Poetry of Moment

 

By Patricia Prime

 

Haiku is a poetic form to enjoy in moments of quiet solitude, when the soul is in need of reflection and refreshment.  Contemporary haiku ranges across continents and countries, can be found in newspapers, magazines, journals and on the Internet where one can join numerous blog sites, join in workshops, have one’s poetry criticised and find examples of the best (and worst) haiku writing.

 

Haiku grew out of two earlier Japanese forms, the tanka (or waka), a five-line stanza arranged 5-7-5-7-7, and the renga (linked verse), a collaborative form in which two or more poets would take turns, the first using the first three lines of a tanka, the second using the last two lines, and then continuing for some time.  That opening was called a

haiku or “starting verse.”  Basho is credited with pioneering the haiku as an independent form.  Almost everyone who writes haiku will know his famous verse:

 

An old pond;

A frog jumps in –

The sound of water

 

(Translated by R. H. Blyth)

 

Haiku is a Japanese poetic form, traditionally three lines containing seventeen syllables, usually arranged 5-7-5.  In English, many haiku simply follow that syllabic pattern.  But it can also consist of one, two or four lines (and a different count of syllables or no count at all) and still be called a haiku.  Here are two examples of one- line haiku:

 

coldmorningsparrowsfattentogetherontheclothesline

 

            (Andre Surridge, NZ)

and

 

in the viewfinder the photographer’s eye

 

(Catherine Mair, NZ –  NZPS Newsletter - a fine line, Nov, 2007)

 

Two examples of haiku having less than a 17-syllable count are:

 

almost lost

in the jacaranda

the blue jay

                       

(Andre Surridge, NZ)

 

and

 

 

 

late autumn

tossing out

last winter’s cures        

 

(Catherine Mair, NZ – the infinity we swim in – NZ Poetry Society, 2007)

 

The spirit of haiku often identifies it more than the metre: a reference to a season, an image or two of the natural world, the juxtaposition of surprising images, and a flash of awareness or recognition.  Haiku challenge our accustomed mode of experience, either by unusual and striking imagery which takes us unaware, or, more powerfully, by a disjunction of images (kireji) which throw our customary perceptions out of gear, waking us to a fleeting but liberating insight. 

 

Firmly rooted in American culture through the popularisation of Zen and the writings of the poets of the Beat generation, Jack Keruac, Gary Snyder and Ezra Pound, by the beginning of the 21st century haiku has become widespread throughout the English-speaking world and farther afield.  The assimilation of the evolving English genre, absorbing its Japanese origins and the aesthetics and techniques through this heritage has enriched English language poetry.

 

Development of haiku among Indian poets is hampered by a perception that haiku is merely a syllabic form, which demands little more than the ability to count to seventeen.  Some excellent 17-syllable haiku have been written, but they succeed only if they meet the more fundamental criteria of the form: simplicity, immediacy, imagery and presence.  By the same token, if these criteria are fulfilled, the syllabic pattern becomes optional and can be dispensed with.  The best reason to hold on to the seventeen syllables in English haiku is a preference for the discipline of structure.  But this can only be a personal choice.  A collection in which every poem falls into the same 5-7-5 pattern would come close to being monotonous.

 

In a piece that can be found on the Internet at http://ignca.nic.in/n1002404.htm Prof. Satya Bhushan Verma speaks about the way in which haiku came to India.  He says that haiku came to Indians through English.  “The English translations of Haiku had naturally lost the spontaneity and when presented to the Indian readers, they did not have the original charm.”   He adds “The first time any Indian poet ever mentioned Haiku was the reference to it by Rabindranath Tagore in his travel diary on his visit to Japan.  Subsequently there were others.  Notable among the later poets who attempted Haiku both translation and composing was ‘Agyeya’.”  There have been haiku poets in other regional languages too.

 

Composing poetry is part of the religious practice of Zen.  Zen and its philosophy went to Japan via China.  Moreover, the Zen thinking, which owes its origin to India, comes from dhyan, a Sanskrit word, which means meditation.  It seems to me that Indian writers of haiku, consciously or unconsciously, are inclined to the traditions of Zen and that their haiku are contemplations of life, rather than imagist moments of time.

