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 }
Next Comments →
The following haiku seems to hit a chord with writers, and with the
general public either new to poetry or turned off by poetry. I often use
haiku to get people ‘re-interested’ in poetry after bad experiences at
school, or peer pressure.
I often read, perform, or display haiku accessible to members of the public.
lime quarter …
an icecube collapses
over jazz
Alan Summers
1. ‘City: Bristol Today in Poems and Pictures’ 2004 ISBN: 0954811704
2. BBC 1 – Regional arts feature November 2003
3. Haiku Friends ed. Masaharu Hirata, Osaka 2003
4. BeWrite.net eMagazine 2003
5. Bristol Evening Post article//Latimer’s Diary 2002
6. Presence haiku magazine ISSN 1366-5367 January 2001 No.13
7. BroadcastLab project: Haiku with Alan Summers by Ambidextrous and Soft
C (ArtsWork Bath Spa University): recorded as part of Alan’s haiku
poet-in-residency at Bath Spa University 2006 – 2007 undergraduate
programme with student bodies ambidextrous & Soft C
8. Seven Magazine (Bristol Evening Post) full page feature: “Three lines
of simple beauty” Saturday April 29th 2006
all my best,
Alan
http://area17.blogspot.com
.
I would venture that emotion has or can have a key part to play in haiku,
and could even be considered as much a device as the array of devices or
techniques available elsewhere to haiku.
The danger is that if it is overemphasised it can lead to a great number
of ‘statement’ verses.
True, all good writing should, almost by default, evoke emotions on a
scale of 1 -10.
How far should haiku be used as a vehicle for emotion though?
I do have a haiku that people have used for comfort when they have lost a
member of the immediate family. One gentleman even used it as a kind of
mantra to stay focused and calm.
the rain
almost a friend
this funeral
Alan Summers
1. Seven Magazine (Bristol Evening Post) full page feature: “Three lines
of simple beauty” Saturday April 29th 2006
http://area17.blogspot.com/2006/05/seven-magazine-literature-feature.html
2. BeWrite.net eMagazine 2003
3. First Australian Haiku Anthology ISBN 0 9577925 9 X 2003
4. ‘The New Haiku’ Snapshot Press, 2002, ISBN 1-903543-03-7
5. ‘Hidden’ British Haiku Society Anthology 2002 ISBN 1-903746-26-4
6. ‘The Omnibus Anthology’ haiku and senryu 2001 Hub Editions ISBN
1-903746-09-4 Hub Haiku series
7. Cornell University, Mann Library, U.S.A. “Daily Haiku” poet for Oct 2001
8. Blithe Spirit article On minimalism and other things DJ Peel Vol 9
No.3 September 1999
9. First Australian Anthology (October) 1999
http://users.mullum.com.au/jbird/as6.html
10. Snapshots 4, Snapshot Press ISSN 1461-0833, Highly Commended
Collection, Snapshots Haiku Collection Competition 1998
11. Azami haiku magazine Osaka, Japan No.28 September 1995
I would venture that emotion has or can have a key part to play in haiku, and could even be considered as much a device as the array of devices or techniques available elsewhere to haiku.
The danger is that if it is overemphasised it can lead to a great number of ‘statement’ verses.
True, all good writing should, almost by default, evoke emotions on a scale of 1 -10.
How far should haiku be used as a vehicle for emotion though?
I do have a haiku that people have used for comfort when they have lost a member of the immediate family. One gentleman even used it as a kind of mantra to stay focused and calm.
