our grounding. Thank you!
Lorin
Wordsworth once defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” This could hardly be more true than it is of haiku. Our recollection may be just a few moments after the “moment” that inspires us to write, or it may be weeks, months, or years, but the power of that emotion is what matters, and whether we can convey it in our haiku.
Michael
Martin, I hope none of us get beyond being naive novices at haiku. That’s surely what keeps us striving to learn more, and to enjoy each haiku as it comes. The emotions they capture need not be extreme (in fact, Basho’s notion of karumi, or lightness, speaks to subtlety of emotion, I believe — among other things), but if they are real, that’s what matters.
At my haiku workshops, I routinely say that if people are going to write down just one thing from the workshop, it should be this: Don’t write about your feelings. Instead, write about what CAUSED your feelings. That’s the secret of showing rather than telling. (To me, by the way, that cause may or may not be the season word in the poem — the secret to haiku is to relate the causes of your feelings, not the feelings themselves.)
Michael
Adelaide wrote that “It’s easy to show an image, but how do you show an emotion?” Gabi, you wrote “In traditional Japanese haiku, this is done via the appropriate choice of a kigo.” I think you overstate the case, Gabi, suggesting that this is the only way. Kigo is not the answer to every question posed about haiku! In fact, whether one uses a kigo or not can be independent of whether the poem “shows” or “tells.” Obviously, yes, a well-chosen kigo, used in certain ways, can imply emotion, but that’s just as true of carefully chosen words that are NOT kigo. Moreover, one can employ a kigo that does NOT necessarily “show” anything, emotional or otherwise. My point is that the use of kigo does not directly correlate to whether a haiku “shows” vs. “tells.” It’s how you USE the kigo that matters. And it’s how you USE other images in the haiku that matters. A kigo itself won’t necessarily make the poem “show” rather than “tell.”
Michael
Here is a wonderful example of how sound and rhythm, skillfully used in even a very short poem, can convey emotion(s):
fishing village
a rumor of blues running
through the café
Jim Kacian wrote the poem, and Peggy Willis Lyles has a typically astute commentary on it, which can be found here:
http://www.theheronsnest.com/haiku/1201J1201/thn_issue.c1.html
Regarding the Roseliep poem: given its complexity and deep subjectivity, I thought (somewhat reflexively) that it would be best to leave it open to discussion if that’s what wanted to happen. Yes– disgust, shame, and also fear. The poem is an example of one where our response may be tied to knowledge which was (I’m not sure about this) not so much in the foreground when the poem first appeared as it currently is…
The two “uh” sounds, the sound one might make when punched in the gut, carry a lot of painful weight.
Peter, why not name the emotion(s) in the Roseliep haiku? I see self-disgust coupled with shame. “brushing my sins” is very effective and a wonderful first line. It conveys the imagine that some sins are too terrible to be washed (brushed) away. I remember from my children’s catechism that, “God knows and sees all things, even our most secret thoughts.”
← Previous Comments