going underground

"I am NOT the Alex Jones of global haiku, nor the

David Icke." - anon

/

partially between the raindrops

countless little creatures

with reflections

Unashamedly Imagist micropoetic nature piece. Sue me!

^_^

THE OLD EZRA POUND METRO CHESTNUT REVISITED

"Although Imagism isolates objects through the use of what Ezra Pound called "luminous details", Pound's Ideogrammic Method of juxtaposing concrete instances to express an abstraction is similar to Cubism's manner of synthesizing multiple perspectives into a single image." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagist

Pound was almost there with haiku in his famous Metro poem, which (again alleged) he spent years on and which started a whole kettle of fish in the dovecotes of literary egotism:

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

— Ezra Pound

God bless him. He could have done this and have been done with it:

Metro station—

the crowd's faces appear as petals

on a wet, black bough

— Ezra Pound [edited by jp]

Sorted. Or is it?

"At the same time, however, they would also be struck, as I have been, by the narrow definitions of haiku found in haiku handbooks, magazines, and anthologies. I was once told that Ezra Pound's famous metro poem first published in 1913, was not haiku. If I remember correctly, the reason for disqualification was that the metro poem was not about nature as we know it and that the poem was fictional or imaginary. Pound's poem may also have been ruled out since it uses an obvious metaphor: the petals are a metaphor for the apparition of the faces, or vice versa. This view of the metro poem was based on the three key definitions of haiku - haiku is about direct observation, haiku eschews metaphor, and haiku is about nature - which poets such as Basho and Buson would have seriously disputed." - Haruo Shirane

Pound 'made it up'. Did he? If so, so what? He used metaphor instead of allusion. Did he? I suppose he did; but that's easily corrected (as demonstrated). Haiku is about nature. Is it? This depends on what is meant by nature. The humanocentric view, or the universalist view. My own understanding, based on much experience in and out of vitro, is that humanocentricity is in the same bag as geocentricity -- that is to say, an early stage in the development of intelligence.

artist's impression of engine (not to scale)

Read more about applications of the basic haiku engine here.

jp 22-06-12

more items

This musing is a living document and as such will develop - so, be sure to return regularly to this page, if you like. Not just to note any changes, but also to review the material in the light of your own understanding.

♪

VISIT HAIKU CROSSROADS

— here —

HAIKU LESSONS?

(press the happy tortoise)

—