Jan 25, 2023·edited Jan 25, 2023Liked by SB Wright
Love 'through damp leaves'! Need to think more about why, but it seems to me an example of a type of haiku that is so often prose-like, one that almost seems to lack a real break, but is an observation that is not reductive, and is not trying for a metaphor. A charge is created. Perhaps also that it's proprioceptive, which many haiku are not. Enjoyed 'torn shoji' and 'a whisper of wind' as well. Geckos show up in my haiku a lot.
Your quote from Santoka, which I'd forgotten, reminds me of walking across Shodoshima (Shodo Island) in 2008 and stumbling across a small museum dedicated to Ozaki Hosai, a haiku poet I'd never heard of at the time, and who as you know has became one of my favourites. I met a Japanese microbiologist and enthusiastic amateur haiku writer at the museum and we went and found Hosai's grave, where in broken English he translated a plaque that explained how Santoka, another poet I hadn't heard of at the time, had visited to pay his respects and written a haiku to mark the occasion. Based on his translation, I translated the haiku as:
paying my respects to Hosai I offer only weeds
As I wrote at the time: "I'm not sure, but I gather Santoka really did lay some weeds on the grave, as he was too broke to offer anything else. I imagine he was also implying that his haiku were as weeds compared to Hosai. But I'm not sure; my translation is a very free translation of a free-style haiku. It may even be completely and utterly wrong. In fact, I secretly hope that it is, for then it would be an original haiku about me standing before the grave of a master poet and offering weeds!"
I read Santoka's diary later but don't remember making that connection to weeds.
Great that you're reading 'Disjunctive Dragonfly'; looking forward to engaging with it for my next post. And never too much silence in haiku, I don't think. :)
Sorry i took so long to reply. Long covid hit me again.
I am trying to remember what I was trying to achieve with ‘through damp leaves”. I seem to recall wanting to to try and capture the slow movement caused by the cold. I think I was trying to use sounds that slow your speech down fricatives and plosives.
I am a little jealous of your Haiku adventures. I think the closest I ever got was boating past a spot on the Sumida(sp?) river that was important to Basho.
I wonder if Santoka saw himself as a weed ie a hardy plant, not especially beautiful, a survivor and true to him/itself.
I have to wait for a good day to read The Disjunctive Dragonfly again. It’s quite dense and illness and the need for new glasses has been keeping my reading on hold.
I really enjoyed these haiku, especially "torn shoji". Don't beat yourself up over the kigo (seasonal reference). You have more here than you are giving yourself credit for; some sources have very broad ideas about kigo! I definitely see more than one here.
Thanks for your kind words, Andrew. Yeah, I’m trying not to worry too much about kigo. I think it's hard to really use them as part of the form when there really isn't a culture of maintaining saijiki in the West. I hope to settle on my own definition of what constitutes Haiku/ Senryu by the end of this project. Mind you when people who have been writing Haiku for decades still quibble about definitions it's probably not going to be definitive.
I need to look into getting those books myself. Growing up reading haiku is the sum total of my study of the art. It would be nice to learn more formally.
Love 'through damp leaves'! Need to think more about why, but it seems to me an example of a type of haiku that is so often prose-like, one that almost seems to lack a real break, but is an observation that is not reductive, and is not trying for a metaphor. A charge is created. Perhaps also that it's proprioceptive, which many haiku are not. Enjoyed 'torn shoji' and 'a whisper of wind' as well. Geckos show up in my haiku a lot.
Your quote from Santoka, which I'd forgotten, reminds me of walking across Shodoshima (Shodo Island) in 2008 and stumbling across a small museum dedicated to Ozaki Hosai, a haiku poet I'd never heard of at the time, and who as you know has became one of my favourites. I met a Japanese microbiologist and enthusiastic amateur haiku writer at the museum and we went and found Hosai's grave, where in broken English he translated a plaque that explained how Santoka, another poet I hadn't heard of at the time, had visited to pay his respects and written a haiku to mark the occasion. Based on his translation, I translated the haiku as:
paying my respects to Hosai I offer only weeds
As I wrote at the time: "I'm not sure, but I gather Santoka really did lay some weeds on the grave, as he was too broke to offer anything else. I imagine he was also implying that his haiku were as weeds compared to Hosai. But I'm not sure; my translation is a very free translation of a free-style haiku. It may even be completely and utterly wrong. In fact, I secretly hope that it is, for then it would be an original haiku about me standing before the grave of a master poet and offering weeds!"
I read Santoka's diary later but don't remember making that connection to weeds.
Great that you're reading 'Disjunctive Dragonfly'; looking forward to engaging with it for my next post. And never too much silence in haiku, I don't think. :)
Sorry i took so long to reply. Long covid hit me again.
I am trying to remember what I was trying to achieve with ‘through damp leaves”. I seem to recall wanting to to try and capture the slow movement caused by the cold. I think I was trying to use sounds that slow your speech down fricatives and plosives.
I am a little jealous of your Haiku adventures. I think the closest I ever got was boating past a spot on the Sumida(sp?) river that was important to Basho.
I wonder if Santoka saw himself as a weed ie a hardy plant, not especially beautiful, a survivor and true to him/itself.
I have to wait for a good day to read The Disjunctive Dragonfly again. It’s quite dense and illness and the need for new glasses has been keeping my reading on hold.
I really enjoyed these haiku, especially "torn shoji". Don't beat yourself up over the kigo (seasonal reference). You have more here than you are giving yourself credit for; some sources have very broad ideas about kigo! I definitely see more than one here.
Thanks for your kind words, Andrew. Yeah, I’m trying not to worry too much about kigo. I think it's hard to really use them as part of the form when there really isn't a culture of maintaining saijiki in the West. I hope to settle on my own definition of what constitutes Haiku/ Senryu by the end of this project. Mind you when people who have been writing Haiku for decades still quibble about definitions it's probably not going to be definitive.
Thanks also for including the link to https://poetrysociety.org.nz/affiliates/haiku-nz/haiku-poems-articles/archived-articles/beyond-the-haiku-moment-basho-buson-modern-haiku-myths/
I found the historical discussion very illuminating, esp. how the kigo was part of setting the scene for the longer linked form.
It was a good find. It was Chris, who's Haiku commentary blog is in my recommendations, that brought it to my attention again.
I need to look into getting those books myself. Growing up reading haiku is the sum total of my study of the art. It would be nice to learn more formally.
It's a young poetry form in the west, only 100 or so years. Write and read is the best way to learn.