 

Imagist poems, which are strongly influenced by haiku and other oriental verse, are short, written in free verse, and present images without comment or explanation.  Ezra Pound said that the image “presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.”  A poetic image transfers itself to our minds with a flash of insight.  Many images, such as “a bracelet in a wheelbarrow,” appeal primarily to the sense of sight.  But an image can invoke the other senses too, as in a “sniff of perfume,” or a “jangling of banjos.”  Haiku without images, or with too few, seem vacant, generalized, uncompelling.  But stale images are no substitute for the real thing, which must hit us as a discovery, however small.

 

There is a wide range of styles in Indian haiku.  Perhaps it is in the regions that this is most evident, and the largest group of practioners seem to come from academia, though some of the best haiku poets, such as Kala Ramesh, Angelee Deodhar, Mijeeb Yar Jung, Urmila Kaul and others are not academics.  Within this huge cast there is movement around the country.  There are poets of the hard-edged, tough spare writing whose material is the life of industrial areas, where poverty is evident and life is predominantly urban.  Then there are poets who live more rural lives who write about the countryside and the elements.

 

In these kind of settings it is essential for a poet to evolve a style that reflects the background, a style that utilises local language that can be understood universally, with scenes and events from such surroundings.  To be acceptable as haiku the work must have no frills, nor sentimentality.  And it is a necessary challenge to include some emotion whether living in a rural setting or in a city.

 

One of the most prolific and best-known haiku poets is Professor Ram Krishna Singh.  Singh pays minute attention to language, managing to achieve warmth and feeling with concision and pointedness.  Here is one of his haiku from his collection of poetry and haiku, The River Returns:

 

The lone hibiscus

waits for the sun to bloom:

morning’s first offering

 

After a couple of readings the reader begins to appreciate how the shape of the poem follows the action.  In three lines we see the poet in the early morning as he observes the magnificent flower about to open and offer itself to the sunshine.  There is almost a religious feeling about the haiku.  It has a true ring to it: a moment in time, duly observed and noted by the poet.  In another haiku, Singh captures the true-life picture of a villager drawing water from a well and observing her reflection as she does so:

 

In the well

studying her image

a woman

 

The poet records the scene with simplicity.  Here there is little punctuation to stop the flow of the image.  The effect of the woman, perhaps alone at the well, is conveyed by subtle and varying lines, which reflect her state of mind and her glance into the water.

 

The haiku of Dr. Mohammed Fakhruddin, on the other hand, displays great diversity in subject matter, form and style, which seeks to prove the truth with each poem.  In haiku of a personal, social and even political nature, Fakhruddin suggests the possibility of humanism without illusion. 

 

Mohammed Fakhruddin is well known as the “Father of the Haiku Movement in India”.  He was the first poet to launch “Haiku Movement” in India in 1995 through Poets International and the first to conduct the “All India Haiku Conference” in Bangalore in 1997.  The conference  was attended by more than 300 haiku lovers and poets.  It was presided over by the then Governor of Karnataka Mr. Khurshid Alam Khan along with the Guest of Honour Dr. N. R. Shetty, the then Vice Chancellor of Bangalore University.  One of the participants was a 9-year-old Indian girl, from USA, who recited her own haiku and told the gathering that her Japanese school teacher taught her how to write haiku in her class.

 

In 1998 Fakhruddin established The Haiku Society of India.  Poets International conducts a good number of seminars on haiku, sitigotyo and other Japanese forms of poetry from time to time.  Again Poets International is conducting a world seminar on sitigotyo on 8th December 2007, during Poets International’s 12th India Poetry Festival 2007.

 

The following haiku is from Poets International, October 2007, of which Fakhruddin is editor:

 

When the moon has gone

and the sun plays hide and seek –

will I see new dawn?

 

In this poem, we may note the poet’s use of the traditional syllabic form 5-7-5, his use of punctuation and the run-on of lines 1 and 2.  His haiku are outstanding for their musical quality and successful blending of classical form with modern ideas, as we see in this haiku from the same publication:

 

Man and ethics is

Like jasmine and its fragrance.

Or like the mind and peace.

 

With striking nature-bound images of passion, fear, age, loss and survival, Fakhruddin’s poetic voice is both universal and heir to the famed writers of Indian lyric poetry.

