butterfly dreams
Vivid perceptions of the extraordinariness of the ordinary. Altered states of childhood. Haiku can help us return to this innocent way of experiencing forever changes. /butterfly dreams, in a primitive future, not yet wild Eden -The kigo references not only summer but also alludes to this:"Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi."Without the Zhuangzi connect we would have had a seasonal reference (essential to haiku in our aesthetic philosophy) in this post's haiku -- not a kigo as such. A kigo is a conglomerate of associations that a haiku word or phrase can trigger in the mind's eye of the cultural cognoscenti. (If we want readers to understand our kigo -- or seasonal reference -- we better be sure they do!) These contiguous links in a kigo's astral search engine (pop in the keyword and...whoosh) may be to do with cultural history, or geophysical locales, or literary timeline nexi (ok, nexuses), and so on. In other words, associations with landmarks of seasonally relevant social memory. Christmas stockings and Easter eggs might do it for us, by way of example.
These webs of contiguous ('having a common boundary or edge') meaning are distinct from nature in her seasonal attire and pursuits. The latter being a 'seasonal reference' and not the rather more complex 'kigo'.
The soul of kigo is honi ('poetic essence'). This honi is a sort of quintessential expression of something. By regional accord, in literati circles of Nippon, saijiki (haiku almanacs with examples of appropriate haiku matched to their decreed kigo) there are vast lists of kigo with honi as their soul and their raison d'etre ('reasoning for being'). All very complicated -- but not without immense interest -- and localised to Japan and its precincts.
However, as mentioned, we can aspire to our own kigo. Woot! But the people who read our haiku will not understand easily any obscure references. Nor do they, on the whole, want to.
What do we all want then when we read a haiku?
We want to 'get into it' in a trice and savour, at our leisure, the vivacious little dream that carries the butterfly's message.
Hence this cover note!
:D
willy-nilly
on their wayless way
butterflies
jp 15-05-12
Without desire order or plan; haphazardly.
Old English wile hē, nyle hē, literally: will
he or will he not.
NOTES
Will return and link explanatory posts . . .
This is an extension from -- 15 May, 2012
This entire site is a living document and as such will be developing - be sure to return regularly to the pages. Not just to see the changes, but also to review the material in the light of your accelerating trajectory.
http://tinyurl.com/butterflydreamseden