haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering! 31st august

haikaiTALKS: haiku aesthetics - karumi | a saturday gathering_under the banyan tree

host: Lev Hart

31st August 2024

haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering_under the banyan tree

Haiku Aesthetics: karumi

Your host for haikaiTALKS Lev Hart

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AESTHETICS: karumi Part 2

Like John Pappas, Hifsa Ashraf lets her inner child write the haiku:

       leftover milk

       in the bowl

       day moon

       (HAIKUsutradhar, Jul 27, 2022)

Hifsa’s words are simple; and her meaning, clear. The ku seems natural and spontaneous --- artless. It is whimsical, and the images are drawn from everyday experience. In all these respects, her verse is like a child’s. It evinces what Basho calls the poetic spirit: “For a person who has the poetic spirit. . . . Everything he imagines turns into the moon.” Hifsa’s bowl of milk turns into the day moon, which is, by the way, a kigo. The moon, unless otherwise specified, is always an autumn kigo. The next time you look at the day moon, try not to see a bowl of milk --- good luck.

Basho thought that the poetry of his generation was, as we would say today, “over the top.” Poets tried to outdo each other in displays of wit, flights of fancy, ornamented beauty, and mastery of the conventional images and stock phrases that they had inherited. He surmised, “The skillful have a disease; let a three-foot child get the poem.”

Six-year-olds don’t regurgitate stock phrases and conventional images; they haven’t done enough reading to be unoriginal. They find beauty in the simple things around them. Their brains are not mature enough for wit. Their verses, however, are often whimsical, like Hifsa’s. In short, children’s haiku have karumi, “lightness.”

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to write two haiku with karumi. Compose them with simple images, based on your ordinary experience. Don’t overthink, try to sound “poetic,” or rely on stock phrases. Avoid capping a nature image with personal reflection, or with a message. Stick to concrete images. Haiku means “play verse,” so have fun as you write, like six-year-olds do. Remember to include the kigo.

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Thank you for doing this for us, Lev.

Members,

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

This is an exciting phase for haikaiTALKS! Have fun! Keep writing and commenting! _kala