 

Two of the most recognised Indian haiku poets are Kala Ramesh and Angelee Deodhar.  The work of these two poets is stylistically much more contemporary than that of other Indian voices, but one thing they have in common is a very straightforward, simple colloquial voice.  Because the language and the style of their haiku is so simple and literal, the concepts which drive them have to be very strong, and I feel that they achieve the necessary strength.  Both poets give us poems that invite us to take our time, return and reread to reflect on their words and allusions.  They are thoughtful, sensitive and lucid writers and their haiku have the depth, breadth and vigour to make us take them seriously.

 

Kala Ramesh is a performing vocalist in Indian Classical music.  Coming from an extremely artistic and culturally rich South Indian family, Kala believes – as her father is fond of saying – that “the soil has to be fertile for the plant to bloom” and feels that she owes her poetic streak to her mother.  Two of Kala’s haiku follow:

 

running downhill

I fall through

the autumn sky

 

(Roadrunner, May 2007, Issue VII:2; tinywords May, 2007)

 

spring breeze –

I catch the tune

she leaves behind

 

(Second runner-up, The Heron’s Nest Readers’ Choice Award, Vol. VII, 2006)

 

Angelee Deodhar is an eye surgeon by profession.  She is a haiku poet and artist.  Her haiku/haiga have been published internationally in various books, journals and on the internet.  She is a member of several haiku groups, the chief among them being the Haiku Society of America, Haiku Society of Canada, and Haiku International Association, Japan, the World Haiku Association and the Evergreen Haiku Society, Japan.  Two of her haiku are:

 

rumors of war

up into a darkening sky

-         a child’s newsprint kite

 

(www.worldhaiku.net)

 

pail in hand

I trace the muddy path

of childhood mushrooms

 

(www.worldhaiku.net)

 

It is plain to see from the above examples that Indian poets write haiku not only differently from poets in the West, but also differently from each other.

 

To paraphrase the words of Matthew Paul, writing a review of a Welsh poet’s collection in Blithe Spirit, Volume 17 Number 3, September 2007, one has to ask whether it may be too soon for some Indian haiku poets to be placing their work in any other haiku-related context than its relation to, and divergence from, haiku that thrive in their own cultural environment.  The verbosity of the Indian tradition would appear to be at odds with the brevity and plain language of haiku that we are used to reading in the Western world.

 

So where does this journey through haiku by Indian poets take us?  In terms of India and its literary canon, we are offered welcome tours and detours through places and spaces that align with and expand our literary sensibilities and knowledge of Indian culture.  There’s a tangible sense that many Indian poets are succeeding in embracing an international outlook that doesn’t compromise their culture and locales.  Ultimately, though, it’s unfair to hold many Indian haiku writers up to the spotlight of a wider-ranging debate about how Indian haiku might “travel” overseas.  We must accept that many of these poets are writing in English as a second language and that they have a vast heritage of lyric poetry behind them.  It’s enough to accept that the journey is being made by many poets to bring their haiku up to the highest standards.  While other, lesser known poets make their own way, located at some level within the local, yet simultaneously managing to convey their ideas of what haiku should be, we are seeing more and more poets able to convey their ideas in plain, simple language with brevity, concision and variable use of imagery.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

 

The human and the non-human, the personal and the political, the psychic and the subjective, the local and the global, are variations for themes in haiku, that can be multiplied endlessly but the principle informs everything one writes; to look both ways, to hold things together, to give each term its proper weight.  Indian haiku writers must return again and again to the practice of their art, to reading other poet’s work and to the discipline of studying the principles of haiku, either through reading books on the subject or making use of workshops on Internet sites.

 

 

 

First published in Muse India, Issue 17, Jan-Feb 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following list of web sites will be of interest for intending practitioners and readers who wish to learn about haiku or contribute their work:

 

Web Sites:

 

Simply Haiku

Tinywords

The Heron’s Nest

WHC/India (which includes a large number of Indian kigo)

 

References:

 

a fine line, NZPS Newsletter, November 2007

 

Blithe Spirit, Volume 17 Number 3, September 2007, edited by Graham High

 

Internet web site: http://ignca.nic.in1002404,htm

 

Poets International, edited by Dr. Mohammed Fakhruddin, October 2007

 

the infinity we swim in, NZPS Anthology, November 2007

 

The River Returns, R. K. Singh.  Prakash Book Depot, Bareilly.  2006