Getting Started With Haiku - Part 3

Index

Flexing Wings
Learn to Read #2

Suggestions for Further Study









 

Flexing Wings



Hi Kim,

Welcome to Part 3, the last part, of Getting Started With Haiku.

We completed Part 2 with you sharing your writing within mailing lists. By now you will have written and revised a significant number of haiku. The next step in sharing your work is:


Getting Your Work Published

When you've composed, say, 100 haiku, choose the best ones and submit them to magazines and enter them in competitions. Competition and Publishing Opportunities, which the HaikuOz Publications Officer maintains, will tell you how and where to submit. I suggest you begin with national magazines like paper wasp, Famous Reporter, and Yellow Moon, before trying the overseas ones.

Learn to live with rejection by editors and judges. Those judges and editors themselves have track records of rejection -- it's one of the reasons they got to their positions, learning from their rejections. Judging is highly subjective; that's a fact, not just a sop to your pride.

But if you consistently get your work rejected, then ask the HaikuOz Contact Officer to arrange some one-on-one coaching for you.

A warning. The pursuit of publication, the building of a CV or "name" within the haiku world, can become an ego-driven pre-occupation. If you ever feel such distraction, re-read Part 1 to re-centre yourself.

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Books

You say that Sue Mill from your local haiku group has offered to sell you her chapbook. Hmm.. I know Sue's a fine haijin but I suggest you pass. If you are going to buy a book to supplement your on-line studies I suggest it be William J. Higginson's Haiku Handbook. Under "Suggestions For Further Study" I'll suggest other books.

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As part of your on-going development, do consider:

Schools

"Schools" which teach haiku have recently become more common on the Internet. Unlike George Marsh's In the Moonlight a Worm... , these are interactive and have a teacher. See Competition and Publishing Opportunities for the status of current schools.
There are some 'old' schools, which you might find doctrinaire but which still have much to offer. Try them -- they may suite you but, if not, then simply leave.
Various new schools have sprung up in year 2001. I'm currently enroled in two schools run by the World Haiku Club and I'm learning much from both of them. Have a look at their archived lessons then decide if they are for you. If in doubt, have a chat with the HaikuOz Publications Officer about the available schools.

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I leave you with the following:
*  Some further notes on reading haiku;
*  Suggestions for further study.

It's been fun working with you, Kim. I look forward to reading the wonderful haiku you will write.
Please provide the HaikuOz Contact Officer with feedback so Getting Started With Haiku can be improved.

You've got a farewell message and some news for me? Good.
You've had a haiku published in the Mainichi Daily News? Congratulations!
You want me to know that I'm pompous.  Oh!
And you've got a comment on my work? You find my haiku 'contrived, intellectual abstractions that lack karumi.'  Oh... I see...  Perhaps you're right.

All the best, Kim.
jack


graduation day ~
a puffed-up frog deflates
with a croak

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Learn to Read #2

In "Learn to Read Haiku #1", I advised "Appreciate what is conveyed but is not explicit in the haiku." The following article by Dhugal Lindsay might help you take this further.
    ... jb (ed)

Below is an extract from a series (Reflections) I have written for Fuyoh magazine where I explain what I got out of certain haiku submitted to the magazine. I've been told that it helps beginners to read more into each haiku than they otherwise would have done. It would never be done in Japan - this kind of analysis of a haiku - but I think it does help scientifically-minded Westerners to learn how to read between the lines. Most of this "understanding" should be done at the subconscious level but beginners often can't manage this easily and I've found that the analysis speeds the process.      
   ... Dhugal
spring break
the dog escapes through
a loose fence
               - Juanito ESCAREAL
The relaxed nature of the poet on holiday is readily evident in this haiku as he sits back and just observes the goings on about him. The dog in question may have been escaping from the neighbourhood kids or perhaps it had just been locked up and had found a way to escape the yard. Either way, not only is the -ness of the spring break captured in this poem, somewhat of the poet's attitude to his job is also portrayed, particularly in the word "escapes".
child talks in her sleep
in her mother tongue
blossoms hide the moon
            - Kris KONDO
The trials and tribulations of raising one's children bilingually are expressed with such elegance in the imagery and symbolism of the phrase "blossoms hide the moon". Blossoms, of course, refer to the cherry blossoms of spring - traditionally associated with ephemeralness, the warrior spirit, fleeting beauty, and most everything Japanese. With the inconstant moon, a thing of beauty, of madness, and the object of mankind's admiration, longing and curiosity since the dawn of time. Bilingualism in children often ebbs and flows with one language becoming dominant over the other for a time before again being eclipsed by the other. How much do parents wish they could enter their child's head and know how they feel and think, and how much more so when their child is experiencing something that parent has never experienced themselves?
laugh last and best
if you are to laugh
onion in bloom
            - Mami MATSUZAKI
The power of kigo is readily evident in this poem. Anything other than "onions in bloom" in the third line of this haiku just would not fit. The novel appearance of onion flowers, looking so out of place on their stout green stalks, and the pungent cutting scent of the onion itself resonate with the sentiment portrayed in the first two lines.
sleepless night
the bakery window's
thickening mist
            -Paul David MENA
When reading this haiku I could not but remember one of Shuuson's most famous : baker's yeast / it lives, it expands / frost in the night. Paul's haiku can, of course, be read on a purely superficial level where the poet, unable to sleep, takes a walk in the early hours of the morning past the bakery - the windows of which have started to fog in the cool morning air with the heat from baking bread. However, I feel that the author has captured a moment with "sleepless" and "thickening mist". This and the imagery in the vertical through allusion to Shuuson's poem mark this as a haiku firmly grounded in the traditional haiku philosophy while dealing with the modern world.
firefly-lit
dewdrops
into the dark stream
            -Kohjin SAKAMOTO
There is an air of Basho and his ancient pond in this haiku as the dewdrops disappear into the stream. Though they are bathed in light, holding it within themselves, this light is lost as the dewdrops become a part of a larger whole. But how beautiful they are while they are still in fall...
letting the hill
slow the car --
spring sky
            -Laura YOUNG
The fresh sense of wonder, anticipation and renewed curiosity - the zest for life - that is felt as the world warms and leaves burst their buds is captured with elegance in this haiku. The kigo "spring sky" is alive - no other phrase would fit as well.

