Editors Choice

WHR August 2014

Editor’s Choice

summer grasses

concealing all

the snakes among us

Michael Henry Lee

If the suggested theme of this issue were not “war” this haiku might not have been regarded as being connected with war and could therefore have been slightly too vague. It is a case for the importance of giving some context to a particular haiku which is not clear enough in itself. A traditional way to solve this problem ismaegaki, or foreword, an extremely short account in a few words, often one word, to introduce the haiku in question, which is placed in the line preceding it. Maegaki often gives the place where the haiku is written or refers to, or the occasion of it. In the case of the Editor’s Choice, it could be, for example, “Watching news on Gaza”, or “Situation in Iraq”, “War never ends”, or simply “War”.

The reason why I am saying this is that the haiku would be much better with such a context in the sense that it would be more powerful, perspicuous and poignant. It would pierce our heart like a sharp dagger. It would make us recoil in shame from looking at ourselves. Without exaggerating, it would be as insightful and penetrating as Shakespeare. If this last point were justifiable, it would mean a triumph for haiku with such a few words to reach such depth of understanding humanity as only the verbose bard of Avon could reach. It is not a triumph of haiku over Shakespere. It is a triumph of a form with the minimum diamond of words as much as the triumph of the Bard with thousands of pearls of words. Both are our triumph

What if we are presented this haiku without any context or maegaki? After all, we are told that a haiku should be able to stand on its own. Well, in that case the haiku would become more abstract, universal and more open to different interpretations. If we compare it with paintings of Kazimir Malevich, it will have a journey from his representative paintings, all the way through Cubo-Futurism, Suprematism to the last icon of the “Black Square”. The only difference is while Malevich’s paintings are the transformation from the figurative to the abstract, the haiku in question is using all the non-abstract words (grass, snake, human) and attaining a degree of abstraction and universalism.

One could perhaps argue that this haiku would be much better alone, without any limiting specifications. It may well be so. As the expression “snake in the grass” goes, it means first and foremost a treacherous person who pretends to be a friend. However, this is the world of haiku and snakes can mean a lot of other things as well. However, I still prefer it to be within a context.

I am perfectly conscious that I am over-praising the Editor’s Choice. However, one more praise to indulge in. Many people have tried to emulate (or imitate) bits of Basho (old pond, the Milky Way, withered field and summer grass) and produced very poor imitations. I must say this haiku is the best I have seen so far using “summer grasses”.