haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering! 28th December

haikaiTALKS: Integrating Our Skills | a saturday gathering under the banyan tree

host: Lev Hart 28th December 2024

haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering under the banyan tree

Your host for haikaiTALKS: Lev Hart

Integrating Our Skills: Part 2 (of 3)

Lorraine Haig offers a master class on combining haiku skills:

       rotting apples

       the scent of cider

       from my shoes

       (haikuKATHA, Issue 34, August 2024.)

The kigo, “apples,” suggests themes traditionally linked with autumn, like decay, abandonment, and aloneness. Perhaps the harvest has been left to decay because the orchard is abandoned. The poet’s aloneness is underscored by “my shoes,” as opposed to “our shoes.” She, through toriawase, is tinged with the same autumnal themes as the kigo. Perhaps the poet is coming to terms with her own sense of decay, abandonment and aloneness. In the context of the year's decline, and the apple tree's annual life cycle, the poet appears to be coming to grips with mortality. 

The sense of aloneness in the face of mortality is characteristic of sabi. To the extent that the reader can empathize with this aloneness, the verse has mono no aware. The humble beauty of “rotting apples” has wabi. We see wabi in the ku’s thrift with syllables, a mere twelve, with not one more than necessary. The plainness of Lorraine’s wording, as opposed to more overtly poetic language, is another expression of wabi. The brevity facilitates immediacy; and the plainness, transparency. The reader can almost bypass the words on the page and stand beside the poet.

The karumi of Lorraine’s verse—its originality—sets it especially apart. A haiku composed of images that the reader has seen in endless other verses is likely to be forgotten with a turn of the page. As soon as I ask myself what the most memorable haiku I’ve read in haikaiTALKS is, “rotten apples” comes readily to mind. The image is also uniquely pungent. For its combination of craft and originality, I’m pleased to nominate Lorraine’s verse for the Touchstone Award for Individual Poems. Lorraine, I hope you win.

This week’s goal is to compose two verses with a focus on originality. Blend karumi with toriawase, sabi, mono no aware, wabi, and/or yūgen. Tell us which aesthetic concepts you mean to express in a line below the verse. (Two lines are too many.)  Remember the kigo. Next week will be my last commentary for haikaiTALKS.

“A Dictionary of Haiku Classified by Season Words with Traditional and Modern Methods,” by Jane Reichhold:

https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/7fb6654a1dfd1afef97369da920530f8.pdf

indian subcontinent SAIJIKI:

https://www.trivenihaikai.in/indian-saijiki

The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words:

http://www.2hweb.net/haikai/renku/500ESWd.html

The World Kigo Database:

https://wkdkigodatabase03.blogspot.com/

The Yuki Teikei Haiku Season Word List:

https://yths.org/season-word-list/

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Thank you for doing this for us, Lev

Members,

Please give your feedback on others' commentary and poems too. _()_

We are coming to the end of Lev's lessons in haikaiTALKS!

He will be stepping down from December end and embarking on an exciting journey.

I'll leave it here for him to personally share the news with you! Keep writing and commenting! _kala