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Suggestions for Further Study


From a vast array of possibilities, I've chosen the following articles, all less than 3,000 words, for your further study. I've listed them in what might be a sensible reading order -- for content, length and variety.  ... jb (Ed)



Kim Komurasaki's The Pleasure of Haiku
provides an insight with a Japanese perspective; comments are illustrated with translations from the masters. About 800 words.



Poetics - a personal statement by Janice M. Bostok.
Read Part 1, only. About 1200 words. Janice touches on many aspects of haiku that you, too, will need to resolve.



Some Thoughts for Rethinking Haiku  by Jane Reichhold
Some thoughts to get you thinking about your own approach to haiku. About 330 words.

[This is one of my several recommendations of material in the haiku section of Jane's huge AHA Poetry site. I'm sure you'll later return to read all of it but for now I've tried to select material appropriate to your progress. jb (Ed)]



Jeanne Emrich's Welcome to the Haiku Habit
An orientation on haiku in about 2,000 words. Jeanne is author of "The Haiku Habit" earlier recommended as a course for you to do.



A.C. Missias' Contemporary Haiku: Origins and New Directions
In this orientation piece, about 1,700 words, ACM delivers what the title promises.



History of Haiku by Ryu Yotsuya.
History of haiku told through 10 haikuists and their works -- from Basho to Koi.
[also included in the reading list]



Jane Reichhold's Another Attempt to Define Haiku
You earlier read Alexey Andretev's extended definition of haiku. This is Jane's treatment. About 2,400 words.



Elizabeth St Jacques' Looking at Haiku
About 1, 000 words. Elizabeth identifies common problems of novice haiku poets and points the way ahead.



A Reading of the Prizewinners by Leonard D. Moore.
On Jane Reichhold's site. About 700 words. An insight into what an eminent judge saw in the haiku he selected. Similar to Dhugal Lindsay's 'Reflections' in Learn to Read #2.
[Stop before "That Lovable Old Issa"]



Dhugal J. Lindsay's Haiku Universe A comprehensive haiku site by a fellow-HaikuOz member who lives in Japan, writes haiku in Japanese, and is keenly aware of the Japanese haiku scene. At this stage, restrict yourself to the section, "How To Make Haiku". Return later for the rest.



Fragment and Phrase Theory  by Jane Reichhold
Treats haiku as comprising two parts, fragment & phrase, and explains possible rules, or guidelines, for each part.
[Stop before "Haiku Rules That Have Come and Gone".]

[A must-read article but I have to say I'm uncomfortable with some of Jane's comments about punctuation... jb(Ed)]



Keiko Imaoko's Forms in English Haiku
Try to stay away from the tired arguments about 5-7-5 syllabic form for haiku in English. But, if you must know why only about 10% of haiku in English use that form, this article will put you right. About 2,500 words.



Jane Reichhold's Haiku Rules That Have Come and Gone
Jane lists 65 such rules and places the onus on you to decide which rules you will use, for the time being, for your haiku. About 1,000 words.

[Stop before "Some Thoughts on Rethinking Haiku"]



Mark Brooks' Haiku Resources
An excellent list of resources, some of which I've already recommended to you.



Mark Osterhaus' Links to Haiku Sites.
One of the best listings of links to haiku journals, anthologies, poets' sites, associations, resources, etc.
This is your springboard to other haiku sites to explore. They are all worth a visit.



I reproduce my recommended on-line reading list:
Translations of the Masters
History of Haiku by Ryu Yotsuya.
Basho's Haiku - Translated into English by Jane Reichhold
An Introduction To Haiku
Contemporary
Henderson Memorial Award winners on the HSA site
First Australian Haiku Anthology
Haiku Light by Elizabeth St Jacques.[past editions]
The Heron's Nest - a haikai journal ... [editor's choices]
A Dictionary of Haiku, by Jane Reichhold
selected haiku by Janice Bostok




Finally, here are books I recommended for your on-going study:
* William J. Higginson's The Haiku Handbook, which I earlier recommended you purchase. Also by Higginson: Haiku World and his Haiku Seasons.
* R. H. Blyth's Haiku; (4 volumes)
* Bob Jones' Haiku Nature (available from universities)
* Keene's The Narrow Road to Oku.
* Any of the writings of Henderson, Ueda and Beichman.
For further reading, check out Mark Brooks' recommendations at: http://www.epiphanous.org/mark/haiku/books3.html#insce


index to Part 3

beginning of Getting Started...

to haikuoz site

poetry with john bird









































Getting Started With Haiku - Part 3

Index

PART 1
Introduction

Reaching Out
The Magic
Thumbnail History
Definitions
Learn to Read #1
Selections
PART 2

Reading Guide

Extending Your Understanding

Writing Haiku
Contributions by Yoko Sugawa
'One Exercise' by Tim Russell
Alison Williams' 'Rules'

Sharing Your Work



 



PART 3
Flexing Wings
Learn to Read #2
Suggestions for Further Study