“Haiku for You” by Linda Martin Andersen
Welcome to “A Writer’s Playground”–A place to find wordplay, writing, and monthly calendar activities for kids and those young at heart.
On my December 1 blog post, I made these comments about National Haiku Poetry Day: National Haiku Poetry Day: 22 What is a haiku poem? What is the formula? Where can you find this information? Now that you know how write a haiku, pick a winter topic and write one of your own.
I love haiku poetry and so I invited some of my favorite haiku poets to discuss this art form, share their work, and inspire you to write your own.
It is my pleasure to present three guest poets. Please join me in welcoming … Maureen Wartski, Joy Acey, and Robyn Black.
Maureen will introduce us to the history and form of haiku, followed by haiku poetry about winter or Christmas.
Guest #1: Maureen Wartski
Have you suddenly stopped whatever you were doing because you saw or felt something that caught your attention and made you suddenly aware ? That awareness is a ‘haiku moment,’ an instant when you want to somehow express your perception and share it with others. For example, a simple observation written by the great Basho many years ago allows us to feel and understand what the poet saw so many years ago:
First snow
falling
On the half-finished bridge.
Basho
Haiku has its roots in Japan’s Heian period (700-1100) when a knowledge and appreciation of Chinese poetry was de rigeur in high society. Eventually, a poetic form called the tanka, a 5-7-5 triplet followed by a seven syllable couplet, took hold. Nobles who sat around viewing cherry blossoms while drinking sake elaborated on the tanka, but by the mid sixteenth century ordinary folk developed a ‘peasant’ poetry that was truly Japanese. Called haikai, this ‘peasant’ poem consisted of a beginning triplet called hokku followed by a linked poem. Eventually in the 17th century, Basho shed the linked poem. The hokku, which needed a seasonal word and an ‘aha’ moment at the end became known as an independent poem called haiku.
I have always enjoyed reading and writing haiku. When I was a little girl in Japan, I used to put together (very bad) haiku in my head. Later, I continued to enjoy the sparse and elegant form of this poetic form. Short, quick, sometimes surprising, haiku goes to the heart of any experience. It paints a picture, offers an observation. And often the triplet of 5-7-5—or, occasionally 7-7-5 syllables stays in the heart or the mind for a long, long time.
As for the season word needed in a haiku, they needn’t be complicated. For winter, this can be as simple as ‘cold, cool, north wind, snow, sleet, etc. ’ or delve deeper with ‘withered garden, cough, frozen butterfly, holly berry, etc.’ I’ve used a lot of season words because I have been writing a haiku a day for some time, culling them at the end of the year into a work called ‘A Year of Haiku’. Here are a couple of winter poems from Volume Three, Echoes.
Here are poems by Maureen Wartski:
Frostbitten flowers
Curl their petals inward
Guarding memories.
————————————-
Maybe up for rent…
Abandoned bird’s nest on that branch
Is covered with snow.
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And the last one of the year, written on New Year’s Eve:
The year is ending
Memories of hours past
Are gentle echoes.
I invite you to visit Maureen’s blog where she shares life experiences through conversation, haiku, and art quilts. Lovely!
http://maureenwartski.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/meeting-a-grateful-man/
Guest #2: Joy Acey
Since I will be in Kauai, Hawaii for the holiday–
Cook Island pine trees
swish with tropical breezes
Mele Kalikimaka
The Cook Island pines are about the only pine tree one will see in the
islands. They were brought to Hawaii when Captain Cook came to the
islands. They are tall and quick growing. Since the Captain sailed on
masted ships, it was thought the Cook Island pine would work for mast
replacement if the main mast got broken in a storm. In the last line,
the Hawaiian “Merry Christmas” is more than 5 syllables, but it is the
perfect way to end this haiku, so I bent the rules.
But I do live in the desert, so Christmas means artificial trees. (Live
trees have a hard time withstanding our heat. They drop their needles
too quickly.)
stacking tumbleweeds
three high to spray with white paint
making a snowman
————————————-
round sweet naval orange
hangs heavily in the toe
of your Christmas sock
—————————————-
collected pennies
gone from the glass Mason jar
a happy Christmas
Guest #3: Robyn Hood Black
In a recent blog post, Robyn hosted Haiku Society of America President, David G. Lanouse. He shared poems by Issa, haiku poet of Japanese tradition. http://www.robynhoodblack.com/blog.htm?post=938974
blooming
with butterflies
the dead tree.
Issa
—————————————————-
Robyn shares some of her haiku below:
winter moon
branch lines crisscross
the grass
©Robyn Hood Black
———————————————————-
winter chill
turkey vultures circling
one of their own
©Robyn Hood Black, The Heron’s Nest, June 2012
———————————————————–
winter rain
the fine print
smaller each year
©Robyn Hood Black, Chrysanthemum, April 2012
I met Robyn at a poetry workshop for writers that she organized. Thanks to Robyn, I have a poetic license, along with everyone else who attended. How fun!
For more about Robyn, check these links. http://www.robynhoodblack.com Haiku Page Link: http://www.robynhoodblack.com/haiku_113533.htm Blog Link http://www.robynhoodblack.com/blog.htm (Check for a series completed on Dec. 20 called “We Haiku Here,” featuring speakers from the recent Haiku Society of America Southeast Region conference): Twitter: @artsyletters Art blog: artsyletters.com Etsy store features her original gifts for readers and writers & “literary art with a vintage vibe”: https://www.etsy.com/shop/artsyletters
Maureen, Joy, and Robyn, thank you being guests here today and for sharing your poems. Happy National Haiku Poetry Day. Thanks for making this day very special.
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