Bookcase

August 2012

Bookcase

This is a page introducing books on haiku and related subjects, new and old, in various forms, e.g. book reviews, book show window, or treatises for the benefit of the WHR readers.

§ WHERE LIGHT BEGINS, Haiku, by Gabriel Rosenstock, edited by Mícháel

Ó hAodha, published by Original Writing Ltd., Dublin, Ireland, 2012, ISBNs Parent: 978-1-908817-47-1, ePub: 978-1-98817-48-8, Mobi: 978-1-98817-49-5

As I wrote the Afterword for this book, I shall just reprint it here instead of a book review (Susumu Takiguchi)

* * * * *

sickle moon -

reaping

emptiness

Rosenstock has done it again. Here we have another anthology of haiku of originality and newness.

Why is it that if lesser hands try the same sort of haiku theirs would become shallow and literally empty while in the hands of this poet profundity and lightness show up in an exquisite balance?

Rosenstock is one of the few non-Japanese poets who have a feel for haiku almost instinctively but, more importantly, who have not lost it by the study or practice of writing haiku. Not all his haiku are good, needless to say, which also applies to even the best haiku poets in the world, but the important thing is that if, like plants, the haiku root is fundamentally correct then what sprouts or flowers would also be more often than not fine, sometimes brilliant. This is vindicated in the following haiku in this new anthology:

outside the Guggenheim

the shape

of real trees

I read this haiku as follows. Guggenheim represents one of the heights of modern human creativity. However, it cannot surpass nature’s creativity after all. Rosenstock appreciates what is shown at the famous museum as well as the museum building itself but outside he sees nature which makes him appreciate more profoundly both it and the works of art he has just seen inside. It is not negation of one in preference of the other but celebration of both, leaning towards man’s modesty in the face of nature. In other words, his love for human creativity is only possible if man is humble enough to respect the creativity of nature (not necessarily ‘of God’, or ‘of gods’).

foghorn …

little by little

the world disappears

was its spirit released?

flaming limbs

of an old tree

Two more examples which show Rosenstock’s basic perception about the relationship between man and nature. For him the relationship is so close that man and nature are not mutually exclusive. Compare the togetherness an interaction between physical and spiritual sides and man and nature with the so-called spiritualism which verges on fanaticism and non-intellectual simplification.

sun shower -

flowers, weeds, stones

drenched in enlightenment

A bit dangerous territory where such abstract notion as ‘enlightenment’ is used is treated with some of the most concrete phenomena of nature, making the haiku not only non-pedantic but also convincing.

drizzly morning …

a pigeon savours

a drunk’s vomit

For animals and birds food is food whatever it is. They have gone through the evolution whereby their body, especially the digestive system, has been adapted to take in so many different things for survival. Humans, on the other hand, have become a bit too fussy about food, among other things. Is this what makes us human?

frosty morning

a robin bares his breast

to the whole world

In an art class if you are asked to interpret an apple on the table in the pictorial language you paint in a certain way. If you are asked to dipict a robin by way of haiku this one would be a good answer.

how relaxed

the seaweed-covered boulder

massaged by waves

Who decided that anthropomorphism in haiku is bad and should be avoided? While there is an element of truth in it such a rule would kill a lot of potentially good haiku. This haiku should be presented as a court evidence in such a unreasonable haiku tribunal.

with his one good hand

a scarecrow

points to the moon

Rosenstock adores Issa. However, he does not imitate the great haiku poet. The spirit is in line with a Basho’s teaching not to follow the past masters but to follow what they sought.

a pigeon cooing to itself

until it no longer

has a self

How about this? Is it going too far? Maybe. However, it has a strong appeal because it is saying something. All too often tutored and sanitised haiku poems are so tutored and sanitised that they end up in having nothing to say, at least nothing new to say. By comparison, this haiku has a lot to say and whether or not anthropomorphism has gone mad is totally immaterial.

leaping back into the pond

what only yesterday

was a tadpole

Some brave or foolish poets have tried to write haiku after Basho’s old pond haiku. Rosenstock’s is one of the few which succeeded in such an impossible mission. Nothing about the philosophical quietude nor about the sound of water. However, one feels acutely that this haiku somehow belongs to Basho’s world.

\

full moon

filling the eye

fully

Play on words or some Western poetic tools such as alliteration can sometimes be effective in haiku but usually difficult to achieve merit or height. This one is a rare success and enjoyable without being trivial or facetious. It is also a rare success as a minimalist haiku. Not a lot of haiku have expressed the fullness of the full moon so well.

a glimpse of a god

in the cat’s eyes

following a moth

Many poets must have sought to express the same sentiment in haiku or longer poems, or even in other means such as aphorism, as is expressed in Hamlet: There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. This piece can be said to be haiku’s answer to the Hamlet’s remark. Rosenstock’s religious position apart, there is no doubt at all about his respect for what is larger than us, what is not yet known to us by science, what is unintelligible by human words or whatever may be there all-pervasive and omnipotent.

§ Peeling an Orange, Haiku, by Peggy Heinrich, Photographs by John Bolivar, MODERN ENGLISH TANKA PRESS, P.O. Box 43717, Baltimore, Maryland 21236 USA, www.themetpress.com publisher@themetpress.com, 2009, ISBN 978-1-935398-12-7, USD 11.95

An elegant anthology of the author who follows largely traditional lines of haiku. Her poems are so subtle that emotions, irony, deep feelings or poignancy such as sorrow and death are cloaked in gentle and indirect expressions. Often they are left as just concrete observations without saying what they really mean. Therefore, Peggy Heinrich’s works are typical of the American-led haiku school and occupy the higher part of it, thus reflecting its merits and avoiding its shortcomings. In this sense, this anthology can be used as a textbook of that school as it contains many fine examples, though it also has poems which are too conventional. Also, her poems are written more obviously from a woman’s point of view, which is a very welcome occurrence as too many haiku poems are gender-free. I am particularly impressed by:

half-empty bed

I try to recall

his faults

after many months

spreading his ashes…

the lilacs he planted

around the fire

the widening circle

of silence

§ the Little Book of Yotsumonos, by John Carley (lead author), edited by Norman Darlington and Moira Richards, published by Darlington Richards Press, South Africa & Ireland, www.darlingtonrichards.com, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9869763-1-5.

John Carley and his talented fellow renju have created a haikai book of what could become an interesting development in the history of the genre. The poems in this book are based on the shortest, so far, of all the formats of renga practice, i.e. a composition comprised of only four sections or verses, thus “yotsumono” (four things): hokku, wakiku, daisan and ageku. They are even shorter than Shisan or Junicho and one could be forgiven to feel that this experiment is taking renga’s format-shortening process to its limit.

Invented by John, an ever innovative poet, the yotsumono platform can become popular as its structure is tight, more easily understood and accepted, simple and yet capable of having layers and reverberations, and above all, short, which suits participating poets in terms of time, administration and other technical points. John was once a respected and honoured guest visiting fora of the World Haiku Club, albeit for a brief period. He was then spotted as a potential innovator of haikai literature. It is important that his endeavour will succeed and his invention taken seriously for the world’s haikai community to avoid stalemate or literary “famine” because his is not innovation for innovation’s sake but firmly based on his knowledge of tradition.