Category Archives: Poems

Blog, Haiku, Other Writers

Surrealism and Haiku?

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Over at the The Haiku Foundation blog, Troutswirl, Gene Myers asked “What do surrealists and haiku poets have in common?” A number of haiku poets contributed very interesting and varied responses. Spurned into action myself, I responded with the following comment:

Hochablass, Lech dam, Augsburg
Hochablass, Lech dam, Augsburg

“Thank you for sharing this, Gene. I have been thinking about connections between the arts and haiku poetry and so find it interesting to read people’s thoughts here.Re. your question: I understand (most) surrealists to have tried to bypass conscious mind and to make contact with the unconscious through dreams, word association, automatic writing, hypnosis, mind-altering substances… This aim to go beyond and beneath the conscious/reasoning mind and pull out a fresh, writhing, alive experience may be one of the things that surrealists and haiku poets share (though not all the means!).

Regarding two-part haiku, I like to see the juxtaposition of the two elements as displaying side by side, literally, unconsciously associated content. In a successful juxtaposition, a sense of strangeness, an uncanny feeling is being set up. Isn’t this central to the attraction for both reader and writer: looking at the seemingly disparate elements/parts of the poem, experiencing the tensions generated and their resolution in a moment of recognition in which the unseen / unconscious connections emerge?

In this sense, surrealists (at least those of the more constructive strand) and haiku poets may be said to use juxtaposition of the seemingly disparate as a means to reach underneath and beyond the well-trodden tracks of our conscious landscape; to (to use your words) ‘jar’ and encourage filling in the gaps/holes between the elements through reconnecting with deeper/hidden levels of the mind. Of course, this is only one of several commonalities; there’s also choice of words, images, form of presentation, and so on.

Happily, we have this month’s Per Diem, Kirsten Cliff’s collection “Dream Speak,” to help us explore this matter further.”

Noticed the last sentence? Why not keep me company, visit the THF Per Diem site, and pull out of the Per Diem box the daily poem; fresh, and only for a day, the daily poem can be found by clicking here. 

 

aros, Haiku, NaHaiWriMo

‘Hoedingen’ #12 August 2013

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Hoedingen

Hoedingen.jpg is a small resort on the shores of Lake Bodensee (also known as Lake Constance). Hoedingen, a northern part of the district and town of Ueberlingen, is a quiet, beautiful place, where you can hear the sound of the wind, the grapes expand and fill with mouthwatering juice, the sound of the grass growing…

 

 

 

 

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Hoedingen
between skies and water
cicada songs
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cberlingen
http://www.hoedingen.de/

Blog, Blog items Poetry, Other Writers

Fate and Destiny

“Fate” and “destiny” are often used interchangeably to refer to the notion of predetermination; of future events following a predetermined plan or path.

Paths Yet, implicitly, we also make a distinction between the two in terms of the    degree to which each is allowing for alterations in the course of events to  which it is applied. Fate is usually associated with unalterable events; we are  in the hands of the ancient Fates, Gods, or cosmic forces; our lives, and  actions, are out of our control. There is a belief in a prescribed future: a  higher/supernatural authority (or authorities) has the future laid out for us.

Destiny, on the other hand, involves a course of events where we have a say,  or a hand, in preparing or making our future. We may be destined in one  sense to higher or lower things, but we can underachieve or push ourselves  hard to achieve better than expected.

This month’s The Haiku Foundation Per Diem: Daily Haiku reflects on both of these concepts. Deb Baker, this month’s guest editor, using “Kismet” as the title of her splendid collection, invites us to reflect on the “hinge” moments” or forked paths we encounter and the outcomes that result when we follow one or the other road, believing in fate, in destiny, or a choice we made. She writes,

Poems like these can make a reader feel a sense of momentum, a possible turning or smoothing path. Perhaps such a poem helps a reader discern something happening in the present moment in his or her own life. Or to see a new possibility, a different way forward, through someone else’s hinge moment.

.I’ll be reading with an extra eye for the different ways Kismet appears in the poems. I’ll be having fun too! Join me? You can find the daily poem here

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The photo is of a path taken, crossing the river Schmutter, near Neusaess, Germany.