the rain
almost a friend
this funeral
Alan Summers
1. Seven Magazine (Bristol Evening Post) full page feature: “Three lines of simple beauty” Saturday April 29th 2006 http://area17.blogspot.com/2006/05/seven-magazine-literature-feature.html
2. BeWrite.net eMagazine 2003
3. First Australian Haiku Anthology ISBN 0 9577925 9 X 2003
4. ‘The New Haiku’ Snapshot Press, 2002, ISBN 1-903543-03-7
5. ‘Hidden’ British Haiku Society Anthology 2002 ISBN 1-903746-26-4
6. ‘The Omnibus Anthology’ haiku and senryu 2001 Hub Editions ISBN 1-903746-09-4 Hub Haiku series
7. Cornell University, Mann Library, U.S.A. “Daily Haiku” poet for Oct 2001
8. Blithe Spirit article On minimalism and other things DJ Peel Vol 9 No.3 September 1999
9. First Australian Anthology (October) 1999 http://users.mullum.com.au/jbird/as6.html
10. Snapshots 4, Snapshot Press ISSN 1461-0833, Highly Commended Collection, Snapshots Haiku Collection Competition 1998
11. Azami haiku magazine Osaka, Japan No.28 September 1995
The following haiku seems to hit a chord with writers, and with the general public either new to poetry or turned off by poetry. I often use haiku to get people ‘re-interested’ in poetry after bad experiences at school, or peer pressure.
I often read, perform, or display haiku accessible to members of the public.
lime quarter …
an icecube collapses
over jazz
Alan Summers
1. ‘City: Bristol Today in Poems and Pictures’ 2004 ISBN: 0954811704
2. BBC 1 – Regional arts feature November 2003
3. Haiku Friends ed. Masaharu Hirata, Osaka 2003
4. BeWrite.net eMagazine 2003
5. Bristol Evening Post article//Latimer’s Diary 2002
6. Presence haiku magazine ISSN 1366-5367 January 2001 No.13
7. BroadcastLab project: Haiku with Alan Summers by Ambidextrous and Soft C (ArtsWork Bath Spa University): recorded as part of Alan’s haiku poet-in-residency at Bath Spa University 2006 – 2007 undergraduate programme with student bodies ambidextrous & Soft C
8. Seven Magazine (Bristol Evening Post) full page feature: “Three lines of simple beauty” Saturday April 29th 2006
all my best,
Alan
http://area17.blogspot.com
.
The point of haiku is emotion, don’t you think? That emotion is best implied, of course. Show, don’t tell. The virtue of the two-part juxtapositional structure in haiku is that it creates a gap whereby, indeed, something may be implied. What else is implied, in most cases, but some sort of emotion? Robert Creeley talked about poetry being a transfer of energy, and that energy is often a transfer of emotion. As I always say in the haiku workshops I give, don’t write about your feelings; write about what *caused* your feelings. The point is that one’s emotion will carry through in your careful description of what caused your feelings.
Michael
P.S. Folks in the Pacific Northwest and Haiku Canada have seen a presentation I’ve given called “The Joy of Haiku,” which presents all sorts of joyous haiku, yet also makes a case for “dark” beauty and joy (think of aspects of the movie *American Beauty*, especially the scene showing that white plastic bag blowing against the red bricks, and the movie’s final scene).
What about this one, leaving the reader to “feel” her/his own emotion.
sleepless night
I touch gently
her empty space
The Daily Yomiuri, Sept. 23, 2003
Vic
emotions are fine as lomg as they are implied. One needs to lean how to seperate themself from their emotions.
spring mist–
a mallard paddles
through our stillborn’s ashes
Gene
There are a few kigo expressing emotions, especially in spring and autumn.
http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.com/2007/08/loneliness-sabishisa.html
Gabi
And this has the opposite effect:
hot afternoon
the squeak of my hands
on my daughter’s coffin
- Lenard D Moore
Without wanting to appear in thrall to our esteemed moderator, ahem, this one of Peter’s always makes my spirits lift – one of the reasons it was chosen to be engraved on to a boulder on the Haiku Pathway in Katikati, New Zealand.
http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/katikati-haiku-pathway
summer clouds -
the river and I
inclined to the sea
- Peter Yovu
When I think of JOY, I think of these two haiku:
a poppy . . .
a field of poppies!
the hills blowing with poppies!
Michael McClintock
* *
pig and i spring rain
marlene mountain
Next Comments →