February 2010

Essences (Introduction)

by Scott Metz on February 18, 2010

We’re starting another section here on troutswirl. This one is entitled Essences and will be written by Carmen Sterba.

See the Intro below:



Essences began as a column written by Carmen Sterba in the North American Post in Seattle, WA, a bilingual newspaper in Japanese and English. Its purpose is to go back to the roots of the “haiku movement” in North America: the major poets, the individual styles of haiku, the books, the journals and conferences as they evolved from the sixties and seventies onwards. This will be a short version, so feel free to add information and comments as we go along.




Dunes—An Introduction

by Scott Metz on February 14, 2010


Dunes

(An Introduction)

BY Adelaide B. Shaw


 

Haiku, like dunes of sand, has shifted over time. The four great masters wrote as individuals with their own style and traditions. Buson’s approach differed from Bashō who came before him. Issa wrote in another way. Shiki went back to Buson and haiku evolved even further, including the change from hokku to haiku.
 
When translators first introduced haiku to the West, it was their translations, explanations and interpretations of haiku elements that came to be accepted as traditions. Yet, translations and explanations differed, and it was, and is, difficult to arrive at a definition of traditional haiku which is agreeable to all haiku poets. R.H. Blyth, for example, wrote of syllables; William J. Higginson wrote of sound units, not syllables. Richard Gilbert has written of -on and -ji; while robin d. gill writes of syllabets.
 
Rather than just discuss traditional haiku, this new section of Troutswirl will explore the traditions of haiku as well as how they’ve played a role in traditional, contemporary, and innovative haiku.
 
What are the traditions of English-language haiku? How were they established?  Are they relevant today? Which traditions are necessary for a haiku to be traditional? What is ignored, tweaked or added to be labeled contemporary or innovative? Does English-language haiku have its own set of traditions? Should it? Can it not?
 
These, and many other questions, will be discussed in Dunes.
 
Dunes is overseen by Adelaide B. Shaw.

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Some open questions to readers: Where would you like to see this section go? What areas and topics concerning English haiku traditions—its shifting dunes—would you like to see explored and dug into?




Viral 5.6

by Scott Metz on February 10, 2010




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 5.6


Beauty in Haiku

BY Michael Dylan Welch





鮟鱇の骨まで凍ててぶちきらる
ankō-no hone-made itete buchikiraru


                                                 the anglerfish frozen
                                                 right down to its very bones
                                                 is hacked to pieces


                                                                                 —Katō Shūson (1905–1993)
                                                                                 (translated by Dhugal J. Lindsay)


This poem may startle readers because of its bluntness and violence. Many readers and writers of haiku prefer that haiku focus on the beautiful, so much so that they may believe that haiku should be limited to the beautiful. In Japan, however, the subjects of many haiku are often merely mundane, and not specifically beautiful. Moreover, subjects also appear that are decidedly unbeautiful, as in the preceding poem. Robert Bly has asserted that American haiku could represent darker content, in the way that Shiki’s haiku, for example, reflected the tensions of dying from tuberculosis, or the way Bashō’s haiku are often directly or contextually tinged with the dangers of travel. Our haiku, too, has plenty of room for duende, as well as dark subjects. Haiku need not dwell entirely on the dark or seemly, but just as too much salt spoils a meal, so does too much sugar. As James W. Hackett has said in his guidelines for writing haiku, “Lifefulness, not beauty, is the real quality of haiku.”


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Translation from Rose Mallow #58 (2003), page 46,
by permission from Dhugal J. Lindsay.

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Katō Shūson (1905–1993) cannot select the next poem, and so Viral 5 comes to a close.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
• Viral 5.1 (Metz ➾ Lyles)
• Viral 5.2 (Lyles ➾ Chang)
• Viral 5.3 (Chang ➾ Stevenson)
• Viral 5.4 (Stevenson ➾ Yarrow)
• Viral 5.5 (Yarrow ➾ Welch)


Viral 5.5

by Scott Metz on February 4, 2010




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.

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• Viral 5.1 (Metz ➾ Lyles)
• Viral 5.2 (Lyles ➾ Chang)
• Viral 5.3 (Chang ➾ Stevenson)
• Viral 5.4 (Stevenson ➾ Yarrow)




Haiku Registry Update

by Billie Wilson on February 3, 2010

Hi folks,

Here is the latest update regarding additions to the Haiku Registry. Each poet’s page is accessible by last name: simply click on that initial in the search index on the opening page.

Added between January 19 and February 2:  Zoran Antonić, Deb Baker, Kirsten Cliff, Ljubica Vukov Davcik, Madeleine Findlay, Dubravko Ivančan, Dubravko Korbus, Duško Matas, Boris Nazansky, Sanja Petrović, Patrick M. Pilarski, Željka Vučinić-Jambrešić. Also: a photograph has been added for Rebecca Ball Rust’s page.

Added between January 6 – 18: Kay F. Anderson, Margaret Beverland, Randy Brooks, Lee Gurga, Penny Harter, Keith Heiberg, William J. Higginson, James Kirkup, Günther Klinge, Catherine J.S. Lee, Thomas Martin, Tanya McDonald, Marlene Mountain, Kathe L. Palka, Zvonko Petrović, Darko Plažanin, Lynne Rees, Robert Spiess, Willem Johan van der Molen, Saša Važić, Max Verhart, Paul O. Williams, Peter Yovu, Jadran Zalokar.

To submit your own information, click the appropriate link on the Registry’s opening page.

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