|
Dreaming Discoveries
Background The Dreaming Collection arose from a desire to mitigate a perceived loss of Australian identity arising from the globalisation of haiku. While still serving that purpose [see Homogenous Haiku] it has matured to be a vehicle for encouraging, sharing and honouring Australian haiku. Without compromising this primary role, The Dreaming Collection is emerging as a test bed and locus for discovering aesthetics and techniques that are or might be applicable to Australian haiku. Some current areas of interest are outlined below. Some of these, such as ‘An Australian Seasoning’ (an alternative to kigo), and a ‘Definition of English-language Haiku’ have been widely studied elsewhere and yet they are revisited here in the belief that an Australian perspective might yield something more acceptable to the local palate. Other ‘areas of interest’ are mere curiosities at this stage, stirrings of I-wonder-if... They are aired in this tentative stage for the interest they might create. The Dreaming Collection is an arena in which to discover such interests and to bring some of the promising ones to the status of ‘worthy of study’. Dreaming itself is not a haiku study centre but it is available to the Australian Haiku Society and to individuals as a resource for their study and teaching of haiku in Australia. Current Areas of Interest An Australian Seasoning the fall / of gum leaves / spring
Perhaps one has to live in the southern hemisphere to understand Australians’ frustration with
kigo. We aspire to write haiku that is poetry and most of us see ‘nature’ or seasonality
as basic to it, but we can not sensibly adopt or adapt the Japanese kigo system.
An Australian Seasoning discusses the irrelevance in Australia of Japanese season topics
(kidai) and season words (kigo). It argues that we are unlikely to ever have
an Australian equivalent of a saijiki, a list of words that designate Australian seasons.
It discusses how we might otherwise indicate seasons and how we might reconcile our haiku with
that of a world which largely embraces kigo.
Depth and allusion in Australian Haiku Since the depth and connotations of kigo are not, as argued in An Australian Seasoning, available to Australian haiku poets, we need a system, perhaps one based on keywords, that will allow our small poems the depth and resonance they need to succeed as poetry. Such a system may take many years to evolve but it is in prospect. A paper on this subject is being drafted. Definition of English-language haiku The Australian Haiku Society appointed me to advise on what definitions of English-language haiku it might adopt for its particular needs. My consideration of this was initially unrelated to Haiku Dreaming activities but it has become clear that The Dreaming Collection itself is potentially a new way of defining haiku. A paper is being prepared on this possibility. Migration of Japanese haiku aesthetics English-language haiku poets are still trying to understand Japanese haiku aesthetics and to decide which of them they should incorporate in their writing. Since this is, in part, a function of the inheriting culture and language it seems reasonable to consider how they might migrate into the Australian culture and into Australian-English; the answers, or at least the emphasis, may be quite different to those for, say, American culture and language. Literary allusion – honkadori Over the past year I’ve introduced into The Dreaming Collection some haiku that contain allusions to Australian poetry classics. They have gone largely unrecognised, or at least unremarked. In general these haiku have been poorly received as measured by peer reviews. Australia does not have a strong haiku canon, and perhaps some of our haiku poets are not well read in other genres. My instinct is that allusion to Japanese haiku would be equally unsuccessful. But some experimentation with the more overt honkadori may be useful before this area of interest is set aside as being unfruitful. Australian slang as understatement / concision / disjunction / kakakoto? I’m from the bush and my ear is tuned to rural slang. In its concision, its laconic understatement and irregular syntax, in its presumption that things left unsaid will nevertheless be understood, I see parallels with haiku. A particular case is the conversational use of expressions such as 'eh' and 'eh?' and 'but' to act like kireji. Linguists may find this is fertile ground for their exploration. Australia and ‘The Poetry of Place’ Utamakura is the Japanese use of ‘poetic words’, usually place names, to bring depth to their poetry. Would allusion to Uluru or Hanging Rock or inland sea bring something to our haiku? ‘Spirit of place’ features in our literature; so does discovery and exploration in white-Australian history and psyche. Places, sacred and otherwise, are at the heart of Aborigine Dreaming and identity. In submissions to The Dreaming Collection some authors avoid all place names to ensure universal understanding (Haikuland?); others insist on them even when sympathetic readers can’t grasp their relevance. This form of allusion will be touched on in the planned paper Depth and Allusion in Australian Haiku but it probably merits wider study. An Aborigine haiku path? Interest is sparked by some apparent parallels. On one hand there is the rural environment and the influences of Shinto and animism within which haiku evolved in Japan. On the other hand there is the Aborigine Dreaming, culture, oral history, affinity with the land, and a one-world view that integrates people, fauna and flora. This is a sensitive area but one where The Dreaming Collection with its haiku-supporting notes, or some Aborigine version of it, might be helpful. Invitation I would be pleased to hear from anybody with thoughts on the above areas of interest, or with suggested additions.
John Bird
Editor, Haiku Dreaming Australia |