promised land
Sick on my journey,
only my dreams will wander
these desolate moors
— Basho
1
Balance is theoretically good, but leads to stasis. The pond stagnates. More than this, there is a tendency for bias towards form in the containment of the universe and also the affairs of creatures. This is corrected by applying the mantra: 'form follows function'.
By function we mean not constipating the flow of becoming, the flow of zoka's mystery. The flow of the Tao. As this truth applies to little haiku is obvious. We need to understand what a haiku is doing when it is doing haiku. A haiku is, like all things, a becoming. To do its work it needs its form. Not any old form, willy-nilly, according to vain caprice. But its form. The haiku form. This allows haiku to function.
"We need to understand what a haiku is doing when it is doing haiku."
Anything goes? That is chaos birthing dysfunctional Frankenstein mutations. 'It's a haiku because we say it is', this is childish, at best. Form follows function. The haiku form serves the haiku function, or it is a joke.
Currently, here in the scientific West, it is a mostly a joke. A Tower of Babel. A bedlam of confused babble. This needs sorted out. We need to understand what a haiku is, not what we want it to be because it's too demanding to do the real thing.
Let's also remember that haiku is for the people, not a few lunatic elites who have ransacked a beautiful thing and turned its spoils into an ego-driven industry for failed Shakespeare wannabes looking to turn a trick for cash. Is this what we want to bequeth to future generations?
"This needs sorted out. We need to understand what a haiku is, not what we want it to be because it's too demanding to do the real thing."
The guidance a set of haiku rules (methodologies) gives has got us out the caves. Imagine starting to chop wood with a knitting needle. We need to learn how to do things properly, clearly. Let people know what they're aspiring to do and how to go about doing it. Pass on the time-tested teachings of haiku. Allow folks to stand on the shoulders of giants and see over the window sill, you know, rather than the window ledge. Without an appropriate container our soup is difficult to sip!
2
[Yes, I was speaking to those who can 'see' as well as those who cannot. It was a mixed bag of sentences to, hopefully, make the point. Fundamentally, this problem of 'seeing' is the Western dilemma. Something was lost along the way over here. I call that lost thing: 'mythic consciousness' (for want of a better expression). This is why haiku is, and can do, much more than it seems. But, it does need taught and used authentically, by people who have taken the time and effort to evolve themselves to a position where they can carry out that responsibility. The latter being sadly lacking, apart from a few true voices.]
3
We, clearly, need to focus on the essential criteria of haiku. These criteria need plainly laid out and their function simply explained. By doing this we have a central benchmark, a fundamental guide for newbies to reference and those who have drifted into the wastelands of grossly misinformed conceptual chaos.
"Something was lost along the way over here. I call that lost thing: mythic consciousness "
A hands across the oceans of the world, basic essentials of haiku, primer. A universal accord which counters the 'anything goes' foolishness that's crept in on the back of spurious attempts to be 'clever' and to be 'creative' and to make cash, in this nitwit 'fog of war' scenario.
If we sort that out, once and for all, our own Anglo-Western expression of the mushrooming global haiku phenomena might be taken more seriously by the gods of literary canonisation, here in the promised land.
jp
24.08.11